smart computer use?

I’ve been thinking about how the usage by my phone relates so much with my usage of a computer. I’ve been finding that my Blackberry is just as important to my daily computer usage as my computer itself.

Here’s the simple reason why:

My Blackberry has been put in the position that is it is notifying me of “things” that I will need to do. In turn, those “things” are then requiring my use of a PC to attend to them.

So, I don’t need to spend a ton of time near a PC when waiting to see what needs to be done next. I’ll be notified through my Blackberry, either by email, text, phone call, calendar item and so on. Then I take action and hop on a computer and take care of business.

I like this system because I don’t have to sit in front of a PC as much to take care of daily business. I kinda like that.

I didn’t even really think of how slick of a system that has become, now that I think of it I’m going to have to start pushing more things through that notification and action system.

It’s probably not too much of a tip, as proofreading is a pretty standard practice by many computer users out there. There are a good few who could benefit from a little attention to proofing though.

What should you be proofreading?

1. Emails
2. Documents
3. Blog posts
4. Forum posts
5. Twitter posts
6. Web site content
7. …And pretty much any other form of digital correspondence that goes with using computers

A simple one-time reading of the text you just wrote may reveal all kinds of problems with spelling, grammar and flow. It doesn’t take much. If you just typed something that is more than a friend-to-friend email or an instant message conversation, read it at least once to proof it.

Proofread at least once

This simple step of proofreading your content just ONCE can help you to appear a lot more smart to friends and colleagues.

I don’t know how many people that I know that I can say are very smart people, but they don’t proofread their correspondence. They’ll only proofread if they know they have just written something that is many pages in length and is going to be pushed into the front of the public eye.

I don’t think that is enough. These same people could really benefit from appearing to be a more mentally sharp individual if they would just do a quick proofread of emails that they send out and other short documents and writings that they take part in. It doesn’t take much effort to really boost your written text “impression” on somebody.

Personally, if I didn’t proof anything I wrote, I would think that I’d probably sound like an idiot in a lot of the stuff I write. I just reviewed a blog post I wrote about 4 weeks ago and noticed that I done this: Three sentences in a row started with the words “I guess”. It was also a short post (only 4 sentences with a quote) so the post read poorly.  I got a laugh out of it at least, but it’s partly what inspired this rant. My own non-proofreading reminded me of how much it bugs me when others don’t proofread consistently!

I’m not looking for “perfect” text either. I just don’t want to read something and get the impression that whoever wrote it didn’t even think much beyond what they initially typed out on paper, enough to the point where the writing is filled with misspellings and is hard to understand.

Proofreading affects productivity

Proofreading your text before submitting or sending out to somebody will up your productivity as well. You’ll catch confusing lines of text that others may not understand easily, and be able to adjust them so that the end user of your text will be able to understand easily what point you are trying to get across. If you’re sending out instructions to somebody on how to do something, and they can’t understand what you are trying to say, that is very unproductive! If they could not understand something because you didn’t take the time to review what you had written and it just came out poorly, that is a small thing that is going to hold up progress on tasks that could have been alleviated by minutes (or less) of quick proofreading.

Most of the errors you will make are probably made unconsciously. Your typing hands can’t keep up with your mind in most cases, so remember that! If you have trouble proofreading try reading out loud to better identify errors. You’d be surprised how much that can help.

Just because the web (and use of computers in general) is full of opportunities to type something out fast and send or submit without thinking or reviewing, you shouldn’t necessarily take advantage of those opportunities in that way…

I would think many people feel the same as me. If you agree or don’t agree I’d like to hear it!

Note: I actually proofread this post before I posted it! I didn’t try too hard. I found a couple sentences which didn’t flow well and fixed them.

In the spirit of this article, here’s some of the errors I found while proofreading it:

• I mispelled “unconscious”  – that one made me laugh since I unconsciously spelled it incorrectly in a paragraph talking about how most spelling errors are unconscious
• I had originally spelled “proofreading” and “proofread” as “proof-reading” and “proof-read”. This appeared to be incorrect once I started digging around for some other article about proofreading. I still am unsure though the exact correct spelling. It seems to be used both ways quite regularly.

Heavy computer users tend to start to do everything on a digital level if possible. I do it. I’m not sure why exactly, but I’m constantly finding that it is more efficient and easier to do things if I use a computer, which is probably 80% of the reason.

