Hack the Day

You want to get more productive in your computer usage? In today’s lesson, we’re introducing you to a power-user time-saving trick.

First, here’s the context: I’ve seen lots of people for whom simple computer taks such as launching Word, Firefox or Outlook take at least half a minute. Most of the time is spent with: minimizing the opened windows, slowly moving the mouse aiming it towards the Start button, clicking on the Programs Menu in the Start Menu, missing it, finally getting it right, slowly looking for the right application folder & icon, risking to click outside the Programs menu and restart the process, etc. Average users are a bit more productive - they save frequently-used applications shortcuts on the desktop. But this forces you to minimize everything on it to find the right shortcut and clutters the desktop with shortcuts. On Apple computers the issue is similar for the ordinary user - sure, there’s the Dock, but it has a limited shortcut capacity and to find a less frequently used application you’d still have to open the Finder, open the Applications folder and look, again, for the app you wanted.

So what can you do?
Remember, you want to stop wasting your time moving the mouse all around looking for applications, folders or files. A first step would be to get your desktop organized - instead of just throwing stuff on it, you create folders for the most important tasks and start placing things right where they belong. For more info on how I did this, take a look at my article - Turn your Desktop into a Productivity tool. But the power user trick is to use the right tools for the job, and this can only happen once you start using your keyboard more.

What are Application Launchers?
Application Launcher is a fancy term for a simple tool - a piece of software that stays in the background and, when you type a given key combination, gets up and helps you find the right application, file or action you want to execute. Instead of moving your mouse around, aiming and clicking at things, you just type a shortcut (usually Ctrl+Space), start typing the name of the program you want to execute and hit Enter. Simple and fast, and takes a tenth of the time you’d have needed to search the shortcut with your mouse.

Neat trick, but what’s the software I should use?
There are, as always, free pieces of software and for-money ones that do the trick. Some of them do more, some do less, but for the simple task of launching apps, the free ones will do:

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Update, 4 June 2007 - I beg all of those who find the tips below offensive and rude to go read the Errata as well.

Update, 30 May 2007 - Sometimes hack is the wrong keyword. I learned this the hard way as this article, Survival hacks in crowded subways, got on Digg homepage which led to me getting a LOT of evil comments, ranging from this ain’t a hack, you’re a hack to common sense has never been a hack or you’re a f**k and a jerk. What can I say but apologize for an uninspired title? A more accurate one could have been 5 obvious things to do if the subway is crowded. But inspiration came otherwise, and for that I sincerely apologize to all readers who misunderstood the message, didn’t see it’s irony and were disappointed by a funny/how to/not to list.
Still.. the hatred of some private messages or comments I received still makes me shiver as I remember Kathy. So, once again, sorry if my lame article annoyed or offended you; its purpose was just to entertain, at most…

Hate the crowded train or subway? Hate to be squeezed like a tomato between sweating strangers? These tips can be a lifesaver.

Are you one of the tens of millions who, every morning, have to commute by subway or train to their day jobs? I feel your pain, as I was one of you, daily being squished in the side of the wagon by sweaty crowds of other commuters. Here are some tips I use to make my daily commuting a bit more comfortable.

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Like most knowledge workers you probably spend more time in front of my computer than in the living room (that is if you’re not a work-from-home freelancer as I am - in this case you spend ALL of your time in front of your computer… ). Cleaning up your desktop becomes even more important than housecleaning. After all, you can hire someone to clean out the mess in your living room, but it’s you and only you who can clean, sort and organize your hard drive and computer folders.

One of the most obscure parts of the GTD-like productivity systems is the “Research” part. David Allen’s method calls it the Collect bucket - the place where you collect anything that’s of interest for your current or future projects. He even describes a physical way to do it - the “tickler file” - mostly known as the 43 Folders technique. I won’t go into further details on that, as it seems a pretty nice way to organize your physical paperwork.

But having 43 Folders just for organizing files becomes extremely complicated to use on your computer. We need something different.

I introduce you to the way I’ve recently reorganized folders on my Mac OS X MacBook, in a manner that maximizes my productivity, making my daily information collection process a simple, organized and efficient one. This kind of setup can be made on any computer’s desktop(Windows or Linux) - it’s the method that matters, not the design.

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Introduction:

Weird enough, in spite of all your theoretical training and extracurricular studies, the most important things one learns about managing projects come from daily observations, the kind that get a whole new perspective once you apply them to Freelancing, Productivity and Project Management. This is the first article in a tiny series of daily-life inspirations to being productive at work.

