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Thread: "This is how I work"

  1. #1

    "This is how I work"

    I don't know if any of you are readers of lifehacker. If you aren't, shame on you. (c:

    They have an interesting recurring series called "This is how I work". They have a set of questions for people doing all kinds of things, usually people of the mover-and-shaker, very productive type. Lots of little tips that can help improve your life.

    So, I'm interested in how our fellow UB5'ers do things. Here are the questions.

    1. What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Why?

    2. What is your workspace setup?

    3. What is your best time-saving/shortcut life hack?

    4. What's your favorite to-list manager?

    5. What do you listen to while working?

    6. What's your sleep routine?

    7. I'd love to see ___________

    8. Besides your phone/computer/tablet, what is the one gadget you couldn't live without?

    9. What's the best advice you ever received?
    Last edited by Brian; 06-03-2014 at 01:14 PM.

  2. #2
    1. What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Why? Laptop-Outlook, VPN software, Snag-It, Lync IM (most other software is proprietary to our company). iPhone/iPad- Mail, Dark Sky-weather app used due to commuting on motorcycle, Amazon Prime, Poynt- food and business locations nearby, MapMyFitness, Notes

    2. What is your workspace setup? Office, Dual monitors one landscape one portrait, laptop with docking station, HP Printer, phone with wireless headset, old school desk calculator, supply of Uniball Signo pens, desktop with remote login capability.

    3. What is your best time-saving/shortcut life hack? i'll have to think about this.

    4. What's your favorite to-list manager? To-Do list manager? Still pen-to-paper, would like to find soemthing better. Outlook and Reminders on the iPhone just don't work well for me.

    5. What do you listen to while working? Mostly conference calls. If working on something where I won't be interrupted, I'll listen to iTunes Radio, New Wave, Grunge, or Alternative stations.

    6. What's your sleep routine? In bed by 10:00 pm, up at 4:45 am to run or swim.

    7. I'd love to see ___________ A return to an 8 hour workday for exempt employees

    8. Besides your phone/computer/tablet, what is the one gadget you couldn't live without? Wireless headset. In office, or bluetooth on motorcycle/car.

    9. What's the best advice you ever received? Don't assume because something is being done the right way because it has always been done that way (question status quo).
    Last edited by chrisrenrut; 06-03-2014 at 01:55 PM.
    “To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by chrisrenrut View Post
    1. What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Why? Laptop-Outlook, VPN software, Snag-It, Lync IM (most other software is proprietary to our company). iPhone/iPad- Mail, Dark Sky-weather app used due to commuting on motorcycle, Amazon Prime, Poynt- food and business locations nearby, MapMyFitness, Notes

    2. What is your workspace setup? Office, Dual monitors one landscape one portrait, laptop with docking station, HP Printer, phone with wireless headset, old school desk calculator, supply of Uniball Signo pens, desktop with remote login capability.

    3. What is your best time-saving/shortcut life hack? i'll have to think about this.

    4. What's your favorite to-list manager? To-Do list manager? Still pen-to-paper, would like to find soemthing better. Outlook and Reminders on the iPhone just don't work well for me.

    5. What do you listen to while working? Mostly conference calls. If working on something where I won't be interrupted, I'll listen to iTunes Radio, New Wave, Grunge, or Alternative stations.

    6. What's your sleep routine? In bed by 10:00 pm, up at 4:45 am to run or swim.

    7. I'd love to see ___________ A return to an 8 hour workday for exempt employees

    8. Besides your phone/computer/tablet, what is the one gadget you couldn't live without? Wireless headset. In office, or bluetooth on motorcycle/car.

    9. What's the best advice you ever received? Don't assume because something is being done the right way because it has always been done that way (question status quo).

    I'm still a pen and paper guy with my todo list. Or, in my head, which doesn't work out well sometimes...
    I need to find something very simple and convenient.
    I'm thinking of just using a note in evernote. Then it's always there on all my devices.

  4. #4
    [QUOTE=Brian;36224]I don't know if any of you are readers of lifehacker. If you aren't, shame on you. (c:

    They have an interesting recurring series called "This is how I work". They have a set of questions for people doing all kinds of things, usually people of the mover-and-shaker, very productive type. Lots of little tips that can help improve your life.

    So, I'm interested in how our fellow UB5'ers do things. Here are the questions.

    1. What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Why?
    My Lumenera LE165CE integrated web hosting camera. I can share images of the stuff I'm working on virtually. Otherwise, groups of people show up to my office unannounced with the size of the group and importance of the people inversely correlated with the time since I last farted.

  5. #5
    3. What is your best time-saving/shortcut life hack?
    This is a little-bit old school, but whenever I am doing something that doesn't require internet access (i.e. editing, phone call, etc) I move to the end of my desk away from my computer. Takes away the temptation to write about time-saving tips on random websites.

    Also, I'm getting a standing desk. Anyone use one?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian View Post
    1. What apps/software/tools can't you live without? Why?
    IRC

    We setup an IRC box in house. Best thing ever. It's like our own internal StackOverflow. We have only a dozen or so people on our channel, but it has a nice mix of programmers and IT guys. I get my question answered about 90% of the time without sending an email to whole programming staff.

    Bonus: we log the conversations.

    Cygwin + mintty + bash.

    A decent resizeable CLI window + Unix style tools = big win. "find . | xargs grep" is powerful.

    Git

    I use it to track changes/history on all sorts of files.

    WorkspaceWhiz

    Visual Studio plugin that is much better than the built in IntelliSense, and doesn't bog down your computer like VisualAssist.

    2. What is your workspace setup?
    HPZ800 (6 dual core processors), 18GB memory, dual 20" flat screen monitors. Two SSD hard drives (C and D drives) and a 1TB standard hard drive. Wireless key board/mouse.

    Building our project still pegs those cores and saturates the SSD bandwidth. It still takes 45 minutes to build. Fortunately, I don't have to build the entire project very often. We have build servers that do, so I can copy down the required content instead of building it.

    3. What is your best time-saving/shortcut life hack?
    "git blame"

    4. What's your favorite to-list manager?
    ToDoList. I've heard a lot about Trello that I've been meaning to check out.

    5. What do you listen to while working?
    My iPhone. I have little room for apps or pictures. It contains an eclectic mix of old (Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Blind Faith) and new (Black Eyed Peas, Black Keys).

    6. What's your sleep routine?
    void Sleep(int milliseconds);



    During the school year, asleep around 10pm, up at 6am. When the kids are out of school or on weekends, that may shift by 30 minutes later. The kids rarely sleep in much later than 7:30 these days.

    During crunch times, I try to keep it as close to that as I can. Still things happen and I try to get at least 5 hours of sleep at night. I can only do that for only about 2-3 days in a row now. 4 hours at a minimum which, thankfully, rarely happens. I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm certainly not as crisp the next day as I should be.


    7. I'd love to see ___________
    The sun.

    8. Besides your phone/computer/tablet, what is the one gadget you couldn't live without?
    iPhone. It seems to be the only way my wife and I can keep things on schedule.

    9. What's the best advice you ever received?
    Work is a means to live. Your kids will only ever be kids once.

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