Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with lifehack

Help me move around without arrow keys!

phaedrus441 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:54:51 -0800

How can I rebind the arrow keys to some other sequence (eg left becomes control-j, right becomes control-k, etc) so that I can quickly navigate around documents that I'm editing without needing to move my hand over to the arrow keys? I regulary use OS X and Windows versions off Word, as well as google docs. Bonus points if someone knows a portable way to do this so I can use computers at the lab.

Is there a one-stop way to make snail mail disappear?

ohyouknow — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:56:13 -0800

On my list of everyday things that drive me up the wall, snail mail is right up there with cilantro. Please help me make my mailbox disappear. I've read these threads, and was hoping that by now someone had come up with something a little easier?

I pay all of my bills automatically so there is really almost nothing that arrives via snail mail that's important to me. I've signed up for Green Dimes (which didn't really work), and signed up for e-payments across the board. I've also called Equifax and all of those guys. Yet the crap keeps on coming. There has got to be an easier way than spending half an hour on the phone with Pottery Barn and West Elm every other week... right??? (Also, I rent so I can't really just dismantle the mailbox, much as I might fantasize about it.)

Can I recycle my old Nokia 770 to do something useful on my desk, like display notifications or something?

ranglin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:15:43 -0800

TechQuestion: Can I recycle my old Nokia 770 Internet Tablet to do something useful on my desk, like display notifications (or something else)? Currently, I'm running three monitors on my desk. This is not intentional, it just sort of happened that way (I swear!), but it's given me a new appreciation for extra screen real estate.

With this in mind, I'm thinking about re-purposing my sadly neglected Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It's got a stand and a charger, so I can sit it on the desk, and it will also connect to the network via WiFi, but I can't work out WHAT to do with it and HOW to do it? The best I can come up with is to use it for notifications of new tweets, facebook status updates etc, but I can't find any software for it that monitors these things and lights up when something comes in.

Basically, I'm happy to do anything to the tablet to get it to do what I want. I'll reflash another OS, wire it up in some fancy way if that's what it takes, I just want to see if I can do something with it, since it's been pretty neglected since Mr iPhone arrived... :)

Hoping someone on MeFi has been here before and can give some hints and advice. Thanks guys!

Best way to send reminder email to others in future.

amalgamator — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:39:56 -0800

What is the easiest and free way to send reminder emails to others on scheduled dates in the future so they remember to do something they agreed to? Everyday two people from my class are scheduled to clean the lab...however people have been forgetting recently.

I was thinking that it may be helpful for them to receive a reminder email the day it was their turn, however the thought of me doing this every single day is depressing.

I have a couple ideas ( www.futureme.org, www.timecave.com, use gcal and invite people) None of these seem like the best way. For example Timecave.com only allows one recipient per message, thus doubling the time it takes to do this.

Any ideas?

Muji Chronotebook To Sweden?

avocade — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:59:04 -0800

Where can I order a Muji Chronotebook and ship it to Sweden? It seems like this wonderful creation is either out of stock, non-existent or simply "too precious to ship," as I got the impression when calling the NYC Muji store. Please help, I'm deeehehesperate.

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/04/muji_chronotebo.php

My fingers are too big for those little buttons...

matty — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:49:29 -0800

How do you hack your dress shirt? I have to wear suits to work. Joy.

I don't mind it so much I guess, as I've been doing it for years now - but the scourge of my morning is buttoning the buttons on the sleeves and wrists. It seems to take forever, it's frustrating, and it never EVER gets any easier.

To all you other suits out there - do you have any tips or tricks that make buttoning those little rascals any easier?

How do you limit the time in front of your computer?

technotheory — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:21:06 -0800

What limits do you set for yourself with regard to the time you spend in front of your computer? Does it work--any advice for enforcement? I'm not at all interested in recommendations for GTD or other productivity methods--I'm curious about any hard and fast limits that you try to set for yourself...and whether or not it's worked for you. I took a look at a MeFi thread on distractions and overcoming computer ADD, as well, and that did have a few ideas...but I'm curious what most people do as more and more of our lives are spent two feet away from backlit pixels.

Does anyone completely stop at 10pm? Do you pull the plug when your significant other is nearby? Do you capture the time you spend that's productive versus unproductive with tools like TimeSnapper or RescueTime? Have Firefox add-ins (like LeechBlock) or Windows hosts file modifications that restrict certain sites made an impact? Etc.

