I have been in the habit of sending myself an email when I have a link that I want to research or take a deeper look at. Yes, there are other tools like Read it Later that can be used for this. I make a somewhat careful distinction between read it “later”, however, and read it “someday.” The items that I put in my email inbox get acted on (and cleared!) within a day or two. Items that I want to read someday (a week, month, or year from now) I will put into Read it Later. The main difference is that my Inbox is in front of me daily. Other queuing tools have to be checked.

So… that’s a long preamble to say that this tool is for putting things in your Inbox and it does it with one click plus an optional description you can type in.
The website gives you a bookmarklet to install that, when clicked, sends the current browser URL to your email. Simple. Fast. Highly useful.

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URL to Email Inbox

Pro Gmail customers employ the following weapons to keep things under control:

• Filters to automate actions
• Process to manage items
• Add-ins to make life easier

Read the full article here.

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Pro Gmail Tips

This Microsoft Windows automation tool can speed you through repetitive tasks, giving you more time for what’s really important. While it could be considered a tool for the geek crowd, you really don’t have to learn how to write code because it has a macro recorder.

Turn on the recorder, then do the task once manually. Turn off the recorder and — voila — you have a script for doing that task. Save it to a file and all you have to do is double-click the file to run it.

Here’s a sample of what the tool produces:

Send("{LWINDOWN}e{LWINUP}")
WinWait("My Computer","")
If Not WinActive("My Computer","") Then WinActivate("My Computer","")
WinWaitActive("My Computer","")
Send("{ALTDOWN}d{ALTUP}c{SHIFTDOWN};{SHIFTUP}\clients{ENTER}")


This script opens the Windows Explorer application and then directs it to my Clients directory. How many times a week do you think I might do that? Right. Now you get the time-saving value of this little gem.

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Speed up Windows tasks

All you have to do is make sure that the application you want to terminate is the active program… then press Control+Alt+F4… and *BAM* down it goes like an old time Batman villain. Click here to learn more about SuperF4.

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Terminate a Frozen Application

If wasting time typing doesn't make you this happy, you need JOCR!

We all have things that we don’t use all the time, but come in extremely handy every so often. Things like the tire wrench, the stack of old books out in the garage, and the vacuum cleaner. You just don’t need them every month [yes, even in the case of the vacuum cleaner ], but when your in-laws are headed over or you back over a set of tire spikes, they’re invaluable. Okay, maybe I do use the tire wrench every month…

It’s the same with this free Optical Character Recognition Tool that allows you to extract text from images without re-typing the whole thing. If you’ve ever been emailed a scan of a document by a non-tech savvy colleague or friend, that you needed to edit slightly and send back, you’ll be very, very excited right now. You’ll be avoiding one of the sneakiest work time-warps of all.

JOCR is a simple, no-fuss application for recognizing characters within an image. It uses screenshots, but you can also set it to capture an entire window – useful for the scan scenario. It’s a two-button operation, and the program itself is fairly fast.

However, be aware that you’ll need to manually proofread the recognized characters against the original image, especially if it is something like a scan from a magazine, where captions and breakout boxes will get jumbled up with the main text. You’ll end up with genius like: “To list, or not to list? 1. Use both hands on your computer, save time learning – for many of us are mousebound, using only our right hands …”. We did mention the program was simple!

You'll need to proof your JOCR text, sometimes it gets a bit mixed up...

JOCR then lets you know the number of characters that have been recognized, and stores them on the clipboard. Just go into Notepad or your word processing program and hit Ctrl+V or Edit-Paste, and voila!

You’ll need Microsoft Document Imaging for this specific program. It comes standard with Office 2003 or higher, and is usually in your ‘Microsoft Office Tools’ folder in the Program list. If this additional feature wasn’t installed on your computer originally, first go kick your computer-setter-upperer, then return and go to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel to activate it.

Yes, this time saving tool can also be used for evil, as well as good – copying from copy-protected documents, etc – but we’ll leave that dilemma to your conscience.

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Computers replace the human eye, saving time in the process

What your computer looks like at bootup

Isn’t it funny how technology gets us so far … yet in some ways, we are really just back where we were fifty years ago?

