Shortcutting your life ✂️

Hacks to play life at 1.5x speed

Feb 04, 2021

Ever since the world switched to Zoom, I was always frustrated at how often I had to type my zoom link for every 👏 single 👏 call 👏

So I created Apple keyboard shortcuts for my zoom link: I type “qzoom” + SpaceBar and it’ll automatically pull up my zoom link.

https://linkedin.zoom.us/j/6452645266 https://linkedin.zoom.us/j/6452645266 https://linkedin.zoom.us/j/6452645266 https://linkedin.zoom.us/j/6452645266 https://linkedin.zoom.us/j/6452645266 -> I spent 3s typing that up. 🤯

It saves me so much time especially when filling out tedious amounts of forms. This post is dedicated to 5 super simple hacks I use everyday!!! that compound to thousands of seconds, minutes, and hours saved.

(HMU for any shortcuts on YOUR radar. Always looking to speed things up!)

My simple hacks

CMD + E

Command + E brings the speed of keyboard shortcuts to everything. You can search through virtually everything: Google Drive, Notion, Twitter, Gmail, calendar, your computer’s hard drive, even your existing tabs. You can even customize preset search queries to shortcut this shortcut!

The best part? It’s free.

Keyboard Shortcuts

How? On a Mac, go to settings -> Keyboard -> Text tab. You’ll see two columns saying “Replace” & “With.” Type up a list. Here’s (a sampling) of mine for inspiration.

Phone “App” Shortcuts

Did you know you can make your own “app” on your phone with a simple link?

For example, if you recall how I manage my personal budget, I manually log my expenses so I’m more aware (read: guilty) of my spending and I do this through Google Forms. But it gets tedious to 1) Click on Chrome/Safari; 2) Type my link; 3) Wait for the form to load; 4) and then log my expense.

So I created an app “shortcut” to get there directly.

How to do it?

Simply open the link via Safari -> click the Share icon -> click Add to Home Screen. Here are the iOS and Android guides.

Email Templates

If you don’t already know, you can create email templates from drafts you save. Here are a couple of mine:

Intros between two people: “Hey X and Y, you both have context on this introduction, will leave you two to it” etc.
Thanks for reaching out but I’m not interested: For job offers I don’t need right now
Thanks for reaching out, let’s talk: +Add in your calendly invite using your “qcalendly” shortcut! Double the time saved!