The Daily Digital Grind

As a result, here’s the most common things I do from day to day, and all involve heavy use of a computer:

• Work
• Listen to music
• Produce music
• Play video games
• Watch movies
• Accounting & Finances
• Blogging
• Checking the weather
• Reading news
• Managing my schedule
• Communicating with clients and co-workers

Here’s a few of the things that don’t involve use of a computer that I tend to do from day to day:

• Sleep
• Shower
• Eat
• Disc golfing (in the summer only)
• Maintaining my aquarium (however my aquarium logging software is computer based)
• Driving to and from the office
• Going to the gym

Haha, I could probably go on and on, but this gets my point across.

So, even when I’m not working, a lot of my free time is also spent using the computer. This is probably not a good thing! It just so happens that a lot of my hobbies fall into the “able to do it on a computer” category.

Getting Non-Digital

After realizing this overwhelming use of digital resources for work and play, I started focusing on introducing non-digital stuff into my life. Why? Just because I can, but also the need to mix it up I guess.

What’s one of the first things I did?

I bought a Banjo and am going to learn how to play that.

It’s not digital. I can’t plug it into an amplifier or hook it up via USB to my computer. I can play it anywhere, including in the middle of the woods with no power source within miles of my location. This is a good step in a non-digital direction. The sound is raw, compared to the computer-based synthesizers and drum machines I am used to playing with. I also don’t need to be in my studio to play it. I can play it anywhere. I can sit on the porch and hammer out some bluegrass at will. Well I gotta practice a bit more before I’m hammering out bluegrass at will, but you get the idea.

I’ve only had the Banjo for a couple days, but I already like being able to go home at night and pluck away on the Banjo, forgetting that I was even involved with marvelous technology for the last 10 hrs of the day.

The non-digital sound, the natural feel of the simple yet complex instrument, it’s a great break from overwhelming computer use in daily life.

Sometimes mixing in a lot more non-digital stuff will make your daily computer usage seem like less of a grind, and you might even regain some appreciation for computers, assuming you have started to take their usefulness for granted. I know that using computers less myself makes me appreciate them more, which is why I try to get away from computers from time-to-time if possible.

How’s Your Non-Digital Outlook?

Are you ever feeling overwhelmed by the digital nature of modern society? You probably are to some degree. Take a look at your day to day life and make sure that you get some non-digital stuff going from day to day, especially if you rely on computers as much as I do.

Don’t forget that music doesn’t need to be digital, vinyl records are fun to have around for something different. Want to learn to play guitar? Try acoustic first.

Some more examples:

• Want to get into more art related hobbies? Buy oil paints or get into woodcarving instead of using Photoshop more than you already do at work.
• Woodcarving is a nice alternative to a 3-D modeling hobby, for something more physical in nature (might be a stretch but helps make a point).
• Do you like to play online first-person shooter games? How about getting involved with paintball? That’s another very fun non-digital alternative.
• Try writing a letter to your parents every now and then, rather than trying to get them to use email more often. It’s a nice change of pace.

You get the idea. I’m not saying all digital stuff is bad, but I’m learning from experience that I should probably mix it up a bit to feel well rounded as a human being.

I’ve recently noticed I have fallen into a sort of “groove” while working at a computer, regarding music.

I find that music, when implemented correctly into my work flow can greatly increase productivity, but at the same time, it can be just as decreasing of productivity when not implemented correctly.

A Few Cases Regarding Music & Productivity

#1 – Fresh work day

Ok, so let’s say that I’m just beginning a day of work and know that I’ll be programming/developing and need to focus.

In this particular case, I’m usually best off if I don’t have any sound going on in the background, even music. Why? I’m not quite sure yet, but it seems that right away in the morning I like to keep the environment peaceful and once I slip into the developer groove.

If all goes well as I start my work for the day, I will fall into the developer groove and zone out to my work, which is what I want to happen. I don’t hear anything going on around me anyways, and in this case, music in the background might actually prevent me from getting into that groove, strangely enough.

In this case, I find it best to not have any music or talk radio to enhance my productivity.

#2 – Later in the work day

Now as the day goes on, I might start to feel a little burned out and start to slip out of the developer groove. This is not a bad thing, it’s just what happens. Hopefully I’ve accomplished quite a bit by this point, usually I have.

