Sometimes I help a friend with something on their computer and I’m horrified by what I see.
They’re using their computer like a boomer (sorry, not sorry, boomers…) and it drives me insane.
And as I’ve shared more and more tips over time, I realized there’s actually a lot to share that makes a material difference in productivity.
So here we go. A blog post dedicated to not using your computer like a boomer.
I realize not everyone’s a Mac user and that’s okay.
Just kidding, it’s not okay.
Your first order of business is to throw away your piece of trash Chromebook or whatever PC you picked up at Best Buy and get yourself a real computer. Buy a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
Now, let’s go over some basics.
There are two types of people: vertical swipers and horizontal swipers.
If you have all your windows stacked on top of each other, instead of clicking on the app icon or finding a tiny corner of a buried window, simply swipe up with three fingers to see them all and quickly navigate between each.
If you like to have some windows in full screen mode (like me), then you can swipe left and right with three fingers to jump between each window. You can even drag and drop between screens and reorder them.
Cmd + Shft + 4 allows you to drag an area you want to screenshot.
Cmd + Shft + 5 allows you select from a few different modes of screenshotting and screen recording.
For the love of God, please implement a basic file structure so your hard drive doesn’t feel like looking through puzzle pieces you just dumped on the table.
First, set up iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox so you’re not storing everything locally and one oopsie away from losing important documents.
Second, create folders for any projects you’re working on. If you want go one step further, within each of those folders, create subfolders split up by year so it’s easier to find relevant files.
Go ahead and quit the internet if you’re still using Firefox or Edge. Safari is nice and minimalistic, but it’s lacking a lot. I’m a big Chrome guy, but Arc is another great Chromium browser for nerds who value customization and better design.
Every time I see someone Google a website to get to it, a part of me dies inside.
If you visit the same 5-10 websites on a daily or weekly basis, there’s no reason you should be Googling them or even typing in the URL. Bookmark them.
What I like to do is negate the name in the bookmark so it just saves the favicon. All I have to do is look for the logo of the site I want to go to and I’m a click away.
This is where things get interesting. I showed a friend what a Chrome extension was the other day and their mind was absolutely blown.
If you haven’t heard before, a Chrome extension is a 3rd party plugin built by developers to augment and extend the functionality of the browser.
Some of my favorites:
I stopped using a mouse a few years ago and just use the touchpad on my laptop. Why? Because I started using keyboard shortcuts so I could keep my hands on the keyboard much more often. This allows me to navigate around the screen much quicker and always be ready to type.
Also, anytime you're looking through Google search results and you want to jump to the search bar, just press the forward slash key (/) and you'll jump to the search bar.
Find yourself typing the same phrases or sentences over and over again? You need to start using text replacement.
Apple has basic text replacement built in natively. All you have to do is go to your Keyboard Settings.
I’d recommend setting up easy to remember shortcuts for:
For anything longer, I’d recommend using a dedicated text expander app like the one I’m building: Retext.
I can’t even begin to explain how much time this saves me.
You’re a sucker if you’re still manually writing down meeting notes. Use an app like Grain to automatically record all your calls, generate transcripts, summaries, and to-do’s.
I invite Grain to record every one of my calls for the peace of mind of not having to take copious notes. Plus, I can always share a snippet with someone else if I need to reference something. Forgot a talking point? No problem, just go back to the recording and rewatch.
Speaking of meetings… meetings are for suckers. These days, I only hop on meetings for unstructured chats and team syncs where we need to review a lot of information. Otherwise, I’ve found that everything else — questions about how to do something, updates on work, explanations of how to do something, etc — are all better suited with a video recording.
I use Loom every day for this. All you have to do is press record and then share the link.
30 minute meetings become 3 minute videos. Do this 5 times a week and you’ve saved yourself 2 hours.
But if you do have to have meetings, I’d highly encourage you to try to batch them to certain times and certain days during the week.
For example, I try to do all my external meetings on Wednesdays. I find that it’s easy to schedule if someone wants to meet soon and it’s early in the week, and it’s easy to push to next week if it’s later in the week.
But I also limit the time availability. Meetings first thing in the morning are a recipe for self hatred. For example, I set my meeting availability for 10:00-11:30am and 1:00-4:00pm.
More on meetings… if you’re still scheduling meetings over email or finding slots in your calendar, you’re going to love this one.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a meeting scheduling tool like SavvyCal. It’s easy to update your availability at any time, set up automations to remind recipients of upcoming meetings, and reschedule if needed.
You can create one-off links, save to different calendars, and schedule time zone changes when you’re traveling.
Fancy to-do systems are a trap. There are a million and one different methods that all promise to make you a productivity machine. But they lie. In fact, the more complex your to-do system, the less productive you’ll be.
I’ve tried them all, and I’ve found that the system I keep coming back to is Kanban: visualizing tasks on horizontal boards that represent different stages of the process, usually variations of “To do,” “Doing,” and “Done.” It’s a timeless, tried-and-true system that can’t be broken.
If you want to further tag tasks by urgency and importance (Eisenhower) or assign timelines (Gantt) or any other method you’ve bought into, be my guest. But lean on Kanban as the overarching rails for your workflow.
I set up Kanban boards in Notion, but you can just as easily in Trello, Asana, etc.
My uncle has all his passwords scribbled on one old piece of paper on a legal notepad. Now, you may not be that bad. But you probably have a few passwords you’ve memorized or have a digital note that houses a bunch of credentials. Don’t do this.
Password managers are a godsend. Not only are they more secure than any system you could come up with, they’re also uber convenient. When you login, it’ll automatically save your credentials. Then you can autofill most login screens. Anything you can’t autofill, you’re one click away from looking up and copying onto your clipboard.
I use 1Password, but I’ve also heard good things about Dashlane.
I previously wrote about what inbox zero misses so I won’t repeat myself here. But I thought I’d highlight a few little-known features in gmail that can make your life easier.
Did you know you can set up filters to automatically archive or mark as read certain emails? Or did you know you can set up labels to create custom categories for your inbox? Did you know you can snooze emails to resurface in your inbox at a later date?
You can also set up templates so you’re not having to write each email from scratch every time.
One of the best things I did a few years back when I started a new job was create a user manual to working with me. It’s a simple document that outlines my communication preferences, basic personality information, and makes it known how I like to give and receive feedback.
I tell everyone to create one because it removes all ambiguity about how certain work styles can potentially clash. It can eliminate so many avoidable misunderstandings.
The first app I made was created exactly for this purpose. Check out mine here and feel free to create your own free user manual at Work User Manual.
