Pile, don’t file!

June 12, 2008

Why do you file every new document or attachment you receive into a nice tree of folders? I know, you are looking for structure, easy access to those documents later on and maybe some ease of mind knowing that these are stored in the so-called “right place”.

Time to share another lifehacking tip with you. Stop filing documents and start piling! Use search engines to retrieve documents. Use Google Desktop instead. Win the time back you are spending on ever-changing structures, creating folders, saving files 8 levels deep in your system or within your network. Nobody ever keeps track of your system anyway.

Simply create 1 folder and pile all your documents there. No hassle, simple!

When you need any document, you are searching for it anyway. So, use Google Desktop and save yourself more time.

Enjoy every day,
Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

 

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When is Good

June 10, 2008

Imagine a situation where you have to organise a meeting with several people. It just takes one phonecall, right? NOT! In your dreams maybe, but in reality, how many times do you have to mail or call and change the date again because one of the participants can’t make it. The 2 or 3 dates you proposed only fit partially.

How to solve this with a simple lifehack? Easy : When is Good!

When is good

“When is Good” is a small, easy way to find out when everyone is free for your next meeting or event. Just click the grid for all the times that are good for you. Then you get a link to email to your invitees. They see your proposed times and click on when they are free. You visit your results page and see when everyone can do.

When is Good grid

No sign-up form. No password to choose. No fuss at all. Another true lifehack!

Enjoy life,
Bert Verdonck
Life Hacker

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Lifehack : Easy backups!

June 2, 2008

ok, here we go : the first life hack to make your life easier.

What is the most important task we all (tend to) forget once and a while? Right, making a computer backup!

Now, Mozy has a wonderful service for online backup.

You just download a small application, sign up for their free MozyHome service and you are ready to get 2 GB free backup space. Yes, 2 GB!
I am not sure about your files, but 2GB takes me a long way…

Anyway, for peanuts (5$/month) you can upgrade to unlimited backup space!

Mozy connects to their online server and backsup your computer when it’s idle. The first time it takes hours (in my case about 1GB), from then on, only a couple of minutes. It automatically checks which files have changed. Those will be backup again (also new ones of course!).

The extra advantage is when you loose your PC or it’s borrowed, stolen or simply crashes on you, you just download your backup (from anywhere in the world!) again and within the hour you are operational again! Perfect!

So, you don’t have any excuse anymore for not backing up your PC!

How’s that for starters :-)

Why Mozy? It seems to be one of the biggest online backup services and it’s a daughter company of EMC2, the storage experts.

What Mozy believes:
You shouldn’t have to think about backup.
Backup should be set up once, and then work automatically.

Your files should be encrypted.
Your backup files should be encrypted and stored in a secure, remote location that’s only accessible to you — from anywhere.

Your backups should be smart.
Your backup system should be smart enough to only back up data that’s not already been backed up, only back up parts of a file that have changed, and be able to back up open and locked files.

You see, in my opinion they fit into my kind of world of lifehacking! ;-)

Enjoy every day,
Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

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