Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better [Paperback]

Gina Trapani (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470238364 | ISBN-13: 978-0470238363 | Publication Date: March 17, 2008 | Edition: 2

Whether you?re a Mac or Windows user, there are tricks here for you in this helpful resource. You?ll feast on this buffet of new shortcuts to make technology your ally instead of your adversary, so you can spend more time getting things done and less time fiddling with your computer. You?ll learn valuable ways to upgrade your life so that you can work?and live?more efficiently, such as: empty your e-mail inbox, search the Web in three keystrokes, securely save Web site passwords, automatically back up your files, and many more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A productivity manual-slash-computer book, this book is packed full of tips...Buy this book. Immediately." Photo Pro June 2008 "Easy to dip in and out of, you won't fail find something here that will speed up your work.".net August 2008

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (March 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470238364
• ISBN-13: 978-0470238363
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gina Trapani is the award-winning author, blogger, and programmer whose work translates cutting-edge technology into insights that boost personal productivity. Gina was the founding editor of Lifehacker, the seminal productivity blog which garnered nominations for Blog of the Decade and yielded the best-selling book, Upgrade Your Life. Currently located in San Diego, CA, Gina is a project director at Expert Labs leading development on ThinkUp, an open source crowdsourcing platform the White House uses.

Through her work co-hosting This Week in Google, creating browser extensions that customize Google's web applications, and writing The Complete Guide to Google Wave, she's become the foremost independent voice on the technology efforts of web titan Google. Her writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Wired, PC World, Fast Company, Maximum PC, and Macworld magazines. Profiles of her work have appeared in venues ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times. A popular and in-demand public speaker, Gina has given feature presentations and keynote speeches at first-tier events like the Web 2.0 Expo. Fast Company named her one of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2009 and 2010, and Wired magazine awarded her its prestigious Rave Award in 2006.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book will pay for itself, April 8, 2008

By 

J. Kelly "GA Book Fan" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better (Paperback)

I've read the entire book and implemented quite a few of the Hacks in my daily routine. Based on the amount of time I've already saved in just a few weeks, this book has easily paid for itself 2 or 3 times.

Some of the specific Hacks that I'm using and their results:

* Email Control - My Inbox is empty and I've finally got my email under control with filters and the 3-folders system created (I added a 4th folder - Print - for emails that I want a hard copy of but my laptop isn't connected to my printer)

* Digital Photos - I've got all my photos tagged and organized for fast searches

* Repetitive Typing - how did I ever get along without Texter???

* Google Calendar - I love using my mobile phone to update my calendar when I'm on the road or need to post a quick reminder that Calendar will email and text me.

I've still got a few things from the book on my To-Do List:

* Get my bookmarks moved over to del.icio.us as described in the book
* Setup my automated data backup to my external hard drive (I do it manually right now)

Gina's written a great book that really works. The book is platform independent and she tells you when something is Mac or Windows specific. She also lets you know the skill level (Easy, Medium, Advanced) that a Hack will require.

I enjoyed reading it and will probably go through it again soon to make sure I've implemented any hacks that can make my life easier - I'm sure I missed a few.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The second edition is just as good as the first..., July 31, 2008

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better (Paperback)

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.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for those wanting to be a bit more efficient, May 28, 2008

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better (Paperback)

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