Increasing Productivity-Week 2

"The little things you do every day - or don't do - are creating the invisible you of the future." Jeff Olson from the book, The Slight Edge.

Weeks 1 and 2 of the Increasing Productivity Course have most certainly focused on the little things. As a note, my notes are taken from the perspective of using Windows XP; if you have questions or want to know about options for Vista or Windows 7, please email me your question at ginamedmond@aol.com and I will do my best to get an answer for you.

As a recap, Lesson 1 focused on Customizing Windows. We learned about the Taskbar and how to customize it, managing files and folders on shorcut menus as well as creating shortcut menus and how to incorporate shortcut icons into one's daily routine (Start Menu, Quick Launch, Links toolbar and Send menu) to work more efficiently. Tne final section covered was customizing the Start Menu by returning to the "classic" style, adding shortcuts and creating submenus.

Every morning I would normally access my programs through the Start menu; going through each icon for the programs needed for the day. First I tried reorganizing my Start menu by customizing the programs I utilize the most. I found this to be a bit cumbersome for me as the text was small on the Start Menu and it was taking me time to read everything therefore, not making much of a difference to my daily routine. However, by reorganizing my Quick Launch area to include shortcuts for Fusion, SoftMed, HBOC, SonicWall, Search engine, AIM, Adobe, My documents, and Calculator all I had to do was point and click on only the programs I needed to utilize for the day. I was pleasantly surprised to see my daily sign-in go from taking 4 minutes daily down to 2 minutes. This little step of making the switch to Quick Launch saved me 10 minutes this week! This got me excited for what we were going to cover in Lesson 2.

Lesson 2 was all about Keyboarding Techniques.

Ah, yes, the life of a transcriptionist centers around "The Keyboard" and all the little things that one knows (or in my case, did not know), in order to maximize efficiency and speed.

Tonight's objectives were straightforward: Apply keyboarding techniques to your daily work to increase efficiency and speed, learning how to utilize the keyboard in place of the mouse to navigate Menus, Dialog Boxes, and Explorer windows, moving the insertion point and select text and finally controlling windows (not Windows) with shortcut keys, universal shortcut keys and recognizing patterns in the shortcut key assignments.

Lots and lots of information packed into tonight's class, so much so that class went over 10 minutes! It seemed most of us had discoveries about the various topics ranging from use of the Application Key (to the right of the space bar with a list and an arrow), to Menus formatted as Menu Bars versus Ribbons, Dialog Boxes and Universal Keys.

I often found my eye drifting back to the first statement I wrote at the beginning of class. "When utilizing techniques for implementing shortcut keys, transition gradually." While it did not feel like information overload, there was a great deal of information covered and do agree in learning a few shortcuts a week at a time as the best approach. Working smarter and not harder with your keyboard will definitely yield greater results.

My "ah-ha moment" occurred while looking in Word 2007. I had a new blank document open and the along the top of the document, this area is referred to as a "ribbon". By simply pressing the ALT key it activated the menu bars. For example, new blank document, ALT + F, a drop down box appeared in the upper left hand corner with the options of New, Open, et cetera along with My Recent Documents. Before I would take my hand to the mouse, click, read, select; now 2 keystrokes ALT + F in Word 2007 and I got the same results. Using the ALT key with Menu Bar in the Ribbon was an instant shortcut and use of the mouse was not necessary.

Two "Hot Tips" for you this week!

1. Logo key + D minimizes everything on your PC and brings you to your desktop; Logo key + D again, and everything returns--great way to toggle to desktop if you need to!

2. The "F" and "J" keys on most keyboards has a raised mark on it to help you realign to the home row when you have to take your hands off the keyboard. I am sure your keyboard is like mine, these marks are worn down and did not even realize they were there anymore. The instructor gave a great tip. At the hardware store, purchase a small piece of felt (the kind you might put on the bottom of a chair to prevent scratches on the floor) and cut a small piece off and place it on your "J" key. While it may make the keyboard look a bit odd, it will save you time by returning to touch and not sight when returning to the home position.

Something else I was excited to learn, M-TEC provides a recording of the class that can be accessed on the Forum; something I will absolutely be utilizing as there has been a delay due to last week's inclement weather on the arrival of the course book. Once I am in receipt of the course book, I am looking forward to be able to provide you with more detailed examples and ways to save you time and will incorporate the examples with my next posting.

Little things practiced daily will lead to great results. I look forward to implementing these new techniques and updating you next week.

Be well and make it a great week!
Gina