Keeping A PC Awake and Unlocked

Keeping A PC Awake and Unlocked

January 15, 2024
There are times when I really, really hate the auto-sleep feature on my computers. Because having a machine lock itself when I am monitoring something is a major pain in the patootie. So I came up with a way to keep the machine awake and unlocked.
My Habit Tracker Choice

My Habit Tracker Choice

November 6, 2023
I looked into switching from my paper habit tracker to apps in October. After evaluating three of them for a few weeks, I have finally made my habit tracker choice.
Finding a Habit Tracker

Finding a Habit Tracker

October 16, 2023
Do you know how well you do on actually completing the things you consider habits? I’m a big believer in tracking habits so that I have the hard-and-fast numbers to show me, eliminating my mind’s bias in how well I do.
Generate Text With Excel

Generate Text With Excel

August 28, 2023
Microsoft Excel, which is a spreadsheet meant for crunching numbers, may be the tool of accountants. But I rely on it heavily to help me with text. I generate text using Excel in order to feed data cleanly into systems. No, Excel is my powerhouse for assembling text. It occurred to me that people might get some benefit from learning how to do this, so here is my method:
Using and Creating OneNote Templates

Using and Creating OneNote Templates

April 10, 2023
Since I released my video on my OneNote work planning system, I have gotten questions about how to personalize the notebook. This video is about how to save time and effort by using templates to customize a OneNote notebook.
A Tour of My OneNote Work Productivity System

A Tour of My OneNote Work Productivity System

January 16, 2023
I had to recently switch from paper to electronic notes for work due to the need to do fast searches. Searching through five notebooks that were haphazardly backlinked was almost impossible. I made the switch to OneNote, and have worked hard to get a simple but workable system. This is a tour of how I use OneNote for work.
Review: (10+2)*5 Timer – Instant Boss

Review: (10+2)*5 Timer – Instant Boss

June 13, 2022
When I really need to blast through a lot of work, but really don't want to, I use the (10+2) * 5 method invented by Merlin Mann.

It's a modified Pomodoro method, but instead of 20 minute work sessions followed by a 5 minute break, it shortens both work and break times. I prefer (10+2)*5 to Pomodoro because the 10 minute start seems do-able, whereas the 20 minute block often seems insurmountable.
plus address

The Power Of Plus: Microsoft Gets On Board

April 11, 2022
One of the most powerful things about Gmail is that you can add a “+tag” to your email address, turning your single email address into an infinite amount of addresses. These modified plus addresses can then be used to filter email with great precision.

Microsoft finally is getting on board with this, setting the Plus addressing as a default as of April 22, 2022. It can still be overridden by system administrators, but hopefully most people will take the default.