Tips For Organizing Your Online Life Using Your Personalized Homepage & Online Password Manager
- By Colin Cheng
- Published 10/9/2011
- Internet
- Unrated
People are spending more and more time online. Whether it is at work, school or home, modern lives are continually dependent on technology and the Internet. Just try to imagine a world without computers, cell phones and the web. However, a lot of the time spent online is wasted. Here are a few tips to help you be more efficient online.
1.Plan What You Want to Do Online
The number of sites and pages on the web runs into the millions, if not billions and it is very easy to get distracted. We are all guilty of this. We logon to find a recipe and end up spending half an hour looking at an online shop or looking at your friend’s holiday pictures. The ability to remain focused whilst online is a very important one. I’m a firm believer in working methodically and prioritizing tasks. If I have only 10 minutes to use the Internet then I will do the most important things first – check my emails, check the news and any websites I visit regularly. Then, with any time that remains I’ll spend it on something not as important e.g. socializing, playing online games and so on. It is very tempting to try and do everything at once but it is better to complete one thing well rather than lots of things poorly and even worse to leave things unfinished.
2.Know Your URLs & Organize Your Bookmarks
Did you know the majority of searches on the web are for websites that are used regularly? Email providers, social networks, search engines and online stores are amongst the most common search engine terms. Searching for your favourite websites is counter-productive as it wastes a lot of time. You will waste a lot of time, navigating to a search engine, typing in the website you want, then clicking one of the results and then waiting for the results. You can save a few clicks and time spent waiting for pages to load by writing the address of the website into the address bar in your browser. For example, typing in ‘email.com’ will save you a few seconds than searching for it. A few seconds might not seem like much but over a day, a month or even a year you’re looking at a lot of time wasted!
One step further is to organize your bookmarks. Not many people use them or even know about them but bookmarks are an invaluable tool to save time and help you navigate the web better. A bookmark is basically a permanently link to a website. They can be for websites, webpages, images, videos, news articles and so on. Your browser will allow you to save your favorites so you don’t have to search for them or write in the address. Furthermore, there are many online bookmarking
tools that will allow you to access your favorites from any computer you use. Bookmarking is a great way to save time – you don’t even need to write anything! In one click you can be at your email service, social network or even your favorite online store.
3.Use Online Services
There are many online web services that have been created to make your online life and work more streamlined. These range from online password managers to personalized homepages and news aggregators. Password managers do exactly just that – they manage your passwords for you, some even allow you to automatically log into sites without having to type your account details yourself. They might seem unsafe but they are very secure and are safer than writing your passwords down on notes around your computer. Personalized homepages and news aggregators work in similar ways – by offering you a selection of customized content on one page. Some will have news and weather headlines and others allow you to link to your favorite social networks so you can visit one page and get an update on a whole range of things.
4.Check Emails at Intervals
It’s tempting to check our emails every five minutes but this is not very productive. Firstly, most of the time, there won’t be any new emails to read. Secondly, this breaks your concentration a lot. If you have a project that needs finishing by the end of the day but are drawn into a lengthy conversation via email, you will be left with a very tight deadline. Instead, check your email two to three times a day and prioritize the emails that need replying to straight away and ones that can wait until when you are less busy.
5.Get to Know Your Browser
This is a very important step for general web browsing in general. There are lots of browsers available on the market and the best ones are free. Web browsers read HTML (the language most websites are made out of) differently so some browsers are faster at loading up a webpage. You’d be surprised at how slow some browsers are in comparison. Secondly the many different web browsers offer many different services and features. Some allow you to connect with your social networking sites, others block online advertising for you. A common feature of modern browsers is tab browsing, allowing you view multiple websites in different tabs at any given time. It’s a great time saving feature (although don’t get too carried away!). It’s important to research browsers and compare them. The one you are using at the moment might not be the one best suited for your needs. Most browsers are free and you can be easily uninstalled if you decide they aren’t for you.
