May 7th, 2008
PimpYourWork.com
Computers are an integral part of office life. Whether you love them or hate them, you’ll need to learn how to work with them. Here are some helpful articles to smoothen the process:
5 Ways to Make your computer Work for you and Not the Other Way Around and How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail from Lifehack
Top 12 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer from Dumb Little Man
Speed Up Windows Shutdown from Lifehacker
Encrypt your communications for added security and Mac vs. PC Speed: It Doesn’t Matter from Web Worker Daily
Photo Credit: Image from Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
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By Celine -- 0 comments
May 5th, 2008
PimpYourWork.com
We all know that if we want to move folders or files within Windows and we have multiple target folders, we have to do it one by one. This is annoying, especially after reformatting and reinstalling your computer and you need to restore files to where they once were (what I’m doing right now, which is how I came upon this tool).
Piki Basket eliminates the painstaking one by one copy and pasting. Just copy, copy and copy some more and once you are done copying, paste them all at once to the target folders. And the best news is that Piky is integrated with Windows Explorer so there’s no need to run a separate program.
If for some reason, you need the file paths of your files, there is no way you can get it automatically with Windows. Here’s another handy feature from Piky Basket: just click ont he file and you’ll access the file path. Also, if you need the command prompt to point at a specific folder, no need to type in long commands. A single right click will give you the choice of opening a command prompt at that folder.
Piky Basket is compatible with Windows 9x, 2000, and XP. Click here for the PikiBasket’s official site.
Photo Credit: Screencapture by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
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By Celine -- 0 comments
May 2nd, 2008
I don’t intend to build in order to have clients; I intend to have clients in order to build.
- from “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand
Photo Credit: Image by Edmondo Dantes from sxc.hu
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By Celine -- 0 comments
May 2nd, 2008
Pimp Your Work Asks: Which book transformed your career? How did it inspire a transformation? What changes happened in your life as a result of reading that book?
To participate, simply answer the question in the comments.
Photo Credit: Image by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
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By Celine -- 3 comments
May 1st, 2008
PimpYourWork.com
Are you having a hard time writing because of all the clutter in your desktop, or maybe the persistent messengers you have installed? If this is your problem, then Dark Room might be for you. Contrary to what the name suggests, it’s not a photography tool.
Created with the sole purpose of providing a writing environment sans the distractions, Dark Room is all about you and what you are writing. No frills, no fancy stuff, it’s just you, a dark background and the text you are writing. The features available with Dark Room are the most basic ones found on other text editors. It starts up on full screen, hiding everything in your desktop and relieving you of almost anything that can distract your writing sessions.
Personally, it works for me as I used to get distracted with random surfing, instant messenger conversations, etc.
If the neon green text on a black background puts you off (as it did with me), you can change the background and font colors via the “Preferences” menu when you right-click on the Dark Room screen.
Dark Room is compatible with Windows XP, 2000, 2003 and requires the .NET 2.0 framework. Click here for the official site.
Photo Credit: Screencapture by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
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By Celine -- 0 comments
April 29th, 2008
PimpYourWork.com
I’ve mentioned in some previous posts that I live in a Third World country. This means that my area’s phone/internet cables can be stolen at night (presumably to be sold at junk shops) and I’ll be left disconnected from work.
Well, this happened last week.
Surprisingly, my productivity actually doubled. I was producing twice my regular output for the previous weeks of April. Is it possible that severing your connection to the net can make you more productive or is this some kind of fluke? I think it’s possible to be more productive without easy net access, and here’s why:
Your net time becomes precious. To compensate your lack of a connection at home, you probably resort to net cafes, free wi-fi areas, and the like. You can’t exactly sit in these places forever. Ergo, you only do the essential when you’re online. Goodbye to random surfing.
Less distractions. Additionally, when you’re working on your computer, you have less distractions because you’re not connected to the net. No random surfing, Twittering, checking your Facebook messages, or reading RSS feeds. When you’re working with the computer, you’re working with the computer.
Have there been instances where you found yourself without an internet connection? How did it affect your productivity?
Photo Credit: Image by redsd from stock.xchng
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By Celine -- 1 comment
April 29th, 2008
PimpYourWork.com
In the previous PYW Asks, I asked readers what their #1 productivity tool is. Here’s what the readers answered:
Jennifer of Offbeat Homes answered that all she needs for work is her laptop and her brain. She also finds red pens indispensable, as they indicate that she’s finished something from her to-do list.
Jennifer’s use of red pens may seem simple, but it’s what works for her. If you’re the type of person who is responsive to color, using a similar color-based system helps.
Chris from Logo Design Shopper chose unruled Moleskine notebooks. Here’s his list of why he loves his Moleskine so much “Small enough to fit in your pocket. Stylish enough to impress the clients. Tonnes of pages for notes, diagrams and doodles.” Sandie from Geeked Off also chose a Moleskine.
Ian finds that Excel and its PivotTables function helps him learn more about his business than customer satisfaction surveys do.
DL selected Roboform (website here) as the #1 productivity tool, as it generates passwords and saves them for you.
Do you have any productivity tools common with other Pimp Your Work readers?
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By Celine -- 1 comment
April 28th, 2008
It’s easy to get addicted to social networks, and this is why many employers frown on them and ban them from company servers. However, with a bit of practice, even the biggest time waster can be converted into a productivity tool. Yes, even Twitter (add me here). Here are some ways to do it:
Record tasks as you are working on them. So you know how long some tasks take. This only works if you’re posting honest tweets.
Send reminders to contacts. If you don’t want the long conversations that instant messaging tends to generate, send a quick note to your contacts via Twitter.
Pitch to someone. This is the Twitter version of an elevator pitch, and the cutesy name for it is “twitpitch”. Click here to read more about it.
Use it for communication. It can be much faster than email, and if you’re just going to say a one-sentence message to a big group of people with active Twitter accounts, why not just send it via Twitter?
Get quick feedback. It’s very easy to reply to tweets, especially if you’re asking for feedback for a particular idea.
What do you use Twitter for? Do you find it’s a useful communication tool or just a waste of your time?
Photo Credit: Image by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
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