Product Description

The second edition of Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day follows the best-selling format of the first. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific problem in the digital age and offers step-by-step solutions for various operating systems and reader skill levels. Packed with over 50 new and revised hacks, you'll find out how to deal with the daily onslaught of incoming email, manage multiple computers, get your data on the go, tackle your to-do list faster, and more in this book. The additional and revised hacks involve new product recommendations and better strategies that have come out since the first edition. The second edition also prunes tips from the first edition, based on reader feedback.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5970 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

From the Back Cover
Spend more time getting things done and less time fiddling with your computer

This book isn't a computer user manual, and it isn't a productivity system. It's a mashup of both. It's where you learn to practice big-picture productivity methods on your very own computer desktop. Whether you're a Mac or Windows user, know only enough to get by or are the family tech support geek, there are tricks here for you. Whether or not you've been turbocharging your day with the tips from Gina's first Lifehacker book, you'll feast on this buffet of new shortcuts to make technology your ally instead of your adversary.

A dozen ways to upgrade your life:

• Hack 1: Empty your email inbox
• Hack 14: Instantly recall all your different passwords
• Hack 22: Make your to-do list doable
• Hack 29: Turn tasks into gameplay
• Hack 45: Search the Web in three keystrokes
• Hack 55: Securely save web site passwords
• Hack 56: Become a scheduling black belt
• Hack 59: Automatically back up your files
• Hack 75: Remote-control your home computer
• Hack 86: Supercharge your Firefox downloads
• Hack 111: Synchronize folders between computers
• Hack 114: Have your Mac and Windows too

Companion Web site
At http://lifehackerbook.com you'll find hack updates, additional information, and more tips and tricks.

About the Author
Gina Trapani (http//ginatrapani.org) is an independent web programmer and writer whose work has been mentioned in Wired magazine, The New York Times, and Time magazine. She is the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, a software and productivity weblog she updates several times daily. A Sun Microsystems-certified Java programmer, Gina builds web sites and Firefox extensions.

Customer Reviews

The second edition is just as good as the first...
I remember reading the first edition of Gina Trapani's Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better and thinking how wonderful it was. Of course, when the second edition came out, I had to get that one too. And as with the first one, I have all sorts of post-it notes scattered throughout the book for reference and "go back and try this" notes. Well worth the time and money you spend here.

Contents:
Control Your Email; Organize Your Data; Trick Yourself into Getting Done; Clear Your Mind; Firewall Your Attention; Streamline Common Tasks; Automate Repetitive Tasks; Get Your Data To Go; Master The Web; Hone Your Computer Survival Skills; Manage Multiple Computers; Index

Over the span of the chapters above, Trapani presents 116 different "hacks" that you can incorporate into your daily computer life to, well... work smarter, faster, and better. As with most books that are a compilation of different tips, some will resonate strongly with your current needs, while others are skimming material that may not be relevant. For instance, the hacks in the first chapter, Organize Your Data, hit home. I'm working towards consolidating multiple email addresses with Gmail, and I'm cutting down the number of folders I have, relying on search to find what I need. Master The Web also had some cool tricks, like having multiple home pages in Firefox and using Google Notebook for web clippings. I wasn't quite into the Managing Multiple Computers as much, as my current setup doesn't call for that. Still, it's good information to have around should you need it at a later time.

I actually found a couple different things occurring as I read through the material. There were hacks where some software was presented that did a certain task, and I'd realize I've been looking for something just like that. Similar to scratching an itch that you couldn't quite reach. Then there were the hacks that opened your eyes to whole areas you didn't even know you needed. Let's call that finding AND scratching the itch you didn't know you had five minutes prior. After going through some of the Automate Repetitive Tasks hacks, I have started to look at a lot of things I do with a view towards eliminating the manual repetitive effort that I just accepted as necessary before.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who spends most of their waking hours in front of a computer, and/or earn their living in front of one. Taking away even a small handful of nuggets can radically change the way you do things.

A wonderful productivity tool
Upgrade Your Life is a great book. I've followed the blog for several years, but it's nice to have an analog version when you want to practice the best techniques available.

Recommended for information or technology workers who need to get more productive to survive and/or avoid insanity.

Great book for those wanting to be a bit more efficient
This is a collection of hints, tips and hacks for the technologically inclined. Areas covered are email, organizing your data, tricks to overcome your procrastination, clearing your mind, focusing your attention, streamlining common tasks, mastering the web, honing your computer survival skills and managing multiple computers.

Not at all ironically, the people for whom this book will be most useful - real geeks - will already know some, not all, of these things. I am most definitely a geek, but I did learn many new things and happy for that.

In some ways, the book will a half-loaf for many. There's a lot of Macintosh stuff that will not be helpful to Windows users and vice-versa. There's Windows Vista material that will not be useful to those (most of us, perhaps?) who are sticking with Windows XP. But this is not a major problem: the book has so much good stuff in it, that there is plenty for everyone.

Trapani's writing style is wonderfully clear, direct and concise.

Overall, other than calling it useful, versatile, eclectic and well-done, this book is difficult to classify. It merges real life (remembering to pick up the milk) with the technical (setting up a VPN) and lots, lots more. It is definitely a fun book to browse, packed with lots of great information.

A very worthwhile addition to your library.

Jerry