This post is part of our user recommendation marathon where users ask recommend questions to us.
Abhishek from TechnixUpdate asks us, Can you give tips on increasing productivity
Well Abhishek, thanks for asking this question and I would be glad to impart few tips and tools that I use to make my PC life more productive, leaving me with lots of time to do other things.
A Clean Desktop
The first thing I see when I boot up my PC is the desktop, I believe it’s like a living room of a house. If I keep it cluttered I may always walk into a mess, making it more tough for me to keep the rest of the house clean.
So I like to keep my desktop as clean as possible, only keeping information that may be useful to me on it, like a single folder to dump files (P1) into, a to-do list, a calendar and a post-it note. Keeping my desktop this way allows me to also stay productive with tasks and appointments.
I also use a quick launcher to keep all the applications handy, so that I can keep my desktop de-cluttered and also have access to things that I want. Take a look at my desktop below (Click to enlarge it).
Tools I Use For My Desktop
Related: 11 Useful and Free Pin Note Applications
Organized Files and Folders
I usually organize all the files and folders into a neat structure, so that I can find something that I want easily, without having to break my head. It is a simple structure clubbing softwares that are for media into a folder named media softwares and so on. I follow the same rules for my documents, images I use for posting and almost every other file. I organize it this way, so that it is much more easier to find something the next time I want to.
A simple formula I use for files and folders is derived from how music is organized into artists, genres, albums and so on.
I tend to install softwares into directories they make sense, so that I can find them whenever I want. For example I use Daily Use Utilities to keep all the utilities I use daily.
Tools I Use to Enhance File Organization
Keyboard Shortcuts
The first thing I do when I download a new software is, learn about the keyboard shortcuts, yes I am very particular about not wasting my time, doing things I can do with keyboard shortcuts. I also use keyboard shortcuts for making use of inbuilt functionalities that are built in into Windows.
There are two keyboard shortcuts I love in Windows Vista, one which allows you to launch your quick launch applications and another one which allows you to control the system tray with the Windows key, you can read more about it in our earlier post about utilizing the Windows button as a useful hotkey.
Other than that I use Launchy to load applications faster than ever, without wasting any time.
Make File Navigation a Piece of Cake
The one thing I always despised while saving and uploading files was the need for me to browse to the right folders, and to be quite frank that was the most time wasting exercise I did, since I save several files and images regularly, and to top it the number of attachments I have to send across on a day to day basis.
To make my life easier, I use several softwares that allow me to navigate folders easily, so that I do not to browse through, to get to the right folder. The one I love and use religiously is Direct Folders.
Related: Add New Locations to the Places Bar | How to edit Custom locations in file open/save dialogs | Adding Breadcrumbs to address bar in Windows XP | Jump to your Favorite folder in File open/save dialogs
Well there are quite a few more things that increase productivity, but that would be in the next episode. Hopefully these tips and tools will help you become more productive.
Abhishek, hope you found these tips useful, there are several more to come. So keep tuned.
