Tag Archives: lifehacks

Email Productivity Hack: Message in Subject Line

Have you ever been guilty of sending someone a multi-paragraph email just to ask them to do one simple thing? Wouldn’t it be easier for all parties if you just sent them the request without all the fluff?

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith state the obvious in their book The Impact Equation (buy it here).

“If SMS text messaging is on the rise, why would you still send 1,400-word e-mails?”

One of the most practical tips I learned in the Managing Workflow for Business Leaders GTD workshop I attended back in September was to limit the entire email message to the subject line when it makes sense to do so.

EOM1

This is a great time-saver for both the sender and the recipient. Be sure to use the acronym EOM (End Of Message) to act as a trigger to the recipient that everything they need to act upon is contained in the message subject.

Writing lengthy epistles was OK for Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians, but it is almost never acceptable for email communication. Brevity is essential If you want someone to read and respond to your email.

Have any quick email tips to share? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

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Find Anything With Index of Searches

Recently, I taught a couple of friends some awesome Google Fu—the ever useful Index Of search trick. This little baby turns Google into a veritable smörgåsbord of file searching goodness. It trawls the Internet for just about anything your heart could desire.

Here’s an example of how to put this hack in use (courtesy of Lifehacker). Type the code below into Google.

Code:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Nirvana"

The above snippet searches Google for shared folders with music files with by Nirvana. It’s as simple as that. You can modify the text to search for movies, TV shows, E-books, comic books, etc.

Search Results

TextExpander by Smile Software is one of the most essential apps in my workflow. It “saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures”. It’s also a super convenient way of storing bits of code that are too cryptic and/or lengthy for you to even think about memorizing.

So, for those of you already using it, I’ve created a TextExpander Snippet for your benefit. You can download it here.

Do you have any gnarly Googley tricks up your sleeve? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

A Special Towel Tip for Geek Pride Day

May 25th is here again and you know what that means … you don’t, do you? Well, for the uninitiated, today is recognized by dozens of people all over the world as both Geek Pride Day and Towel Day.

Geek Pride Day
Image courtesy of ThinkGeek.

So, in honor of the festivities that doubtless are going on in at least one geek’s parents’ basement, here is my favorite towel tip.

Sorry if this is too much info, but when I work out I sweat buckets. I keep a towel handy to mop my face, my arms, and to wipe off my gym equipment. It doesn’t take long for the towel to become so icky that I prefer letting the sweat drip off my brow rather than using it to dry my mug.

Midway through a grueling workout you may feel a little hesitant using your nasty gym towel to wipe your sweaty brow.

Don’t Panic!

Towel Tip (Brown Betty)

The best way I’ve found to keep my towel drier and/or more hygienic is to designate one side to be used only with my face. For simplicity’s sake I always look for the tag and then turn over the towel—that side is designated for my face only. The opposite side is for my arms and the flip side is for gym equipment.

This is a simple towel hack, but I’ve found that it keeps things from getting yucky.

Gym rats, Steelers fans, and interstellar hitchhikers the galaxy over can all agree on one thing—the towel is about the most massively useful thing ever invented.

Do you have any geeky tips for today? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

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Favorite Things: Collar Stays

Hey, you! Did you just get your dress shirt back from the cleaners only to find that its collars are curling up like the the tip of Dilbert’s tie?

Dilbert (character)

Dilbert (character) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rather than trying to figure out how/why it happens I’d like to propose a simple, affordable solution: collar stays.

Quality Stays

My personal recommendation is this Box of 50 Plastic Collar Stays from Quality Stays. It comes with the following assortment of collar stays:

  • 12 – 2 inch long stays
  • 24 – 2.5 inch long stays
  • 14 – 3 inch long stays

I’ve had my box of stays for nearly two years and they appear to be holding up well. If you want to spend a bit more you can get them in stainless steel or even titanium!

My box of Quality Stays has kept me from the ironing board and has saved the life of many a shirt which would have otherwise been cast off in disgust.

