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A guide to batch renaming files easily
2007-12-14 15:00:00
Here’s one software that productivity nuts will love. If you’ve ever needed to catalog files, change extensions, add something to a filename in large batches you know the suffering that is “right click, select, type, enter” done over and over and over again. If you need a tool that can simply edit filenames, rename extensions and so on in a very powerful, customizable way, read on! (more…)
More About: Guide , Files , Batch , Naming

One Shortcut collection to rule them all
2007-12-13 22:55:00
I started using a lot of shortcuts a while back, and while I don’t actually need them every second, when I do, they come very handy. I have already told you about great programs like Shortkeys and PS Hotlaunch, but these are all geared toward running aps, opening specific folders and so on. I just found another wrench to fasten to our already tightly packed productivity toolbelt. I was using StumbleUpon to find fun stuff when it showed me a page dedicated to shortcuts. Not just any shortcuts, but listed by company and product. Need some handy shortcuts for Microsoft Office? Want to know how to jump around in Apple iPhoto 6? No problem, quickly select from the drop down list and you can search for them quickly and easily. On the left it shows you all the shortcuts by function, and in the middle it shows a graphic representation of the keyboard, which is interactive of course. I’m not saying I will visit this page every day, but if I want some shortcuts I’ll definite...
More About: Rule , Shortcut

Be unproductive to be productive
2007-12-13 20:39:00
Wow, that sounds very scientific and bold. Actually, I just want to share some thoughts about trying too hard to be productive, and ultimately failing because of it. Productivity is organization, keeping schedules, carefully planning our lives and leading it, exactly is we planned correct? Well this is part of it, but if you also want to lead an enjoyable life, I think you need to relax and think in broader terms. I just saw someone on the train playing a car driving game while on his way home. Was he productive? You know what, he probably was. He may not have achieved anything in the time he played, but he rested, enjoyed himself, and this may mean a much higher productivity the next day. This is sort of a “run away today so you can fight another day” attitude. Another good example is that every 3-4 weeks, I spend about two-three hours customizing my desktop. I find pretty new icons, I change the wallpaper, install some software here and there and I thoroughly enjoy the...

Web Developer Toolbar - a dream come true
2007-12-05 09:04:00
Web Developer Toolbar is a Firefox extension that helps you when you are designing webpages, working on your blog and so on. You don’t really need to be a pro to use its features either, it has some helpful tools for beginners as well. The idea is that you should be able to view, edit, and instantly see changes you want to make on a page immediately in your browser, without going back and forth between an editor and the page. It also aims to give as much useful info geared toward usability, error-catching, general info and so on. There are so many features I would need a 5 page report just to list them. From deleting the domain cookies, displaying image properties, rulers, guides, resize options to viewing the source, validating the page it has everything you will need. The best feature in my opinion is the CSS viewing. By viewing style info, you can switch into a mode where a red box will appear around the item whose CSS details you want. In the top bar it will show you the l...
More About: Dream , True , Web developer

Gmail integrates with AIM
2007-12-05 08:45:00
I sincerely hope that Gmail integrating with AIM is only the beginning of the snowball. My favored network used to be MSN, which I can pretty much scratch now, but I still use Yahoo a lot, not because I particularly like it, but I need it for my work. Nevertheless, this is a great step forward and you can now easily talk with any AIM buddy through the new Gmail interface, or Gtalk. I think that eventually these platforms will be totally open to any other big messenger app. You could see the beginning of this with the Yahoo/Messenger integration, now with AIM/Gtalk, and online apps like Meebo and so on. News from the Official Gmail Blog

Full color Gmail productivity
2007-12-04 11:06:00
Gmail has recently released a lot of updates, and they are continuing along this welcome path for out viewing pleasure. The feature today is, colored labels. This has been available through Greasemonkey scripts for a long time now, but I think it is awesome that Google isn’t considering Greasemonkey as a “trespasser”, but rather as a litmus test to see what the public wants. It is no wonder that they have announced a folder like feature (see my Folders for Gmail post for the Greasemonkey version) coming up soon, if the label solution is anything to go by, the folders will be very much like the Greasemonkey version. Let’s get back to labels though. All you need to do is hover over a label in the left hand label list and click on the drop-down arrow. You will be able to choose between background and text colors. The reason I like this is that increases productivity for me. When I get a lot of messages they are usually auto-filtered into categories, but since I ...
More About: Gmail , Color , Productivity , Full

