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Here are some productivity-enhancing tips for working with your PC. You may also find some of them health-enhancing! We’ll address the hardware and the operating system software assuming you use Windows . If you use a Mac, you’ll find that most of this applies in much the same way, but the keystrokes will be different.
It is important to have the equipment set up properly, so that your seating position is comfortable. Most employers now fund periodic eyesight tests for people who use screens, and many can provide specialist advice about workstation ergonomics. A good starting point is to make sure that your seat, screen and keyboard are all lined up and pointing in the same direction while you're using your computer!
By the way, if some of this seems a bit obvious, then please accept our apologies. We only thought of writing this article because these are some of the things we really see going on out there when we coach people.
The Mouse
We sometimes see people on 6- and 7-figure incomes taking a 5% performance hit on their "at computer" time because they can't point their mouse where they want to when they want to. Don't let that happen to you.
With each new version of Windows, the software designers' expectations of your proficiency with the mouse get more demanding. The size of the things you have to click on get smaller and the distance between the thing you intend to click and the thing next to it gets smaller too.
If your mouse doesn't readily go where you point it, check out some of these basics.
Make sure there is enough clear space on your desk to use the mouse properly. Mice don't like to share with coasters, loose papers, paper clips and so on.
Using a mouse mat is a good idea. Make sure it's in good condition - clean, flat and not scratched. If it isn't, get a new one.
Keep your mouse in good condition. If it uses a ball of some kind, ensure that the ball is clean and undamaged, and can rotate in all the directions it needs to. If it is an optical mouse, make sure the optical surfaces are clean. That includes your desktop or mouse mat.
If your mouse has a little wheel in the middle on the top, this can probably be used for vertical scrolling. It is often quicker to use this than to move the mouse pointer to the scroll bar on the right, scoll, then move the mouse pointer back to your work. Go on - try it!
It is possible to adjust the amount the mouse pointer moves for a given movement of the mouse itself. In windows XP, press the "Windows" key to display the Start menu and then click on "Control Panel". Find the icon for "Mouse" and double-click on it. Click on the tab labelled "Pointer Options" and experiment with the pointer speed setting.
The Screen
Make sure the screen is at the correct height, so that you don't have to slouch or sit up too tall to use it. Your eyes should be about level with the top of the screen.
Also, be sure that you can see the characters properly. If the font sizes are too small for your eyesight it will not enhance your productivity. If you are less sensitive to some colour distinctions, set the colour scheme up to avoid them. There are lots of "accessibility" adjustments, major and minor, that can be made to modern versions of Windows.
The Keyboard
Most modern PC keyboards have over a hundred keys on them. You don't need to know what they all do, but you may benefit from getting better acquainted with some of them.
Many operations for which people use the mouse can be done quicker using the keyboard, provided you know how. The mouse was invented as a way of driving some types of software (mainly graphics applications like CAD) for which a keyboard is really cumbersome. Then someone discovered that using a mouse makes all kinds of other software easier to understand and learn. But ease of learning and ease of use are not the same thing. Once you have understood and learned your software, move out of "beginner mode" and use the keyboard more.
The Delete key and the Backspace key are different. They both delete, but the Delete key deletes the character to the right of the cursor and the Backspace key deletes the character to the left. It is always possible to use one rather than the other by using the left or right arrow key to position the cursor first, but that is a waste of time. Much better to be good friends with both the Delete key and the Backspace key, and use whichever one does the job with fewest keystrokes in the circumstances.
The arrow keys are there for positioning the cursor. You can reposition the cursor to the left by using the Backspace key instead, but if you do, it means you probably have to retype what you deleted in the process. Try only using the Backspace key when you actually want to delete the characters to the left of the cursor. Otherwise use the left arrow key.
You can often move the cursor to the left or right end of the line you are working on by pressing the Home or End keys. It is quicker than holding down an arrow key and waiting for it to auto-repeat. It is also more accurate, since the scope for human error is much reduced.
Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow keys moves the cursor a word at a time. This not only saves time, but reduces the scope for error, especially if you want to position the cursor on a boundary between two words.
In a similar fashion, using the Ctrl key in conjunction with the Delete and Backspace keys will delete the word to the right or left of the cursor, respectively.
