5 COMPUTER TRICKS TO INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

When you are working nearly 24X7 on the computer and literally earn your bread and butter working on the machine, it only makes sense to hack a few tricks to increase your PC productivity. If you attune yourself to the keyboard, your increase in productivity directly co-relates to the reduced time taken to move to and fro from mouse to keyword.

Here are some computer tricks to actually help your accomplish more.

Trick your brain into thinking you have less time to complete your tasks

This might sound weird, but as long as you keep thinking that you have so much time to accomplish things, then the longer it will take for you to finish – and the less productive you will actually be. One of the best ways to tap into urgency is by removing the power cord from your computer. Then, work in a different room from where your power cord is, and continue to work and do other productive things until your computer dies or you get all of your tasks done. Removing the power cord removes the thought of having an infinite amount of time. Removing the power cord allows you to realize that you don’t have a lot of time left, and as your computer drops under 50% power, you will further realize that you do not have a lot of time left. As your computer gets closer to dying, your sense of urgency will increase. Soon, you will be able to complete tasks in several hours that once took you several days to complete.

The LapTop trick is a secret way to boost your productivity. We do not have an infinite amount of time, and this trick will allow anyone to realize that time is a valuable but also limited resource.

Use Mouse Side Buttons

Many new computer mice have buttons on the side of the mouse. These buttons can be programmed to do anything (all possible navigation), however by default the left thumb button can be used to go back in a web browser or windows explorer. This makes browsing the internet more enjoyable since you do not need to move the mouse cursor to the browser back arrow icon in order to go back a page.

Avoid time-wasting sites

Guilty as charged? Do you often find yourself checking social media or other time-wasting sites and passing them off as “breaks”? Instead of this, plan out your day and tell yourself you will take breaks away from the computer at specified times. Use these times to rest, instead of testing the ultimate limits of your online patience.

So why did we include “walking away from the computer” as a computer trick to increase productivity? Well, it is of course because the human body has a saturation point. Your eyes, for example, can only take a certain amount of time staring at a monitor until it eventually goes blurry on you. Your brain also gets tired – even when you think you are relaxing while reading all the controversial posts about celebrities on Facebook. Rest is an integral part of productivity. A tired body can never produce the same amount of work as a fully-rested and recharged one.

Take intelligent screengrabs

If a Windows 8 application is showing something interesting and you’d like to record it for posterity, then hold down the Windows key, press PrtSc, and the image won’t just go to the clipboard: it’ll also be automatically saved to your My Pictures folder with the name Screenshot.png (and then Screenshot(1).png, Screenshot(2).png and so on).

You might hope that pressing Win+Alt+PrtSc would similarly save an image of the active window, but no, sadly not. Maybe next time.

Learn and use keyboard shortcuts to increase computer productivity.

Here are some of the most useful combinations:

  • CTRL + Left and Right Arrows – When you hold these keys together you can move the cursor one word at a time. This shortcut helps when you are editing text.
  • CTRL + SHIFT + Left and Right Arrows – Another hack that comes handy when you are editing text is this combination. This shortcut selects one word at a time.
  • CTRL + Backspace – You can delete entire word using this shortcut.
  • CTRL + SHIFT + Top and Bottom Arrows – If you want to select all the words from a point to the left, you use the top arrow with Ctrl and Shift and if you want to select from a point to the right you use the bottom arrow.
  • Windows + M – When you press these keys together, you minimize all windows opened on the screen.
  • ALT + PRT SCR – If you want to take a print screen in a hurry, there is nothing better than this shortcut which takes the print screen of the active window.
  • Select File + f2 – Renaming files is very easy with shortcuts. Simply select the file and press the f2 button.
  • CTRL + Scroll in the Mouse – Zooming into pictures or text while working can easily be done by pressing the control button and the scroll in the mouse. To return to normal zoom, you can press CTRL + 0 (Zero).
  • CTRL + SHIFT + T – When you are in a browser, you know the shortcut to open a new tab (Ctrl + T). But what if you want to reopen a closed tab? Simple press down Ctrl + Shift + T.
  • CTRL + L (When in a Browser) – This is a shortcut to be used when a browser is the current window opened. When you press these keys together, you focus the cursor on the URL/ search field.