Computers can be a lot like cars. When you first get them, they start up fine – just a light touch of the key, and they roar into life, ready to do your bidding. This startup process will slow down a little each week or month, though, until eventually you are holding your key on for twenty seconds at a time while your computer goes ‘eh-heh-heh-heh … eh-heh-heh-heh’! This is especially embarrassing when it happens in the shopping center carpark .

Anyhoo, what do you do about it? The fact that there are multiple files all calling for the same portions of hard disk space at the same time spells trouble for computer startups – in comes Startup Delayer to the rescue. I have it on good authority … from the blog owner (!), that this is an excellent tool. It is freeware, and only takes up 979kb.

Startup Delayer screenshot

You simply check either your MSconfig file, or your startup folder in Vista or XP to see which programs are set to run on startup. Often you’ll have antivirus software, java, the internet, Skype, and various knicks and knacks that came with your computer. If you’ve been saving time by setting programs you frequently use to run at startup, you can choose to load these before all those non-essentials that like to think they’re king of the OS.

You simply stagger the programs you have starting up when your computer does, so that the system is less taxed, and you can start working on things sooner … rather than finishing off your ninth sonata while your computer is stopping, blinking, stopping, resetting the desktop, and blinking some more.

To check what programs you have running through MSconfig, you’ll need instructions specific to your version of Windows. Netsquirrel has clear, precise instructions for all versions for checking and changing your msconfig file.

If you find you have a hundred programs that you never use running at startup, you can go one better than simply staggering them, and get rid of the sorry things altogether. I know from experience, that if you have an Acer laptop, you’ve probably got a Video Conference manager, Arcade Delux, E-Audio Management, Gamezone and Gridvista installed. You probably use 0% of these, give or take 0%. Vista4Beginners tells you how to get rid of them.

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Streamlining Startup Applications – Keep Your Computer Safe From Owner Inflicted Violence

We’ve got five great tools that make time-hunting less of a specialized skill. Rather than stepping quietly through the woods, searching for time-droppings and hour-tracks, they create a nice wide bitumen road, with clear green-and-white signs to follow!

This way to working efficiency!

Hit the jump to check them out.

1. We won’t make you wait for the best of these apps – we know how busy you are! LeechBlock is an add-on for Firefox that will block your own personal trouble sites, during working hours only. Of course, you can un-block them relatively easily … but that requires a little more thought about what you are doing.

Leechblock screenshot

Up to six sets of sites can be blocked, and you can set a time period and days for each site to be off limits. Alternatively, you can limit your time on these sites – so if you need to check facebook for work networking (uh huh! Sure you do!), you can set yourself a twenty minute limit between 9am and 5pm.

Leaving a tab open with a site in it doesn’t contribute to the time limit – you can set an idle time in Leechblock, so that if the phone rings, all your precious youtube time isn’t wasted at once . The vast majority of users gave this add-on a 5-star review.

2. Timetracker is another Firefox add-on, however this one is a simpler tool, just for analysis and later mental hand-slapping for wasting so much time. This app was named download of the day on Lifehacker, the number 2 blog in the whole wide world.

It tracks browsing time across sessions, pausing the timer automatically when you switch to another tab. It also calculates how much time you have spent on certain sites since the add-on was installed. Excluding a couple of bugs, most users give this time saving application four to five stars.

Don't get sucked into the 'white hole' of your computer screen...

3. Plenty of sites are proud that they are time-wasters. Thumbs down!! 8aWeek is the antidote to sites like StumbleUpon, Facebook and Digg, as well as time-wasting news and opinion sites, with time-tracking options as well as optional site blocking capabilities. You can have it either in Countdown mode, where it will send you alerts for how long you’ve been on a particular site, or in Block mode, where access is simply denied. Go do your work, and try again later!

8aWeek incorporates the Read It Later plugin for Firefox – a handy tool that saves you cluttering up your bookmarks folder with single-use pages … and also saves you wasyting time on things you simply must look at now!

8aWeek Time Saving Software

4. Rescuetime is an app similar to Leechblocker and 8aWeek, however desktop applications are monitored also. So if your weakness is not Facebook, but Freecell, Rescuetime is the time saving solution for you. You can tag and group programs within Rescuetime, and it can be easily turned on and off. For browsers, this program also tracks what domains you are surfing.