Now I’m starting to get distracted by other things at this point in the day. I might even feel like not working at all anymore at this point, and my attitude starts to shift to “cripes, I wish I could just leave and come back later” – but I can’t do that and have to stick it out for a couple more hours.

This is where music can now be a tool to my productivity. I can pop on the earbuds and get some mad Clutch (or insert favorite band here) guitar riffs and vocals going on the MP3 player and all of the sudden I’ve got a little energy boost (without ingesting caffeine!) and can probably still keep working for a while more without needing too much of a break.

Great. So that is a good example of injecting some music to break up a burned out afternoon.

#3 – Working in the evenings or at night

Any web developer will tell you that they are no stranger to pushing work days late into the evening and through the night if needed. Sometimes you are just in that groove and want to keep working since you are holding a good train of thought or ideas and code is just flowing so well.

Well, at the same time, we’re usually getting a little punchy (tired) at this point too, especially if we’ve been working during the day as well.

When I work in the evenings or at night, these are the time when I pretty much never work without music playing.

I almost need it to stay awake. Plus I’ve also probably spent quite a bit of the day in quite solitude (if I had been in a developer groove) and the music changes it up a bit.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I always have music on if I’m working in the evenings or at night, and it keeps me productive and is hardly ever detrimental.

The Lesson

Ok, I’m getting at something here, but I’m not sure what yet, so roll with me on this one.

I’m not saying this pattern of music with work will make you productive. I’m more or less outlining that I have found a “groove” that works well for me. This is half the battle, finding what works well for yourself.

You should pay attention to how music affects your productivity, and then implement it in the best way possible to enhance your productivity. You may already have a good groove for this technique, but haven’t really thought too much about it yet. Now you can!

The Follow-up Example

As I write this, it’s hitting very late afternoon. I’ve been sitting and working in silence all day and have been nicely in the groove.

I’m now starting to slip, and should probably get some Fear Factory going on that MP3 player, haha!

Ok. I’ve been wanting to set up dual monitors on my main home PC for a long time. I never did until now, mainly because of the financial reasons.

Well, I had some tech money to spare in my business budget this year, and decided it was time to get two monitors.

The Benefits

Why do I want to monitors? The benefits of a dual monitor setup are quite profound. From PCWorld:

Stefan Thibeault, a programmer at a clothing manufacturer in Montreal, is convinced of the value of using dual PC monitors. Doing so has given him a much larger electronic workspace, eliminated such annoyances as the need to frequently alt-tab between applications and cut down on his trips to the printer.

Hmm, “Less alt-tabbing and less trips to printer”, you say?

Those are the exact top 2 reasons why I wanted dual monitors. It’s great. I used to have to print of simple text documents just so I could put them on a document clip next to my monitor for reference when typing. No longer. Dual monitors eliminated that.

I also used to have to to a lot of alt-tabbing between browsers, editors and other windows during complex web development projects (and even simple ones). All the tabbing and such was non-productive, I’d often tab away from a screen and then forget what I was even working on. Being able to keep more windows visible at all times helps keep me on task quite well, it’s much tougher to mentally wander.

The Initial Setup

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on dual monitors, here’s what I ended up spending (I thought I got by pretty cheap):

• Two 24 inch Westinghouse LCD monitors for $220 each(on sale at Best Buy)
• A Geforce 9600 GT with dual monitor outputs for $120
• Two 10 foot VGA extension cables for $20
• Two DVI to VGA adapters for $20

So, basically all this hardware cost me about $700. Not bad considering that I would be upgrading from a single 19 inch LCD to two 24 inch LCD monitors, all for $700. Not bad at all.

The Catch

Well, once I got everything set up, I noticed that one of the Westinghouse LCD’s was broken. It had a stuck red pixel and the native resolution did not center at all on the monitor. Too bad, the other one worked perfectly.

After I found out that the one LCD monitor was bad (it took me a week to figure out it was the monitor and not my video card or drivers), I brought it back to Best Buy to get a replacement. They were out of that model though, nuts. I did get it for a great price, and that’s cause it was a discontinued model. So, now I wasn’t going to be able to have matching 24 inch LCD’s no matter what I did.

So I just returned the one broken one and got no replacement. I wish I coulda figured out that it was broken more quickly, I might have been able to get a replacement. Oh well.

Now I’m basically running a 24 inch and a 19 inch LCD side by side as dual monitors. That is still pretty slick and I really like it.