WORKPLACE
How to keep focus at work
Q: I find I’m making a lot of small mistakes at work; I think it’s because everything moves so fast and there are so many things to get done each day. Do you have suggestions for ways I can keep things together?
A: Keep your mind focused and give yourself some tools to help keep track of the details. The pace at many workplaces has picked up dramatically and leaves a lot of people breathless. It might seem paradoxical, but one way to cope with the pace is to slow down a bit.
Analyze your mistakes. Errors on calculations or other numeric information, formatting or written documents might call for different solutions. Or you might be making time-management errors in which requests are slipping between the cracks.
Think about times you have successfully managed in a high-paced setting. What has worked well in those cases? What is different now?
Consider resources available, particularly your boss and co-workers. You might not be getting all the assistance you need to be successful, especially if people don’t know you’re struggling. It’s a sign of strength to be willing to ask for help.
— Liz Reyer, Minneapolis Star Tribune
SOFTWARE
Performing a clean sweep
The Windows utilities segment of personal computing software is crowded and in most cases not particularly utilitarian. Norton Utilities is the king, but there are other contenders, some of which are free. In most cases, you get what you pay for — Norton is very much worth the price — but that isn’t the case with SlimWare Utilities’ SlimCleaner Free. This program will analyze your hard drive, delve into Windows’ deepest, darkest secrets such as its Registry, and make your PC run faster and more efficiently.
It will erase or shred sensitive files and folders that you’ve tried to delete. The problem with just deleting those files is that the free space it creates can be recovered by your resident 5-year-old. Using one of SlimCleaner’s tools, you can write over the space where the file resided — up to 35 times. Most hackers would find retrieving those files a challenge.
This free program has dozens of helpful functions. It guides one through the arcane features of the Control Panel. Looking to partition your hard drive? Try to find that feature by yourself. SlimCleaner takes you to Disk Management, where you’ll be able to partition up a storm.
Some PCs come with shortcuts to software you don’t need and that lure you into paid versions. Others install tool bars in your browsers. SlimCleaner gets rid of them, and allows you to clean temporary and other space-hogging files from your hard drive. It will list the programs in the startup folder — the ones that you really don’t need and that turn boot-ups into traffic jams.
And that’s just for starters.
SlimCleaner, like some other free programs — Thunderbird and Firefox come to mind — is supported and enhanced by users. Among other functions, these selfless souls rate the software on your hard drive in such basic areas as whether you should continue using them. They also recommend alternatives if you’re not happy with Mr. Norton, for example. Therein is the strength of SlimCleaner and other user-supported software. Chances are very good that the kind of utility you long for will be in this set of fine little programs, because your fellow users want those features, too.
Downloading from http://www.slim wareutilities.com is fast, installation is a breeze, the interface is slick and intuitive, and it’s easy enough for newbies to navigate. Even free Windows utilities can be first-rate. SlimCleaner proves it.
— Noah Matthews,
McClatchy-Tribune News