This will be a fairly obvious tip, but actually no one I know does this, and they spend hours formatting a document, when they could save at least half, if not more, of that time. Around 90% of the time people who write a Word document will format as they go along. This is probably the biggest mistake you can make when creating any document, here’s why, and how to stop doing it.

Purely productivity-wise this is a no-no because each time you get to a point you have to format you loose focus and concentrate on formatting, rather than writing, which might mean your quality deteriorates, but at the very least, you will tire more easily. Second of all, 40 pages into the doc, will you still remember the exact heading type you used for each purpose? Going back to check is a waste of time, not checking means you will make an error eventually, so let’s get out of this situation once and for all.

Now here’s the magic many know but few follow, do not format a document as you are writing it. Format it when the whole thing is done, and I mean the whole thing, not when you’re just done for the day! This will help you in so many ways and will probably save you the frustration of printing something, then realizing a heading is all wrong. The biggest advantage this gives you is consistency, because you gain the ability of thinking in terms of a document, not in terms of a section or a page. Now that you have a uniform document you can also change styles with one click, by updating the look of a heading, or choosing a new style, which will change the look of the whole doc.

Not having to go back and forth between sections, finding why the table of contents is missing an entry, why a section heading is so small and so on is well worth the pain of writing a non-formatted doc. If you really hate that 12pt Times New Roman look, change the base font to something fancy while you write, you can just update that one when done as needed.

A lot of times, especially after meals I get very tired. I’m one of those people who is completely incapable of working if tired (I was probably spoiled), so in these cases I have to find my rush. I found that a 20-30 minute nap can help a LOT! Now whenever I used to hear that I said no way, I’ll just be more tired when I wake up. While this may certainly feel true when you actually wake, but you’ll feel the goodness in a few minutes.

I’ll tell you staright up, many times it will be hard to wake, having to start the day “again”, but it is so worth it. After about 10-15 minutes after the nap I feel very refreshed and ready. The trick is choosing the nap length well. You need to choose a period which doesn’t go into the deeper part of your sleep cycle, but optimally you should sleep as much as possible. I would say 20 minutes is a safe bet, if you want a good analysis of your sleep cycle, try going to a sleep clinic for an exam. You can also sleep through your deep sleep and wake at the beginning of your next cycle, but all this is tricky business in terms of determining the exact time. If you do this more and more you’ll find the best time for you which will make it much easier to wake up.

In my experience it’s the best to lie down for a while, reading a book or just thinking about stuff for ten minutes, then sleeping for around 20 minutes. I have also found that not sleeping, just lying down for that time also helps. You should spend time doing “nothing”, not reading, not really thinking (at least not about work), this will let your brain take a break and will help you work at increased efficiency after your nap time is over.

I found an extension for Firefox on gHacks today I’ve always been looking for, it gives you the ability to reach specific websites with a keyboard shortut. With Launchy and the new Awesome Bar in Firefox 3 getting to sites has become much easier, but Site Launcher is a different kind of wonderful.

Once installed you can configure it by adding URL-s and keyboard shortcuts for them. You can also remove existing ones from the list, so you can tailor this addon to yourself.  The greatest thig about it is that it caters for the shortcut junkies and the occasional users too with two types of usage available, an easy to follow overlay, and simple shortcut key type operation.

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There are a number of things each blogger can do to draw visitors to their site. I’ve said it a lot, content is the first and foremost way to do this, but let me elaborate on that a bit, and add a few more of what I think are the best method to get people on your site.

1. Solid content and regular updates

Writing good content is the one and only thing you need to do to get visitors, all other methods will just expedite the process. Geting links is the most important thing of course rank-wise, but that all comes from content, so directly or indirectly this is the most important part of your site. Updating regularly is also a good method to keep search engines “on their toes”. With blogs this usually isn’t a big issue, if you have a static site, then maybe adding a page or two montly, or better yet, attaching a blog may a be a good way to go.

