Ask HN: What have you automated that saved you a ton of time?
10 comments
I have a few instances of bit bar monitoring services / logs / up time.
https://github.com/matryer/bitbar
This has completely stopped me from stressing/anxiety over potential issues as I can just look to the top of my screen.
https://github.com/matryer/bitbar
This has completely stopped me from stressing/anxiety over potential issues as I can just look to the top of my screen.
I have a Autohot key script that does the following:
Auto correct on some works i mis-type regularly
shortcut for server names, all our sever are formatted PrefixNumber, shortkey #number types the full name
Allows ctrl-v into cmd window
Fills in my default fields in our ticketing system
I date any note I take in onenote, #d shortcuts to todays date
Signatures for emails, #tr for Thanks and Regards
+- for ±
#desk/#mobile for my phone numbers
ctrl-alt-m to open a new email from anywhere
I don't think they save a huge amount of time in general but the prevent breaking your flow to check the date, remember my phone number etc which I think is more important.
Small but they add up.
Auto correct on some works i mis-type regularly
shortcut for server names, all our sever are formatted PrefixNumber, shortkey #number types the full name
Allows ctrl-v into cmd window
Fills in my default fields in our ticketing system
I date any note I take in onenote, #d shortcuts to todays date
Signatures for emails, #tr for Thanks and Regards
+- for ±
#desk/#mobile for my phone numbers
ctrl-alt-m to open a new email from anywhere
I don't think they save a huge amount of time in general but the prevent breaking your flow to check the date, remember my phone number etc which I think is more important.
Small but they add up.
Turning on the lights with my alarm clock has probably saved me about 10-20 minutes a day of laying in bed.
I've managed to automate this even further by leaving my curtains open.
I would, but my wife would hate me for it. I just have to rely on good old discipline to get out of bed in the morning.
You would think it would be much more unpleasant but because its a gradient from dark to light you wake up more "naturally" feeling refreshed etc. I did it for years cant say I recommend it unless you like waking up at dawn.
How did you compensate for the daylight drift over time?
I added a gmail script to auto delete emails with a certain tag. It should be easier to do and it’s convenient because i can tag all reminders and automated emails that i would otherwise forget to delete
Human context switching.
I'm being cheeky; I mean closing down and bringing up all relevant applications, their state (open windows, tabs, files...) and so on for working on a given task or project.
Sort of like a workspace manager for the OS. Releasing an open beta this fall.
There's a short, low-res demo that kinda illustrates the basic concept on https://cleave.app
I'm being cheeky; I mean closing down and bringing up all relevant applications, their state (open windows, tabs, files...) and so on for working on a given task or project.
Sort of like a workspace manager for the OS. Releasing an open beta this fall.
There's a short, low-res demo that kinda illustrates the basic concept on https://cleave.app
Good idea! I recently identified this as one of the huge obstacles in my workflow and now I am looking for options to save and manage my sessions in Linux / i3.
So far i3-resurrect looks promising, anybody else have suggestions?
So far i3-resurrect looks promising, anybody else have suggestions?
A Chrome extension that quickly checks websites for common problems (e.g. broken links, invalid HTML): https://www.checkbot.io
I wrote it to help with websites I was working on.
I wrote it to help with websites I was working on.
I wrote a powershell script to automate the remote restart of windows services, saves me about 1 hour per day every day
Automatic backups timed for the middle of the night.
Such a small thing to do, and much peace of mind.
Such a small thing to do, and much peace of mind.
Tests. Probably a popular one for many.
I also work hard on keeping my email inbox empty unless something has to be done on a specific email.
I also try to avoid reading news at work (source of distraction), but I want to keep myself as up-to-date as possible so I made some IFTTT applets which monitors some RSS feeds combined with some keywords I'm interested in. If there is a match, I get the URL sent to my Pocket account and the article will be sent to my eReader (supported natively by Kobo), and synced to be read offline while I commute to work or go back home.