Belly Up to the Bookmarks Bar
[by Colleen Wainwright]
There are dozens of useful Internet sites I visit daily (and yes, I realize this means I spend too much time online), but to know the ones I find most valuable, I need look no further than the bookmarks bar itself. Because it’s on that precious, narrow landing-strip of browser space that I store my holiest-of-holies: the sites I may not use all the time, but that I really, really need handy when I do.
Like a timer, for example. It doesn’t get much simpler than Online-Stopwatch.com, a gigantic countdown-style clock with a rather hideous interface and a jarring alarm. But when I need to rouse myself from procrastination mode, it’s a simple, no-cost way to time a pomodoro-style work sprint wherever I am. (Guaranteed to wake up your seat-mates, too!)
I know that the less often my hands leave the keyboard, the more productive I become. I try to pick two or three shortcuts per month to add to my repertoire (via a decidedly low-tech “bookmark,” the yellow sticky note on my monitor), but when I’m feeling ambitious or when I’m on the road, I turn to this great list of Mac keyboard shortcuts that Dan Rodney put together.
For the “break” portion of my pomodoro, sometimes I’ll treat myself to a spin on my Tumblr dashboard. The mix of funny, newsy, and visually stimulating stuff I’ve selected for my stream provides a great break. Some of my fave photo-oriented Tumblrs include PhotoJoJo, Dear Photograph, the L.A.-centric 10 > 110 > 101, and the always hilarious Awkward Stock Photos.
Finally, if you’re a crazy-mad bookmarking fiend but also of a visual bent, you may find AllMyFaves.com useful. The landing page sends me into overload pretty quickly, but you can sign up for an account and build your own page of most-used links.
Colleen Wainwright spends most of her time lately clicking the link to the 50-for-50 Fundraiser site so she can see the numbers go up. You can enable her and help send teen girls in L.A. to college at the same time by clicking there too, and giving generously.