I'm curious what limits you impose and if they really work.

Help me, I'm a late adopter.

Zarkonnen — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:26:43 -0800

How do I learn new programming languages and start using modern web apps without getting frustrated and angry? So I'm in my mid-twenties and work in IT. I've been watching the last couple of years of exploding creativity on the net - literally millions of blogs, new programming languages, new ideas like twitter, citizen journalism, etcetera.

But lately I've realised that despite being able to see the potential benefits and really actually exciting possibilities of all this new stuff, I grumpily dismiss it and stick to how I've been doing things for the past couple of years. I use email, Java and PHP, and HTML 4.0.1 Transitional. I occasionally write some stuff in my site's news section, but I doubt my completely random ramblings make anyone come back. I'd like to think that I might have some interesting things to say on some topics, but I can't find the time to write about it, and it feels odd to intersperse "here's some photos I took" with "here's a detailed analysis of this political situation". I don't use Ruby Twitter XML Python LISP Quicksilver GTD Podcasts RSS Lifehacks. I don't contribute to wikis, or talk on forums (with the pretty much sole exception of MeFi).

At the same time I'm getting very frustrated with the limits of the tools I do know how to use - Java's verbosity and lack of support for first-class functions is a pain, and I don't like the fact that I'm always the last to hear about everything interesting that happens on the net. I have no coherent systems for making notes or keeping track of appointments or tasks, despite the plethora of Mac programs available for doing just that.

Why is this a problem? Well, I'm not even thirty yet, but I can already feel myself falling behind the times. I don't want to end up as the kind of programmer / person in general who toils away on some legacy project in a little corner, insisting "we've always done it this way" until one day I get fired for being completely superfluous. I want to want to learn new things. I want to be more organised.

So is there a question in all of this? Yes! I want you to tell me how to break out of my rut. Tell me how I can learn about, and start to use, new stuff, despite the two big obstacles I'm about to describe.

Obstacle number one: Why do I dislike new things? To a large part, to be honest, because the people who do use these things and try to promote them really grate on my nerves. Take programming languages: many advocates of new languages (Ruby, I'm looking at you) start off their pitch by pointing out how useless language X (also known as "Java") is, and how using their language allows you to become a massively more enlightened individual. Along the way, there is a strong implication that anyone who still uses language X in 2008 is a hopeless dinosaur. Way to insult your audience.

Number two: I find learning new things really unpleasant. Faced with needing to code a small website, another programmer would say "Cool, a chance to try out this new Python framework, and this AJAX front-end library - no one's ever tried using them together before, but I have a really clever plan involving metaclasses". I say "Well, I don't really want to take too much time on it, so let's code it up in imperative-style PHP 4. It's clunky, it's incredibly verbose, the code is hideous, and errors are hard to track down, but I know how it works and can liberally reuse code from previous projects." Of course, this is a caricature, but the point remains that that other programmer will end up being more productive and motivated than me, perhaps not on this project, but on the next, where I'm still using PHP 4, but the other guy would be using said Python framework (but not the AJAX library, because it turned out to be too buggy).

So why don't I go off and do like the other programmer? Because the framework and the library will have terrible, hard-to-find inconsistent documentatio, bugs that cause the default configuration to fail silently, and creators who have the attitude described in obstacle #1. And here's the crux of the matter: where the other programmer would think "Cool, a challenge! Let's try to get this working." I fly into an impotent rage, cursing the code, its creator, and myself. I will yell at the computer when yet another promising documentation link 404s on me, I will make strangling motions at the screen when it turns out that I installed some package whose name has no vowels on the wrong path, and I will mentally tally every single problem I've had getting the whole thing working. Both the other programmer and I will take about five hours to get the framework up and running, but while that's five hours of joyful problem-solving time for the other guy/gal, it's five hours of fuming at the computer for me, and I'll have a headache at the end. And somewhere along the way I will probably give up and code the thing in PHP 4 or Java, feeling guilty for being a dinosaur.

Much the same happens when the Thing in question isn't a programming language but a website or some organizer/productivity program.

So to the end of not having to look at new things anymore, I now come up with automatic put-downs for every new thing that crosses my path: Ruby's syntax is horrible, Twitter is shallow, XML is verbose, Python is white-space-sensitive, LISP is unreadable, Quicksilver is unstable and obtuse, GTD is for obsessive-compulsives, podcasts are narcissistic, RSS is inefficent and ill-defined and life hacks are impractical. Contributing to wikis is pointless, and all forums are full of 13 year olds.

