[2021-07-21] Go find a geek
I've never thought of myself as a geek. I prefer thinking of myself as "tech savvy." But I suppose I am a geek.
Whether it was mastering WordPerfect 4.2 early in my career (yes, I'm that old), or taking advantage of autotext in my BlackBerry mid-career, or using apps across multiple platforms in more recent years, I've always looked for shortcuts to save time.
Over the years, I've picked up many time-saving tips, either from reading software manuals and online help, or by observing how others do things. Sometimes I would see a coworker use a shortcut and say, "Hey! How did you do that?"
Each time I changed jobs, I met new colleagues from whom to learn new techniques. I also learned a lot from my children. Years ago, my daughter taught me that Ctrl-Shift-C copies formatting and Ctrl-Shift-V pastes it, a trick I use almost every day. My son recently taught me that pressing Ctrl-Shift-T in Google Chrome reopens tabs that have been closed, also a shortcut I use daily.
I've always loved gathering tips and sharing them. One of my favourite Café Jen posts, which I've quoted many times over the years, was called "Step 1: go find a geek." It was based on a blog post by marketing expert and author Seth Godin. His Time for a workflow audit was a simple post, the entirety of which read:
Go find a geek. Someone who understands gmail, Outlook, Excel and other basic tools.
Pay her to sit next to you for an hour and watch you work.
Then say, "tell me five ways I can save an hour a day."
Whatever you need to pay for this service, it will pay for itself in a week.
I thought this was brilliant. It's different from taking training, which can sometimes be more theoretical than practical, dwelling on software features you would never actually use. But having someone sit and watch how you work and what you work on, and then making suggestions on how to tweak your approach, seems immensely superior. It requires no extra time on the part of the learner. As for the geek, they're probably willing to give you that hour for free, especially if you reciprocate by sharing your own wisdom. Wanting to share cool tips is built into the geek gene: I know it is for me.
I always wanted to participate in a workflow audit—both as the geek and the beneficiary of the geek's knowledge. Though I haven't to date, there's always time.
