mrt 26

Complexity brings stress in your life

OSX, Personal Add comments

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Due to a job change I had to switch from OSX to Windows XP. On the internet you can find info for switchers from Windows to OSX . You can find info on that path here and here.

To be honest, after 6 years OSX it is ….. well, hard. I will not go into Windows bashing because I can get the work done. A system is a system and not the Holy Grail. David Allen has taught me the basic ingredients of a good system to stay productive. I now think switching to paper will keep me as productive as I was on my Powerbook. It isn’t the system that makes you productive but some key elements like getting everything out of your head and maintaining a good set of lists. This will help you use your head for new ventures and opens up creativity.

Pondering on what makes it so hard brought me to this conclusion: the main thing that bothers me is the complexity of Windows. Windows has just too many options, toolbars, buttons, menu items and possibilities. The sad thing is that I don’t use most of them. And frankly I guess not a single person has never used all of them.

So here is a golden tip for all you Windows users: strip as much functionality as you can. I did it: eliminate toolbars, uncheck extra features and look for ways to make using Windows just simpler. And learn as much shortcut keys as you can. I just invested an afternoon to get this sorted. And it really pays off.

I would like to point to two utilities that really helped me the last weeks: fingertips, a time saver like Quicksilver for the Mac and Virtual Desktop Manager, a Microsoft Windows XP PowerToy.

If you have any tips on using Windows more effectively, let me know in the comments!

written by Fokke

One Ping to “Complexity brings stress in your life”

  1. Complexity brings stress in your life : Anxiety-Stress Says:
    maart 26th, 2008 at 23:25

    [...] Original post by Fokke [...]


7 Responses to “Complexity brings stress in your life”

  1. 1. Tina Russell Says:
    maart 26th, 2008 at 23:00

    I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.

    Tina Russell

  2. 2. Stéphane Wyss Says:
    maart 27th, 2008 at 14:52

    I use Hardcopy http://www.gen.hardcopy.de/ which is very helpfull to do PrintScreens and edit them

  3. 3. Buzz Bruggeman Says:
    maart 27th, 2008 at 23:25

    I am pretty sure, that our product, e.g. ActiveWords, http://www.activewords.com/ does vastly more than Fingertips. Try it and tell me what you think. Would be curious as to your feedback.

    Regards,

    Buzz

  4. 4. Taco Oosterkamp Says:
    april 5th, 2008 at 21:31

    Hi Fokke,

    It’s nice to hear that you like Fingertips. I’m always amazed to see how small utilities can enhance your productivity so much.

    I thought you’d want to know that I started a blog on using Outlook for Getting Things Done at http://www.eachdayempty.com/blog/

    Enjoy,
    Taco Oosterkamp

  5. 5. Mark - Productivity501 Says:
    april 8th, 2008 at 01:57

    One thing that always helped me keep Windows running well was to do a complete reinstall once or twice each year. I don’t know if it holds true for Vista, but XP and Windows 2000 really benefited from this.

    I use OS X, but I find there are little things that I expect to be able to change that I can’t. Windows has a lot of options, but most of them can be ignored unless you need to change it.

  6. 6. Ishani Mitra Says:
    juli 3rd, 2008 at 22:59

    Simplifying tasks by getting things organised is a key to a stress free life.

  7. 7. AlexM Says:
    augustus 14th, 2008 at 17:58

    Your blog is interesting!

    Keep up the good work!

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