Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smater, Faster and Better - Adam Pash

The goal of this book, the Lifehacker.com website, and the weekly Lifehacker video series is simple: discover, test, and curate shortcuts and tricks for making modern life easier and doing things better. Every year, personal computers, smart phones, email, the Web, and other contemporary technologies play an increasingly significant role in our lives; accordingly, much of this book focuses on using these tools more efficiently. These technologies — intended to improve how we communicate and streamline how we work — often complicate rather than supplement our ability to live and work more productively

Table of Contents

Cover

Chapter 1: Control Your Email

Hack 1: Empty Your Inbox (and Keep It Empty)

Hack 2: Decrease Your

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

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 Protected Disk on Your PC Hack 21: Create a Password- Protected Disk on Your Mac

Password-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

Hack 28: Quick-Log Your

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

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

Hack 64: Automatically Reboot and Launch Applications

Hack 65: Make Google Search Results Automatically Come to You

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

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

Hack 96: Find Reusable Media Online

Hack 97: Get Your Data on a Map

Hack 98: Set Multiple Sites as Your Home Page

Hack 99: Access Unavailable Websites via Google

Hack 100: Have a Say in What Google Says About You

Hack 101: Clear Your Web Browsing Tracks

Reference

Chapter 11: Hone Your Computer Survival Skills

Hack 102: Rescue Your PC from Malware

Hack 103: Protect Your PC from Malware

Hack 104: Clean Up Your

Hack 110: Speed Up Windows with a Thumb Drive

Hack 111: Free Up Hard-Drive Space

Hack 112: Resurrect Deleted Files

Hack 113: Hot Image Your PC for Instant Restoration

Hack 114: Hot Image Your Mac for Instant Restoration

Hack 115: Recover Files from

an Unbootable PC

Reference

Chapter 12: Manage Multiple

Computers

Hack 116: Share Windows Files Hack 117: Share Mac Files Hack 118: Keep Your Web

Browser in Sync Across

Computers

Hack 119: Share a Single

Printer Between Computers Hack 120: Optimize Your Dual Monitors

Hack 121: Control Multiple Computers with a Single

Keyboard and Mouse

Reference

Introduction

Chapter 1 Control Your Email

Do you wish you received less email? Sureyou do Do you want to live without theconvenience of electronic mail? Of course youdon’t The greatest double-edged sword inproductivity technology, email both empowers

a n d overwhelms its users But the mostsuccessful professionals know how to controltheir email instead of letting it run theirworkday

On one hand, email enables anyone with anInternet-connected device to send informationgreat distances at the press of a button On theother, you have 1,762 unread messages sitting

in your inbox, and you don’t know when you’ll

ha v e time to get through them all Ding!

Another one just arrived.

Before email became ubiquitous, to send aletter, a person had to commit the information

to paper, stuff and address the envelope, affixpostage, and drop it in the mailbox Days orweeks later, the message arrived on therecipient’s desk Today, email offers the sametype of text-based communication, just fasterand easier, complete with a cute little envelopeicon But the same ways you deal with arrivingpostal mail don’t work for electronic mail.Incoming messages are incoming messages.But email’s effect on workers is vastlydifferent from paper mail for one fundamentalreason: volume The speed, convenience, andlow cost of sending email has increased thenumber of transmissions to levels that turn thepostal service green with envy: Reports

estimate 294 billion emails are sent daily.

Approximately 80% of that email is spam, butthat still leaves roughly 50 billion legitimateemails every day

This virtually free and instantaneous messagetransmission is great for the sender but not forthe recipient The cost and inconvenience ofsending postal mail acts as a filter: when thatenvelope appears in the recipient’s mailbox,

s h e can trust that the message is importantenough to the sender to warrant the investment

Electronic mail, however, shifts that burden.With the volume of electronic mail sent eachday, the onus is on the recipient — not thesender — to sort through the avalanche ofreceived messages Email overload is such acommon malady in the information age thatexperts estimate it costs companies billions ofdollars a year in worker productivity losses

Some companies and users resort to extremetactics to combat email overload:

In 2004, Stanford professor LawrenceLessig declared “email bankruptcy” whenfaced with the thousands of unreadmessages dating back two years that hadaccumulated in his inbox Instead of

attempting to open them all — a task hesaid would have been impossible — hesent an automated apology to his contactsand asked that they resend theirunanswered message only if it were stillimportant.1 A web search for the term

“email bankruptcy” shows that severalothers followed suit, publicly announcingtheir email bankruptcy on their websites.Overwhelmed by the effort that writinglengthy responses requires, designer MikeDavidson instituted a personal policy thatany message he writes will be fewer thanfive sentences Recipients who wonderabout the brevity can get more informationabout the policy, which he includes in hismessage signature.2

