In order to keep a primary focus on the things we need to do in order to achieve our goals in life we must learn to spend less time on things that aren’t as important. Truth is, you probably are already quite productive. You use computers to achieve tasks that used to take much longer to achieve (just as I have used a computer to help me write this article).

Unfortunately, what computers can save you in time can be easily lost by information overload. There are numerous ways to receive information now like email, RSS, social media updates, SMS, and the list goes on. I am suggesting that you can get more done not by ignoring information, but rather by being more selective about the information that you receive and respond to. Additionally, there can also be significant time savings by learning how to more quickly navigate the programs you use to access that information.

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Web Search

1. Get better search results by using operators

Search engines have become pretty good at guessing what you want based on the keywords you enter into the search bar but a productivity ninja is not satisfied with that. This link shows how you can use advanced search operators to refine your search results even further and save the time wasted looking through irrelevent results.

Get better search results by using operators

2. Save your searches to refine them even more

Many search engines allow you to create an RSS feed from the search results retrieved from your query. Once the search is in your RSS feed you have saved the trouble of entering the refined search everytime you want to look something up. This link shows you how to use Google Alerts to do just that.

Save your searches to refine them even more

3. Skip the search engine all together

If you are like me you probably have hundreds of bookmarks that you have amassed from years of web browsing. Why not search these for pertinent information about a project you may be working on? Web browsers like Opera offer full bookmark search including text found in the title, url, and description of the bookmarked page.

Skip the search engine all together

Email

4. Create email filters to automate email processing

Most email programs will allow the simultaneous creation of folders and placing of emails to folders upon receipt. Gmail uses labels, while other programs use folders to achieve this to similar effect. This combined with checking your email less frequently (many suggest no more than 2 times per day), can help you save time spent reading non-important emails throughout the day.

5. Consolidate your email addresses into one program

Be it a desktop client like Outlook or Thunderbird, or a web service like Gmail, you can easily import any email account you have into your favorite email client. You will need to refer to the documentation for the email client on how to do this exactly. This link shows how to do it in Gmail.

Consolidate your email addresses into one program

Task Management

6. Automate when ever possible

As seen earlier with the search hacks, there are many tasks that can be automated by simply defining the information you need and choosing how and when you will receive it. That only touches the surface of what is possible though. For example, you can easily share your latest blog posts with your twitter followers by using a service like Twitterfeed.

If you can’t automate it, delegate it instead – Somethimes there are tasks that require a human being to do them effectively. In those situations, typically you would just do it yourself but I am suggesting an alternative. Instead ask yourself, is the task easy enough for someone else to do and they will need less than 5 minutes of instruction from you to make it happen? If so, consider delegating the task. Consider delegating even if it would take longer to train someone only if the task is something that needs to be done frequently and you can find the time to write the instructions for re-use later.

If it would take you longer to train someone to do a task than it would for you to actually just do the task, then you should consider doing it yourself. The catch is, you can’t just stop what you were doing so a time should be scheduled to handle all such tasks at one time. This leads to the final task management hack.

Stop doing non-important things – Upon further investigation you may come to the valuable conclusion that the task that you are automating, delegating, or scheduling doesn’t need to be done at all. This revelation is like hitting the time jack-pot and productivity ninjas should filter every task through this thought process as early as possible to get the biggest time-savings.

Web Surfing

7. Get a faster internet connection

A slow internet connection can not only limit how quickly you can find, read and share information on the internet, but it can also cause your computer to slow down or even crash while tyring to load large web pages. Spend the money to upgrade your internet connection if you can, the time you save could be worth it.

8. Load pages faster with browser plug-ins

There are browser plug-ins that will automatically disable advertisements and other slow loading javascript thus enabling pages to load faster. Adblock Plus for Firefox is one such plug-in. Click the link below for more information about this plug-in.

Load pages faster with browser plug-ins

9. Combine your social media profiles into one place

Instead of jumping from page to page logging in, reading, and updating your status on different social media platforms, why not combine them all into one location for easier access? Hellotxt is web service that offers this type of function.

10. Keyboard Shortcuts

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In what ways have you used technology to save yourself time?