I found that many of the keyboard only solutions out there are engaging my "conscious" part of the brain
Interesting! For me it's the other way around - because normally I keep both hands on the keyboard, using most of my usual shortcuts is very mechanical. When I want to use a mouse though, I need to move my hand away from the keyboard, put it on a mouse, and then find the mouse cursor on my screen - and I believe it's the last part that distracts my train of thought, because I need to actively look around the screen to notice it.
Ah, but that's not what I meant. I was not talking about the regular, run-of-the-mill, shortcuts that definitely live in the subconscious (after you practice enough), but of the few solution out there that make you dynamically pick keys to complete a task (have a look at how Jumpy works for reference). Also, long combination of keys (usually in Vim) can't live in my subconscious either. It's like, I always visualized the sequence before tapping it.
Interesting! For me it's the other way around - because normally I keep both hands on the keyboard, using most of my usual shortcuts is very mechanical. When I want to use a mouse though, I need to move my hand away from the keyboard, put it on a mouse, and then find the mouse cursor on my screen - and I believe it's the last part that distracts my train of thought, because I need to actively look around the screen to notice it.
Ah, but that's not what I meant. I was not talking about the regular, run-of-the-mill, shortcuts that definitely live in the subconscious (after you practice enough), but of the few solution out there that make you dynamically pick keys to complete a task (have a look at how Jumpy works for reference). Also, long combination of keys (usually in Vim) can't live in my subconscious either. It's like, I always visualized the sequence before tapping it.
Oh, I get it now, thanks for clarification!