Difficulty: Involved

What you need: KeePass for Windows

Why you need it:

“Remembering multiple passwords can be a challenge, which is why many people find that a good password manager is indispensable. KeePass is a good, free password-management option that works on Windows.” Nick Mediati – PCWorld

What to do:

Get the professional edition of KeePass at http://keepass.info/download.html (it’s free) and run the installer on your machine. Set it to run automatically when you start up your computer, and launch KeePass. You’ll be presented with a blank window like this:

I’ve highlighted the “New…” command on the toolbar. Click this to create your first password database. Save the database to a location of your choice, and the “Create Composite Master Key” window pops up:

This is a key step in the process of protecting your passwords. The idea is that this master password is used to encrypt all your other passwords and keep them safe within this database. The flip-side to that protection is that you cannot forget the master password, because if you do, you won’t be able to access any of the passwords you’ve saved. My recommendation: choose a long password (10 characters or more) and spend some time memorizing it, especially over the first few days you’re using KeePass. Don’t use this password for anything else. Within the program, you’ll generate a different password for every site you visit.

Click OK once you’ve entered the master password twice, then hit OK again on the next screen (you can explore the options, but the defaults should work fine). You’re presented with the default setup:

Let’s go over some parts of the KeePass interface you’ll interact with. Each item has a color in the screenshot above so you can match them up:

• Entry (red): A saved password. You’ll create an entry for each website and generate a password for it.
• Group (green): A collection of entries, usually by type (banking, news, sports, etc.)
• Add Entry (purple): Click this to add a new entry in the current group.
• Lock (blue): Manually lock your database so the next time KeePass is opened, you need the password to access passwords. You can set KeePass to lock automatically in it’s options menu.

You can see my database is named “test2″ for this example. The pre-populated groups are common types of passwords (windows, banking, etc.), but you can feel free to create your own by right clicking on the top group and clicking “Add Group”. For now, let’s create a new entry in the “Internet” group for Facebook. Click on the group on the left, then click the “Add Entry” button. You’ll see the new entry wizard:

I’ve filled in a name for the entry as well as an example email. You can use the username/password combination to log in to the website once you’ve saved it. You can see the default password size is long (20 characters). Although this is safest, some websites might not accept a password this long. To fix that, click the icon with two keys and select “Open Password Generator”. You can change the length of the new password in the box shown below:

Once your new random password is the length you want, click OK to add it to the database. Click “File” -> “Save” to save your changes. Now you’re last step is to use the new password online. Head over to the website you’ve created the password for, and find the place to change your password. With the website open, switch to the KeePass window and use the shortcut key for copy (Ctrl+C) to put the password on your clipboard. Now use the shortcut for paste (Ctrl+V) to copy it in to the browser for both password fields:

Now you have a safe, random password for Facebook, saved conveniently in KeePass. Remember, memorize that master password! It’s convenient (only one to remember) and it’s more secure (if one company online gets hacked, the damage is minimized to only that institution).

Although this post doesn’t cover it, there is also a Mac version of KeePass called KeePassX, which you can download here.

Title photo by practicalowl via Flickr.

Difficulty: Piece of cake

What you need: A computer and Focus Booster

Why you need it:

“If you have a large and varied to-do list, using the Pomodoro Technique can help you crank through projects faster by forcing you to adhere to strict timing. Watching the timer wind down can spur you to wrap up your current task more quickly, and spreading a task over two or three pomodoros can keep you from getting frustrated.” – Lifehack.org

What to do:

The app is located at http://www.focusboosterapp.com/ and is a very lightweight download. It uses Adobe Air, a framework to run web-like applications on your desktop. Once it’s installed, the main interface of Focus Booster should appear, which looks like this:

You may also see this smaller view, which you can toggle with the third menu button:

Before you start, I’ll give a brief primer on the Pomodoro technique. It’s a method of managing time that helps focus on the task at hand while taking frequent breaks. You start by deciding the tasks you want to finish today, and making sure no task will take longer than 25 minutes to complete. If a task won’t fit in the time window, split it in to parts until it does. Finally, make sure the list is sorted with the most urgent tasks at the top.

