I am always trying to find ways to improve how effectively I work. I work a TON of hours in a week, so I want those to be the most well spent, productive hours possible so that someday I can reduce that number. Saving a few seconds LOTS of times in a day adds up. I had a programming professor that always talked about saving nanoseconds in a program. I sucked at programming, but the lesson remained. I'm constantly trying out new ways to make life easier and my work more productive. Some of my recent favorites have been:
Bloglines
Helps me disseminate a ton of information in a relatively short period of time
Firefox
Lots of great plugins to save me time and keep me efficient. Among my favorites Bookmark sync (I will be an advocate of this forever after losing 3 months worth of bookmarks before it), mouse gestures (stave off carpal tunnel a bit longer too while saving some nanoseconds), tabbed browsing, duplicate tab, add bookmark here, session saver (great for when your browser crashes), search status bar, wayback right click, and probably some others.
Iframe [webmasterworld.com]and search on WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]
This is really nice to have when looking for specific information, or saving a click to a category by putting frequently visited cats (or whatever else in an iframe)
Highly organized links toolbar (including subfolders) for accessing places I go daily quickly
Dualing computers
Got my old laptop to run more labor intensive processes so I'm not slowed down waiting on it. Nice for reports and other things that take a lot of time and would create downtime.
Laptop in general
While I'm watching Deadliest Catch, the Pistons winning or other crappy television, I can be working half-heartedly on something. Laptop was probably the best investment I've ever made, and what really got me engulfed in internet marketing.
Thumb drive
Just a lil' 128mb - but easier than burning a CD in many instances.
Keeping an idea log for taking notes on good ideas and returning to work then coming back to them later.
Telephone headset
I can talk longer. Less neck strain, and it frees up my hands to multitask
Audiobooks
Have really just started with these, but I love them on planes or long car rides. Nice to catch up on all the reading I'd like to be doing.
Coffee
Seems to help quite a bit and I love the taste. What tools or methodology do you use to manage your time and efficiency?
**Please avoid linkdrops and self-promo. If you have a good tool please just mention it.
