All in one click
At some point in time, inspired by the ideas of time management (and boredom at the same time), I realized that I like to optimize everyday tasks so as not to waste extra time on them. Naturally, spending a month to automate a task that takes five minutes and which you perform once a year makes no sense. Nevertheless, there are tasks that we carry out every day, many times, and which can be completed faster and easier (accordingly, freeing up time for something more needed). Under the cut, this is how I do it
Before I optimize anything, I try to understand:
1) is the task repeated regularly enough
2) does it take a lot of time to complete it
3) is it easy to optimize this task
If the answer is “yes” to all three questions, then often there is time to “sharpen, not cut,” that is, optimize.
All of this is a theory, you say, and you will be right. I agree with you, and we will move on to practice. I will describe small examples from my experience, and tell you how I optimized the described tasks. We will move from simple to complex examples.
Example 1. Connecting
Internet access in my home requires starting a VPN. Depending on the system, the actions are a little different, but basically it (for Windows), select from the menu:
“Connect to”
from the list of available connections, select the desired one.
In the dialog with the username and password, click Connect (if the data has been entered before)
Almost all users have ever done this, most continue to do so far. For Windows 7, you can start the connection from the toolbar, but the principle remains the same.
Solution 1.
a) Since selecting a connection is not a very convenient operation, I moved it with a shortcut to the quick launch panel and dragged it to a prominent place
b) In the connection properties, I removed the option “Request username and password”
Now, the task is performed in one click
Example 2 Frequently launched programs
For me there is a set of often programs that I use for 80% of the working day (in total, of course :)).
This is MS Outlook
Visual Studio
Excel
Word
Since I run them often (with the exception of Outlook, which I do not close). I did the following:
a) brought the icons to the quick launch bar
b) assigned “Shortcuts” to all programs. For Word, this is “Ctrl + Alt + W”, Excel - “Ctrl + Alt + E”. I think it’s quite simple to continue the series ...
Example 3. Archiving data
I hope that everything related to the work you have is stored in the version control system. Working projects, like a minimum, are stored in my place there. However, it happens that you work alone on something small that you would like not to lose, and access to different versions of this would also be nice. At some point, I created the Archive folder and began to stack different versions of my applications there. You understand that the process is not skinny, but rather routine, you need to create a daddy and put new versions there.
Actually, I made a batch file that does this in one click, namely: it
takes the contents of the source folder, creates a subfolder for the new version, and copies the sources there. Everything works automatically, and starts in one click. At some point in time, the question of the location on the hard drive made it necessary to add archiving and the script below turned out. To create a new script, I copy the previous one with a new name and edit the variables in the first two lines. And I hang the tag in the quick launch bar. When the script becomes rarely used, I remove it from the quick start. The original post with the backup script is here SimpleScript for Backup , in English I have accumulated much more examples, but I hope even these three will give a new idea for everyone who read the article
Before I optimize anything, I try to understand:
1) is the task repeated regularly enough
2) does it take a lot of time to complete it
3) is it easy to optimize this task
If the answer is “yes” to all three questions, then often there is time to “sharpen, not cut,” that is, optimize.
All of this is a theory, you say, and you will be right. I agree with you, and we will move on to practice. I will describe small examples from my experience, and tell you how I optimized the described tasks. We will move from simple to complex examples.
Example 1. Connecting
Internet access in my home requires starting a VPN. Depending on the system, the actions are a little different, but basically it (for Windows), select from the menu:
“Connect to”
from the list of available connections, select the desired one.
In the dialog with the username and password, click Connect (if the data has been entered before)
Almost all users have ever done this, most continue to do so far. For Windows 7, you can start the connection from the toolbar, but the principle remains the same.
Solution 1.
a) Since selecting a connection is not a very convenient operation, I moved it with a shortcut to the quick launch panel and dragged it to a prominent place
b) In the connection properties, I removed the option “Request username and password”
Now, the task is performed in one click
Example 2 Frequently launched programs
For me there is a set of often programs that I use for 80% of the working day (in total, of course :)).
This is MS Outlook
Visual Studio
Excel
Word
Since I run them often (with the exception of Outlook, which I do not close). I did the following:
a) brought the icons to the quick launch bar
b) assigned “Shortcuts” to all programs. For Word, this is “Ctrl + Alt + W”, Excel - “Ctrl + Alt + E”. I think it’s quite simple to continue the series ...
Example 3. Archiving data
I hope that everything related to the work you have is stored in the version control system. Working projects, like a minimum, are stored in my place there. However, it happens that you work alone on something small that you would like not to lose, and access to different versions of this would also be nice. At some point, I created the Archive folder and began to stack different versions of my applications there. You understand that the process is not skinny, but rather routine, you need to create a daddy and put new versions there.
Actually, I made a batch file that does this in one click, namely: it
takes the contents of the source folder, creates a subfolder for the new version, and copies the sources there. Everything works automatically, and starts in one click. At some point in time, the question of the location on the hard drive made it necessary to add archiving and the script below turned out. To create a new script, I copy the previous one with a new name and edit the variables in the first two lines. And I hang the tag in the quick launch bar. When the script becomes rarely used, I remove it from the quick start. The original post with the backup script is here SimpleScript for Backup , in English I have accumulated much more examples, but I hope even these three will give a new idea for everyone who read the article
SET SOURCE_DIR="D:\tests\ReportBrowser\"
SET APP_NAME=ReportBrowser
SET ARCHIVE_PATH=D:\Archive\
SET ARCHIVATOR="d:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
SET PARAMS=a -r
SET EXT=.7z
@ECHO ON
FOR /L %%X IN (300,-1,1) DO IF NOT EXIST %ARCHIVE_PATH%%APP_NAME%\%%X SET PATH_DIR=%ARCHIVE_PATH%%APP_NAME%\%%X
MKDIR %PATH_DIR%\
%ARCHIVATOR% %PARAMS% %PATH_DIR%\%APP_NAME%%EXT% %SOURCE_DIR%*.*
REM XCOPY %SOURCE_DIR%*.* %PATH_DIR%\ /i /f /r /k /y /s