LifeHacks

This page contains hacks and tips, that I use to be more efficient. Most of these are computer based tips, but that's not unusual, because I'm a programmer. The idea to put these tips here was based on LifeHacks, but that website is not used anymore and points to 43Folders now.

There a lot more lifehacks websites now, like LifeHacker and lifehack.org.

Lifehacks are all about productivity and getting things done. And these tips down here are my tips to increase productivity on your computer. Especially if you use a Un*x or GNU/Linux based computer.

2005-12-09 Use version control

Using version control is one of the simplest things you can do to keep your files safe from your own mistakes.

• Subversion
• Darcs

It doesn't really matter which one you use, when you're not using one at the moment. I use both subversion and darcs for my projects. Both work good. It might just be a matter of the project you're working on.

2005-11-07 Know an text editor

For programmers it's a good thing to know an editor well. If you know an editor, you can type faster, and use less keys to do the thing you want to do.

• Seven Habits of effective text editing
• Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient
• Emacs
• Vim.org

I really doesn't matter which editor you use. I like both VIM and Emacs, and use them both. And because I use the linux terminal, it's easy and fast to create scripts that will edit some text. (For mail, mediawiki pages, subversion commit messages, this website, notes and weblog entries).

2005-06-16 Updating a website

It should be easy to update your website. Mine can be updated by running make. The Makefile will run all the programs that are needed to generate the pages.

All my pages are written in Markdown. So it's quite easy to generate all the pages. The script to generate the website is Pages (a simple website publishing system).

2005-03-30 New project

Use a script to start a new project. Let it create all directories and files that you want. Helps you to have a standard layout for your project directories.

2005-03-30 Old files

Find big files in one directory using ls -lS.

2005-03-30 Mail

Have a mail server of your own. Let it receive the mail from all your accounts. Or use your domain name. You can now view all your mail from every computer with an internet connection with ssh+mutt.

2004-11-17 Here

Be clear about what your links point to. Don't use here as the name of a link. People will scan text on web pages for blue underlined text (or similar). If the text of these links isn't obvious, they have to read all the text. So four times 'here' as the text of a link (I've seen it) is just a pain in the ass.

2004-11-09 Notepad

Maybe to simple to put here, but here it is. Use a paper notepad. Write stuff on it, while you are working on projects.

2004-09-29 Paper PDA

Use a PDA made of index cards and a binder clip to organize your tasks and notes.

2004-09-29 Backup, Command-line

Learn how to use rsync.

2004-09-29 Programming

Use scripting languages to do the boring stuff. Learn at least one well.

• ruby
• perl
• python

2004-09-22 Weblog

I use emacs to create new items in my weblog.

2004-09-22 Command line

Use du , df and sort to know what clean up on your hard drive.

2004-09-22 Email

Save your sent mail in your inbox. This way you can create threads in Thunderbird and always see which mail belongs together.