diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
index 6f5caf0db1d..39d586ffdcf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci_tests.yaml
@@ -36,8 +36,16 @@ jobs:
         # Only run one job (Ubuntu + Python 3.9) for draft PRs
         exclude:
           - os: macOS-latest
+            python-version: 3.7
+            isDraft: true
+          - os: macOS-latest
+            python-version: 3.8
+            isDraft: true
+          - os: windows-latest
+            python-version: 3.7
             isDraft: true
           - os: windows-latest
+            python-version: 3.8
             isDraft: true
           - os: ubuntu-latest
             python-version: 3.7
@@ -71,13 +79,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           activate-environment: pygmt
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-          channels: conda-forge
-          miniconda-version: "latest"
-
-      # Install GMT and other required dependencies from conda-forge
-      - name: Install dependencies
-        shell: bash -l {0}
-        run: conda env update --file environment.yml
+          environment-file: environment.yml
 
       # Show installed pkg information for postmortem diagnostic
       - name: List installed packages
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 43d37065e06..7a841c70ea1 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name: pygmt
 channels:
     - conda-forge
-    - defaults
+    - nodefaults
 dependencies:
     # Required dependencies
     - pip
@@ -12,18 +12,10 @@ dependencies:
     - netCDF4
     - packaging
     # Development dependencies
-    - black
-    - blackdoc
     - codecov
     - coverage[toml]
-    - docformatter
-    - flake8
     - ipython
-    - isort>=5
-    - jupyter
     - make
-    - matplotlib
-    - pylint
     - pytest-cov
     - pytest-mpl
     - pytest>=6.0