diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index ee2f7094..e690111c 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ These issues may need more input before becoming dev-ready and will be labelled
 
 Once you have have found an issue you feel comfortable working on, leave a comment in that issue that you'd like to tackle it. We'll label the issue as being in progress to make sure others don't work on it as well.
 
-If this is your first time contributing to open-source or you need a refresher, see this [great guide](https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions#first-contributions] that goes through the steps of contributing to an open-source project.
+If this is your first time contributing to open-source or you need a refresher, see this [contributing guide](https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions#first-contributions) that goes through the steps of contributing to an open-source project.
 
 ## 3. Create a Pull Request (PR)
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 93bc95f3..4890fbf5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -54,13 +54,20 @@ To run the same command in _all_ workspaces, use `yarn workspaces`. For instance
 yarn workspaces run test
 ```
 
-Typing out the full workspace name can get tedious. You can place aliases in your `.bashrc` or `.profile` to save time:
+Typing out the full workspace name can get tedious. We've added some convenient scripts to run commands on a specific package:
+
+- `yarn common`: runs the command in the common package
+- `yarn server`: runs the command in the server package
+- `yarn types`: runs the command in the types package
+- `yarn web`: runs the command in the web package
+
+For example, to run tests only for the web package, you can run:
 
 ```console
-alias @uw="yarn workspace @upswyng/web "
+yarn web test
 ```
 
-Now you only need `@uw start` to start the web dev server.
+The above is the equivalent of `yarn workspace @upswyng/web test`.
 
 ### Running tests
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 6ec3af76..38b6526b 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -80,19 +80,23 @@
   "name": "upswyng",
   "private": true,
   "scripts": {
-    "build:local-packages": "yarn workspace @upswyng/types build && yarn workspace @upswyng/common build",
-    "build:server": "yarn build:local-packages && yarn workspace @upswyng/server build",
-    "build:web": "yarn build:local-packages && yarn workspace @upswyng/web build",
+    "build:local-packages": "yarn types build && yarn common build",
+    "build:server": "yarn build:local-packages && yarn server build",
+    "build:web": "yarn build:local-packages && yarn web build",
     "build:local-db": "docker-compose up --build -d && npm run restore:db",
     "restore:db": "mongorestore --port 27018 --username upswyng-dev-user --password upswyng123 -d upswyng-dev ./packages/server/localdb/mongodump",
     "clean": "node clean.js",
+    "common": "yarn workspace @upswyng/common",
     "reset": "node clean.js --reset && docker compose down -v",
     "heroku-postbuild": "yarn build:web && yarn build:server",
     "lint": "tsc --noEmit && eslint \"packages/**/src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}\" --fix",
     "lint:ci": "tsc --noEmit && eslint \"packages/**/src/**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}\" --quiet",
-    "test": "concurrently -n common,server -c yellow,blue \"yarn workspace @upswyng/common test:unit\" \"yarn workspace @upswyng/server test\" && yarn workspace @upswyng/web test",
-    "test:ci": "concurrently -n common,server -c yellow,blue \"yarn workspace @upswyng/common test:unit\" \"yarn workspace @upswyng/server test\" --kill-others-on-fail && yarn workspace @upswyng/web test",
-    "start:local": "./start_local.sh"
+    "test": "concurrently -n common,server -c yellow,blue \"yarn common test:unit\" \"yarn server test\" && yarn web test",
+    "test:ci": "concurrently -n common,server -c yellow,blue \"yarn common test:unit\" \"yarn server test\" --kill-others-on-fail && yarn web test",
+    "start:local": "./start_local.sh",
+    "server": "yarn workspace @upswyng/server",
+    "types": "yarn workspace @upswyng/types",
+    "web": "yarn workspace @upswyng/web"
   },
   "version": "0.1.0",
   "workspaces": [