Using Google Calendar to send free SMS
2007-12-03 09:31:00
I recently wrote a guest post on gHacks and decided to share it with you guys as well. If you set up two Google Calendar accounts, you should be able to send instant messages between any two phones quite easily. Since the service allows you to register one phone number to send free reminders to, all you need to do is create an account for yourself, register your friend’s/spouse’s/etc’s phone number, and create an account for the other party, registering your own phone number. Remember to set a default reminder for both calendars. It needs to be SMS, and say 10 minutes before. When you want to write a message, simply create an event, 15 minutes in the future, and type your message in the “What” field. Save the event, and your girlfriend, or whoever you registered should get this message. You can even use it to send timed messages to someone. The messages will be cut off after 60 characters, but you can create a string of events, 1 minute apart to send lo...
More About: Free , Google Calendar , Send

Removing the shortcut overlay from your icons
2007-12-01 20:31:00
Personally, I just hate the arrow that symbolizes a shortcut in windows. First of all, it’s utterly useless, especially on the desktop, and on Vista it’s darn huge. I was looking on the net for solutions for removing it, here’s what I found. Free for Vista: The best mothod I found is a small freeware utility, called Vista Shortcut Manager. This small program will let you choose between the original, a light version and removing it completely. Free for XP: The best way to do this is to use TweakUI, a Windows power toy. This program can tweak a lot of settings in XP, it’s quite a worthwhile download anyway. It gives you identical options to the software mentioned for Vista. Commercial software: There are a few solutions you can use that you need to pay for. Tweak VI, and Tweak XP are to apps for Vista and XP respectively, both have similar functionality to TweakUI. Both have free versions but icon changes can only be made by upgrading. You can also use Iconpack...
More About: Icons , Overlay

Why keep your keys clean
2007-12-01 20:24:00
I have been pretty careful around my laptop, but dirt, hair and whatnot inevitably gets into the keyboard at times. I didn’t really pay any attention to this at first, because while I had a PC I cleaned the keyboard a few times, but not too often, since it worked fine regardless. Well, I also travel a lot, and each time I folded my laptop out I saw that the are between the keys and the monitor was really dirty, and so was the monitor. I put it down to the rigors of travel, dust inside the case, whatever. Only after about two weeks did I realize that while I was traveling, the movement and tossing about shook some of the dirt out of the keyboard, where it was forced to smear against the monitor and other parts of the laptop. So be extra careful if you have a laptop, and if you see the grime starting to build up, just pop the keys out and clean it, this shouldn’t take more than a half hour each month or two, and well worth the time. Buy a Memorex Air Duster on Amazon.com
More About: Clean , Keys

Spice up your Windows with some new icons
2007-11-30 20:19:00
If you’ve been reading the blog, you know that while I really try to be as productive as possible, I am also a firm believer in looks. If an app is ugly but is better than anything else, well ok, but I just love using things that look good as well. If you want to spice up the look of your Windows folders, or program icons, take a look on the net and you’ll find tons of places to get icons. One of the best site I found was VistaICO.com. They don’t have a huge throng of icons, only a few sets, but those or awesome quality. Go to the download page and take a look at their packs, plus the audio icons, archive icons, etc. The design is a but weird, it looks like a pay site, or an ad scam, but it really isn’t. I use a couple of their icons on my own desktop, and I’m going to look into the Christmas set very soon, to get into the Christmas spirit. Download awesome icons from VistaIco
More About: Icons , Spice , Some