One cellular company designated aweekly email-free day Employees refrainfrom sending or checking email (exceptfrom customers) every Friday Workersreport that the freedom from the

distraction and interruption once a weekhelps them accomplish a lot more.3

Anyone who’s spent hours processing abacklog of email can understand why you’demploy such tactics It’s so easy to let emailtake the reins of your workday All you have to

do is leave your email software open whileyou work Each time it notifies you that a newmessage has arrived, stop what you’re doing,

no matter how important it is or how involvedyou are, and switch to your inbox Scan thenew message If it’s an emergency, deal with itright away If not, switch back to the task athand Try to remember where you were beforethat message arrived At the end of the day,wonder how all those read messagesaccumulated in your inbox, what you’resupposed to do about them again, and wherethe day went

This is how most people operate But there

is a better way

You can reduce the amount of time you spend

fiddling with email to less than 30 minutes perday You can empty your inbox and enjoy thefeeling that you’re completely caught up everyworkday You can process your messages inbunches, in between other tasks, when yourmind is free and clear You can hear “Thanksfor getting back to me so quickly” from yourboss and co-workers more and more often.You can elicit the response you need in shorterexchanges You can keep your inbox free of afestering pile of unfulfilled obligations Youcan become known as responsive — andtherefore responsible — engaged, and reliablearound the office simply by being on top ofyour email Soon, wealth, fame, and fortunewill ensue.

You can control your email withoutdeclaring bankruptcy or refraining from using itjust because it’s a certain day of the week.Small changes and better habits practicedevery day can get the constant influx of

communication working for you instead of

against you This chapter provides practicalstrategies for getting your email under controland keeping it there.

NOTE For updates, links, references, and

additional tips and tools regarding the

hacks in this book, visit

email control Emptying the inbox clears awaythat pile of unidentified pieces of information,keeps it from stacking up higher every day, andfrees your mind to worry about more importantwork.

Why an Empty Inbox?

Your inbox is a temporary holding pen forunprocessed messages An unprocessed email

is one you haven’t made a decision about yet.When you get into the habit of deciding what to

do with a new message within a day of itsarrival, move it out of your inbox

Some people enjoy keeping their inbox full

so that they can glance at a list of most recentmessages to see what’s going on — what theyshould be working on, what their group isdiscussing, the latest funny YouTube videothat’s making the rounds But just as you’dnever leave a physical paper inbox full ofdocuments whose only commonality is that

they’re incoming, you don’t want to leave your

email inbox full of messages An inbox full ofread messages does you no favors: You have

no way to prioritize what’s most important or

to access the message contents in their mostuseful context For example, a meetinginvitation that comes in via email is much moremeaningful on your calendar than in yourinbox A website address you want to visitlater would do better in your bookmarks than

i n your email A project document belongs inits appropriate folder, not in your emailprogram Everything should have its ownplace, and the inbox isn’t it

Furthermore, an empty inbox lightens thepsychological load of an endless list ofmessages staring at you every time you checkyour email It creates a clear demarcationbetween what’s incoming and what’s beenresolved or placed into motion

This hack introduces a simple, three-foldersystem that keeps your inbox clear and ensures

that every message you receive is both findableand actionable without cluttering your inbox.

Set Up the Trusted Trio of

NOTE Some email programs — most

notably Gmail (http://gmail.com) —

have a built-in message archive In that

case you don’t need to create an Archive

label or folder Simply use the program’s

built-in archived message storage place

(which you can get to by clicking All

Mail.)

folders clear your inbox

The Archive Folder

Most email you receive is stuff you don’t needright now but may need to look up later.Archive these messages The Archive is yourlong-term email reference library It’s whereyou place all the messages that containinformation you may want to retrieve at somepoint in the long-term future, including anycompleted threads, completed requests, memosyou’ve read, questions you’ve answered, and

completed project email Basically, any emailexchange that’s closed but that you may want torefer to at some point in the future belongs inthe Archive.

T h e Archive is one single folder, with nosubfolders That’s a scary concept to thosewho enjoy organizing information intospecifically named folders However, you’renot a librarian, and you don’t have time towaste deciding what message should go inwhat folder The archive is completelysearchable You can retrieve any message youplace there later using the right searchoperators For more on plucking messages out

of the Archive (without a complicated folderscheme), see Hack 6, “Master MessageSearch.”

The Follow Up Folder

Messages in your Follow Up folder representtasks you must complete, whether that’s aresponse that will take more than a minute to

write or whether it’s another type of action.Each of these messages maps to a task on yourto-do list A message from a long-lost highschool friend whom you haven’t spoken to inyears and a request from the boss to update thequarterly report would both go into the Follow Up

folder because you need to follow up with anaction It’s not enough to just move thismessage into the Follow Up folder; make sure youalso enter the task onto your to-do list so thatyou’ll actually do it

The Hold Folder

The Hold folder is a temporary holding pen forimportant messages you’ll need quick access towithin the next few days If you’re waiting onsomeone else to get back to you with crucialinformation, or you’re maintaining a threadabout a time-sensitive topic, keep it in the Hold

folder

Examples of messages that would go in

are a FedEx confirmation number for adelivery that’s on its way, or a message from aco-worker that says, “I’ll get back to youTuesday re: The Big Project.”

