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Multi-Timer Counts Down to More Than One Event [Featured Windows Download] 24 October 2008 at 8:30 am by admin

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/2008-10-23_100231a.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”181″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /br Windows only: Timers are a a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/productivity/get-stuff-done-with-a-timer-167646.php”useful productivity booster/a and we’ve shared more than a href=”http://lifehacker.com/338143/bolster-and-track-your-productivity-with-work-break-timer”a few of/a a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/meditation/download-of-the-day–meditation-timer-189153.php”our favorites/a a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/downloads/download-of-the-day–taskblaze-time-tracker-175341.php”over the years/a a href=”http://lifehacker.com/399792/track-your-time-with-lego-bricks”both physical and/a a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/planner/download-of-the-day–emergent-task-planner-2007-all-platforms-225934.php”digital/a. Most of the timers we’ve featured only support one timer at a time, which means you either have to run multiple instances or juggle your timer-related tasks for several things at once. Enter Multi-Timer: a simple, straightforward (and admittedly a bit ugly) timer app that can run up to sixteen timers simultaneously. You can count up or down and have a message pop up with a sound reminder at the end of the count down. Currently I’m using Multi-Timer to remind me when my a href=”http://lifehacker.com/377278/let-water-for-green-or-white-tea-cool-before-pouring”tea is done steeping/a, a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/home-improvement/make-your-bathroom-more-appealing-288555.php”potty breaks for my currently-being-potty-trained-toddler/a, a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/exercise/practice-yoga-at-your-desk-282125.php”minor stretch breaks while working/a, and a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/timer/work-in-48-minute-increments-201004.php”major breaks once an hour/a. If you know of other applications that allow for multiple timers, share below in the comments I’d love to have more to play with! Multi-Timer is a free download for Windows only./p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.download3000.com/download_8670.html”Multi-Timer 1.1 Free/a/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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+ Add Shoutcast Radio Stations to iTunes [How To] By admin 24 October 2008 at 8:00 am and have No Comments

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/shoutcast_itunes.jpg” height=”140″ width=”179″ align=”right” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ align=”right”/The CyberNet blog details an iTunes trick that expands the player’s internet radio options beyond the Apple-controlled list installed by default. The basic method involves finding stations that broadcast in the .PLS, or playlist, format, at media aggregators like a href=”http://shoutcast.com”Shoutcast/a and adding them to their own playlists. It’s similar to the method used to a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/front-row/add-internet-radio-stations-to-front-row-238131.php”add .M3U-format stations to Front Row/a, but more suited to adding a few favorite streams rather than a host of search-able options. Have your own iTunes radio work-around? Let’s hear it in the comments. div class=”related”a href=”http://cybernetnews.com/2008/10/23/cybernotes-add-shoutcast-radio-streams-to-itunes”CyberNotes: Add Shoutcast Radio Streams to iTunes/a [CyberNet]/div/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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+ Spreed Teaches You to Speed-Read the News [Webapps] By admin 24 October 2008 at 7:30 am and have No Comments

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/spreed_news.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”203″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Free speed-reading webapp Spreed:News lets you choose from a wide array of news sources and have their articles read to you in small clusters of words. Working from the principles that make for faster reading, you can scale the tool between 240 and 1500 words per minute, and set up an account to save your favorite sourcesmdash;from Boing Boing to the New York Times and dozens moremdash;for quick browsing. Spreed offers a tally of the seconds you’ve saved from word-by-word reading, and offers an iPhone-optimized interface for speed reading while on commutes or trips. Spreed is free to use, requires a sign-up to save your feeds. For tips on honing your speed reading, check the how-to article on the via link below./p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.spreednews.com/Home.aspx”Spreed:News/a [via a href="http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Speed-Read"Wired How-To Wiki/a]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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+ Your Best Time-Saving Tips? [Ask The Readers] By admin 28 September 2008 at 3:00 pm and have No Comments

Essential time management yields increased success and productivity, according to weblog QuickSprout. By eliminating distractions, getting enough sleep (especially power napping), and maintaining a balanced diet, you can maximize your productivity and get more done in the few hours you have available. One productivity killer is beating around the bush.

Tell people what’s on your mind—being honest and to the point is a great way to accomplish things quicker. When you beat around the bush things don’t get accomplished as fast. Just think about boardroom meetings, people are hesitant to say what is on their mind, which causes meetings to drag on forever.

In other words, be direct and hope that your boss won’t spend precious meeting time criticizing the feedback. What are your biggest time saving tips, and how do you make time to save time? Share your tips in the comments.


+ Develop Your Sense of Time [Mind Hacks] By admin 13 September 2008 at 10:00 am and have No Comments

Some people are extremely adept at telling when intervals of time have passed or what time of day it is, while others find themselves losing track of entire hours. But if you weren’t born with a finely honed sense of time, you can develop it. With the help of a handy tutorial at WikiHow and some free time you too can become a better judge of time. There are over half a dozen great tips in the tutorial, the following are tips that I inadvertently stumbled on while working the graveyard shift, a notorious time distorter:

Every time you think of it, guess to yourself what time it is. Check a clock or watch. Make a point of correcting yourself. Think or say to yourself something like “I thought it was 10:20, but it’s actually 10:34. I was 14 minutes slow.” This is your time sense gap.

When you work for 12 hours alone in a big building, you have a lot of time to play with the above guessing game. It sounds elementary but just like developing a gauge for anything else in life: distance walked, temperature outside, etc. having a measuring stick to gauge yourself against is critical.

When you start a task that has a specified time frame (like when cooking), set a timer for the upper end of the range given. For example, if you’re to cook oatmeal for 3-5 minutes, set a timer for 5 minutes. Assign yourself the task of guessing when 3 or 4 minutes have passed. If you make a mistake, the timer will save you from having burnt oatmeal. But with practice, you’ll develop a sense for how long to leave the oatmeal cooking, as many chefs learn to do with various dishes they cook often.

My graveyard shift was at a printer, which was filled with all sorts of things that had set intervals of time associated with them. The length of warm up, cool down, spool up, spool down, print time, finishing time, and so forth of all the machines became a constant reminder of time. It wasn’t long before I’d find myself standing beside a machine mere seconds before it finished its run. Find things in your environment that have set intervals or use a timer to create your own intervals. Over a period of practice you’ll find you can almost subconsciously determine the incremental spans of time. If you’ve got a handy trick for keeping track of time sans a stopwatch, share it in the comments below. Photo by laffy4k.