Still, I want to learn and use new things, because I find them fascinating and recognise their potential. So what techniques, states of mind, resources would you suggest that I could use to approach learning new languages, starting to use new websites, new modes of communication, etcetera, without just coming away pissed off and exhausted?

(And if you've read all of this, congratulations. You get a voucher for small prize, redeemable anywhere on the moon only.)

Computerized "Job Jar"?

penciltopper — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:35:11 -0800

I would like randomly selected items from a To-Do list to "float to the top" on a regular basis. Ideas? Ok, so growing up, we had chores to do and things that needed doing around the house. Trying to assign them or claim them permanently never worked out very well, so we wrote anything that needed doing on slips of paper, put them in a jar. Every Sunday you took one item out of the jar and were stuck doing whatever was on the paper. Sometimes it was quick and easy, sometimes it was a real pain. But the luck of the draw made it easier to tolerate.

I have a Tasks list in Outlook that when printed out is several pages long, full of 4-hour or 8-hour projects. Guh. Obviously, it's too big to help me get it all done, and there's always some other needs-doing item I'd prefer to do that can push a more unpleasant task out of the way. I'd like to cut everything but this week's absolutely necessary "next action" items from my Tasks list, and have the rest somewhere else.

What I would like to do is block out a day or half-day each week for the "Job Jar". By some sort of magic, that big list of items would have one or two projects percolate to the top somehow, and notify me. They'd go in that week's block of time as Must-Dos, rather than languishing away on a Someday list as they do now.

I've seen a lot of productivity hacks go by on MeFi - does anyone have ideas?

I doubt Outlook would be able to do this for me, so any other tool that would do this is worth it. Gimme whatever you got.

I'm not interested in the obvious choice of assigning due dates beforehand to these projects and getting notified that way. If I am allowed to make choices about what's due when, then the whole element of random assignment I'm looking for is lost. I'm lousy at making deals with myself (I practice active procrastination), but can keep a Job-Jar-like pact; so I'm looking for something that can randomize listed items and deliver one or two a week.

Super double special rainbow pony bonus points for something that's smart enough to give me one item listed as All-Day or two listed as Half-Day.

Getting a ToDo List Manager is on my ToDo List

willmize — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:05:50 -0800

There seems to be a million different online and software based To Do List and Project Management applications, and my brain is tired of trying to figure out the difference between them. It's the bells and whistles that get to me. Help me find the one that fits! Here's a description of my perfect application:
1) I have Project A, B, C, D, E through infinity. There should be no limit to the number of projects I can have.
2) I have Tasks assigned to each Project that need to be done in a certain order to complete that project.
3) The ability to look at one Project in detail, see all Tasks and be able to makes notes on each task.
4) When I log in or fire up the app, I want to see a list of all projects, along with *just the current task waiting to be accomplished.* I get overwhelmed easily when I see a list of 20 to 30 tasks for just one project. I just want to see the one task I need to focus on now. For example, I could have Project A - Task 4, Project B - Task 2, Project C - Task 8, etc.
5) When I check off that task (let's say Project A - Task 4), the next one comes up - the next time I log in, instead of showing Project A - Task 4, it would show Task 5.
6) I would LOVE for this to be an online application and therefore independent of operating system. Bonus points for the ability to be able to drag and drop to reorder Tasks and prioritize Projects. Also bonus points for the ability to group Projects according to similarity (writing, home improvement, fitness and diet, vacation planning, car maintenance, etc)
7) If it's software based, it needs to fit on a thumb drive and be cross-platform, as I have a PC at work and a mac at home.

I've looked at Remember The Milk, Vitalist and TaDaList but don't think they fit the bill for the above.

I hope I've been specific enough and hope this question might also help others whose brain works similarly to mine.

Thanks so much for your help.

How do I reposition myself and jumpstart my life?

t2urner — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:03:01 -0800

A series of interrelated mental and physical illnesses turned my life (and the time I spent in law school) into what can best be described as an out-of-body experience. Four years later, I'm beginning to come out of it--I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an oncoming train. It's pretty obvious (to me, if not to a few people who believe in me and/or my talents) that finding a position at a firm is out of the question. Which leaves another question: am I out of my mind to think that I can, via the magic of another graduate degree, reposition myself and get the career I'd hoped for before the psychological bottom fell out? The short(-ish) version: I was initially diagnosed as being severely depressed several months before beginning law school. Meds didn't help--and we tried several. I'd be fine for a couple of months, but would then crash. The crash left me feeling more depressed than I'd felt before taking the prescription meds; I also suffered anxiety attacks, an inability to concentrate for any length of time...all of which just killed me academically.