Once you’re at your workstation and your task list is curated, click the green button in Focus Booster to start the timer. Work for 25 minutes without a break. When the time is up, check off the completed task and take a 5 minute break (it starts automatically). During the break, you can get coffee, stretch muscles, or walk around to get your blood moving. The timer will head in to the next work session when the break is up, and after four consecutive sessions, you take a longer break of at least 15 minutes.

I believe the focus on smaller tasks leads to more satisfaction (I can finish something in 25 minutes) and better focus (if the timer is winding up, I tend to buckle down). You’ll find you do more planning, especially at the start of the day, but that small amount of effort pays dividends as you work through each session. Best of luck checking as many boxes as you can!

If you want to tweak any of the options for the application, click the ‘i’ button (I disable the ticking sound, for example):

Title photo by Bethan Phillips via Flickr.

Difficulty: Straightforward

What you need: An Evernote account and a web browser

Why you need it:

“Evernote allows users to capture, organize, and find information across multiple platforms. Users can take notes, clip webpages, snap photos using their mobile phones, create to-dos, and record audio. All data is synchronized with the Evernote web service and made available to clients on Windows, Mac, Web, and mobile devices.” – CrunchBase

What to do:

Sign up at http://evernote.com/ using the “Create Account” link at the top of the page.  You’ll be redirected to the web interface for Evernote, and see a welcome note from the service. To help with getting started, here are a few terms you’ll see used in the application:

• Note: The basic piece of information in Evernote.  A note may contain text, images, audio or other attachments.  Everything that’s stored in Evernote is added as a note.
• Notebook: A collection of notes, just like its real-world equivalent.  Evernote notebooks are similar to folders on your computer, and any one note will only be associated with one notebook.
• Tag: A free-form identifier that can be assigned to a note.  You might tag a note “to-do” or “Projects” if you didn’t want a whole notebook dedicated to those kinds of notes.  A note can have as many tags as you want.

I wouldn’t worry about organizing notes yet (since you don’t have any of your own). Instead, we’ll “clip” a recipe from a website as an example.  I think the Web Clipper from Evernote is the easiest way to add sites to your account.  To download for Google Chrome, click here.  For Firefox, click here.  Other browsers may work differently, so head over to the main clipper page to see what they recommend.

Here’s the clipper installed in Chrome (all the screenshots below were taken in Chrome):

Now navigate to the test recipe (link here). Click that new icon in the upper right corner, and you’ll see a menu displayed:

The Web Clipper automatically fills in the article title, and you assign a notebook and/or tag.  In the example I’ve selected my Cooking notebook where I keep all clipped recipes. Once you click the clip button, the article is sent to your account, where you can use it and modify it later.

When you select “Clip Article”, the Web Clipper clears out advertising and other clutter from the page, making notes easier to read. This is a very nice feature that I use every day.  Notice that if you’re using “Clip Article”, the portion of the page being clipped is highlighted on the page itself:

If you’d prefer to clip the whole page instead of just the recipe itself, select “Clip full page” from the drop-down menu next to “Clip Article”.

Setup takes a few minutes to complete, but now that the clipper is installed, you can add web content to your Evernote account in a matter of seconds. The free version of Evernote does have limits to the amount of data you can upload each month, but I’ve never hit that limit.  I’ve been using the service for over three years, which is the most telling endorsement I can give; it’s an awesome accompaniment to the Web and helps save great ideas for the future.

Title photo by Michael Summers via Flickr.

Difficulty: Involved

What you need: An account on MyPlate and a smartphone (optional).

Why you need it:

“Calorie-counting websites have long been common, but in recent years the sites have ramped up their food databases and added better tools to make it less tedious to monitor what you eat. In addition to calories, some websites let individuals know what’s on their plates in terms of cholesterol, carbs and other nutrients.” – Alina Dizik in the WSJ

What to do:

Start at the Livestrong MyPlate website. You can actually start entering food for the current day without an account, but you need to register to track calories over time. Once you’re signed up, you’ll see the empty page for the current day:

This is where you start tracking your daily calories. It’s easy to use the food database, and I found the vast majority of foods I bought at the grocery store were already in the system. MyPlate also enables you to select the fitness tab to input exercises and track what you burn at the gym.