Holding down and pressing the Shift key while using the arrow keys will select portions of text. This is sometimes quicker or more accurate than using the mouse to select text. You can also use the Shift key with the Ctrl and arrow key combinations to select whole words at a time. In general, if you hold down the shift key in conjunction with any cursor movement, you will select everything from where the cursor started off to where the cursor ended up.
The Page Up and Page Down keys do exactly what it says on the tin.
The Insert key usually switches things between Insert mode and Overtype mode. In Insert mode, whatever you type will normally be inserted wherever the cursor is at the time. In overtype mode, whatever you type will normally replace whatever is to the right of the cursor at the time. Most people normally "live" in Insert mode, and that is just fine. If this behaviour suddenly changes, it could be because you hit the Insert key without realising it.
The Tab key moves the cursor from one box or field to the next. Holding down the Shift key while pressing the Tab key does a similar thing, but in the opposite direction.
The Software
It is often hard to distinguish between Windows itself and the applications which run under it. This article looks at some of the things which are either specific to Windows or which are part of the standard behaviour that well-designed Windows software should adopt.
We'll be looking at accelerator keys, the Taskbar and the use of Windows Explorer.
Accelerator keys
There are many commands which can be triggered using accelerator keystrokes (also called shortcut keys or speed keys) rather than the mouse. This is usually quicker, because it avoids the time needed to point the mouse at a toolbar or a menu (and navigate through any sub-menus).
As an example, open My Computer and display the Edit menu. Several of the items on this menu have Accelerator keys displayed to the right of the command name. These are some of the most widely-used commands in Windows: cut, copy, paste and undo. There is also a command which deserves to be more widely-known: Select All. Each of these can be triggered from the menu or by pressing the key combination shown. Take the time to acquaint yourself with these key combinations and introduce them into your repertoire one by one or a few at a time.
You may prefer these alternatives for cut, copy and paste - some people find them more "right handed":
Cut Shift+Del
Copy Ctrl+Ins
Paste Shift+Ins
The Taskbar
The taskbar is a relatively new feature of Windows, and it provides a new way to switch between windows that are already open. It is the panel, usually at the very bottom of the screen, which contains an icon for each currently open program or document.
The thing we see most often here is that people seem to want to "put away" the window they are finishing with before activating the next one. Most of the time there is no operational reason to do this. It's enough just to move the mouse pointer down to the taskbar and click on the icon representing the window you want to use next. (If you want to save your work before moving on, please do, but that's a separate action, usually quickest done by pressing Ctrl S or Alt-F+S).
If you want to minimise everything so that you can see the desktop (eg if there's a shortcut there you want to get to quickly), hold down the "Windows" key - look between Ctrl and Alt on the bottom left - and press M.
Windows Explorer
This provides the single biggest improvement opportunity for most people, of all the components of Windows.
Getting familiar with the basics doesn't take long and pays huge dividends.
Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) can usually be started from the Start menu, via "All Progams" and "Accessories". It can also be started by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing "Explore". Be sure you know how to
- Copy, rename, move and delete files
- Create, copy, rename, move and delete folders
It's a good idea to get familiar with using two Explorer windows at once. This makes some drag-and-drop operations, like moving a file or folder, much easier.
A lot of people seem to spend a lot of time repeatedly navigating through the same folder structures to access the same few "hot" files and folders. You can use shortcuts to avoid having to do this. A shortcut allows you to jump straight to a file or folder (the "target") by double-clicking on the shortcut's icon.
A shortcut can be created by right-clicking on the target's icon and choosing "paste shortcut". The shortcut will be created wherever the target is, and will almost always need to be moved somewhere more useful.
Where to put it? We have three suggestions:
1. You could make a "work in progress" folder somewhere to hand, eg on your desktop, and put shortcuts to your hot files and folders in there. It's best not to keep lots of data on your desktop, but keeping a few shortcuts there shouldn't do any harm.
2. Notice where your favourite applications default to when you open their "File | Open" or "File | Save As" dialogs. Put folder shortcuts there, so that you will have ready access to the folders you are most likely to use when opening or saving files.
3. Put folder shortcuts in your Favourites folder. You can organise your Favourites folder using the "Organise Favourites..." option on the "Favourites" menu in Windows Explorer. You will have access to them from anywhere that shows a "Favourites" menu item, and from any standard file dialog which shows the "Favourites" folder in the sidebar. Go to Top
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