Time is only tracked for the application you have in focus, however, there doesn’t seem to be an automatic pause – if you don’t want the programs you have open at lunchtime to count towards your total, you need to manually turn it off.

Rescuetime

5. If you haven’t yet seen the light, and are still using Internet Explorer rather than Firefox, the time police have solutions for you also! IEHistoryView is a tiny program that allows you to track what sites have been visited in Internet Explorer, and how long was spent at each one. This can be tracked for several different users, if you have networked computers, and the program has an intuitive interface for Windows users.

IE HistoryView - why limit time-saving to Firefox users?

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Time Trackers: Hunting Down Escaped Time

Is that you, in the middle of your bookmarks folder?

Who knew that when you were whining that sentence from under your pillow, you were actually being organized?! You told her, didn’t you? A big part of efficiency (when you get past the homework, chores and allowance stage of life) is recognizing what needs to be done now, and what should be done later. We have recently discovered an awesome way to organize your future time and things that should be done later – an extension for Firefox called Read It Later. Check out the features after the jump…

One of the first things that really grabbed me about this time-saving application is the fact that it doesn’t do that naff thing where every word in the title is pushed together but still capitalized. So refreshing to see spaces in an application title – just like home made lemonade! Basically, Read It Later saves you bookmarking hundreds of sites that are only of one-time interest, then having to organize, re-organize, collate, sift through and cull your enormous bookmark list every so often.

Read It Later Screenshot

The main features of Read It Later are:

• All pages of one-time interest are stored together
• There is an offline reading mode so you can access your material on the bus, plane, train or in the loungeroom without needing wireless connectivity.
• You can manage your list in any browser, and on any device
• Your list is accessible on different computers, and you can sync the list between computers also (awww! Married list bliss!)
• You can also enable a Click to Save mode, if you have several links to check out later on a single page or group of tabs

Read It Later is easy, and most importantly, quick, to use.  What happens is, you can either click the Read Later button on your Firefox toolbar when you are on the page, or you can enable Click to Save mode if there are several links on a page that you want to check out. The page is inserted into your reading list, so that you can go through all of this fascinating and highly useful content at another stage. When you’ve read it, click the Mark It As Read button that appears in the toolbar for saved pages, and the page flutters away back to the ether and out of your life.

Click to Save Mode in Read It Later

If you want to use the offline reading mode, click the Read Offline button in your Read It Later toolbar, and go make a coffee, pack your suitcase or do your tax return while you’re waiting for pages to download.  Make sure you actually mark your pages as read if you want to use this feature regularly … otherwise you’ll waste time waiting for unnecessary pages to download. Come on, nobody is too busy to simply click a button!

The any device accessibility of Read It Later comes from the personalized RSS feed of the reading list. You can use a feed reader or other mobile device to go through them at your leisure.

If enjoying the internet efficiently sounds like something that would save you time, you can also check out our post on enjoying free music, without wasting time on it.

Now you have absolutely, positively, no excuse for wasting time on the internet!!!

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Firefox Read It Later Extension Makes it Happen for You

This question comes up a lot and for good reason. Nearly every techno-savvy company is looking for time saving tools that will help their team collaborate and achieve more. Before we start spouting solutions, however, we have to ask some follow-up questions: “Collaborate on what? With whom? Using what mediums?” There are a number of different categories to consider. Each has a variety of collaborative solutions, some of which overlap:

• Audio Conferencing
• Co-Browsing
• Collaborative Reviewing
• Collaborative Writing
• Document Sharing – Wikis
• Event Scheduling
• File Sharing
• Instant Messaging
• Mind Mapping
• Multimedia Presentations
• Screen Sharing
• Video Conferencing
• Web Conferencing
• Web Presenting
• Whiteboarding
• WorkGrouping

Robin Good has put together a huge mind map list of tools in each of the above categories, complete with links to each tool. Check it out here. Use the +/- buttons (lower right) to view.

If you prefer the iPaper format, use this link instead.

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Online Collaboration Tools

Spector Pro from SpectorSoft provides the monitoring software you need to easily reduce this problem.

Sometimes the surfing problem is reduced when employees simply become aware that monitoring is in place. I’m not suggesting that every employee on the internet is wasting time… only that company principals deserve to know who abuses the privilege. This comprehensive software is a bargain and gives you the tools you need.

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Employee Productivity Software