Image courtesy of Amazon.

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Hot Links: Hands-Only CPR

I attended First Aid and CPR/AED training this week to renew my certification. Expecting only a refresher, I was surprised at how much had changed in the two years since I last certified.

The new focus of CPR is almost exclusively on performing chest compressions. Don’t worry about giving breaths, or anything else. The most important things you can do for someone experiencing cardiac arrest are the following.

Two Steps to Save a Life

Go to Hands-Only CPR today to learn more about this lifesaving technique.

All images are from the the American Heart Association, unless otherwise noted.

Use Email Shortcuts for Popular Webapps

Chapman as King Arthur in Holy Grail

Image via Wikipedia

Much like the pleading peasant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, email is not quite dead yet (it feels fine … it’ll go for a walk … it feels happy). Did you know that tons of the Internet’s most popular apps and services let you interact with them via email?

Yup, you can send notes to Evernote, post a video to your Facebook wall, upload an image to Flickr, send an article to Instapaper to read later, send PDFs or Word documents to your Amazon Kindle, add tasks your To Do list on Remember the Milk, and even post to your WordPress blog—and more—all through email!

The problem is that most of the email addresses you get to interact with these services tend to be a little hard to memorize. Usually, they’re something like r3411y10ng3m4i2314akwhch@yourwebapp.com. If you can’t easily remember that gobbledygook of an email address then you won’t use it.

SendTo Kindle

To help myself take better advantage of these apps I’m already using I came up with a simple address book hack to simplify the process. You can do the same to easily make sense of your accounts.

  1. Create a new entry wherever you keep your contacts (I use Address Book on OS X, but this works equally well in Outlook or even Google Contacts).
  2. Give the contact the first name “SendTo”.
  3. Use the service name for last name.
  4. Add your unique email address (some services have more than one address, go ahead an list them all).
  5. Additional details can be provided in the notes section. Remember the Milk, for example, provides some additional syntax for your tasks.

SendTo RTM Contact

  1. Repeat steps 1-4 for each service you use.

After you’ve organized all your email accounts, fire up your favorite email client and give it a test spin.

SendTo Flickr Screenshot

In the To field type SendTo. You will be presented with a list of services available to you. To illustrate this point I’ve selected my SendTo Flickr email account and attached a screenshot to the email.

Emailing an Image to Flickr

Please note that the email’s Subject became the title of the Flickr image.

Image Posted via Email

So, there you have it. Email once again proves itself useful. It ain’t dead and it ain’t just for mailing your boss your TPS reports. What are you waiting for? Go on and try it out for yourself.

What’s your preferred way of interacting with cool Web apps and services? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

New Year’s Resolution

The festivus pole, unadorned and non-lit.

Image via Wikipedia

For as long as I can remember I’ve been setting, but not accomplishing New Year’s Resolutions. I spend the period between December 26th and New Year’s analyzing all the ways I’ve let myself down (it’s like my own personal Festivus minus the aluminum pole and the feats of strength). Then I make a new, huge list of all the changes I want to make in the coming year.

Sure, I give it the “old college try”, but every year it always ends the same way. I do OK for a couple of months until discouragement, laziness, and the overwhelming nature of trying to change too much at one time derail me from my progress.

A couple of weeks back I included one of my favorite Stephen Covey quotes in a post.

 

 

“What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life?”

What strikes me the most is the singular nature of Dr. Covey’s question. “What one thing”, he asks. I’ve thought about this quite a bit and determined

So, this year I will be working on one resolution only. That’s it. Not one for each aspect or role in my life (family, spiritual, work, personal, etc). Just one. Period.

My goal is to exercise at least three times a week.

Round Is a Shape
Image via FoxTrot by Bill Amend

I’m going to keep it simple and not overcomplicate things. It’s not that I’m totally out of shape. I just don’t like the shape I’m in—much too round for my liking.

If you haven’t said so before, what one thing could you do that would have the most impact on your life? Sound off in the comments below.

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