In conclusion, hopefully the above tips will be useful for you in saving time online and working more efficiently.
1.Plan What You Want to Do Online
The number of sites and pages on the web runs into the millions, if not billions and it is very easy to get distracted. We are all guilty of this. We logon to find a recipe and end up spending half an hour looking at an online shop or looking at your friend’s holiday pictures. The ability to remain focused whilst online is a very important one. I’m a firm believer in working methodically and prioritizing tasks. If I have only 10 minutes to use the Internet then I will do the most important things first – check my emails, check the news and any websites I visit regularly. Then, with any time that remains I’ll spend it on something not as important e.g. socializing, playing online games and so on. It is very tempting to try and do everything at once but it is better to complete one thing well rather than lots of things poorly and even worse to leave things unfinished.
2.Know Your URLs & Organize Your Bookmarks
Did you know the majority of searches on the web are for websites that are used regularly? Email providers, social networks, search engines and online stores are amongst the most common search engine terms. Searching for your favourite websites is counter-productive as it wastes a lot of time. You will waste a lot of time, navigating to a search engine, typing in the website you want, then clicking one of the results and then waiting for the results. You can save a few clicks and time spent waiting for pages to load by writing the address of the website into the address bar in your browser. For example, typing in ‘email.com’ will save you a few seconds than searching for it. A few seconds might not seem like much but over a day, a month or even a year you’re looking at a lot of time wasted!
One step further is to organize your bookmarks. Not many people use them or even know about them but bookmarks are an invaluable tool to save time and help you navigate the web better. A bookmark is basically a permanently link to a website. They can be for websites, webpages, images, videos, news articles and so on. Your browser will allow you to save your favorites so you don’t have to search for them or write in the address. Furthermore, there are many online bookmarking
3.Use Online Services
There are many online web services that have been created to make your online life and work more streamlined. These range from online password managers to personalized homepages and news aggregators. Password managers do exactly just that – they manage your passwords for you, some even allow you to automatically log into sites without having to type your account details yourself. They might seem unsafe but they are very secure and are safer than writing your passwords down on notes around your computer. Personalized homepages and news aggregators work in similar ways – by offering you a selection of customized content on one page. Some will have news and weather headlines and others allow you to link to your favorite social networks so you can visit one page and get an update on a whole range of things.
4.Check Emails at Intervals
It’s tempting to check our emails every five minutes but this is not very productive. Firstly, most of the time, there won’t be any new emails to read. Secondly, this breaks your concentration a lot. If you have a project that needs finishing by the end of the day but are drawn into a lengthy conversation via email, you will be left with a very tight deadline. Instead, check your email two to three times a day and prioritize the emails that need replying to straight away and ones that can wait until when you are less busy.
5.Get to Know Your Browser
This is a very important step for general web browsing in general. There are lots of browsers available on the market and the best ones are free. Web browsers read HTML (the language most websites are made out of) differently so some browsers are faster at loading up a webpage. You’d be surprised at how slow some browsers are in comparison. Secondly the many different web browsers offer many different services and features. Some allow you to connect with your social networking sites, others block online advertising for you. A common feature of modern browsers is tab browsing, allowing you view multiple websites in different tabs at any given time. It’s a great time saving feature (although don’t get too carried away!). It’s important to research browsers and compare them. The one you are using at the moment might not be the one best suited for your needs. Most browsers are free and you can be easily uninstalled if you decide they aren’t for you.
In conclusion, hopefully the above tips will be useful for you in saving time online and working more efficiently.
Colin Cheng
myhomepage.com - Your online password manager and personalized homepage. myhomepage was founded by Max Aengevelt and Massimo Agostinelli in 2009 in London, England. It offers a personalized homepage that lets you bookmark all your favorite websites and store all of your logins in one place, a secure password vault. You can even automatically log into selected websites with just one click
View all articles by Colin Cheng