| |  | Books Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better |  | | | | | | | | | | Rating:  - Huge timesaver - Use the technology you have to improve your life!
I'll keep this review short and sweet: I love this book. I loved its predecessor, "Lifehacker", and love this one more.
It taught me things about what Windows, Office, and Firefox can do that I would have had no idea about before - and I thought I was reasonably astute! It also points you in the direction of an enormous number of great downloads, websites, and other resources - most of them free or quite cheap.
I've given this book as a gift a number of times and have always heard raves.
I'm currently running XP Pro and Office 2003 and it offers a lot of ideas for turbocharging those programs, but has even more ideas for Vista and Office 2007. I have tagged several dozen ideas to implement when I get around to upgrading.
This is an outstanding tool. Very eye-opening. You won't regret it.
Rating:  - Best for PCs but useful for Macs
This book has some great tips as responses have noted. My one issue - at least a quarter of the book -- possibly more -- are tips that apply only to PCs. While often there will be a separate entry for PCs (usually longer) and Macs, there are a good number of suggested tools/tricks that only apply to PCs. I would have like to be able to read through only relevant ones.
Rating: - Wonderful Book
If there's one book that's provided me with value for money recently, this is it. I've had it for over a week and I look at it every day. The other reviews here do a fine job of telling you the content, so mine is a more personal review.
I have plenty of experience in computers, so I can see the advantage of many of the tips. Since buying the book I have changed my browser from IE and my e-mail from Yahoo to Thunderbird, as well as downloading some of the many freeware programs she recommends. It's improved my life immensely, and often the time spent downloading has been paid back in minutes.
I stop short at some of the suggestions for advanced users, but that's because I don't want to change things for the sake of changing them. Otherwise I have more programs that I know what to do with, but that's because there are so many of them.
What's good is that Gina has covered the recommendations down to the last detail, especially living your life with them. Too many books on software run through the features with no recommendations as to where and how to use them. So if you're a person with any level of computer experience you will be using these programs and tips more or less from when you adopt them.
So thank you Gina (and Terra) for bringing this book about. I would guess it's made me 50 percent more effective in the first week. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't do marvels after reading this.
Rating: - The second edition is just as good as the first...
I remember reading the first edition of Gina Trapani's Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better and thinking how wonderful it was.Of course, when the second edition came out, I had to get that one too.And as with the first one, I have all sorts of post-it notes scattered throughout the book for reference and "go back and try this" notes.Well worth the time and money you spend here.
Contents:
Control Your Email; Organize Your Data; Trick Yourself into Getting Done; Clear Your Mind; Firewall Your Attention; Streamline Common Tasks; Automate Repetitive Tasks; Get Your Data To Go; Master The Web; Hone Your Computer Survival Skills; Manage Multiple Computers; Index
Over the span of the chapters above, Trapani presents 116 different "hacks" that you can incorporate into your daily computer life to, well...work smarter, faster, and better.As with most books that are a compilation of different tips, some will resonate strongly with your current needs, while others are skimming material that may not be relevant.For instance, the hacks in the first chapter, Organize Your Data, hit home.I'm working towards consolidating multiple email addresses with Gmail, and I'm cutting down the number of folders I have, relying on search to find what I need.Master The Web also had some cool tricks, like having multiple home pages in Firefox and using Google Notebook for web clippings.I wasn't quite into the Managing Multiple Computers as much, as my current setup doesn't call for that.Still, it's good information to have around should you need it at a later time.
I actually found a couple different things occurring as I read through the material.There were hacks where some software was presented that did a certain task, and I'd realize I've been looking for something just like that.Similar to scratching an itch that you couldn't quite reach.Then there were the hacks that opened your eyes to whole areas you didn't even know you needed.Let's call that finding AND scratching the itch you didn't know you had five minutes prior.After going through some of the Automate Repetitive Tasks hacks, I have started to look at a lot of things I do with a view towards eliminating the manual repetitive effort that I just accepted as necessary before.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who spends most of their waking hours in front of a computer, and/or earn their living in front of one.Taking away even a small handful of nuggets can radically change the way you do things.
Rating: - A wonderful productivity tool
Upgrade Your Life is a great book.I've followed the blog for several years, but it's nice to have an analog version when you want to practice the best techniques available.
Recommended for information or technology workers who need to get more productive to survive and/or avoid insanity.
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