Review the Hold folder once a week, andclear it out as the messages in it becomeirrelevant — such as when that FedEx packagegets delivered or when your co-worker getsback to you

Process Your Messages

Now that the three folders are in place, it’stime to empty your inbox Whether you’restarting with an overstuffed inbox with months’worth of messages or the two dozen thatarrived since you last checked, the method isthe same Beginning with the oldest email inyour inbox, open the message and do thefollowing:

Delete it if you don’t need it

Respond on the spot to quick questions or

requests Then archive or delete it.

If it requires action that will take morethan one minute to complete, move it tothe Follow Up folder and add the task to yourto-do list

If it’s an item you’re waiting on or mayneed within the next few days, move it to

Hold If it’s time-sensitive (your co-workerpromised you the document by Friday, forinstance), add a note on your calendar tocheck in about the item you’re waiting for

If it’s an informational message you maywant to refer to later, move it to the

Archive

Wash, rinse, and repeat for every message inyour inbox until it is completely empty

NOTE This exact folder scheme may not

work for everyone, but it’s a good start on

the road to a simple, well-defined

processing system If you tweak and

modify this method, just remember: the

fewer folders you have, the easier it is to

process each individual message.

Keep It Empty

After you’ve emptied your inbox, keeping itthat way is a matter of repeating the process afew times a day Schedule regular emailsessions, such as once mid-morning, once afterlunch, and once in the late afternoon Trainyourself to follow the golden rule:

Never leave a read email in your inbox.

Make a decision about the fate of everymessage you read the first time you read it —

no excuses Be ruthless about this newpractice File information that incomingmessages contain in its right place: dates inyour calendar; project documents in theirfolder; website addresses in your bookmarks.Respond on the spot to messages that need aquick “yes” or “no.” Never touch an email inyour inbox more than once

Technologist Mark Hurst wrote, “Consider

that an incoming email has the shelf life ofChinese takeout in the refrigerator It’s best toeat it as soon as it arrives; within a day is OK,but after that it starts to get funky.”4

Your First Time

If you’re starting out with an inbox loaded withthousands of messages, emptying it the firsttime can be an overwhelming task One way to

start with your new good habits right now is to

move all your existing messages into aseparate, special folder (email managementexpert Merlin Mann calls it the “Email DMZ”5

— a demilitarized zone)

Resolve to empty your inbox each time youcheck your email from this moment forward

Then, during each processing session, after

you empty your inbox, take on a handful of theoldest messages in your “DMZ” folder as well.Slowly but surely, you’ll catch up on the

backlog and hone your new good habits as you

The Catch

Just because you have all unresolved messages

filed neatly away in Follow Up and Hold doesn’t

mean you’re free and clear The trick to this

system is to consistently review Follow Up folder

messages (which should be on your to-do list)

and Hold folder messages, and to complete the

items stowed away there To keep from getting

lulled into a total sense of completeness, you

can mark all the messages in Hold and Follow Up

as unread to easily monitor the number of

outstanding items

NOTE Special thanks to Merlin Mann,

author of the Inbox Zero series

(http://inboxzero.com) and “The

Inbox Makeover,” which appeared in

Macworld Magazine (available at

http://macworld.com/2005/04/features/tipsinbox/index.php

and which greatly influenced the methods

outlined in this hack.

Hack 2: Decrease Your

an acquired skill — the one that just maydifferentiate you from everyone else in theworld who’s overwhelmed by an overloadedinbox

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas NelsonPublishers, agrees He said, “The truth is, youare building your reputation — your brand —one response at a time People are shapingtheir view of you by how you respond to them

If you are slow, they assume you areincompetent and over your head If you

competent and on top of your work Theirperception, whether you realize it or not, willdetermine how fast your career advances andhow high you go You can’t afford to beunresponsive It is a career-killer.”6

Although it’s impossible to instantly respond

to the dozens of new email messages youreceive every day, you can increase yourresponsiveness rate without becoming a slave

to your inbox This hack provides strategies forresponding to your email in a timely fashionwithout killing your entire workday

Process Messages in Batches

Your inbox dictates the ebb and flow of yourwork if it interrupts you every time a newmessage arrives Don’t let it

The explosion of email communication and

proliferation of email-enabled smart phoneshas led many Americans to nonstop inbox

respondents in a 2010 survey said theychecked their email outside regular work hours(That includes in the morning before going towork, vacations, and weekends.) One in five

Americans check their work email from bed.7

The reality is that checking email adds up to

a whole lot of time, much of it wasted Theworld will not end if an email sits in yourinbox for a few hours

Schedule two or three “meetings” with yourinbox each day at predetermined times toprocess email If your job requires that youkeep your email program running at all times,set it to check for new messages every hour (ortwo!) instead of every five minutes (For more

insidiousness of constant email checking, seeHack 41, “Reduce Email Interruptions.”)