1. Recognize it’s a muscle and it’s normal to not know how to do it yet. We aren’t born knowing everything! Technology is going to stick around and it’s not going anywhere, so we may as well learn it. 😉 The people who want to be successful in the online world will have to recognize it’s important and learn to adapt with new habits and muscle memory. You can practice hands-on and try new things, just like learning a musical instrument.
2. Take one small thing and learn it daily. Seek it out especially if it’s embarrassing to admit you don’t know it. Find the area with the weak muscle and work it daily to improve.
Top ten keyboard shortcuts:
– Cmd-tab (or alt-tab in Windows) to switch between open apps.
– Cmd-1, 2, 3, etc to load favourites from the Safari Favourites bar in that order. Email lucas@macinhome.com what browser you use if you have a non-Mac browser and want the Windows equivalents. See this video as reference.
– Cmd-Q (or alt-F4 in Windows) to Quit.
– Cmd-W (or alt-F4 in Windows) to Close window.
– Cmd-N (or ctrl-N in Windows) for New item, window, email, or document.
– Left, right, up, down arrows for Navigating text. To select text hold shift while using arrows or hold shift-option while using arrows to select words or sentences. To jump to the end of words use option-arrow.
– Cmd-L (or ctrl-L in Windows) to go to Location bar. See this video as reference.
– Cmd-S (or ctrl-S in Windows) to save your open document.
– Cmd-delete (or delete in Windows) to move something to the Trash. See this video as reference.
– Cmd-spacebar to open Spotlight and find stuff (Mac only).
3. Options options options! For everything you need to do, have a couple of options. To send big files, learn Dropbox and wetransfer.com as well. To sign and fax a document when your scanner isn’t working just take a high resolution photo with iPhone and then email it. When you can’t get on Wifi you can hook up a personal hotspot through your iPhone.
4. Get and use Evernote to have all your notes and clippings on your Mac, iPhone, and cloud. Why is it good? You get collaboration and sharing as a team. Tagging notes for easy searching in drink recipes. Adding reminders to notes. Using it as an idea dumping ground for creativity. Features like the web clipper and photo/audio support for dictation. It works on all platforms, phones, and computers!
5. There’s no one perfect tool. Find the right tools for each job and get them working as smoothly as possible together to save time and money. Pull everything together and set it up into a comfortable “ecosystem” you can get access to from anywhere. Get started on the five to ten tools you need the most and get them all talking and syncing so they can be off your mind.
