Tools for Computer Productivity
In my office life I spend most of the time around computers doing management/office work, design review, planning, etc. I currently use the following tools to be more productive:
Desktop tools
- A good full size 'click' keyboard. Currently typing on an IBM-SK8820 which is decent but not brilliant.
- Two LARGE monitors. I would probably use 3 but I need space to see people that come to my desk.
- UltraMon. Good but not perfect. Putting a task bar on the second monitor is a plus and moving windows between monitors by key shortcut is also good. Tiling would be a bonus? Gets confused when hibernating with two monitors and dehibernating with a single one. Fortunately you can bring windows back from the ghost monitor using key shortcuts.
- Winsplit sounds like a solution for tiling, currently under testing.
- Mouse Gestures It's second nature to me to use mouse gestures especially for back/forward and closing windows.
- Autohide task bar. The small strip at the bottom can autohide (standard windows feature) and you free up quite a bit of screen real estate. Does not always work as advertised, refuses to appear or disappear after severe state changes (laptop undock, dehibernate, etc)
- Launchy. I do NOT miss the start menu and I can start programs while reading something else.
- ClipX for having multiple items handy in copy-paste. It's simply how a clipboard should work in the first place.
- Do NOT use a bad antivirus or don't use one at all. Using a heavy antivirus kills your productivity. On my home machine I have been surviving for years without an antivirus
- A sandbox. When you HAVE to run some dodgy software run it in a Sandbox. You'll never get infected.
- DO NOT use Internet Explorer. Simply don't. It's broken. I'm currently using Chrome, recently switched from Firefox, not fully convinced. Update: Switched back to Firefox with Pentadacty. Just brilliant.
- Clearcontext. See EmailProductivity for details.
- A virtual machine. Allows you to run multiple OSes in multiple ways. Ideally have a XenServer somewhere to run them for you. This is especially nice if you are dealing with legacy systems, the virtualization layer saves you from a lot of compatibility issues.
- FinePrint. Allows you to see what you are printing, delete pages from the print-out, add gutters for binding and print two pages per sheet, double sided, my favorite for printing documentation. Saves a lot of paper! My current ratio is 69% of paper saved!
- Hibernate, don't shut down. I lug a corporate laptop around. Windows is painfully slow to boot. Hibernation works well and is a lot faster. I usually reboot once in a week or two.
Web tools
- Use Instapaper to save stuff for later reading
- Use to read bookmarklet to email stuff to you. If i see something that I need to read quickly, I email it to myself in a single click and read it on the way to the next meeting.
Other related tools
- Get an Ebook reader. You will read more and you can read stuff saved in Instapaper. Less time at the monitor.
Suggestions
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CategoryProductivity
CategoryIT
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