Before you ask: scholarship and financial aid issues kept me from taking a leave of absence; all I could do was to try and soldier on and hope things would improve. They didn't. Friends, acquaintances and professors who weren't aware of what was going on would occasionally give me the "What the #@$% is going on with this guy?" look, which I noticed in the manner of someone thinking, "I'm about to be punched; this is going to hurt" a millisecond or two after fist meets face. There was a half-hearted suicide attempt; there were several lengthy conversations with therapists and the Dean of my school, who ended up encouraging me to hang in there, just get across the finish line, you'll feel such a sense of accomplishment at having completed the task given everything you've gone through...and to tell the truth, for one brief afternoon (commencement day) I actually had that feeling. I hadn't done well at all, but I hadn't quit, either. But looking back at it, I wonder what, if anything, I accomplished by crawling across the "I have a law degree from one of the top ten schools in the country" finish line.

Because here I am, a few years later, and...it looks like the medical profession is finally beginning to figure out what has been--is--wrong with me. Some combination of a mild form of MS, chemical depression, and sleep apnea . Those of you in the know about these things are raising your eyebrows at this point, because you know that some of the neurological bits and pieces that mark MS can also be indicators for sleep apnea; the sleep apnea can be the cause of many of the symptoms that can also lead to a diagnosis of depression, et cetera. Is it one? Is it the other? Perhaps all of the above? On the one hand, I kinda sorta have an idea as to what's going on. On the other, I'm more confused (and frustrated) that I don't have a single definitive answer. But I'm getting there. I have a good doctor and two neurologists who seem to be brimming with "I can't believe they didn't figure this out earlier" confidence, and so I'm hopeful that I can get my life back on track--"back on track" meaning that I can start being as productive and mentally aware of things as I was before the bottom dropped out.

Which brings me to the career question. The combination of my having been absent from the legal world altogether since law school and the grades received while attending law school more or less precludes my becoming a lawyer. I went through the usual slew of law firm interviews before, during and after my third year of law school. I'd make it to, say, the visit the firm stage of things when someone would finally say something along the lines of, "You're obviously [fill in the blanks with intellectual compliment here]...what happened during law school?" Well, how do you answer a question like that---how do you tell a potential employer in an area where your brain is the most important tool of the trade that yours was broken for several years, but that it's better now, and you can do the work if given the opportunity? I'm not sure if I can.

So I'm thinking of doing two things: [1] taking the Bar Exam in July, and [2] taking the GMAT. Doing the former is more for personal reasons than anything else--I want to prove something to myself--; doing the latter, I think, will allow me to leverage myself into a consulting position somewhere, jumpstart my career, and allow me to prove to potential employers (via that wonderful piece of paper known as an academic transcript) that I'm normal. I've always been the mediator/arbitrator/counselor in a given situation, professionally and personally; I'm thinking that an MBA with a concentration in something along the lines of change management is the right way to go. And given the economy, this might be the right time to retool/retrain and be ready for whatever comes next.

All of this, of course, assumes that over the next few months I begin to come back around medically. I'm making plans, which I suppose is a good thing. Somebody out there has to have experienced something like this. But even if you haven't, I'd like an opinion or three: am I out of my mind to be thinking like this re: professional planning? Comments? Suggestions?

Please keep the snark to a minimum, thanks.

How often should I change my pillows?

bove — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:15:07 -0800

Help me construct the ultimate home cleaning/maintenance schedule. I want to know how often things need to be cleaned, changed, or updated in your home? I am a fairly new homeowner. I was inspired recently by the definitive cleaning schedule found here. What I want to do is go one step further and put together a spreadsheet that lists different items or tasks that I can update when I have replaced/cleaned something, and then will give me the date for the next time that item will need to be replaced or cleaned.

The link I have above is about cleaning. However, I know there are lots of other maintenance issues that could be added to a spreadsheet like this. For instance, how often do I need to replace my air filter? How often should I switch out my toothbrush? I have heard that you should replace your pillows after a certain length of time. I found this prior question about recurring calendar events. It has some really good stuff in it, however for most of the ideas people provide, they don't specify how often these things need to be done. I would really like to know how often I need to replace my smoke detector batteries for instance.

