For a Productivity Boost, Try gOS

The (relatively) new gOS has been written and talked about for it’s simplicity, ease of use, and low system requirements, but it’s ability to improve productivity has been completely overlooked.

I downloaded the gOS a couple of weeks ago to run on an older machine in my home, and to see what the fuss was about. After running it both in the live CD form and natively as a dual boot with Windows Vista, I was amazed at the speed of this OS. However, after playing around with it for a while, I realized that there was a hidden benefit to the stripped down, high speed, easy to use gOS: improved productivity.

The mere fact that gOS lacks the usual games, desktop sidebar, and other annoyances of Windows is the first asset to it’s use as a productivity booster. Being able to sit down to a clean screen without the usual distractions puts you one step ahead.

Also, the fact that there is what amounts to a shortcut on the desktop to Google, gMail, Blogger, Facebook, and Wikipedia makes it easy to jump on, get where you need to go and eliminate the use of other bookmarks. This allows for reduced time on the net, which can lead to distraction.

When I want to sit down and do some research, write a blog post, catch up on email, or anything else and not be distracted, I simply boot into gOS, get my work done, and boot back to Windows. It’s that easy.

So, if you want a simple way to boost your productivity by eliminating distractions and having just what you need, give gOS a try. Then, pop back here and let me know what you think.

How To: Listen LESS and Learn MORE

In this day and time of ever-increasing amounts of information, it can be hard to keep up. If you’re like me, you may have started supplementing your reading with audio books or podcasts. However, with the large amount of audio available, how do you ever listen to it all AND retain any of it?

Well, my solution to one accidentally presented a solution to the other. It all began when I bought my mp3 player last December. I started downloading different podcasts to listen to on my way to and from work and on my lunch break. Soon, I found several that I really liked and was going back and getting new ones from the same source each week. It wasn’t long before I found that I had more audio to listen to than I had time to listen. So, while I was playing around some of the menus one day, I found the setting that allows for me to speed up or slow down the audio that I am playing. The scale on my player goes from -8 to +8. Using the +8 setting increases the speed of the audio approximately 20% over the original recording speed. Doing this allowed me to speed up my audio (without any noticable change in pitch or quality) and allow me to listen to more in less time.

At the same time, I found that I was having to pay closer attention to what I was listening to, simply because everyone was talking faster than I was used to. So, as I began to get used to the speed of the audio, I found that I was actually able to remember more about what I had just heard than I was when I was listening to the audio at normal speed. Now, I don’t know why this is, I just know that it works for me. I’m sure there is some theory or psychological explanation for it, but, frankly, I don’t care why it works, just that it does.

So, if you want to pack more listening and learning into your day and not sacrifice time, try speeding up you audio.

WARNING: I have found that once I’ve gotten used to the higher speed audio, I want to speed it up even more, which I can do on my mp3 player. Also, if you get used to the faster speed of the audio, listening to the same program at normal speed can be dangerous to your sanity. It just seems like everyone is talking sooooo sloooooowww.

Save $$$: 25 Ways to Cheap Ways to Keep Your House Cooler

There is a great article over at MSN Finance on how to have a cooler house this summer, without heating up your wallet.  This covers great ideas such as using your landscaping to help cool your house and making sure your not leaking that cool air out into the neighborhood via leaky doors and window.

With the really hot days of summer to come, I’m sure we can all find a thing or two here to help keep us just a little bit cooler.

Excel Tip: Create a Hidden Workbook to Save All Your Macros, Scripts, and Formulas

If you’re like me, you use MS Excel quite a bit.  I love Excel.  I personally think that it is the greatest piece of software ever created.  In my position with my company I get a chance to use it quite a bit, and often find myself reusing the same bit of VBA script or the same formula for many different projects.  I get really tired of rewriting the same script, recording the same macro, or trying to remember exactly how I built that last formula before I can use it again.  If this ever happens to you, you will understand the frustration.

Well, a couple of years ago I stumbled upon a great tip that has saved me considerable time and frustration, and has even made me look like a hero several times.  The magic lies in a small, somewhat hidden folder within the Microsoft Office installation folder called “XLStart”. 

“What’s so magical about this folder,” you may ask.

Well, that’s what I am about to show you.

First, let’s focus on those often used macros, scripts, and formulas that you have saved in many other Excel workbooks, text files, Post-It Notes, and other divers sources.  Round all of the little nuggets up and save them to one work book.  Make sure that your macros and scripts do not make references to specifically named sheets in the original source.  If they do, I have found that it is best to either change them to the generic “Sheet#” naming that Excel uses by default.  You can also have the script prompt you for the desired sheet name if you like.

Second, try to find a way to organize all of the formulas and macros in a way that you will be able to easily find them.  I find it very useful to put the name of the formula and/or a small explanation of it just above the cell you are saving the formula in.  You should also have some sample data for the formula to use, just so you can remember exactly what it does, just in case you don’t use it for a long time.

Next, save the workbook you have just populated to the “XLStart” folder.  If you used the default installation, the folder should be located using the following path:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\XLSTART
Just remember to name this something beside Book1.  I named mine “MacroBook”, just to make things obvious for me.

The last and my favorite part of this is to hide the workbook so that it doesn’t get in your way every time you open Excel. To do this, just go to the menu bar and click “Window” and the “Hide” and select the workbook you saved.  Now, close Excel.  It will ask if you want to save the changes you made to your workbook.  Click “Yes”. 

