Russ Greenwald

Have you always longed to become an efficiency machine? By that I mean spending more time on the things you choose and less on the extraneous. Finding ways to use your computer faster can save you a surprising amount of extraneous time. I think using a mouse in general and clicking on buttons is so 1995. Application Launchers help you quickly access what you want in simple key combinations.

What can do what? If I click shift+space bar on my computer this comes up (see image below). Now I can type what I want to open, look for, search, etc. i.e. Type Word then hit enter if I want MS Word to open, or a contacts name if I’m searching for a phone number, or an address if I want google maps. I don’t have to go to applications to open word, open my address book to find a contact, or open a browser and go to google maps in order to search an address. It might be 2-3 seconds saved per task, but I average 15 tasks per hour 10 hours a day. So I’m saving 7 minutes per day, 213 minutes per month, 42 hours a year. That’s a week’s worth of work.

If you are a mac user, I suggest

• Google Quick Search

  • Search applications to launch
  • Search email or contacts in Gmail or Google Apps Business
  • Send out Twitter status
  • Search Documents

• Quicksilver (out of development) but still a phenomenal tool

  • http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/quickstart_guide?DokuWiki=1d666986d53b48350e263968d3960b09
  • http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/tutorials

If you are a Windows user, I suggest

• Windows Launchy
  • (press shift space bar to launch “launchy” and type ) bing (then hit tab) -> (type) russgreenwald (hit tab) -> (type) climbing (hit enter)

Launch Away…