Also, if you have ideas for the best way to set up a spreadsheet like this, I would also be interested in that.

Brilliant recurring calendar events?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:44:40 -0800

What brilliant recurring events have you set up on your calendar app? So I was thinking, as my reminder went off a few days ago signaling that it was time to recalibrate my Macbook's battery, that there are probably a lot of little "life maintenance" things I should be remembering to do on a regular schedule. Immediately, I set to compiling a list of important things that I wouldn't normally think/remember to do, but that would Enrich My Life in some way.

I got one item — "Replace alarm clock battery every year" — down before I decided to just decided to ask MeFi instead.

So? The lifehack-ier the better!

How to run script when you connect to network?

mrgreyisyelling — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:56:25 -0800

How to run a program/script automatically when laptop connects to Home wireless network? I'm not sure if its necessary - but is it possible to setup something that when it connects to a specific network, it runs a script?

An example would be: I come home with my laptop, and when my laptop connects to Home Network its starts my sync program to copy files to my backup drive on the network.

how can I email myself in the future?

esolo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:09:14 -0800

I want to be able to email myself into the future, using Gmail. So for example, 3 months from now, I want to receive an email from myself reminding me to renew the license sticker on my car. How can I do this? If not Gmail, then how?

How do I tame the tangle o cords at my desk?

Koffeeman — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:07:42 -0800

LifeHack: Does anyone have a clever way to hide multiple cords at an exposed desk before I trip on them? I have a refinished 1920s secretary's desk with kneehole for my home office. Given the number of tech toys I have, there is a plethora of cords hanging off the desk. The desk has a shelving unit next to it to hold the CPU so the cables droop behind the desk then up to the CPU. All told there are about 6-10 power, speaker, mouse, keyboard, and USB cords running from various locations on the desk. I need some ideas to hide the appearance of the cords and possibly contain them. I would prefer to DIY instead of buying a solution. Any ideas?

Songs To Kill Procrastination

pipstar — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:29:30 -0800

MotivationFilter, MusicFilter: What particular songs motivate you? This is my year for finally putting cool ideas into action and I was hoping to gather a playlist of good, procrastination killing songs that will help me to start and keep motivated.

I already have a lot of music that is enjoyable to work to (once I've actually started) and which helps to maintain flow, so what I'd like are indie, punk, pop, folk, any genre songs which inspire me to do the "starting".

Hidden amongst the responses to this old Ask MeFi post about motivation was a link to the lyrics of Little Acorns by The White Stripes. If you're familiar with the track you'll know that there's a voiceover introducing the concept of "Take all your problems // And rip 'em apart". And every time I listen to the song now, I remind myself to take that advice.

So, what tracks can you suggest?

Stress-less sleep

SanctiCrucis05 — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 14:19:27 -0800

Help my girlfriend deal with stress so she (and I) can sleep. My girlfriend is a type-A person who likes to keep all aspects of her life organized. This organization allows her to not only be more efficient in everything she does, but also allows her to alleviate stress on a daily basis. She runs whenever she can and journals to deal with stress that can be verbalized and can't be expunged through exercise. Each of these coping mechanisms helps her deal very effectively with stress. However, she works during the day and has class at night, and so she is often thinking and working until about an hour before she goes to sleep, and thus has trouble "downshifting" from work mode to sleep mode.

Whenever my girlfriend has this late night stress, she struggles for up to two hours to fall asleep. She has extreme trouble getting comfortable and obviously ends up in a frustrating loop. As she becomes more frustrated and tired, she often begins to feel nauseous, which simply makes matters worse. This stressful process of falling asleep (or not) is negatively effecting both of our energy levels on a fairly frequent basis. She's looking to find some sort of method that would allow her to alleviate stress and downshift from active problem solving mode to restful sleep mode. Any meditation hints, visualization, or whatever else you suggest would definitely help!

Thanks in advance...

