With the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter it seems that, for many people, there is an ever present temptation waiting in their work place. It is not unusual for offices to deny access to these web pages in order to save the time that might otherwise be wasted on them.

Some studies have shown that social networking can be beneficial to the user. However, this is for those people who are disciplined enough to take a “short break” to surf the web. It is typically after completing a long assignment, and is usually for only 5 to 10 minutes. While it might be relaxing, most employees cannot limit themselves to this type of practice, and waste many valuable hours chatting and sending personal messages. Activities such as responding to messages, looking at photos and writing status updates are rarely relevant to work, however interesting they might seem. Behavior such as this is not acceptable in a business environment, and can be grounds for disciplinary action. In worst case scenarios, people are actually being terminated because they can’t break their fascination with social networking.

Many people using social networking convince themselves that they are simply taking a short break – even one that can last for one full hour. This is not the proper behavior for anybody employed by a reputable business. Furthermore, by switching from a productive task and then back again, the worker must approach each task afresh, breaking their concentration and their engagement with their work. Even in a social capacity, networking sites can be a waste of time. If you are adding people as friends who you will never communicate with or looking at events you will not attend, then you are wasting your own free time. This is even worse in a work context, and detracts from productivity. Companies need to monitor their employees’ working habits during the day, in order to deter negative behavior and to ensure that targets continue to be met.

Social networking can be an enjoyable use of leisure time, but if it is not business related, it should not be explored during the working day.

Images: Franco Bouly

When handling complex tasks on a computer system, it is much easier to get them done when you have a multi-screen setup. This way you can have information on one screen while getting work done on another. Multi-screen setups are an excellent time saver because you don’t need to repeatedly open and close windows, losing track of information. Unfortunately, the standard multi-screen setup which comes with most operating systems is less user friendly than might be preferred. That is where Ultramon comes in.

The most important feature of Ultramon is its smart task bar. Unlike the standard multi-screen setup, the smart task bar assigns specific tasks to the task bar at the bottom of each screen, instead of putting them on all screens. This makes it much easier to designate each monitor to a specific use, so that you don’t lose track of your programs.

Ultramon allows you to drag a window from one monitor to another with a single mouse click. The program also makes it easy for you to adjust the settings of each monitor separately. A display profile can also be set up so that each user can set up their own properties. Mirroring also lets you take what you are doing on one monitor and display it on a secondary monitor as well – you can even display it on several other monitors. This is great for doing presentations. Unlike other options, Ultramon lets you hook up more than ten monitors, and a user friendly interface makes it easy to decide how you want these monitors to work together with one another.

Ultramon is an excellent way to save time by quickly setting up multiple monitor systems which can be used in such a way that more work can more easily be done – and in a shorter period of time!

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RSS feeds can be an excellent way to save time if you set them up properly. For people who need to stay informed on a particular subject matter, they are great because they organize all of the news that you need in one place. That said, RSS feeds can also become an incredible time sink if they are used in the wrong way. Here are some of the things that you should not do with RSS feeds.

First and foremost, if you are not an expert in a particular field who needs to stay informed on a particular subject matter to do your job effectively, then you should probably stay away from RSS feeds altogether in a work context. They will only eat up your time by diverting your attention from your job.

Secondly, if you do need to stay informed, you need to make sure that you only subscribe to sites that give you what you need in order to do your job. Sites that are often updated with information that is not relevant to your workload will only end up eating up your RSS reader space and make it more difficult to find the information that you are looking for. You should only sign up for news from sites that provide information that is relevant to you.

Finally, pay attention to how often a site is updated. Many sites are updated as much as a hundred times a day. This will overload your RSS reader and bury all the relevant information in a sea of useless knowledge. Don’t sign up for an RSS feed from a site if it provides you with more information than you can realistically read every day, and still be a productive worker. Only sign up for feeds that will consistently provide you with information that is useful to you.

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OpenOffice is a great alternative to Microsoft Office, which can save time and money. However, like any time saving tool it can be used even more efficiently if you know the ins and outs of the system. Here are 5 ways to save time with OpenOffice so you spend more time working on your projects rather than manipulating the interface.

1. Sending a document as an email: If you are composing a document to be sent as an email attachment, instead of saving it, opening your email client, writing a small introduction and then attaching the file, why not send the file directly from OpenOffice? Click File > Send > Document As Email. This option will take a snapshot of your current document, open your default mail program, and attach the document as the extension you specify, either as an .odt or .doc.

2. Use extensions: There are a wide variety of extensions available for OpenOffice to make certain tasks easier, such as MultiCloud File Manager for backups, CropOOo for improved cropping features in Draw and Impress, and Sun PDF Import for reading and editing PDF files. This makes the interface between different programs much easier to manage.

3. Quickly create tables: If you frequently use tables in your documents, instead of going up and clicking Insert > Tables, use this item instead: “+——–+———+”. When you type out the syntax, as soon as you press enter, the plus signs are converted into borders.

4. Perform a search within OpenOffice: If you find yourself needing to make sure you have used a word correctly, instead of opening your browser and typing in the word separately, you can click View > Toolbar, and check Hyperlink bar. Now when you highlight a word you have typed, the word will appear in the bar and you can click the small magnifying glass to use your favorite search engine automatically.

5. Remove the splash screen: There’s nothing worse than wanting to get your day started, only to be greeted by a five second splash screen. You can stop this screen from appearing by navigating to your OpenOffice install directory and finding the file called “soffice.ini”. Open it with Notepad and change the value “logo=1″ to “logo=0″.

Using these tips you can shave away the amount of time you spend on OpenOffice to make your day more productive and more efficient.

Image: OpenOffice

The temptation to keep going back to your email account to see if you have received a new message is a strong one. However, it is worth fighting this urge because it is actually a waste of time to needlessly keep returning to your email account. Instead, it is better to perform tasks in batches.

The first reason for this is that many of the times you check your email you will find that you have not received any messages. It may not seem like it takes very long to check, but this time can add up fast. Depending on the speed of your internet connection and your email service, it can take between one and five minutes to check and see if you have any mail. If you were to check your mail twenty times a day it could easily add up to some forty minutes – time which could be better spent doing something more productive.

In addition to this there is the time lost by switching between work modes. If you are spending time on a project, and you interrupt yourself to check your mail, you will find that you go through an adjustment period. You switch modes, and you start thinking about your emails and how to respond to them. When you get back to work, you will forget your place, what you were doing, and you will likely end up doing some of your work twice. You will find that you will finish your projects much faster if you stay with them until they are finished. Stopping to check your email causes you to lose momentum.

In the same way, if you answer all of your emails at once you will find yourself building up momentum. When you answer your first few emails, you are likely to still have your mind on other projects, which will distract you from completing the task at hand. Instead, by checking all of your email at once, in batches, you can save yourself a great deal of time.

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