Productivity
“New” Facebook Brings New Concerns
I’m going to post a description of a Facebook ‘feature’ that can really throw you for a loop if you’re unawares. First off, some background. I’m a ‘power user’ who often exercises the features of software services to their limit, and so Google and Facebook often add me as an early adopter to many of [...]
15 Email Rules Everyone Should Know
My #1 utilized software tool is email. I checked the stats for the last year for my work and personal email combined: I receive and read on average 397 emails a week, and send 358 emails a week (this excludes the email which is spam or which I have auto-filters to file to certain folders — these are real emails I read, write and process). Over the years I’ve adopted some best practices to process and write email — I hope you find some of them useful.
Quick Enter a Google Calendar Event
A cool tip I’ve overlooked until recently. While you’re in GCal, press the q key to summon a single field to enter an event. Best of all, GCal understands natural language like “tomorrow at 2PM.” Not using Google Calendar? Get it at Google Calendar
Inconsolata: Nice Monotype Font
Need a fixed-width font for full screen text editors or the like? Inconsolata is a monospace font, designed for code listings and the like, in print. There are a great many “programmer fonts,” designed primarily for use on the screen, but in most cases do not have the attention to detail for high resolution rendering. [...]
Quick Excel Tip
When you’re typing text into a cell in Excel, hitting Enter takes you to the next cell. To wrap your text in the current cell as you type hit Alt-Enter.
Hands Free Note-Taking
This is a cool service: http://jott.com You can set up a free account, call and leave a voice mail note, and it will transcribe it and send you an email with your message. Great for hands-free note taking on the road!
4 Folders for Desktop Productivity
Inspired by the excellent Five Steps to a Kinkless Desktop article (a must read if you have a cluttered desktop and folder system), I thought I’d share my own computer desktop organizational system. I have four main folders. Inbox – All incoming items (downloaded files, temp documents that you’ll throw away immediately, files for email [...]
Blackberry Shortcuts
For the Power User… App Switching Alt+Esc works like Atl+Tab on Windows. Hold the Alt key and press the Escape button. Continue to hold the Alt key and select a program. Release the Alt key to switch to that program. Capitalize a letter Hold the letter key until the capitalized letter appears. Move the cursor [...]
Must Have Apps for your Blackberry
Here are some of the must-have apps I’ve seen for your Blackberry. Why Google has such inconsistent links is beyond me! Google Search Visit google.com on your mobile web browser, or go straight to http://www.google.com/m Google Talk (Chat with co-workers) http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk Gmail (Check your personal email) http://m.google.com/a Google Maps (Get directions on the fly) http://www.google.com/gmm [...]
Productivity Through Cornell Notes
I have been a long-time fan of the Cornell Notes method for taking notes. It was originally conceived for students, but I find it to be an invaluable note taking system for business. I take notes in the lined area, then go back and summarize action items on the left. I put a square box [...]
