|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 It delivers Feb 07, 2010
This book is packed with tons of great ideas and tricks to get more done and understand why you own a computer, which sometimes is hard to answer. I highly recommend it.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Even better than the website Oct 24, 2009
This book is about what Gina told in an [...] blog, the three things she would teach in a Lifehacker MBA course would be:
- how to install a personal organization system,
- how automate repetitive tasks,
- how to firewall your attention.
Tips in the book are on the Lifehacker website; however, it is much easier to digest. I have read the book while travelling, identified the hacks I wanted to implement, and made a small to do list from the Table of Contents. Then, back at my PC, I just implemented those I felt interesting.
There are tips for life in general (i.e. without computer), and there are many tips to improve on computer usage. Differences for Windows and Macintosh are highlighted. The book is very practical and easy to understand, which doesn't mean it is light on content. There are easy to do hacks, but there are hacks for the very advanced computer user, too.
Among all hacks, the most important to me is that I have completely changed how I deal with e-mail. I have implemented the Search style instead of Organizing in folders style, and changed how I respond to e-mails. Before e-mailing was time consuming and energy intensive, now it is quick and fun.
Some of the tips I have implemented became daily routine to me in such a way, that I only realize reading the book that they come from this book.
Finally, there is just some great fun about reading about a nice hack, even without implementing, it makes me think more creatively.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Worth its weight in iPhones Jun 04, 2009
I was a big fan of the first edition of Gina's LifeHacker. "Upgrade Your Life" is the expanded, revised, resized and renamed Second Edition, which should make it more accessible to the self-described "non-hacker."
The book's new dimensions and title make it look less like a computer book and more like the self-improvement book that it is. To the uninitiated, "lifehacker" sounds like something Dr. Frankenstein dabbled in, where "upgrade your life" could have come from Tony Robbins. These are small changes, but "small changes" for improving your productivity is what this book is all about.
The book is not designed to read front to back. Each "hack" has a a "level/platform/cost" header, which I find helpful, but I would have liked to have some or all of this info in the table of contents. Otherwise, the ToC is excellent, organizing the Hacks by productivity type ("Clear your mind," "firewall your attention") and descriptive Hacks and subtopics of each hack. At times, just reading the ToC is enough to set off the "a ha!" reaction and make a difference. For example, "remember 100 different passwords with one rule set" was enough to change my approach to passwords, even before I'd read the full text.
Many of the tips are simple common sense, which we can often miss because of habits we've already built up. Other tips introduce useful applications like Remember the Milk, or remind you of features your phone already has (Hack 72, "Access web apps and search via text message").
Gina is an excellent writer; her LifeHacker.com site remains a daily read. A lot of these tips have been covered on the site before, but having them available in compact, physical form is particularly helpful when I'm stuck on a project or assignment and need to make a mental break. Just learning something new and practicing it for a few minutes often helps me get back into the productive zone.
Highly recommended.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A Great Book of Common Sense Tips for Nerds Like Me May 17, 2009
I read through this book over the course of a few days and highlighted everything that pertains to my workflow.
I have turned these into a task list and I am trying to implement one of them every other day or so.
The chapter on simply buying a good quality filing cabinet has made life immeasurably better already :-)
I'm using Text Expander to save time on timing out often used phrases.
I'm integrating google apps to take my work into 'the cloud'.
The tips on how to handle your email inbox are great.
This book is well written and easy to understand with lots of great tips that you can quickly implement to make you workday a little easier to get through and a lot more organized.
The split between PC and Mac tips is pretty balanced so no need to worry that your platform is being left out here.
4 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 save your time May 16, 2009
better off as an article . the point is well made but the book is often redundant .
|
| |
|
![Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51734pRq2%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]")
![Gattaca [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VfE5rU9OL._SL75_.jpg "Gattaca [Blu-ray]")
![Resident Evil [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51m8P3lO%2BnL._SL75_.jpg "Resident Evil [Blu-ray]")
![Run Lola Run [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gTXpHYF7L._SL75_.jpg "Run Lola Run [Blu-ray]")
