5 Tech Tricks to Make You More Productive

Technology is great, but it sure can take up a lot of your time. I can't keep track of how many times my smartphone alerts me to things that pull me away from my daily tasks. I know I'm not the only one guilty of lingering on YouTube watching videos when I should be busy doing other things. So what's a person to do? Well, here are some tips I've put together to help you become a little more productive with your tech. 1. Invest in a second monitor A second monitor provides the best return on investment in terms of productivity and general comfort. A second monitor will extend your desktop real estate and great for computer related activities, like comparing documents, writing emails or articles while referring to online research, and general multi-tasking. 2. Turn your smartphone or Tablet into a scanner. I hate paper. I'm one of those tree huggers who believes we should reduce paper waste save trees etc etc. So what do you do with all scraps of paper that need save? Zap them into your phone. Free apps like Evernote Scannable or Adobe Scan allow you to scan documents, receipts, business cards, forms and more. 3. Use StayFocused to stop procrastination. If you’re using Google Chrome as your main browser, you can download the StayFocused plug in which will make sure you don’t waste too much time monkeying around on the web. The app allows you to set time limits for web sites deactivating them once you've reached your allotted time. 4. Use Siri to Remind You of Important Stuff. Our smart devices feed us too much information that it's easy to forget what we try so hard to remember. Fear not, Siri is here to help! Next time you get an alert on your iPhone, tell Siri to “remind me about this later.” Siri can remind you about websites you’ve browsed in Safari, texts in the Messages app and other things as well. 5. Automate Your Backup With cloud backup services