8 Essential Computer Productivity Tips

Posted Saturday, February 16th, 2008 1:21 am by Dave Moyer

Photo by Leo Reynolds on Flickr
Everyone has the same amount of time, and we all want to get as much out of it as possible. These are some of the best ways to be productive on a computer, and get more done in less time.

8. Try some music - This tip is at the TOP of the productivity food pyramid. Use sparingly! Playing some tunes can sometimes help with dull or tedious jobs. However, stay away from spoken word, such as talk radio or podcasts. This can be distracting and waste more time than it passes.

7. Do the important stuff first - This tip doesn’t limit itself to technology. Lots of times we find ourselves working on the non-urgent, unimportant jobs before working on fulfilling tomorrow’s deadline. Just do your best to ask yourself if there’s anything else you need to do first. If not, forget it and keep working. No use spending time pondering. If there’s something more important to do, do it.

6. Close the messenger - What seems obvious to many isn’t as simple to others. Having messages pop up as you work can be one of the worst time-wasters ever. Sign out of the instant messenger; just saying “Do Not Disturb” doesn’t always cut it.

5. Cut back on the email - While it may seem impossible to do, cutting down on email can increase your productivity in great amounts! Simply setting Thunderbird, Outlook, Mail, etc. to check for new messages every 30 minutes instead of two can really work wonders when you need to get things done. Take a second right now and ask yourself if you can honestly say that the email you receive can’t wait 20 minutes or so. If it’s really important, they’ll call you. Removing the temptation and distraction of incoming email saves tons of time.Can’t do every half hour just yet? Start with 15 and work your way up. You’ll get there.

4. Set up a personalized homepage - Everyone should have one as their homepage, whether they use a computer regularly or not. A personalized homepage allows you to add news, blogs, calendars, or all sorts of other little modular blocks, often called “widgets”, to a single page arranged how you like it. Having a personalized homepage gives you all the information you want in one place, without browsing all over to read your favorite blogs or check the forecast. These pages are a great RSS reader replacement (I don’t use one anymore!) You can cut off half an hour or more from your routine just with a page like this. Some services for these, in order of my personal preference, include:

Pageflakes - My homepage! Also allows users to publish their pages for others to see and follow. Looks great, too
Netvibes - One of the most popular. Basic service, lots of widgets available, mediocre design
iGoogle - Google’s take on the personalized homepage service is generally like all the other services they offer: functional, useful, but simple, plain design
My Yahoo! - One of the originals. Probably the least popular and least functional of all of the mainstream sites.

Most of these services support multiple pages. Try to keep things to just one page for now, so you don’t add TOO much, making your page a time waster.

3. Eliminate distractions - Forget everything else but what you’re working on.

For PCs, set the taskbar to auto-hide (Right click>>Properties, check Auto-hide the taskbar). Now, it will only show up when you move your mouse down to the bottom of your screen (or top, left, etc. depending on where you have your taskbar). You’ll also want to install Lifehacker’s free Dropcloth to remove the distractions of your desktop and other windows. This can be set to your liking, I prefer solid black with no transparency.

Mac users, choose to auto-hide the dock (CTRL-Click the Dock’s vertical separator bar, and select “Turn Hiding On”) and grab MenuShade so you can fade out the brightness of the menu bar when it’s not in use, similar to auto-hiding the Windows taskbar. I recommend totally blacking it out, as it removes the whole distraction. You’ll also want to download Backdrop, which blacks out your desktop while still allowing you to work with the contents.This tip may seem odd at first, but you’d be surprised what removing distractions can do for your productivity!

2. Use text substitution - One of the biggest time-saving secrets ever! Text substitution allows you to insert strings of text with a simple keyword or “snippet”. Great for addresses, signatures, or anything you find typing all the time. Check out some of my favorite uses for text substitution here. Some options for PC users include the simple yet powerful Texter from Lifehacker (free), or the much more complicated AutoHotKey (free). I tend to prefer Texter just because of its’ simple functionality, portability, and speed.

Mac users have my personal favorite, Textexpander ($29.95, Smileonmymac.com, 30 day trial available. If you find any other Mac programs out there, let me know!)

1. Just do it - This may seem simple, and in reality, it is. This tip isn’t even restricted to computer work, but is one of the best productivity tricks in the book. Having trouble getting started? Just start, you can fix things later. Playing a game when you need to be programming? Close the game window, open up those apps from tip number 3, and get going.

Hope these tips help you to be as productive as possible in your computer worK!