Time saving tools – New Media Review 2

In the New Media Review, we break down 3 tools that could help you personally and/or professionally. This month’s is on 3 tools that will save you time. Okay, most of the tools covered in our New Media Reviews will save you time, but these tools are quick and easy to use and do exactly what you need them to.

LightShot

LightShot is unbelievably easy to use. That’s all there is to it.

I used to print screen and paste into Paint or Photoshop in order to create customisable screenshots. I know, I know. Obviously this was time-consuming, convoluted and faintly ridiculous. But with LightShot, you can take a screenshot of your internet browser (download extensions for IE, Firefox and Chrome) and even outside your browser (Mac as well as Windows).

There are editing options, just see the screenshot above – created not using LightShot as you can’t take a screenshot of LightShot taking a screenshot! You can copy and paste, share on social media (Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest), save it as a file or print. I expect you will mostly use the save or copy option as it’s the fastest way.

Down or Just Me

So you sit there, waiting for a site to load and it just times out or you get an error message. You click on reload, you ask those around you or you try it in another browser. Nothing.

There is a better way. I use Down or Just Me? or DOJ for short. Just paste in the web address and it’ll tell you if the website has crashed or if it’s a problem with your PC, i.e. just you. Save it as one of your bookmarks for convenience.

It’s quick and simple and will take away the frustration of when the internet or your PC doesn’t do what you want it to do.

StayFocusd

Some sites, particularly social networks are addictive. If you find yourself procrastinating online, then this could be the tool for you. I certainly need it for Pinterest.

You can set timers so you are only on those tempting sites for a particular length of time or you can block specific sites completely, even sub-sites and content. The neat trick is, the timer is for all your sites not individual ones, so no nipping across to Twitter once the timer on BuzzFeed is up.

This is a Google Chrome extension, but there is a similar if uglier tool for Firefox called LeechBlock and Self-Control for Internet Explorer.