With information coming at us at warp speed and the ever-changing world of technology, staying productive is more important than ever. I am constantly searching for ways to improve my own processes in order to stay productive. Below is a list of some of the tools I find critical to my everyday work.
- Launchy – Launch applications, open files, run commands with just a few keystrokes. This is a multi-platform command line tool similar to the Mac Spotlight.
- ClipX – Maintains a history of your clipboard. A comparable product and one to not live without is Clipmenu for Mac.
- Process Explorer – An enhanced Windows “Task Manager”. A must have for Windows users running many heavy duty processes.
- Greenshot – Screenshot tool that responds to clicking the Print Screen key on Windows.
- Evernote – Keep track of anything with Evernote. I haven’t found something that this product cannot do. I use it for shopping lists, recipes (either typed or photos of friends recipe cards), note taking, etc.
- Dropbox – Dropbox is a new product to me and I’m still exploring ways to use it. It is an online product to “drop” off your files that you want to share with yourself or others.
- Jenkins – A continuous integration server for building and testing code. Essential to building software.
- Mousefeed – One of my most favorite Eclipse plugins, Mousefeed forces you to learn all those keystrokes that make you a productive developer. You can set the plugin to remind you what the keystrokes are or force you to use the keystroke instead of mousing through the menus.
- Getting Things Done – David Allen‘s system for getting and staying productive forces me to stay organized. I maintain all my incoming project related emails in specific folders and archive it only when the project is done. In addition, instead of using my inbox as a todo list, I keep it clean using the Inbox Zero concept. Emails that require actions that I can’t take care of immediately are moved to a specific todo list: @ACTION, @ACTION-PROJECT, @ACTION-TALKTO, @SOMEDAY-MAYBE. I certainly don’t take advantage of all the concepts he promotes, but I’ve made it work for me.
- A pomodoro – A pomodoro can be used to follow the Pomodoro Technique. This helps me focus on a specific task or set of tasks for 25 straight minutes. It forces you to take a few 5 minute breaks and a longer break every few pomodoros.