The Proactive Pro

You might be a busy bee like me and need to organize your time.  You may also need to be reminded of the tasks you need to do at a specific time.  Well, fortunately, there are free productivity tools on the Internet. Here are two things you can do to organize your tasks and your time using these productivity tools.

The first option is to download Mozilla Sunbird. This is a stand-alone calendar application from Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox browser.  If you already have Thunderbird, Mozilla's free email client, you can download Lightning, the extension that allows you to manage your schedule within the email client.

To add the Lightning extension to your Thunderbird mail client, follow these directions:

1) Go to the Lightning download page. Download the extension and save it to your desktop.

2) In your Thunderbird mail client, go to the Tools tab.  Choose "Add-ons." A little window will appear.  Click on the "Extensions" tab. At the lower left corner of the little window, you will find a link that says "Install."  Click on it.  From there, go to your desktop folder and look for the extension that you downloaded earlier.

You may need to play with the application to be familiar with it and to learn how to use it.

The other option is to go to the Remember the Milk website and create a free account. Remember the Milk is a web-based application that can help you organize your time and remind you of your tasks via SMS, email or instant messaging (Supported IMs: AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo!).  It has an intuitive user interface that makes the application easy to use. It even has a task cloud that lets you see what you have to do easily.  You can also share, send and publish your tasks with your contacts.  You can also use the map to see where your tasks need to be done (useful when you are in the U.S.) and therefore be able to come up with the best plan. You can sync Remember the Milk with your mobile device. It's currently available for iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. You can be reminded via your cell phone and access Remember the Milk from there, but you'll need to upgrade to a Pro account. The fee is just a measly $25 a year though. If you have an iPhone, Remember the Milk is available at the iPhone App store.  I just signed up for a free account and I have yet to see how useful RTM is going to be to me.

I just shared two free productivity tools that you can use to organize your time and make sure that your tasks are accomplished.  You don't have to spend a single cent for them (unless you want to upgrade your RTM account) and quite easy to use.  Remember, time is money.  We might as well manage it well.

I had a difficult day at work today. It all started this morning. My laptop booted very slowly and I had to wait for approximately 15 minutes before my computer was ready to use. Throughout the day, I had to restrain myself from smashing my laptop on the floor because the applications would freeze every now and then. A slow computer robs us of a very precious resource – time. So when your computer slows down, it’s really infuriating and frustrating. (No, the laptop in the picture isn't mine.)

I tried to call on a couple of my friends who are tech guys, but one of them is in Manila (which requires an hour-long plane ride to get to where I am), and the other had to attend his class (He’s still a college student).

Then, I decided to do something about it. (This is what a Proactive Pro would do, right? :0) ) I enlisted the help of my ever-reliable friend, Mr. Google, who pointed me to different websites where I was able to get some information on how to speed up my laptop. I found out that there are certain computer tasks that need to be done regularly, and this is what I’m about to share with you.

1) RUN AN ANTIVIRUS AND AN ANTI-SPYWARE PROGRAM DAILY– Viruses and spyware are bound to make your computer run like a turtle on Valium. They use your computer’s memory resources. The best thing that you can do is invest in a good Internet security suite like Kaspersky, which has outstanding features and a high detection rate against viruses, spyware and malicious codes and programs. However, there are a lot of free antivirus and antispyware programs all over the Internet that can give you basic protection, but only a few of them are trustworthy. Many antivirus and antispyware programs are actually malicious programs in disguise. For a list of safe antivirus and anti-spyware programs, refer to my previous post which is just below this one.

2) GET RID OF UNNECESSARY PROGRAMS AND FILES AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH – One of the reasons why your computer runs slowly is that you have installed too many programs and keep too many files. They eat up your hard disk space leaving the operating system very little room to work with. So take stock of the stuff in your computer. Keep what you need and get rid of those that you don’t. It’s that simple. But if you don’t want to get rid of anything, at least burn them on a DVD or a CD.

3) DEFRAGMENT YOUR HARD DISK – This is what I had neglected to do which is why my laptop was so slow this morning. Defragmentation is like putting books of the same category in the same shelf in a library.  It is done with a disk defragmenter, a software that sorts the files in the hard disk so they can be easily read by the computer. Windows has a built-in defragmenter.  To find the disk defragmenter, follow this path:
Ideally, you should “defrag” your hard disk every other week, but there is no rule of thumb as to how often one should defragment.

4) FREE UP DISK SPACE BY GETTING RID OF USELESS, TEMPORARY FILES ONCE A WEEK – Some programs store temporary files usually during installation. These files and other useless files occupy a lot of space and can cause the computer to slow down. You can use CCleaner to clean up the junk in your computer. (Just in case you’re curious “CCleaner” used to be “Crap Cleaner.”)

5) CHECK FOR REGISTRY ISSUES AND FIX THEM – When a program is installed, an entry is created in the registry. Invalid entries in the registry occur when programs are not installed or uninstalled properly. These registry errors cause the computer to slow down so we need to get rid of them. This task should be done every three to six months depending on how often you install and reinstall programs.

There are a lot of registry cleaners being sold online. I use CCleaner for fixing registry problems. Yes, CCleaner also has a registry cleaner. However, I suggest you should back up registry entries just in case you need to undo the changes that have been made. The nice thing about CCleaner is that before it fixes the registry issues, it gives you the option to back up the registry entries.

CCleaner may be downloaded here.

CCleaner is free, but please donate so that it stays free and available.

When you do the aforementioned tasks regularly, your computer is bound to run smoothly, thus sparing you from the frustration and the anger that I had to suck up this morning. And the best thing of all, it’s worth doing because it saves you time.

Here are some nifty free stuff you can find online that I like and find very useful:

EXPRESS SCRIBE - I always mention this software in my posts because for me, this is the best transcription software ever, even better than some paid transcription software. The best thing about this transcription software is I can change the speed of the recording without affecting the pitch of the speaker's voice. (Sorry, StartStop. Express Scribe trumps you.)

GOOGLE DESKTOP - Indexes my files and makes it a breeze to locate them.

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD - Perfect for my Gmail accounts. Organizes my email and my contacts, and keeps out spam. I use it with Lightning, an extension that adds an organizer and a calendar.

PHOTOSCAPE - A great alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It has all the features I need and more. Comes with a screen capture utility. Very easy to use.

FREE STUDIO MANAGER - A whole suite of programs that enables me to download videos, edit video and audio files, convert videos to MP3 sound files, convert video files to DVDs and burn them and more. With this suite, who needs Nero?

K-LITE CODEC PACK - Allows me to watch and/or listen to audio and video files of any format.

CUTE PDF - Allows me to create PDFs from any printable document. This can be used to create ebooks.

7ZIP - Allows me to unpack or open .tar, .rar and .zip files.

ONLINE STOP WATCH - An ADD sufferer like me needs an online stopwatch to keep myself focused on what I am doing (Beating deadlines keep me focused). I also use this to remind myself during breaks when I should go back to work. It has a fairly audible alarm. You can either download or use the online version.

Be careful when you download free software. Some of them come with trojans, viruses and spyware (some people are just really bad). So far, I haven't had any problems with all the programs I have mentioned above so go ahead and download. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have. :-)