- I have recently started using RSS feeds to get news and other information. It is quite time-saving.
- Recently found out that word could open pdfs for edits. Used to upload pdfs to websites to get it converted into some editable format. I think Libreoffice can do the same.
- Got that spinning type of mop and mopping has become a bit easier.
I use a computer frequently. So I take the time to learn hot keys and shortcuts. The two minutes it takes to learn them is quickly made up for in productivity.
It astonishes me how many people in a professional setting don’t even know alt + tab
You don’t notice the speed in hot keys as you build your familiarity with them, but after years of learning them, it’s now painful to watch a good portion of coworkers use computers, as it feels like watching in slow motion.
The mouse dragging, the hunting for menu items, dragging the mouse back to where you were, over and over. It can really add up.
In the same vein, learning to create even basic macros and putting them on hotkeys, either in Office or something like AutoHotkey. There are likely things you go through the same motions to do daily, weekly, etc. Record the steps as a macro.
My old job had basic data formatting from generated reports and then saving the cleaned files to a specific name format and uploading them. Tedious and boring work. I created macros, and all the work was done in less time than it would take to type the filenames. Turned hours of work into seconds.
Indeed.
On windows, there’s the three finger Maximise and Minimise along with the alt + tab equivalent swipe, which I think is not really popular among many. Laptop users could save some time with that.
Any rare/useful shortcuts that you like/would teach others?
Amazing how many folk don’t automatically press ctrl/s as a matter of habit in Office
If your PC is in another language, that shortcut gets changed. For example, in spanish it’s Ctrl+G (G from Guardar, I assume). It may seem intuitive, but not every app follows this change. It’s also way more difficult to hit with one hand, as the G is further from Ctrl than the S. Localized shortcuts are a thing I never understood about Windows, and I hated it while I used it.
After that I swithed to Linux, and I’ve been using NeoVim for a few years now. Instead of Ctrl+S I now compulsively [esc]:w[return], which, now that I think of it, may be even worse.
Had to break myself of this habit as I often edit a files that need to stay the same and then saved as a different name. I know I could just save it as a different name at the start but whatever, right?
I wrote software scripts that help me at my job and save time. I had taken the course CS50 which is free from Harvard/edx, and that was enough for my purposes. But I’ve also seen people recommend the book “automate the boring stuff”
I had a retail job years back where part of my work was processing incoming freight and putting it in the inventory system. I set up a spreadsheet that helped me format the entries for the actual system. My boss kinda hated it, like “you’re adding extra steps it’s a waste”. Never did convince them it was saving me time and wrist health, had to use it in secret
Another boss I had actively tried to get me to stop using a spreadsheet to track my time and instead update their time tracking system on every task. I could either spend a couple seconds slapping in a spreadsheet entry and have it auto fill in the time spent since the last entry and bulk copy in the day to the time tracking system as part of me leaving for the day, or I could spend a minute fucking with the time tracking system every few minutes of work
At my current job my boss caught wind of me setting up a way to abstract our build system for dedicated types of builds. Instead of trying to get me to stop I was asked to present it to the team and help other people build little tools like it for their own uses. Feels a lot better
I do QA for headsets. My job involves a lot of building and rebuilding various branches so everything I can do to make that easier is great
Know what you want to buy before going into a store, stick to your guns. Unless you want to dilly dally, it saves time.
Organize your stuff, makes finding things much faster. Adam Savage had a good tip: Befor you put something away, pretend you’re looking for it and put it where your first thought was. Next time you look for it, it’s in a natural spot for you.
Roomba.
Learn what the software or device you’re using can do. There’s often so much productivity packed in, you don’t even know what you’re missing.
For example code editors like VSCode or Sublime Text have easy ways to select and work on multiple lines/words at the same time that can make work SO much more productive and fast, it’s like magic. I see other people doing things line by line and it takes ages.
Microwaves have all kinds of presets that people rarely use. Read the manual and try them out.
I use VSCodium and other then bulk comment / uncomment and renaming I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
I’d love some examples to help improve.
It’s hard to explain in words. I quickly searched for a video about it and this one shows the basics pretty good: https://youtu.be/w3JCjsIOMdM?si=-dS-m940AGHFgCG-
Sublime Text is a bit more powerful in that regard (and also more performant with very large files) which is why I still keep it installed even though I switched to VSCode long time ago. I guess Vim can do even more but I can’t get myself to learn it well.
If you select some text then use CTRL+D, the editor will search the next match in the file and add it to your selection, and whenever you type something both of the selected segments of text will be edited in the same way - you can extend the selections with SHIFT+LEFT and SHIFT+RIGHT.
It’s hard to explain in an intuitive way, but you’ll get it if you try it.
Another simpler example is CTRL+SHIFT+UP and CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN: your current selection splits to the next line in either direction.
Something similar happens with CTRL+SHIFT+MOUSE_LEFT.
These work in most programs. You cam also use ctrl + bksp to backspace a full word
