Tip of the Week: Keyboard Shortcuts to Save You Time

Even the most simple tasks can take up a ton of time while you are in the office. For example, did you know that just switching from your mouse to your keyboard can add up to eight full workdays a year? This is crazy, but the use of keyboard shortcuts can cut this time down, and can cut down on time wasted on little tasks you might not even notice you’re wasting your time on.

Let’s crunch the numbers and see how much time we waste when we don’t even realize we’re doing so.

With the moving back and forth from the mouse and keyboard of your computer, 8 full workdays are lost a year. Let’s break this down even further. With an average worker moving between their mouse and keyboard once a minute, let’s assume that this switch takes up to 2 seconds or 0.03 minutes. If a worker is typing for six hours each day which is 480 minutes and they work 240 days of the year, we can build an equation.

(2 seconds wasted / min) x (480 min / a workday) s (240 workdays / year) = 58 hours wasted each year.

This means that an average worker will spend around 58 hours switching from their keyboard to their mouse and vice versa. But, keyboard shortcuts exist and can limit the time wasted on switching to your mouse while you are typing. 

Here are some keyboard shortcuts that you may not even know about so you can navigate your toolbar without even touching your mouse. 

• Pressing CTRL+B selects an item in your System Tray, along with the use of your arrow keys so you can select the right one.
• To select an item in the Windows Taskbar you can use the Windows Key plus the number that corresponds to the option you want.
• When you hold Shift and press an arrow key at the same time, you can select items without using your mouse to click and drag.
• If you have your items selected, use the Menu Key which is between the Windows Key and Ctrl Key to right-click items.
• Then you can close the program by using Alt + F4.

Just about everything you do on a regular basis has a keyboard shortcut that can be used to save time. You can also make your own shortcuts by right-clicking on an icon on your desktop and going to its properties. Under the shortcut tab, you can make a comb and click apply.

MyTek puts out new blog posts every week, so be sure to come back to learn more.