Gain Freedom by Disabling Your Network Connection
April 29, 2008 · Print This Article
Recently I discovered Freedom for Mac OS X. This application disables all wireless and ethernet networking on your computer for up to three hours at a time. When you open the application it asks you ‘how many minutes of freedom’ you would like.
Set the amount, hit ‘OK’ and it you will not be able to use your internet or your wireless network anymore. Afterwards your connections will be re-enabled. You can quit Freedom before the time you set, but this does not get you back on the internet. You will have to restart your computer to for that.
Why would we want to do something like that? Is it so hard to keep yourself focused on your task at hand? Yes, for some people it is! What could be so distracting then? There are more than a few things that can keep you away from what you should be doing. Read more
10 Things to Avoid During Presentations
April 26, 2008 · Print This Article
Whether if it’s an assignment you present or a product you promote, a good presentation can give a great first impression!
Here are 10 important things to be aware of during your presentation:
- Reading the text on the slides
What’s the main reason for you to use a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation? To illustrate what you’re saying, to give yourself a good outline for your presentation, or to spice up your words with some flashy graphics? Whatever the reason, make sure you don’t literally read what’s on the slide. Doing that will eliminate the need for the slides to be there in the first place. - Speaking towards the screen
This is directly connected to the first point. When you read what’s on the slides you have to turn your head towards the screen. This doesn’t only make it less interesting to watch, it also projects your voice in the wrong direction, causing it to sound muffled. While projecting your voice towards the audience they will also be able to see the expression on your face, making it easier for them to understand and stay focused. Read moreSpeed Up Your Writing: Typing Utilities Compared
April 23, 2008 · Print This Article
Sometimes you stumble upon a piece of software that’s just wonderful, and you wish you knew it before. Software that really enhances the computer interface. The most important piece of software in that category is Quicksilver (also read my recent post about Quicksilver).
Another thing I discovered about a year ago was a tool that finishes your sentences. It’s like a fully customizable version of predictive text input for your computer.
What do those little tools do? They help you type. By setting up a list of sentences you use a lot and connecting those sentences to an abbreviation that is easy to remember, you create ’shortcuts’ for your text. This is great when you get a lot of email and a lot of people are asking you the same thing over and over again. You can also use it for URL’s email addresses, and signatures.
While writing code or inserting html tags this can also save you a lot of time, as you can imagine. Read moreUse Parkinson’s Law To Get Productive
April 20, 2008 · Print This Article
I read about Parkinson’s Law in Tim Ferris‘ Four Hour Work Week, and I recently experienced again how this ‘law’ works. It all about deadlines, and avoiding procrastination. Do you know the moment you finish a job just before the deadline and you find out that it didn’t take as much effort as you thought it would beforehand?
The definition Wikipedia gives for Parkinson’s Law is: “[...] a humorous observation (and not a scientific law) that states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
This basically means that the same job gets bigger and bigger the more time is available to complete it. So because there is more time available it also seems like you need more time for it.So how can you use Parkinson’s Law? Read more
Buy Discounted Software Before You Graduate
April 17, 2008 · Print This Article
Many software developers have special prices for students and teachers. You can sometimes get up to 50% discount on the normal retail price. Looking back I realize how much software I bought after I graduated. Luckily the institute where I studies is now my part-time employer, so I can still use the educational prices when I buy a piece of software. But when you are not in this situation and you know you have to buy software for your professional career, don’t wait until you graduate!
During your studies (especially with technical studies), you are sometimes asked to do a project or make an assignment using a specific piece of software. And specialist software tends to be expensive. At school this is no problem as long as they provide you with a computer that has all the necessary tools installed.
You can also work with open source equivalents of course but these are not always available or as powerful and reliable as you often wish they would be. Read moreMake Sure You Have A Deadline
April 15, 2008 · Print This Article
Apart from the work you do for your studies or job, you might have plans for a project on the side. Maybe you want to learn how to surf, play guitar or organize an event. But there is a lot of work to be done and you don’t want to spend every night working too. So your new plans seem less important, you might even forget about them at times, and you keep on postponing the required actions to make it work.
An example could be John, a graduate student who wants to start a band. He plays the bass and sings, and he already knows what kind of music he wants to play, and that he wants to take it serious and perform live on stage a lot. John is dreaming about this for a long time, and he doesn’t want to wait any longer.
He already started to write some songs, but Read more
When Is Good: Scheduling A Meeting The Easy Way
April 11, 2008 · Print This Article
There are quite a few online tools to help you schedule a meeting with a lot of people. Say you’re working with a group of ten people on a multidisciplinary project and you want to schedule a meeting to talk about the design. You could send them all an email with the dates and hours you are available and ask them to tell you when they are available, compare all replies and try to find the best moment for everyone. Quite a task.
Luckily there are tools like Doodle and Meet-O-Matic that can help you with this. You tell them your availability and they will compare it with all the other invitees. I like simplicity though. Especially when it comes to simple tasks like scheduling a meeting. There’s actually only one thing you want to know: when is good?
That is exactly what the makers of When Is Good must have thought. Read more
How Quicksilver Streamlined My Computing Experience
April 9, 2008 · Print This Article
Quicksilver is definitely my favorite add-on to Mac OS X. Since I discovered it’s power only a bit more than a year ago, I can’t think of using my Mac without it. But it took me a while to convert to it. What’s so great about this quite mysterious application?
No Love At First Sight
Once, somebody told me about this program called Quicksilver and how wonderful it was, so I downloaded it (it’s free!), installed it and tried to use it. I’m saying ‘tried’ because it really wasn’t a great success. Now looking back I think I just didn’t get it. You might say “What’s there to get, it’s just an application launcher, right?”, and I think that’s exactly what caused my struggle with it. I thought it was ‘just an application launcher’ but it seemed so complex to me, especially to set up in the way I wanted it. For just an application launcher there were too many preferences I didn’t get the first time I looked at it, and so I didn’t really take the time to dive in it any deeper. So Quicksilver didn’t get a lot of love from me the first time, I judged as being way too strange and obscure and I threw it in the trash, confused and disappointed. Read moreWill You Follow Your Dreams?
April 8, 2008 · Print This Article
Do you ever sit back and wonder why you are doing what you are doing? Why you are studying what you are studying? If what you are doing right now will bring you where you want to be?
The way our life is organized can lead us in a certain direction without really consciously deciding to go there. Expectations and habits can influence the choices we make in life. Without being aware of the road that brought us here we might find ourself in an unwanted position. Maybe according to what others expect from us, but not according to what makes us feel happy or confident. Read more
A Remote Control For Your Teacher? - The Importance Of Asking Questions
April 5, 2008 · Print This Article
Are you always sure about what your teacher really wants from you? Have you ever been in the situation that you present your work but it appeared you got the assignment wrong? There are a lot of situations in which you’ve been told to do something, but it might not be totally clear to you what the outcome has to be.
There can be various reasons for this unclearity. Maybe you’ve not been paying attention while the assignment was given. Maybe it was explained in a bad way, maybe the teacher assumed you had the knowledge to understand what he or she was talking about but you didn’t. When thinking about assignments and formulating them an educator will get fully into a subject. We might assume that, because he is teaching this subject he will know a lot about it. And the more you know about something the more difficult it is to understand why other people really don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s why it actually is very difficult to teach a seemingly very simple subject to a group of newcomers. Great teachers know this, of course, and know how to formulate their questions. But this is not always the case. Read more
Are you familiar with David Allens book Getting...
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