1. Start small:
   Context: Wash a cleaner plate at first. Just for fun. It will get that sense of accomplishment that keeps you going.
   Lesson: Whatever the project, whatever intimidating, it will look more approachable once you GET something DONE. It’s motivating to just see some results going. In the programming world, for instance, a simple “Hello World” program that compiles and runs successfully could be such a first easy but motivating.
2. Don’t start hard:
   Context: Never start by washing the messiest plate - it will just mess up the other dishes in the sink and makes things take longer than foreseen (just think of how hard it is to scrub the burned grease from an oven tray). Instead let the plate soak for a while while you wash the others. In the end it will get cleaned more easily.
   Lesson: This is a no-brainer and completes the previous tip: Whatever the project, there is always a tricky part, a critical one that needs a lot of work. Starting with it is tricky - will most certainly be more difficult than expected, it’s messy and probably ends up by demotivating you. Just go to step 1 and start instead with the easiest tasks that make sense, working your way up. Not to mention that other tasks you accomplish along the way might actually help solving this particular hard one.
3. Big and easy:
   Context: Remember that huge plate that takes up all the space in the sink? More often than not, it’s more intimidating than it is difficult to wash. Having it around makes it hard to access the others. And no, I’m not contradicting the previous point - I’m talking about plates that only look like hard to clean, but although intimidating they are actually average. Once washing them up, the others can be washed more easily.
   Lesson: This comes straight from the Paretto principle: 80% of the gains are made with 20% effort(and vice-versa). Sure, it takes inspiration to understand which is what, but if you get the parts right then you are 80% along the way. So look closer on the most intimidating tasks of your projects - are they real problems, or are they phonies? Once the easy but hard-looking tasks are done, your project is light years ahead.
4. Get your hands dirty:
   Context: You can’t wash things without getting wet(or dirty). Washing your dishes with industrial-strength protective gloves is not working. To get things really clean you have to scrub.
   Lesson: You know this already: you can’t be successful without effort; you always have to dig deeper in the problem. No real websites can be developed just by point and click, no real Ruby on Rails applications can be made just by scaffolding, etc. Get used to working, since without it there’s no success.
5. Shit happens. You might break stuff.
   Context: It’s part of the game: whether you wash glasses or plates, accidents can and eventually will happen. Just clean the mess as much as you can and get over it.
   Lesson: I had one project that looked easy at first but turned out to be really ugly instead. After three months of struggle I had to let it go, as I was way behind the schedule and couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Sure, I lost plenty of money and opportunities along the way, got an unsatisfied client and lost some of my reputation. But having stubbornly sticked to a project I knew was a dead end only caused me pain and distress. By realizing it was broken I found my peace, joined a better project and let the past go.

On the ZenHabits blog I read about a cool meme spreading fast around the blogosphere. It was created by The Instigator Blog and has so far impacted tens of productivity blogs.

Here I am, joining the meme with Hack the Day’s Greatest Productivity Tip

If I were to give you one and only one productivity tip (but, trust me, in the days to come you’ll learn tens and hundreds of them), this would be…

Get Started! Now!
Don’t just sit there planning about doing stuff. Go ahead and DO it!

What’s it all about?

You can have zillions of extraordinary ideas, wonderful plans and amazing strategies. None of them matters if you never get started. Trust me. I should know best.

I am an amazing dreamer, always conceiving plans, thinking of business ventures, projects and the like. How many did I actually try? Less than 5, most of them failures right from the start. But from each failure I learned a lot more than from all the plans before it.

Each failed try only makes you wiser and more prepared for success. Fear of actually starting something only makes you waste time and intellectual resources.

That’s about it, my huge secret, the most important single tip I want to give you.

I’m going to (almost randomly) tag this further to eDragonu, todoorelse and Lifedev. Hope this meme gets through to them…

Do you waste too much time reading your daily blogs? Or perhaps you want to read an article, but it’s too damn huge.
Maybe now is the time to try something else.
For all you Mac users out there, here’s a tip about a very underrated and widely unknown Mac OSX feature: the Summarize service.

If you browse the net with the built-in Safari browser, whenever you get to a large text and you’d just want to read the essential part, see what it’s really about, the answer comes in a 3 steps practice:

1. select the text you’re interested about(Cmd+A should do it in most cases)
2. open up the Services menu - to be found in the menu bar, below the name of the current app (in our case, Safari)
3. call out Summarize

You’ll be presented to a text box showing you the summary of the selected text. What’s great is that, depending on the accuracy level you select, you’re faced with a more compact or more detailed text. So you can start from the brief version and expand it if you find interesting thins to read.

So.. no more wasted time reading useless articles that say the same thing with lots of words. Just use the Summarize feature.

PS. To show you how great this Summarize feature is, here’s the summarized version of the above text, at about 50% Summary size. Notice the difference?

For all you Mac users out there, here’s a tip about a very underrated and widely unknown Mac OSX feature: the Summarize service.

…open up the Services menu - to be found in the menu bar, below the name of the current app (in our case, Safari) 3.

You’ll be presented to a text box showing you the summary of the selected text. What’s great is that, depending on the accuracy level you select, you’re faced with a more compact or more detailed text. So you can start from the brief version and expand it if you find interesting thins to read.

…no more wasted time reading useless articles that say the same thing with lots of words.

Links:
Read more on the subject on: Lifehacker or Techpwn(via Digg)

The first post. Any blog has it, it comes without saying.  The dreaded first step into the journey  is the most difficult one: full of emotion, fear, expectation and enthusiasm.

What does Hack the Day mean? You probably should read the About page for this. Or, if you’re a fan of fewer word, here you go:

Hack the Day is the source of tips, tricks and hacks to simplify and beautify your life. From computer and Internet-related tips and tricks to simple steps to improve parts of your life, Hack the Day gives you the algorithms to actually make things work.

Simple as 1-2-3, right?