Workflow Efficiency: Stop Wasting Time
Honestly, what is your problem? Why do you put up with computers that take forever to connect to the internet, to check you email, computers that force you to jump through hoops to do routine tasks, and take forever just to turn on. Why? Because you found one way to do things, and it has worked for you. Like millions of other computer users, you are stuck in the default settings of your computer, settings that certainly do not match your habits, interests, and style of using a computer. Maybe WinXP has your files living in “My Pictures” and “My Videos” and “My Everything Else.” Maybe getting your email is a lengthy log-in process. Maybe you are always juggling open browser windows. Maybe IM is always in your way. Regardless, streamlining and eliminating these minor annoyances you have come to live with will save you piles of time.
What About Apple?
Survey says a fair number of you out there run Apple systems. I understand that you would not like to be left out in a computing productivity discussion. However, all I can recommend is to enjoy the built-in glory of Apple efficiency, and to grab Quicksilver. From there, I have nothing more I can tell you because I use a XP box … but I do think you are (in terms of productivity) awfully lucky. Awfully. Anyhow, on to the Win tips.
Analyze
Find the four applications you use the most. Rank from most used to not-used-as-much. What do you demand from them? What are the strange little habits you have when you use them? C’mon, everyone has some quirky little hang-up with Window size, or playlist style, or Window position, or any number of minutia. For example, I like things full screen, all the time. However, I still want to be able to check, at a glance, what is playing on Winamp. My top four areas of use are music, communications, internet, and word processing (college papers, labs, etc.). Anyhow, these top picks are the most important programs to optimize; you use them so much and so often that any small amount of time saved during their use will add up quickly to hours of your life saved.
Set Goals
Got the four? Good. Now, here’s the hard part. What is pissing you off about these programs? Launching is a common issue: what’s the best way to launch programs? Obviously, a QuickLaunch icon in the taskbar is good - but what about when you are juggling windows? Those launch buttons are simply sitting there, taking up space in the taskbar that could be used more effectively by the open program bars. Sure, you could pull your taskbar up so it has two (or three, or five rows), but screen real estate is expensive: few people can afford to chop off valuable square inches because they have a crowded taskbar. My solution, as I wrote about before, was to move the taskbar to the top of the screen, and change the bottom of the screen to a hot-spot for a Dock emulator (a dock is the Mac equivalent of the taskbar, executed in a better way - find out more at Object Dock) which I use to launch programs. Conveniently, it also has weather. Of course, hiding the Windows taskbar and letting it pop up on mouseover at the bottom of the screen is an option - but have you noticed the delay it makes? There might be an obscure setting somewhere to turn off this animation of the taskbar - but who knows where to find it (I refuse to waste my time). Thus, the user is hit by a split second delay when they move their mouse to the bottom of the screen - wasting the time we were trying to earn back! If things are going to be hidden, they need to respond instantaneously to user input - they need to spring back to life with confiction, not slowly amble back into the limelight. The thought process in this one aspect (launching) gives you an idea of how much you need to consider this - you really need to question your established habits if you are going to save time.
Prepare and Execute
What now? Well, you need some areas to focus on that will help you save time. As I mentioned before, launching is huge. Furthermore, you need to optimize your comuputer’s start-up so it is not launching everything at boot - consider timing power-button-to-desktop time; try to get it as low as possible by weeding out programs from the Startup menu (if this is not enough, weed them out in the win-r>msconfig>startup menu). Now, optimize that internet connection. Find your modem type and search for it on your ISP’s website - chances are you will be able to find a useful intialization/extra settings string that will make your modem talk to your ISP much more quickly - this reduces connection negotiation time and gets you online faster.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts
There are the typical culprits: alt-enter, alt-f4, alt-tab, ctrl-o, alt,f,s (a personal favorite of mine for saving), f12 (another common key to save), shift-ctrl-left/right-arrow (for highlighting words at a time), ctrl-x to cut, ctrl-v to paste, ctrl-c to copy (I have saved hours with these three), ctrl-z to undo, ctrl-y to redo (this can vary), ctrl-a to select all, and win-m to minimize all. Those are common, and those you simply need to know if you are going to be anywhere close to efficient. However, if you learn the more obscure ones, you can save more time (logically): in Word, f7 spellchecks and shift-f7 opens the thesaurus, f5 or ctrl-r refresh webpages, shift-tab tabs in reverse order, ctrl-d adds the current webpage to favorites, win,u,s stands by, win,u,u shuts down, and win,u,shif-h hibernates. Obviously this is just a short list to get you started, but remember: the more key shortcuts the better. Finally, use global shortcuts for your programs that have a global nature. For example, I have set Winamp to be 60% transparent and to live in windowshade mode over the title bar of my open windows. This is useful because I can always see at a glance what song is playing. However, having a program run globally like this is not useful unless you use global shortcuts. Thus, I have set shift-ctrl-l to toggle the playlist, regardless of what program I am in (I use this key combination constantly). Furthermore, from anywhere on the computer I can hit win-p to play/pause, win-s to stop, win-> to advance a track, win-< to go to the previous track, win-keypad8 to increase volume, and so on. Therefore, I always have control over something that is always there (music). Time is no longer wasted crawling up to the taskbar with the mouse, opening Winamp, putzing through menus, and opening what I want. Adding new files to the playlist is literally three keystrokes away. Perfect. Now, this is just my own personal experience - but bear in mind that you can do the same with any of your applications (especially programs like Winamp that have plugins). Keyboard shortcuts will save you time.
Tabbed Browsing
Tabbed browsing is the future, it will, however, be a long time before Microsoft incorporates it into Internet Explorer version Suck. To the small group of you that do use Mozilla/Firefox/not god-awful-insecure-IE; start using tabbed browsing. I would rank tabbed browsing among the biggest time savers I have encountered yet. Change a setting or two, and a center click of your mouse scroll wheel will open the link that you are clicking on in a new tab, undernearth your current page. Interested in visiting a link, but want to finish reading the page you are at first? Simply click that middle scroll button. Want to do the same thing in IE? Well, you’ll have to right click, choose open in new window, and then alt-tab back before you can continue reading. Plus, you can bookmark all the currently open tabs. If you could just change your stubborn ways long enough to try tabbed browsing, you would not go back.
Tweak
By now, you most likely have things running fairly smoothly. Do not forget to occasionally take time and examine your routine - can anything be further optimized or streamlined? Remember, it is always a better idea to take time to set up a program and learn the most efficient way to use it before you get a bunch of bad habits rather than after. An extra investment of time in the beginning will save you time down the road. Simply remember the order: keep computer boots lean, launch frequently used programs efficiently, and once in these programs optimize your usage strategy through shortcuts. Striking a combination of keys for a desired outcome may at first seem archaic, but it is always always more efficient than pounding through menus with your mouse.
But … Why?
This heading presents a valid question. I will provide an equally valid answer. Computers are productivity tools. In every way possible, they should help us get our tasks done more quickly by connecting us as efficiently as possible with their powerful ability to manipulate data, text, images, and media. I expect a real leap when computers advance to what seems to be their next logical step - interactive three dimensional environments where our hand movments can be sensed and we can literally grab things and move them around. (The movie Minority Report illustrates this idea quite well). Until this time comes, we are stuck with a rather archaic interface through which to communicate what we wish the machine to do. The points outlined above will help us optimize this process as much as possible while we wait for the dawn of another era of interaction.