Help me PIMP OUT my CAR PHONE

Milkman Dan — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 13:11:24 -0800

My '92 Nissan Altima has a freakin' CAR PHONE in it. What can I do with it? Indeed, an old-fashioned touch-tone car-phone, wired into the car. It's been sitting under our seat for over a year and we've never really thought about it. But I'm curious: are there any crazy hacks one can carry out on a car-phone? Here's the type of stuff I'm thinking of:

- Miraculously free phone calls using some unknown third-party connection service
- Laptop connectivity by hooking up a modem to the car phone
- Using it as an in-car PA system by connecting it through the radio

I dunno, let's be creative. Does anybody know of a website that offers instructions for car-phone reappropriation? Has anybody modified a car phone on their own time? Do any companies even still offer car-phone services?

techniques for creating new habits needed

matholio — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:05:24 -0800

Does anyone know any techniques for creating new habits. I find it fraustrating that the habits I do have and don't want, are hard to break, and the habits I want are hard to establish. Thanks Even something simple like : "Drink a glass of water everytime I put the kettle on" or "go to bed at a reasonable hour" seems to start out well but then some time later, I realise I'm not doing it any more.
I usually don't remember the point I stopped doing something.

Perhaps identifying an approaching failure state is the trick.

What labels do you use in Gmail?

pithy comment — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:23:53 -0800

What labels do you use in Gmail? I feel like I have too many labels for my Gmail account and there is too much overlap between them. What are the best sets of labels? Here's my labels,* and I think some could be added, some removed, some renamed:

Accounts - registration emails for websites, bills
Business - anything 'business' related (but not work, that's another email address altogether), like side consulting jobs, family
[Church] - church group listserv
[Condo Association] - I'm on the board
Family - any email from or related to my family
Forwards - some interesting forwards (I can't wait for Bill Gates and AOL to pay be $24,756!!!!1)
[Fraternity] - alumni listserv, local chapter alumni board
[Fraternity 2] - regional alumni association, I'm on the board
Home & Loans - mortgage, gas/electric bills, conto questions
[Hometown] - kind of like personal, but emails from friends from home and related to my highschool (reunions, etc)
Orders - any online order (Amazon, ebay, etc.)
[Part time job] - self explanitory
Personal - kind of a catch all for emails from friends from where I live now or my hometown
Politics - messages from a few lists related to politics
[Project] - a project I'm involved with
Recipe - a file of recipes
Travel - details of travel plans (flight confirmations, etc)
[University] - Alumni assoc emails, mostly
Website - anything related to domain registration, hosting, etc. Often get labeled with the [fraternity] or other label
X - messages from my ex-girlfriend (should I delete these?)

*Labels in [] genericized

Power shower hacks?

roofus — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 03:02:08 -0800

Help me become a power shower power-user. I moved into a new flat (apartment) with no bath. I feel like I'm not getting the most out of my shower. I crave proper soaking in a tub, and the shower seems so unappealing first thing in the morning. It is however a good shower; decent water pressure, endless hot water at a constant temperature, and a proper overhead fitted nozzle, not a handheld. What are your top "shower hacks" for getting the best showering experience?

Looking for a visual filemanagement tool

falameufilho — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 22:37:15 -0800

I am looking for a file management tool that will help me clear some space on the hard drive of my WinXP laptop. I have a 60Gb hard drive and I am running out of space. I have deleted lots of stuff, and the situation is under control now, but I know I will run into this problem again soon. The thing is: my directory structure is a mess, and has always been like that. What I need is a tool that will help me in my "housekeeping" chores. Windows Explorer just won't cut it.

I remember that for Win 3.1, back in the dark ages, I had a shareware that would show your directory structure as a visual map, where larger directories (in total file size) would be represented by larger squares, and you could click on these squares to navigate through your HD, making the cleaning process a breeze.

Does anyone know of any tool that can help me?

internet download monitor?

pipstar — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:23:24 -0800

I keep on getting in trouble for going over my daily download limit at work. Can anyone recommend an app which will track how much bandwidth i'm using throughout the day? (for Win XP) I've looked on the 43folders wiki which has great suggestions about habit breaking, but alongside changing my behaviour I'd really like something that tells me how much I've downloaded.

Where can I find this script?

shoppingforsanity — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 16:25:40 -0800

I was reading Lifehacker yesterday, and came across this entry. My questions concerns this little blurb at the bottom: This reminds me of the little script I used to use to remind me to get up and move about, something I need to do because of, och, me achin' back.

Is this script he mentions something that is generally available? Or do you think it is something that he just wrote himself? Because I sure could use something like that, having gained 10 pounds in the month and a half since I've started my new job sitting at a computer all day because I can never remember to get up and move around every couple of hours... can anybody point me in the right direction? Thanks!