Lifehacker – Gina Trapani

Google Help Center, “Share & Manage Calendars,” available at (www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py? answer=44105&topic=8605). 2. Google Help Center, “Calendar Basics,” available at (www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py? answer=37034&topic=8556). OceanofPDF.com Chapter 7 Automate Repetitive Tasks Thirty years ago, we thought that by the 21 st century we’d all have personal robots doing our laundry, cooking meals, and cleaning our houses — like the Jetsons’ robot maid, Rosie. Although that scenario hasn’t become reality yet, your personal computer can perform certain menial tasks, automatically and unsupervised, on a schedule you set.

Your PC isn’t as advanced or charming as Rosie, but it can clean up after itself and take the work out of repetitive computing jobs. Computers are built to relieve us of dull work, not create more work. Refrigerators switch on and off to maintain a certain temperature. Your paycheck gets deposited directly into your account so you don’t have to visit the bank. Streetlights snap on at dusk so that humans don’t have to canvass the neighborhood flipping switches. And you can automate personal computing tasks to run in the background automatically.

If you examine your work processes over time, you’ll notice that certain activities come up repeatedly, whether it’s filing certain email messages into the same folders, starting up those same three programs first thing in the morning, deleting old files you don’t need, or downloading new songs from your favorite bands’ websites.

The first step is to identify those repetitive actions. The next step is to program your computer to perform them so that you don’t have to do them by hand again. Resistance to Automation and the Attraction of Busywork The type of work ripe for automation is busywork: well-defined tasks that happen the same way every time and require virtually no thinking. Although it may be boring, ironically, busywork’s appeal is its simplicity. You can get it done with little mental effort, by just going through the motions, and get that rewarding feeling of accomplishment.

With busywork, there’s little chance of failure and there’s a high degree of familiarity.

Chapter 1: Control Your Email Hack 1: Empty Your Inbox (and Keep It Empty) Hack 2: Decrease Your Response Time Hack 3: Craft Effective Messages Hack 4: Highlight Messages Sent Directly to You Hack 5: Use Disposable Email Addresses Hack 6: Master Message Search Hack 7: Future-Proof Your Email Address Hack 8: Consolidate Multiple Email Addresses with Gmail Hack 9: Script and Automate Repetitive Replies Hack 10: Filter Low-Priority Messages References Chapter 2: Organize Your Data Hack 11: Organize Your Documents Folder Hack 12: Instantly Retrieve Files Stored on Your Computer Hack 13: Overhaul Your Filing Cabinet Hack 14: Instantly Recall Any Number of Different Passwords Hack 15: Securely Track Your Passwords Hack 16: Tag Your Bookmarks Hack 17: Organize Your Digital Photos Hack 18: Corral Media Across Folders and Drives Hack 19: Create Saved Search Folders Hack 20: Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your PC Hack 21: Create a Password-Protected Disk on Your Mac Hack 22: Encrypt Your Entire Windows Operating System Hack 23: Set Up 2-Step Verification for Your Google Account Hack 24: Design Your Own Planner References Chapter 3: Trick Yourself into Getting Done Hack 25: Make Your To-Do List Doable Hack 26: Set Up a Morning Dash Hack 27: Map Your Time Hack 28: Quick-Log Your Workday Hack 29: Dash Through Tasks with a Timer Hack 30: Form New Habits with Jerry Seinfeld’s Chain Hack 31: Control Your Workday Hack 32: Turn Tasks into Game Play References Chapter 4: Clear Your Mind Hack 33: Send Reminders to Your Future Self Hack 34: Take Great Notes Hack 35: Organize Your Life with Remember the Milk Hack 36: Organize Your Life in Text Files Hack 37: Set Up a Ubiquitous Note-Taking Inbox Across Devices References Chapter 5: Firewall Your Attention Hack 39: Limit Visits to Time-Wasting Websites Hack 40: Permanently Block Time-Wasting Websites Hack 41: Reduce Email Interruptions Hack 42: Split Your Work Among Multiple Desktops Hack 43: Build a No-Fly Zone Hack 44: Set Up Communication Quiet Hours Hack 45: Clear Your Desktop Hack 46: Make Your House a Usable Home Hack 47: Sentence Stuff to Death Row Hack 48: Drown Out Distracting Sounds with Pink Noise References Chapter 6: Streamline Common Tasks Hack 49: Search the Web in Three Keystrokes Hack 50: Command Your Windows PC from the Keyboard Hack 51: Command Your Mac from the Keyboard Hack 52: Reduce Repetitive Typing with Texter for Windows Hack 53: Reduce Repetitive Typing with TextExpander for Mac Hack 54: Automatically Fill in Repetitive Web Forms Hack 55: Batch-Resize Photos Hack 56: Bypass Free Site Registration with BugMeNot Hack 57: Speed Up Web Pages on a Slow Internet Connection Hack 58: Securely Save Website Passwords Hack 59: Become a Scheduling Black Belt with Google Calendar References Chapter 7: Automate Repetitive Tasks Hack 60: Set Up an Automated, Bulletproof File Back Up Solution Hack 62: Automatically Clean Up Your PC Hack 63: Automatically Clean Up Your Mac Hack 64: Automatically Reboot and Launch Applications Hack 65: Make Google Search Results Automatically Come to You Hack 66: Automatically Download Music, Movies, and More References Chapter 8: Get Your Data to Go Hack 67: Access Your Most Important Files Anywhere with Dropbox Hack 68: Manage Your Documents in a Web-Based Office Suite Hack 69: Carry Your Life on a Flash Drive Hack 70: Create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with Hamachi Hack 71: Run a Home Web Server Hack 72: Run Full-Fledged Webapps from Your Home Computer Hack 73: Build Your Personal Wikipedia Hack 74: Remotely Control Your Home Computer Hack 75: Give Your Home Computer a Web Address Hack 76: Optimize Your Laptop References Chapter 9: Work Smarter on Your Smart Phone Hack 77: Speed Up Your Touchscreen Typing Hack 78: Break Down the Barrier Between Your Computer and Mobile Phone Hack 79: Remote Control Your Computer with Your Phone Hack 80: Automate Android Functions with Tasker Hack 81: Set Up One Phone Number to Rule Them All Hack 82: Augment Reality with Your Phone Hack 83: Remember Where You’ve Been Using Location Awareness Hack 84: Command Your Phone with Your Voice Hack 85: Use Your Camera Phone as a Scanner Hack 86: Make Your “Dumbphone” Smarter via Text Message Hack 88: Develop Your (Digital) Photographic Memory Hack 89: Send and Receive Money on Your Mobile Phone with PayPal Chapter 10: Master the Web Hack 90: Google Like a Pro Hack 91: Subscribe to Websites with RSS Hack 92: Quickly Search Within Specific Websites from the Address Bar Hack 93: Extend Your Web Browser Hack 94: Supercharge Your Firefox Downloads with DownThemAll!

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Unique ID: 266a5fd5a99c997f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 25,714,907 bytes (24.524 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 558
• Language: English (en)

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