2. Write guest posts

Writing guest posts is an awesome way to lure people to your site. I was lucky enough to get on board with Make Use Of and gHacks quite early on and this has given me quite a lot of visitors, and also better opportunities, networking options, and in case of gHacks, an awesome free t-shirt from Martin which I wear all the time. Ah the little perks of blogging!

Getting into good blogs can be a challenge, but with the right attitude I don’t think this will be a problem. The secret here is not to impose yourself upon these blogs. Let a few of your favorites know you’re out there, just say hi, you like their posts and you hope that they can take a look at your blog whenever they get the chance. If they are looking for someone to write for them they will ask you, or keep you in mind, I don’t think there’s any need to actually ask about guest post writing, but as long as you’re polite anything goes. Also, don’t expect to get paid, although you probably will.

My experience in general, is that all serious bloggers are really nice people. Many have helped me selflessly, like Martin from gHacks or Aibek and Mark from Make Use Of, and I mean in essence I am a rival blog for them. If you are nice to bloggers, I’m willing to bet quite a lot that they will be there for you when you need them.

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Welcome to part 2 of out blog spotlight column! Columns are a new feature here at Hack Your Day, right now we only have Blog Spotlight, but there will be more to come. Columns will be implemented in the design soon, so you can visit specific columns and view those posts only. Part 1 was all about The 2.0 Life, a great little blog, today I’ll be looking at one of my favorite blogs, FreewareGenius.

Freeware Genius delivers what it promises, awesome freeware finds, and although they don’t post every day, their finds are always great! In fact, I sort of trust them more, because they don’t post every day, I sort of eagerly await each new article.

It says a lot about the blog that I very rarely actually read it. This might seem like a criticism, but I’ve just gotten used to the fact that I like what they offer. I take a look at the screenshot and decide if I like it or not. If I can’t decide right away I read into the article and they always clear everything up. Their feature listings and notes are so spot on I can always decide if the app has the features I need or not.

As an example, they have a great article on the app called Phlox. I really liked it, it tweaks F2 for renaming files in XP to work like it does in Vista. In the notes you can read the following:

“While it works really well in general, I noticed at times that it becomes less responsive and might stop working and require a program restart (a bug, perhaps?)”

These little personal touches help a lot in deciding to use an app or not, or if its worth your time to check out. The article also has a wishlist, which describes how the app could be better. In the end I decided not to give it a go, I don’t have time to muck about with this right now if it has some faults and so on, so Freewaregenius might have saved me some time too!

Overall, this is just a damn useful blog to visit or have in your RSS feed. It really says a lot that I trust their judgement without question. For me they are a resource rather than a “reading” blog, but I visit them every day and the posts actually are very well written and descriptive. Read them, like them, love them!

In a recent article on gHacks I’ve already explored if Wordpress 2.7 is better, and indeed my final verdict is that it is. I have some problems in functionality, since I think it could have addressed some functionaliy problems (video embeding, galleries) that could still use some work, but after using it full time for more than a week now I am quite satisfied with it, and the ease of use it brings to the admin area is astonishing.

A feature I have always wanted, and is the best one implemented for a while is the ability to quick-reply to comments from the dashboard. Since I am not a huge-mega blog yet, I get a maximum of 5-6 proper comments a day, which are easy to reply to right away. The ability to reply using an inline form that pops out is wonderful, this probably saves me a few minutes a day (that’s a LOT, considering the short time it would take to answer them anyway). Top marks for the WP team on this, such a simple thing when you think about it, but so useful!

The next best new implementation is the dashboard overhaul. As much as they tried in 2.5, the dashboard was never a go to place for me. It always seemed to revolve around Wordpress in general and didn’t have that much interactivity. Sure, it had comments at a glance, but if I have to go to the relevant section to answer them anyway, I won’t be bothered with the dash. Now it also has some easier to view statistics, a quick post writer and some other neat features.

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