Folders for Gmail
2007-11-30 20:19:00
While tagging is super awesome, and I can find anything in about 3 seconds, it is not a great tool for an overview of your email. All you see is fifty tags on the left, sorted by name and this doesn’t help you look, feel or be organized. A nifty Greasemonkey script, folders4gmail is a tool to help you organize your Gmail labels into groups, just like a folder structure. If tag mail from your family you could have “family”, “Mom”, “Dad”. You would see these tags quite far apart if you have many more, so enter folders4gmail. If you create the following tags: “Family”, “Family/Mom”, “Family/Dad” you will be presented with an expanding list, showing you Mom and Dad as subcategories of Family. You have two installation options. You need to install Greasemonkey, a Firefox extension that allows you to modify popular web services like the example here and then download the folders4gmail script (this takes about 10...
More About: Folders , Fold , Folder

Why I don’t autosort my inbox in Outlook
2007-11-29 20:09:00
I still use Outlook for my work life, and actually I find it quite a well made program. One feature I don’t use, as long as my inbox goes, is filters. I bet some people are reaching for the phone to call the medics on me, but read on, let me explain. The reason that I don’t use filters is that I loose track of stuff that way. If you have many folders, and everything that would be in your inbox gets sorted, you will click on a folder and process that email. You may do another one, but after a while, you will be tired and say “oh, only one email in the next one, I’ll do that tomorrow”. And this is where the problems start. To get rid of this problem, I do the following. I have all mail come to my inbox and at a glance I take a look at all of them. My rule is, that nothing can go out of my inbox until I’ve dealt with it. I either give it to someone else, or reply myself. This is sort of like GTD, but there is no option to defer it to another date. Ha...
More About: Inbox

Smart trash management to conserve space
2007-11-29 20:06:00
Did you know how much space you can save by not chucking out your plastic bottles as is? If you empty a bottle, just take off the cap, step on it, or crumple it with your hands and press down on it hard. Keep on pressing, and put the cap back on. The bottle will want to snap back into shape, but can’t, since it can suck in any air, it’s closed. It will stay flat, and conserve a lot of space for you, you could probably fit 3 or more deflated bottles in the space of a normal bottle. I have to admit, this idea was not born out of my environmentally friendliness. While I try to watch the environment, the reason I started this was that I was really lazy about 5 years ago to take my trash downstairs and I came up with this to be able to stretch the lifetime of a bag a bit.
More About: Space , Management , Smart , Trash , Conserve

Getting Things Done hardcover set
2007-11-29 20:01:00
If you haven’t read David Allen’s Getting Things Done , you are truly missing out on a lot. It is the basis of his GTD system, and provides invaluable information, and is also an interesting read. It will outline how to put your life back into order, by putting everything out of your mind, down onto some medium. You can than think clearly to process these thoughts and actually do everything you want in an orderly fashion, productively. His other book, Ready For Anything is a sort of second chapter to his first book. It deals with the problem of diving into this system. Everyone knows this should work, but some people have trouble getting into it, something is holding them back. He deals with many of these questions, providing useful answers to all. Now these two books are available as a bundle, in hardcover, and for an awesome low, $35.95 price. This really is cheap, you could even buy it as a gift for a GTD obsessed friend or family member. Buy the two books on David All...
More About: Hardcover

Reach any folder, file or program with a keystroke
2007-11-26 19:54:00
I work with at least ten folders I use often, at at least five files which are called up daily for modification and countless applications I need a lot. In my quest for a way to access these quickly I have come across PS Hot Launch, a perfect freeware utility for the task at hand. It advertises itself as “a perfect alternative to the Start menu and the Quick Launch panel”, and while I won’t be chucking the start menu in the bin anytime soon, it’s the best tool I’ve seen for this purpose so far. You can create a list of programs and folders which you use frequently, organizing them into virtual structures, just as you can in the start menu. You can then right click on the icon in the system tray to access this menu. I do not use this feature however as the Vista start menu is very usable, I do however use the hotkey feature. The hotkey feature enables you to bind hotkeys to any folder or file. This does mean you have to remember them to use them effectiv...
More About: File , Reach , Program , Fold , Folder

