- 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.
Roomba.
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
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?
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.
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
Got that spinning type of mop and mopping has become a bit easier.
Bissell makes a machine (There’s probably competitors by now) that’s kind of like a carpet cleaning machine and vacuum in one for sweeping and mopping in one go.
It’s pretty nice, I just need to pick up big things off the floor and it handles the rest, without any need to sweep beforehand, I love it
Get a night family and make them do all your work. Just make sure to:
Rinse your dishes. Seriously, it’s easy and makes them so much easier to wash later.
