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 like Carbonite, Backblaze, and Google Backup and Sync for computers and iCloud and Google Drive for Smartphone there's no excuse to automate your backup for all of your devices to give you peace of mind. With all of these services, if something catastrophic happens to your device all of your data will be safe and you can easily re download your information directly to your devices saving you precious recovery time.
Hopefully these tips will help you be more productive with your technology. If you have some time saving tips with the tech you use, drop me a line and let me know.
How else can you keep up with the latest tech tips and cyber security alerts? Subscribe to my YouTube channel ‘Burton Kelso’ There are hundreds of videos designed to help you get the most out of the technology you use in your home or business.
Burton Kelso is the Chief Tech Expert at Integral. They offer tech support to homes and businesses all over the Kansas City Metro. He regularly appears as a guest tech correspondent on ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS on shows such as Kansas City Live, Better Kansas City, FOX 4 Morning Show, offering viewers easy tips on technology, Internet lifestyle, Internet security and gadgets. You can find Burton on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and watch great tech tip videos on his YouTube channel. He can be reached at 888-256-0829 or email at burton@integralcomputerconsultants.com