Master these PC hacks and improve your overall productivity.
Life is busy for everyone and the path to success is tricky and not the same for everyone. Most of us spend our precious time scrambling to complete deadlines, wearing 18 different hats, attending back-to-back meetings, responding to emails, phone calls and texts. You get it.
If you are one of the billions of PC users who work in front of a computer for most of the day, here are some tips to help you become more productive in your daily routines.
Tip 1: Evaluate Current Productivity Levels
They say the first step in problem solving is identifying the problem that needs to be solved. If you’re sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours each day, how much of that time is spent efficiently versus looking at sites that distract us from our work? There are several useful apps available that allow you to track your most frequently visited sites and how much time you spend on (and away from) your computer such as Google’s Rescue Time (Chrome Extension), Time Doctor, QuickBooks Time, or Harvest.
Tip 2: Organize your PC
By simply getting rid of clutter, (e.g., uninstalling programs that you no longer use or organizing documents into appropriately labeled folders) your PC will run more efficiently, and you will spend less time searching for specific documents. Uninstalling unused programs is something everyone should do a few times each year. These programs sit in the background, take up valuable space, and pose a security risk.
Tip 3: Use Keyboard Shortcuts
There is a reason these hacks are referred to as “shortcuts.” By mastering keyboard shortcuts, you’ll save precious time day in and day out. Windows has hundreds of useful shortcuts, but here are a few that we recommend using on a regular basis.
- Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Ctrl + X – copy, paste, and cut selected items
- Ctrl + Z will undo an action
- Windows Key + L will lock your PC
- Ctrl + A will select all items in a document window
- By hovering over a word and Shift + F7, you will prompt the Thesaurus to open
To view an updated list of keyboard shortcuts, please click here.
