In an effort to enhance the Google experience in Firefox, CustomizeGoogle was born. It’s a free Firefox extension that adds flexibility to Google services. Customizing is as easy as opening the Add-on window, clicking on options and choosing what functions you would want to activate or deactivate. You can turn on Google Suggest, a feature that suggests words as you type them when doing a web search. Filter spam sites and exclude them from your web search.

One of my favorite things about this is that users can remove ads on several of the Google services available, such as in Gmail …read more

PimpYourWork.com
Tired of losing that e-mail containing the link to an article that piqued your interest? Weary of sorting through your bookmarks and looking for the one-time-read-only links you’d want to delete?
If you want to save yourself the trouble and still get to read that article you saw (but can’t read due to time constraints), then you might want to check out Read It Later. Read It Later is a Firefox extension that serves as a storehouse of the links you want to read later on, sans the cluttering of your bookmarks.
Since it’s just a Firefox extension, it’s straightforward to install. …read more

Found this video on YouTube today, which mentions some tips on how you can customize the Windows XP taskbar to become more productive. I actually used 2 of those techniques when I was still dependent on the taskbar, namely the use of Taskbar Shuffle and toolbars. However, since then I’ve moved on to a different way of organizing my desktop, taskbar-free. But if you can’t live without the taskbar, this video is worth a look.

The video above shows an interview of efficiency expert Julie Morgenstern saying that you shouldn’t check email in the morning. Although others have suggested this, including Tim Ferriss, I can’t say I’ve successfully tried it to the point that it was permanent.
How often do you check email? Do you find any difference in your productivity when you check your email first thing in the morning when you get to work?

PimpYourWork.com
“The 4 Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss has been all over the blogosphere and mainstream media for the past year. The title sounds like a scam or a gimmick, and you half-expect that the official website will be a lengthy one-page sales letter that starts with “Dear Friend”. Thankfully, the reality is different: the official blog has an active community and has some additional ideas that aren’t discussed at length in the book.
The book captivated me, gave me a lot of dangerous ideas, and made me want to try it on my own. In this series of …read more

PimpYourWork.com
You’ve installed them all – Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, etc. Now, if you’re very popular (or you just have annoying contacts) you find that you get interrupted by instant messages constantly. Some of the messages are essential, while others can wait. How do you filter out the distractions while remaining accessible for emergencies?
Take advantage of selective invisible or stealth modes.  Most instant messengers allow you to selectively block contacts from seeing you. Use this feature as much as possible. While you’re working, temporarily block out your annoying cousin, while remaining visible to your …read more

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I don’t know what happened.  I thought I had it under control.
For over a month now, I’ve been relatively email spam-free.  I only got roughly 1 or 2 spam messages in my inbox per week.
The last two days were different.  When I woke up the other morning, I had over 150 messages.  That’s rare in itself.  What’s worse is that roughly 140 of them were spam.
And this hasn’t stopped.
Is this what the Gods of Email Spam give me because I’ve been too boastful about how I tamed email overload? They’re up there, those spam gods, saying “There! Knocked you down …read more

You want to download an exclusive report or document, but to get to it you need to send in your email address. You know what’s going to happen – these people are going to send you some “newsletters” or, well, spam. If you absolutely need access to something but don’t want to be riddled with unsolicited emails as a result, you can get a throwaway email address from Mailinator.
Here’s how it works:
How do I create an account at Mailinator? It’s simple, you just send email to it. Temporary accounts are created when email arrives for them. First, you …read more