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January 17, 2007
Moving faster
One of the things I've gotten great value from over the years is learning the speed keys for the key programs I use. David Allen has said that learning speed keys (and improving typing speed) will make you about 4x faster over using the mouse.
For example, in my Lotus Notes mail, Ctrl+M creates a new mail message from anywhere in Notes. I'm often in a database and need to draft a quick message. Ctrl+M saves me about 3 key strokes. For Outlook users, your Mail shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+M. In GMail, the letter "c" will compose a new message if you're in your Inbox and have shortcuts turned on in Settings. For Entourage, Command + Option +N will launch a new email.
Last summer our staff got ActiveWords software installed on our computers at the request of David, who is a big fan of that application. To fully disclose here, it looks like we now recommend this product in our online store, although that's not why I am a fan of this cool product. I recently started using it and have found it very handy for taking a few of my shortcuts even a step further. For example, with ActiveWords, I created a little script to not only engage the Ctrl+M shortcut in my email, but it auto addresses the To: field. For example, my "JFo" shortcut in ActiveWords automatically launches a Notes email form and fills in the address field with my husband John's email address. I also created a script for creating Tasks in Palm Desktop. By activating ActiveWords on my desktop (Ctrl + space bar) I can add things to my Palm Desktop Task lists without having to open up Palm Desktop, go to Tasks and click New. I simply use the keyword "todo" in ActiveWords, no matter what I'm in the middle of on my computer, and it brings me to the exact place I need to create a new Task. Great for on-the-fly capture into my system.
I'm sure I'm not even using ActiveWords or the shortcuts in any of my programs to their full capacity. In fact, even with a program like Lotus Notes that I've used for more than 10 years, my husband was over my shoulder the other day and saw me clicking to get to the Replicator page and then clicking the Start Now button. He said ever so lovingly and neutrally, "Why don't you do Alt+blah+blah....it's SO much faster?"
Yes, we are the GTD super-geek couple.
Posted by Kelly at January 17, 2007 11:25 AM
Comments
They're a great idea: both speed keys and ActiveWords. My problem, particularly with ActiveWords is remembering all the shortcuts I have created. I sometimes spend more time typing wrong key combinations than I would have spent with the mouse. ;)
Posted by: Ian McKenzie at January 17, 2007 12:39 PM
I agree with Ian, the major shortcuts for programs (we use Outlook, so Ctrl+M for Message, Ctrl+A for Appointment) really speeds things up. But create too many shortcuts (or aliases as they are called in UNIX shell scripting) and you'll forget them. Thats why I tend to just memorize the ones given to me by the software I use, and only create custom ones for me when I know that I'll use them once at least once every couple days.
Posted by: Joe at January 17, 2007 09:17 PM
I'm completely enamored with the osX program "Quicksilver" which can do almost anything I can normally do with a mouse and more. I can put items into my inbox directly from any place anytime on my computer using kGTD and Quicksilver- as well as run scripts and workflows in Automator. Wonderful thing.
I recently created an automator workflow that allows me to open and focus on a single document for work- everything else completely blacks out to improve focus. [ala Merlin Mann's approach]
Wonderful stuff. Definitely find and use a launching application of some sort- it makes a world of difference. Just be wary- if you happen across a computer without your snazy speed-up configuration(s), you'll feel like you're working in molasses. :)
Love the posts, Kelly!
Posted by: a11en at January 17, 2007 09:28 PM
I use Keycue a program that gives you a list of every shortcut you can use in any program just by holding down the applekey for a second...when you switch programs the list changes. Also have Typinator loaded for short cuts on every conceiveable word that I type again and again and again like Email addresses, names and boiler plate language in letters. Works Great!
Posted by: Martin K. Driscoll at January 18, 2007 09:48 PM
Ian, the beauty of Activewords is that you can create shortcuts that mean something to you. When Buzz was coaching me, he told me to set the shortcut to the first thing that pops in your head as that's what's easiest to rememer.
When I started, I had long words, like "MindManager" for a software launch. Now, I just use the shortest things I can thnk up easily.
For Example:
MM - MindManager
W - Word
and so on.
I hope this helps.
Eric
Posted by: Eric Mack at January 19, 2007 06:04 PM
I use the Freeware http://www.phraseexpress.com to store frequently used text snippets and to assign hotkeys to different tasks.
I tried many such applications like ActiveWords, Speedkey, Keyboard Express but none beats PhraseExpress in efficiency and ease-of-use.
Check it out.
Mich
Posted by: Michael at March 21, 2007 09:07 AM
