This may be somewhat of an obvious tip, but since I just thought of this for my personal use, perhaps there are others out there who are missing this productivity tip. I store some documents online, especially on Google Docs and so far I have always navigated to my docs page and then selected the document there.

However, you can link directly to the document in question, which means you can bookmark it as well. This also means that you can create a keyword which lets you jump there in an instant. I am keeping track of my expenses with a detailed sheet and when I type “exp” into the URL bar and press enter, the sheet loads in a jiffy.

In fact, with the nifty extension called Firefly extension you can use Firefox like a file manager and you can create bookmarks to specific folders on your hard drive just like you do on the web, which means you can also navigate there with keywords.

Oh, I almost forgot, you can also use the same method with emails in Gmail. Clicking on an email yields a URL which is static, so you can bookmark it and get to the email fast. I frequently get emails which I check 30 times before I don’t need them any more and this method helps me a lot and saves me a lot of time, making me more productive. One drawback is that URL’s are stored for conversations, which means that if you have a conversation consisting of 50 emails, you are probably better off with the search bar.

Browsing and file management were two things for me that somehow never really came together. However Firefly, a Firefox extension gives you the power of a file manager right inside your browser, let’s take a look if it’s any good.

Once installed you can simply type a path like “c:” to get to the root of the drive to view files. They will be shown as a list and you will be able to perform simple file management tasks via the Firefl toolbar, drag and drop, or keyboard shortcuts.

You won’t find the power of Windows Commander or XYplorer, but for everyday basic needs its great, and gives you a lot of productivity by saving you the time it takes to switch between apps. You basically just get the interface to do cutting, pasting, copying, renaming, and some more basic tasks, but that’s really all I need. One unique option is that you can switch the number of viewing pane, horizontal and vertical alike. Creating 8 views might seem like chaos, but it may save a lot of time in some cases.

What I find most useful is the way you can navigate around using Firefox and Firefly combined. Since we are in a browser, we can use the versatility of bookmarks to navigate all around our computer. If you access a remote directory often, just create a bookmark with the keyword “dir” for example and whenever you type dir into the address bar you will be swooped there. With a few of these bookmarks and the ease of use of Firefly, you will be performing file actions much more productively than before.

Firefly fills a space which is rarely catered for by the software industry and it really can make you more productive, but I will still not use it probably. I don’t really know why, I just don’t like third party file browsers, I use the simple old Windows interface, so sue me.

Firefox 3 introduces a new bookmarking system which utilizes databases to store your history, favorites and so on, so you have much more power and control over them. Recently I reinstalled my system and decided to go with a fresh (not restored) Firefox, so I can organize myself better.

In fact, the best way I think you can go about organizing your bookmarks in a new install is if you do it the GTD way. When you arrive at a web page, spend 2 seconds and decide if this is worth a bookmark or not. Most likely the first pages you visit will be, since these will be pages you visit often anyway. In this case, just press CTR+D to bring up the bookmark menu.

Keep the name, or modify it to something more easily understandable. Remember, bookmarks are for you, so it’s ok to abbreviate, use acronyms and so on. Choose a folder and choose some tags. Tags are new in Firefox and can be put to great use. SInce I write to a load of blogs I can bring up all the bookmakrs for admin pages easily, while still keeping these in the same folder. When you’ve saved your bookmarks you can also go back and enter a keyword for them. Just right click on the entry, click on properties and enter something easily remembered and short.You can then type that into the url bar to go to the site.

The key to keeping organized is consistently following the rule to decide at each page what to do. Take the time to organize your bookmarks into tags and folders. This will create some extra work now, but after a few days of browsing you will have the most important sites covered and the work you’ll need to do from then on will be minimal while you will be much better organized.

I’ve already shown you how to use keyword navigation in Firefox, now let’s take that to the next level by creating naming schemes and putting some organization behind it. The problem is that while you may visit up to 50 sites regularly, coming up with 50 unique, short and easy to remember keywords is not that simple. Sure, you can use the site name, but typing organizationandplanning to get to Organization and Planning is not the quickest of methods.

Let me show you the method I use, which will work especially well if you’re a webmaster, have some blogs, or visit sub pages of one domain. I currently own or work on a number of websites, and I need quick access to the main pages, the admin panel, the comments section, google analytics, alexa rankings, feedburner page, and some others for all the sites.

What I do, is I simply create a keyword for the main pages I visit, for Hack Your Day this word is “hyd”, for Blogtastique it is btq. As you know, all I need to do is type hyd or btq in the url section in Firefox, press enter and that’s it. No http:// or www, nothing.

As a next step, I determine pages common to all other main pages I need to visit often. Like the Wordpress Dashboard, the write a new post page, comments section, analytics section, feedburner page and so on. When I bookmark these, I use the keyword of the main page and the sub-page together, so the “Write a post” page for Hack Your Day can be accessed by typing “hydwrite”. The one for the Blogtastique Blog can be accessed by “btqwrite”.

The great thing about this is that you only have to remember a tenth of the keywords you would normally, and they are pretty logical, so you can even guess. This system works best for reoccurring items, but you can adapt it for a different system too.

Mozilla has just released Firefox 3 beta 1, the first step to (a probably quite close) finished Firefox 3 final.

There have been a whole host of changes, apart from the few visual tweaks in the default theme. One of the best under-the-hood tweaks could be the plugging in of apparently 300+ memory leaks. I have had some trouble with Firefox when I have it open for a long time. It eats away at my memory, savoring the taste until I need to restart Firefox. Not a huge problem, but maybe one inconvenience solved.

Among some of my favorite upgrades are the history and bookmark organizer, supporting web-based email apps natively (this could be done with extensions before), tab scrolling, save tabs natively (this could be done in Opera for years, I’m not sure why it took Firefox this long) and simplified add-on installation.

I have only installed it now, so if I find some major issues (positive or negative) I’ll share it with you guys, stay tuned!

Found on MozillaZine
Download the beta from Mozilla
Complete list of new features

Here’s a quick tip to productivize yourself (making new words is great). If you use Firefox, use the bookmark organizer (Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks) to add a keyword to a bookmarked site. If you frequently use Google Reader you can just type “r” into the address bar, press enter and there you are, here’s how.

Once you’re in the organizer right-click on an entry, click on properties and find the field entitled “keyword”. Type something memorable in there, like “hyd” for Hack Your Day, and from then on if you type “hyd” in the address bar and press enter, you will be magically teleported to the blog.