Tricks of the trade can benefit even the most avid internet pro. The’re always room for anyone to learn more. Who doesn’t want to make life easier? I know I do.
Would you like to make more efficient use of you time?
Here’s how.
– A calendar or planner is key.
Everyone will forgot something somewhere, no matter how good your memory is. Did you know when you write something down it actually encodes it more effectively in the brain? This holds true even if you keep track of your daily to-do on the computer. It’s not the act of writing or typing per say, but by doing so you are putting what you are writing in your short term memory.
It is easier to retrieve this information later on than if you just said to your spouse, “remind me to feed the dog later”.
– Going on the last trick discussed, writing stuff down in general will make your life easier.
Now don’t go putting everything on paper, but keep a notepad (actual or virtual) handy. A great virtual notebook to consider is Quick Note. It opens with a simple right click on the mouse and it saves everything you type automatically – no need to worry if you forget to.
And if you need to copy something from a website or email it have a super easy copy and paste feature. And if that hasn’t sold you yet, you can even sync it to your Google documents account.
– Google documents.
If you haven’t tried this one yet, you need to. It will not only save you time, but money as well because it does everything you would most likely need Microsoft Word to do. Not to mention many other websites you use sync with it, such as Box.com, saving you the effort of uploading everything.
– Create a weekly schedule of computer maintenance to keep things running smoothly.
I know most of us forget about the actual health of our computer systems, but they need check-ups too. If we get in the habit of doing check-ups on a schedule, doing so will become part of our daily routine.
For example, if every Monday you decide to scan your registry for errors, your brain is more likely to associate Monday mornings with scanning for registry errors, which makes the likehood that you will forget. Even if you think these types of scans run automatically or in real-time, they don’t with most free-ware programs.
– Free software is great.
There’s no point in paying for something when getting it for free does the same job if not better. It’s like the non-profit of the computer world. But be careful and download with caution. Not every free program out there is safe, but there is a pretty fool proof plan to find out if it is.
When downloading off the internet, keeps these tips in mind:
#1 Don’t assume that just because it comes from a trusted source or has the “trusted seal of approval”, that it is indeed safe to download.
Try right clicking on that “trusted program download button”. You can save it to your computer can’t you? And even if you can’t you can’t still easily get a screen shot and doctor it up to look like the real deal. Looks can be decieving.
And these trusted download sites can’t be held responsible for every program. The do a great job and personally I’ve never had a problem with my favorite site. But you can never be too careful.
#2 If possible download from the programs actual source.
That just means if you need to download Google Chrome, try and do so from Google.com. If it is not a repetuable company like Google, find a good well-known and used site such as Download.com or Filehippo.com.
#3 These sites offering free downloads make a lot of money from the ads on their sites.
They are pretty slick in their tactics, but they have to make money somehow. Make sure before you click “run” or “save as” before the actual download process that it is indeed the program you originally intended to download. I know it sounds silly, but it happens.
#4 But before downloading anything from a trusted site, get to know that program.
Google it, read reviews outside that site, ask your friends, whatever. If no one has heard of it or have bad things to say about it, then maybe you should give that particular program second thought. No matter how safe you think it is, shit happens. The more educated you are, the less stress you will encounter down the road.
#5 So you’ve found a great program and all the reviews are good.
Ask yourself how the program will benefit you. Seriously. Most people who complain about their computers running slow are looking in all the wrong places for the answers. They download a program to speed things up and it works for a while, but soon things are back to how they were before.
More programs = more RAM used and less RAM = slower processor speed.
And just because you “uninstalled it” through your control panel does not mean it’s gone. Well for the most part.
#6 Windows (I’m not sure if Mac or Linux is similar in this fashion..) is notorious about leaving shit behind. One of your must have programs is a good uninstaller. It will not only uninstall a program, but also scan your computer for any left over traces of it. An easy to use and effective such program is Advanced Uninstaller Pro. It can do so much for your systems health and more.