The new wave of bookmarks - Blue Organizer
2007-11-20 01:26:00
I am always looking for interesting new things on the web, and one of the most innovative solutions for bookmarking I know is Blue Organizer .The whole concept behind it is "context extraction". When you bookmark an Amazon page for example, it can extrapolate from this that you are bookmarking a book. It automatically pulls author, ISBN, title and so on from the site, so you not only have a bookmark, you have a sort of "book entry". It can do this for recipes, movies, cars and a whole lot of ever-growing items.The presentation is great, your stuff is stored online, but you can access it, and manipulate it, through a firefox extension that takes the form of a sidebar. Apart from being quite useful it looks great, which for me is important.One drawback I found is that the system is not yet flawless. When I tried getting recipes I got haphazard results, I could only extract complete info for a few. This can't totally be blamed on Blue Organizer though. As webpages are becoming more and...
More About: New Wave , Wave , Bookmarks

So what is this GTD anyway?
2007-11-19 08:42:00
GTD, or "Getting Things Done" is a recently developed work and time management technique that aims to get everything done by moving everything from your head, to somewhere else, where it can be organized and recalled easily any time.The method is described by the mind behind it all, David Allen, in his book called (surprise) Getting Things Done. I have personally read the book, and while I don't incorporate everything in there, it has some valuable information for everyone, even if you don't adapt the whole idea.The basic core of the GTD method contains five steps.CollectProcessOrganizeReviewDoThese speak for themselves, but the actual background of these points is very well developed with great ways to do things. All of these can now be backed with software, I'm sure we'll be reviewing many of these here on Hack Your Day.The process can be a bit daunting at first, you may spend more time on it than it saves you, but you will see the rewards later. If you don't have time to get...

Environment over matter
2007-11-17 23:06:00
Have you noticed how lighting, space, furniture and so much more all contribute to how you feel and how you go about your work? I can work best when my room is totally clean, at least one candle is burning, my salt lamp is giving some soothing light and some ambient music is playing. This is quite an extreme example, although it takes about 5 minutes to set up, but finding the right set-up for you is crucial for increasing productivity.This is actually a very straightforward tip, although I rarely see people practicing it. People usually say, "I'll just work for an hour, it's not worth it" or "it's just my surroundings, it doesn't have any effect on my work". Well in one hour you can do "x" amount of work, if you are perfectly comfortably you can probably do three times as much. And don't think your surroundings have no effect, everything does.Try and experiment. Usually people work best in a soothing relaxed, quiet environment, but you may bring out the best in yourself in the...
More About: Environment , Matter , Envi

Filter away your spam (and other messages)
2007-11-17 20:27:00
I bet that if you've been using Gmail for a while you have some tricks up your sleeve, some method of filtering. Weather you just use labels or folder, or have an elaborate set of rules to sort automatically, I bet many of you don't know this upcoming trick.If you use Gmail you can actually modify the address you input into various fields. Let's say I want to send all the comments of my blog to a separate folder. Now I could create a filter, but it may be hard to find a common feature to filter, especially if you manage multiple blogs. When you tell the blog front-end to send you email notifications you can use the following formatemail+anytext@gmail.comEmails sent to "johndoe+blogcomments@gmail.com" are still sent to the "johndoe@gmail.com " inbox, but you have two important advantages now. One is that you can quick sort all your comments by using a simple filter.The other one is more useful for registration purposes. Just sign up for any service, even spam-suspicious ones with ...
More About: Spam , Messages , Filter , Mess , Ages

Cure your headaches with glasses
2007-11-15 11:06:00
If you're getting headaches multiple times a week, it maybe time to visit your eye doctor or Ophthalmologist (try saying that 5 times quickly). As it turns out your vision and and your headaches may have more in common than you think.I learned this a few years back when I didn't wear glasses. On many days I had head-splitting headaches, I always just thought it was a long day. When I noticed my vision was not what it used to be I went to get glasses and I mentioned my headaches quite by mistake and the doctor told me that people who have bad vision and don't use glasses often suffer headaches.The reason is that when you can't see properly you use the muscles of your eye much more than you should. For one thing, you squint all the time. You try to see better, and indeed you do, but this has a straining effect. In time, this causes a headache, which is a bit frustrating 4 times a week. In my case I could associate my headache with my eyes, ie.: it felt like my eyes were going to p...
More About: Glasses , Cure , Headache