Now, every time you open Excel, this new workbook with your great macros and formulas will be opened in the background and ready for use.  To use a macro, simple click on the macro button like you would to run a macro as if you just made it in your current workbook.  The macro selection box will pop up and you will see all of the macros listed for all open workbooks.  They will show up in the format WorkbookName.xls!Macroname.  Simply select it an run it.  To use your formulas, simply go to the toolbar, click “Window” and then “Unhide”, select your hidden workbook and it will appear.  Then, simply copy and paste the formula you would like to use into the workbook you are working on.  When done, simply re-hide the book you had hidden.

This may seem like a long way to go save some simple formulas, but trust me, if you have any complicated formulas or macros that you find yourself re-creating very often, you will quickly come to love this little tip.  So, give it a try and let me know how you like it.

How-To: Another Great Use for a Binder Clip

Well, you’ve used your binder clips for binding stacks of paper, as a chip clip, and maybe even as a cable holder for you workstation, but here’s a use you probably haven’t thought of, courtesy of LifeHacker, use your small bider clips to keep your toothpaste tube rolled up.

We all know how annoying it is to try to squeeze that last bit of toothpaste out of an almost empty tube. Starting at the bottom and rolling it up as you go really helps to get every last bit out of the tube, but it never seems to stay rolled up. Not a problem anymore.

10 Great, Low-Cost Sunburn Remedies

Once again it’s summer, which means swimming, hiking, mowing, and a mirad of other outdoor activities.  All of which lead to sunburn, one of the nasties that we have to endure if we are to enjoy summer to the fullest.  If your like me, you want to be able to treat the burn without having to flop down a bunch of dead presidents to do it.  Well, look no more, Thrifty Mommy, has given us 10 great remedies that involve things that you probably already have in your house.  So, view and enjoy. 

Remember the sunscreen and have a great summer.

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Why Blockbuster has it over Netflix

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When Netflix first came on the scene I jumped right on and loved it.  I used the surface for about a year and thought it was great because I could get some lesser known movies that I couldn’t find at the local rental places.  Plus, not having to go any farther than my mailbox really appealed to my lazy side.  After about a year I need that money for other things more than I needed it for movies so I cancelled my service.

Fast forward several years and now I am married with a young child and my wife and I decided it might be time to try Netflix again.  Once again I am pleased with the selection, the price, and the fact that I don’t have to go any further than my mailbox to get my movies.  However, this time we were painfully aware that the promise of fast turnovers in movie titles was not to be fulfilled for us.  We often would mail in a movie on a Friday or Saturday and not get the next movie until the following Thursday or Friday.  Needless to say, this didn’t do it for us, so we decided that we weren’t going to get our money’s worth out of this arrangement and decided to cancel our service.

Luckily, about that time we saw the ads for the new Blockbuster service, so we decided to give it a try.  Boy, are we ever glad we did.  We decided to go for the 2 out at a time, unlimited rentals per month, just like we did with Netflix.  The cost was about the same, so we don’t lose anything for trying.  The greatest part of the deal is that once we have watched a movie, we can just take it to our local Blockbuster store and exchange it for a FREE in-store rental.  Plus, as soon as they scan the movie in that we are returning, the online system is notified and our next movie is processed and mailed out to us the next day.  Now, we get a movie (usually 2) on Wednesday, watch it, take it to the store on Friday or Saturday, get another movie, and then our next movie from the online service arrives the next Wednesday.  No more waiting a week for our movies.  We truly get to take advantage of the unlimited part of our service now.

Another great benefit is Blockbuster often sends free rental coupons for games and movies with the movies they mail.  We also get some online that we can print out from time to time.

So, I guess the moral to the story is, Blockbuster, in addition to being a great new service, should soon become a Netflix buster.

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How To: Be As Happy As Your Dog

Ian McKenzie has a great post over at his site about how to learn from the simple wisdom of your dog for a happier life.  There are some really great nuggets of truth and wisdom here.  I plan on using many of these while I am enjoying my much needed vacation next week.

Effective Time Saver Series, Part 2

OK, this one is not going to be new to anyone, really, but I think it is still one that is overlooked.  If you want to save yourself 5-10 minutes every morning, lay out what you are going to wear the night before.  This works for a couple of reasons:

1. If you decide the night before what you are going to wear you save the time of making that decision first thing in the morning while you may not be in the best frame of mind to be making decisions.
2. By laying out what you want to wear ahead of time you save yourself from making the realization at noon that you are wearing one black sock and one blue sock.

I know this is a very small thing, but you can really get your life organized by tweaking just the small things.

Effective Time Saver Series, Part 1

In the two jobs I worked at before my current job I worked close enough to home that I could go home everyday for lunch. Besides being a great way to get away from work and relax, it was also a great time saver for me. The reason this is true is because I love television. I could sit and watch from sunrise to sunset if given the opportunity. However, with a job, a wife, and a young child I don’t really get that opportunity very often, so I need to maximize the time I do get. That’s where my beloved VCR (no, I don’t have TiVo, yet) comes into play.

Here’s what I did. Whenever something was coming on that I really wanted to watch without interuption, or was in the same time slot as something my wife wanted to watch, I simply taped it. Then, when I went home for lunch, I just watched the show I taped, fast-forwarding through the commercials. I could usually watch an hour show in about 35 to 40 minutes. Saving me time and arguments with my wife about what to watch if our shows were in competition.

You might be asking, how does this help me save time? Well, imagine you really like TV, but you are really busy. If you have a show that comes on at 7pm and 8pm but you are too busy to watch, simply tape them and take care of the other business you have. After that, you can watch your taped programs without the commercials in less time that if you had stopped what you were doing and watched the shows. Let’s face it, there’s no way to be productive during commercials.