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Hack Your Day

Productivity and Organization to lead a better life

Use shortcuts common to most apps to work fasterYesterday

There used to be a time where you either had a mouse or your were totally lost. Then there came the time of simple keyboard shortcuts like ctr+c. Nowadays each application, desktop or web, has its own set of key combinations, and the fault is not yours if you don’t know all these.

There are a number shortcuts which are common to all, or at least a great number of applications, like copying, closing, and so on. This may be common knowledge to many of you, but perhaps you’ll find something new nevertheless, so take a peek after the fold!

Keep in mind that these combinations will probably work in all the apps you use (Outlook, Word, Photoshop, Adobe Buzzword, Pidgin, etc), so don’t be afraid to try them out.

Copy pasting is probably the most used shortcut and you actually have many options here. First you need to copy stuff, which you can do with either Ctr+C or Ctr+Ins. Then, when pasting, you can use Ctr+V or Shift+Ins.  I use the latter for both because my right hand naturally assumes the position for both and I can press the two very quickly. If you want to cut the selected text or area, press Ctr+X instead and you’re done. One more note, it’s rare, but in some cases Ctr+Ins won’t work while Ctr+c will.

In browsers there are some common shortcuts

Gmail gets some fancy new designsYesterday

While taking a look at a Gmail account today I noticed the cool new skins Google has prepared. Sadly not available for Apps yet, but you can liven up your Gmail easily using the new themes tab in the settings. There are 31 to choose from currently and they all look pretty good and Just like with your iGoogle start page, some themes have the ability to change during the day based on your location.

I like the simpler designs myself, but Desk is a nice themed skin and my all time favorite, “Teahouse” from iGoogle is here, although sans the fox. As someone who likes fiddling with designs I like these themes, but I am still waiting for an easy skin plugin for Gmail. Right now you need to be pretty well versed with css to make things look the way you want them to, let’s hope more skinning options are on the way!

3 tips to make working from home… work!November 20

I see a lot of misconceptions about working from home. Many people (my older brother is a prime example) think that what happens is we barely meet ends meet, but it’s ok because we can get up at 11:00, put in a few hours of work, then spend the day doing whatever we want.

For most people who work at home I guarantee you that they work more than 8 hours a day and it is much harder than it looks. I’ll post about this separately, but for now, here are 5 good tips to make working from home actually work for you.

Create a work routine

This may be an essential factor for success, so despite the relative freedom you have, I suggest settling into some routine or another. Staying at home does give you the option to sleep an hour extra if you really want to, but most people become efficient with regularity, so I would create a pretty stable schedule if I were you. For me working from 7:00 - 13:00 and then from 17:00 -  21:00 works best, somehow I am utterly useless from lunchtime for a good 4 hours. If you’ve been struggling to get enough done, this is a must do, at least until you get your workload into shape.

The net will still be here tomorrow

A lot of people, especially bloggers think they have to be alert at all times. Riding a new story as it comes is their biggest concern,

Top 5 application features stopping you from workingNovember 14

I just noticed that some of the greatest features of software are the ones mostly responsible for procrastination and not working. Take a look at this definitive list of my top 5 time busters, feel free to add your own though in the comments!

5. Always on top

You know the cool way you can layer your favorite Friends episodes on top of your windows’ with the handy “always on top”. Chandler’s joking, Stewie taking a shot at Lois, Geordi is reversing the polarity and captain archer is looking serious, by the time you notice, it’s time to go to bed. If always on top didn’t exist I would probably get 2x the work done at times!

4. Multiple monitors

Multople monitors can sometimes be a great asses, keeping your email open all the time, keeping a tab on your adsense stats, whatever. Remember number 5 just above? Imagine that, but you don’t put the movie on top of your windows, you play it in its full glory!

3. Wikipedia

Perhaps not as bad as multiple monitors, the reason I mention Wikipedia is because it so many times breaks my concentration it’s unbelievable. I research a topic, I see a keywork, I click on it, I see a pic, I remember something about it, research that too, and this goes on and on. Maybe a bit geeky, but WIkipedia has some

Working can help you clear your mindNovember 14

It sounds a bit contradictory, but I’ve found that working hard might clear your mind better than a movie, a short nap, or anything else might. Especially if you enjoy your work you can become so absorbed that you forget everything else, which may do a world of good for your head.

The point of trying to work to clear you mind is not the same as when you clear your head with rest. The reason we do the later is to actually be able to rest. The point of the former is simply to clear our heads, to get away from the thousands of things running around in our head, our ideas, our problems, our tasks and so on.

Having a clear head for a part of the day for me is essential to be able to work and to be able to rest later on. If my mind wanders and races all over the place during all day my head starts to hurt, I become exhausted, I burn out well before the end of the day.

Sitting down and having to concentrate on one thing makes your head relatively clearer, you can be free from all the clutter running around in there. So my point is, that if you enjoy what you do and you want to get away from it all for an hour, perhaps you should actually sit down and work.

Sometimes I spend this time not really getting things done, but to do some organization. I organize my emails, I clear o