After adding some food for a particular meal, you can see the list for a meal or the whole day with calorie totals:

MyPlate also offers the option to set up meals (foods you tend to eat together so you can add them quickly) and recipes (items that aren’t in the Livestrong database). This is what makes MyPlate the ultimate calorie-counting tool: it’s a flexible web app that accommodates personal food preferences and habits. There are many other charts and options on the page, but I won’t detail them here.

Finally, I’ll mention the iPhone and Android applications. I used the iPhone app often at work or at a restaurant as an alternative to visiting the website. It wasn’t essential to losing weight, but more options to enter information can help establish good habits. You can see a sample of the iPhone app below:

Losing weight is hard, but at least technology like MyPlate can lessen the effort required to track your progress. If you have questions about my experience counting calories, feel free to contact me.

Difficulty: Straightforward

What you need: A Kindle and Instapaper

Why you need it:

“Reading on the Kindle’s non-reflective, e-ink screen is easy on the eyes and great for longer content. Instapaper provides Kindle-compatible files, easily transferred at no charge via USB [or wirelessly], containing the Text versions of your saved pages in any folder.” – Instapaper Site

What to do:

Start by creating an account on http://www.instapaper.com.  This site will keep track of articles that you’d like to read later.  There are a number of apps that can send links to Instapaper, but for this example, we’ll add the links in manually.

Let’s say you want to read this article on Ars Technica.  Copy the link to the clipboard, then log in to Instapaper and click the “Add” button (in red below):

Paste in the URL in the first form field, and skip the rest.  Click Add.  You’ll see the article has been added to your account with it’s title:

The hardest part is done.  Repeat the above for any other articles you’d like to read on your Kindle.  Once your list is set, you’ll find an export to Kindle format button on the right sidebar:

This will save a Kindle-compatible file to your computer.  Plug in your Kindle via USB.  You should see the device show up as a drive on Mac or Windows.   Navigate to the “documents” folder inside the drive and copy in your Instapaper file.  You’re done.

Done en masse, this process will allow to read long website articles away from the computer screen.  I find Kindle’s E-Ink display much easier on the eyes over the course of the day, and there are no web browsers or social networks to distract from the experience.

A more advanced guide using Chrome and Instapaper’s automatic wireless delivery is coming soon.

Title photo by Wendell via Flickr.

Difficulty: Piece of cake

What you need: F.lux for Windows or Mac

Why you need it:

“Unfortunately, cell phones and computers, which make our lives more productive and enjoyable, may be abused to the point that they contribute to getting less sleep at night leaving millions of Americans functioning poorly the next day,” Russell Rosenberg, the vice chairman of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) – Reuters

What to do:

Head to http://stereopsis.com/flux/ and download the tool for your platform. Once it’s installed, set it to run automatically when you start up your computer. Make sure to set the location to your zip code.

The defaults should work fine, but you can head in to the settings of the app to change the exact brightness for “day” and “night” modes, and how long the transition between the two takes.  I’d install Flux on all your computers, especially laptops.  Now you’ll automatically reduce eye strain when you work past sundown.

Here’s what my setup looks like:

Title photo by włodi via Flickr.

1. Writing about something regularly can be fun and rewarding.

2. Writing about too many things makes it hard to decide what to write about when you have limited time.

3. Random people will read your stuff, so better to write about something you know (so you look at least marginally competent).

None of this is unique to me or particularly interesting to you, but that’s what this refresh in design and focus is about.  As my friend Nick put it, my “expressed interest” is in technology solutions.  I’m passionate about improving my workflow and helping my friends and family do the same.  There’s a problem, here’s a tool that can be used to solve it.  Doing a 30-second operation twice a day?  Here’s your minute back, enjoy it.  Even better if that happens without intervention.

Who knows what will change over the next days/months/years to make this format and topic a bad idea.  For now, let’s roll with it. Hopefully, you find a few things over time that spark ideas.

You’re always welcome to contact me (Twitter works too) if I’m not getting that part done.

The RSS feed is located here, or at the bottom of the page.

Title photo by Trey Ratcliff via Flickr.