Free licenced software every day
2007-11-15 10:28:00
Sometimes we all need that extra bit of software. "I want to take some notes in an ordered way, with tags", "I want to rip all my music to a CD with a push of a button". I found a site which offers such software daily.Every day you can download commercial software. On that day you can register for free, it's as if you bought it. I appreciate that many on the site are for very specific tasks and you can probably find free alternatives, but here's the chance t get your hands on non-freeware software for free. Every now and again you can find a real gem!The only problem I found is that since the registration is time-limited to that day, if you reinstall windows you may not be able to use your software again, since you can't re-register it.There is also a game giveaway part of the site that offers paid games for free. Don't think Halo 2 and FIFA 2007. They are usually small independent games, but nevertheless there are some great ones in there. The registration uses much the same me...
More About: Software , Free , Licence

Productivity with positive thinking
2007-11-14 22:03:00
I am very big on positive thinking and everyone should train themselves to do this because it makes you productive in ways you never imagined.The power of positive thinking is not that you will say: "Oh, I feel so good, I want to work 20 hours today". No, the power of positive thinking is that it will make you balanced and happy, making you productive by giving inner motivation. No lists, no GTD, pure inner drive, always the best source of energy.What you will find is that your life will be much better outside of work as well. Again, not necessarily because anything has changed, but because your view has shifted.Maybe I'm just lucky, but if you work on it, you too can gain the benefits of positive thinking. Please, don't go through expensive counseling, watching hours of videos on the subject, it's a waste of time. All you need is some conscientious thinking, and here's how.read on: Positive Thinking
More About: Productivity

Buying a cheap quality mouse
2007-11-14 16:50:00
Wouldn't it be great to have that 10 button mouse with print-recognition and a charging stand and perhaps a teleporter device to boldly go where noone has gone before? Well no, not really (apart from the teleporter), you can achieve the same results with a cheap $15 mouse.I just realized this when I bought a no-name (Technika) mouse for exactly $12. For my money I got a three button, optical, wireless mouse. The reason I like it is that it looks pretty smooth (see picture), has a matte, rubbery feel to it, sort of like ambiance for my hands and that it is precise and performs well.Look deep into your heart. Do you need more than three buttons? I'm sure some of use who play games, use Photoshop a lot or have some special software do, but the average user really doesn't need the added functionality. You will either be weighed down by using them or won't use them, and then you just threw $80 out the window.Take my advice buy, try and find a trustworthy looking cheap alternative and...
More About: Buying , Mouse , Cheap , Quality , Ality

Manage your tasks efficiently with Remember The Milk
2007-11-13 03:03:00
When talking about task management on the web, I can only think of one to do list to rule them all. Remember The Milk has tons of features, it is fun to use and offers real collaborative power.The heart of Remember The Milk is a structure that allows you to add a huge amount of data to each task. You can choose a location on a map, then group by locations, shown on the map, you can add dates, invite users, add tags, etc., etc.The reason I find it very useful and flexible is the relaxed approach it takes. Don't know what date your task is due? Simply type: "tomorrow". Elegant, and simple. You can also input "the day after tomorrow" and "next Wednesday" for example.You can apparently create unlimited lists, and easily copy items, copy lists, mark items done, and when an invited user marks an item done, it will show up done for you as well.I just love this service, if you really need more and can't decide, just look at the logo. How cute can you get?Remember The Milk (found by myself)
More About: Tasks , Manage , Task , Efficient

Paste frequently used text with Shortkeys
2007-11-10 19:39:00
Shortkeys is a program designed to hack your day by acting as a sort of clipboard for all the chunks of text you use everyday. You can assign global hotkeys to these chunks and whenever these keys are pressed, the associated text will be pasted into the field.I assign many types of jobs to co-workers which I can't totally put into a template, but I can automate a lot of the process with this nifty program. You can assign any key, even a simple "k" will paste in the assigned text if you wish, but the program allows for hefty configuration.I use the suffix feature, namely "sk" indicating Shortkeys (clever eh?) and then comes the actual key I want. To paste your signature into an email you could type "sksig", and there you are. This is especially helpful if you work with multiple signatures.The program's Lite version is freeware, this gives you 15 keys to work with, which is enough right now for me. The full version Shortkeys 2 gives you network support, unlimited keys, spell checker...
More About: Text , Paste