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How do you use technology to aid in productivity?
I've always had a great interest in using technology to try to achieve my goals with ease. What's your favorite bit of tech that makes your work easier?
I've always had a great interest in using technology to try to achieve my goals with ease. What's your favorite bit of tech that makes your work easier?
I'd like to be able to say that I have some fancy, obscure, or homebrewed magic button. But if I'm being honest, using two monitors and having decent command of keyboard shortcuts for whatever software I'm using makes all the difference in my productivity.
On the low-tech side, writing anything I want to remember in a notebook helps me lock it in my brain pretty solidly. Not having to go back and look things up saves a lot of time in little chunks here and there.
Straight up... python.
I learned python on my own about 4 years ago. Best choice I ever made for my career.
Automate tasks and never do them again.
Any suggestions on resources for self teaching python? I'm wrapping up a large VBA project at work and I have an idea for another project that I think would be more suited for python but I've never done any python.
Think of something right now (maybe a command-line tool, some browser task, a simple website) that you need, and jump right in and build it. Maybe do a quick tutorial first, but if you have programming experience, for the most part, jumping in head first is the best way to learn.
I was gonna build a fitness tracker (edit: although I don't really have enough training data for that so maybe I'll go for some other project) that tried to correlate exercises and dietary intake with muscle mass using Python's neural networking abilities (since what I'm trying to do at work involves optimizing cad object placement given some criteria). I realize it'll take me a while to get it up and running, but I find I learn best with large projects over a bunch of little ones; so I figure I'll make a mess of the fitness tracker in my free time and then give the work project a go (and then probably end up rewriting the work project once I have a janky ass version running which is what I'm currently doing with my VBA project)
For a very relevant resource, try the online book, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.
When I started, I knew nothing about programming, so I started at Code Academy to learn the baby steps. If you're familiar with all the basic building blocks of programs (control flow, data types, functions, classes, etc) I'd say jump right into just reading docs and just tinkering with stuff in Sublime and a terminal.
This book is great: http://ap-n.us/books/Programming/Python%20Crash%20Course.pdf
If you end up using it and liking it, I suggest buying it to support the author.
Just curious - what kinds of tasks do you automate?
Not who you're responding to - but the first thing I automated with Python (and also the project that got me started with the language in the first place) was a script that:
This was all to automate the process of forwarding DMCA notices to grad students that were caught pirating media by IP holders. Due to reasons of bureaucracy the central IT department would not send the emails to the students directly. When I left the job the interns that replaced me kept using the same script.
Python is so great I don't even have a calculator on my Linux computer, I always type
pythonon a terminal for any math tasks. I've also used it to automate some csv file processing, generating database schemas from JSON data coming from API calls, and pretty much anything that requires repetitive work.For automating my web browsing I have Violentmonkey installed and I write my own scripts in Javascript.
Vim :)
I've only just scratched the surface of Vim lately but I'm loving it. I have trouble managing a lot of code with it - I think I just haven't gotten used to the interface - but it's definitely a breeze to operate.
It takes a while, but the productivity gain once you get used to it is awesome. It feels like magic when you instinctively perform a fairly complex action using just the keyboard.
My suggestion is that once you get comfy with it, try out a few plugins. ctrlp (fuzzy finder) is super useful, same for Easy Motion (very useful movement) and NERDTree (file browser).
I keep reading about Vim, especially here on ~ with all of us text nerds :). My current editor of choice is Atom, since everything I'm doing that's not in a built in editor is on Github. I know Atom and Vim are very different, but do you think it would be worthwhile for me to give Vim a try?
I'm trying to get into the habit of using ToDoist.
ToDoist is an app that lets you create a task list, set a date for those tasks, put sub tasks under main tasks , organize tasks into project/category folders, and then let's you see your upcoming tasks for the day or week so you can plan around.
That being said I just can't get into the habit of putting stuff into it, I used it for like two weeks, and I did help me get a good amount of stuff done, then I just stopped using it for some reason.
Similarly I've used Trello. It's not perfect, but it's good for to do lists. Asana is similar. These are freemium services which try to get you to pay for integration with other tools.
I use the same program, and one trick I use is to set aside time at the end of the day to make tomorrows list. I recently did that when I moved and it helped me look at what I had done and what I hadn't, and prioritize for the next day.
I've started using simple timers and recurring alarms in my phone for everything. No more starting the laundry and then forgetting about it for the next five hours. Laundry, pet chores, watering plants, thawing food... Setting reminder alarms for ongoing household chores has made me much more productive at home.
This is primarily what I use smart speakers for (i.e. Amazon Echo/Alexa, Google Home). Just tell it to set an alarm and you don't have to mess with your phone.
Not so much a tool, but I enjoy simplifying everything in my work space. Hiding taskbar icons, moving the browser tabs I'm currently using to another virtual desktop, and blocking all unnecessary notifications all come to mind. Of course there's the physical, too; cable management, ergonomics, and a clean desk are all instrumental to my focus and productivity.
I like to use technology to limit my immediate access to only my current task.
The importance of a clean workspace can not be overstated, my mental organization is directly related to the organization of my desk.
Two big things I use at work are Sublime Text, a text editing app that allows you to set programming languages and do neat stuff like multi-cursor select (replace every instance of a certain word, insert something after every carriage return, etc.) and AutoHotKey, a macro program that has nearly infinite possibilities (I wrote a fairly long script to help with common copy/paste functions that I needed for programming or investigating data). I also have a ton of small AHK scripts for stuff like automatically filling in "hello (name)" when replying to an email, a keystroke for adding my work phone number, work email, current date/time, common functions I perform like active directory lookups, and plenty of other oft-repeated tasks.
Since I'm dedicated to mobile computing on a laptop (User support roles) I like Mac's virtual desktop implementation to mimic multiple screens really effectively. Swiping to switch between screens, including full screen remote sessions and reference material or ADUC made using a laptop functional for me in a role I'm used to having a dedicated multi-monitor setup.
For keeping track of random information I know I'll need again eventually I like OneNote (this is a bit predicated by our O365 environment). It allows lots of configurations of information and sync's easily to other devices.