Save time and enhance productivity with keyboard shortcuts
If you are like most entrepreneurs or solo-business owners you are always looking for ways to save time and learning a few keyboard shortcuts could be one of your time management tools. Reducing the amount of keystrokes and mouse clicks can add up to enhance your productivity and the are also easier than using your mouse especially when you are at the computer for extended hours. You may be surprised at how much time you lose because you are not using keyboard shortcuts. There are shortcuts for almost every action or application, even in GMail you can shave time. As a Virtual Assistant who lives on the computer in the digital world, saving time or creating time is essential for my productivity.
“Studies have found that moving your hand back and forth from the mouse to the keyboard is not only time consuming, it interrupts your typing rhythm – making you far less efficient, and leading to frustration (and mistakes!) when you have to constantly readjust hand placement.” Shortcut Library
Think about the multitude of actions it takes to highlight and copy text:
- Interrupt your typing workflow to grab the mouse
- Position your cursor
- Highlight
- Click copy
- Reposition
- Click again
Wouldn’t Ctrl + C and then V be so much simpler? One of my personal favorites is Alt + Tab to move between open windows. Here are just a few of the keyboard shortcuts (from Small Business Trends) we have compiled and there are many. If you would like the full PDF version, please email: info at aceconcierge dot net.
Keyboard Shortcuts | Productivity Enhancers
ESC – Current main function is to interrupt or cancel current process and/or program. (pressing Esc on websites that use jQuery to display photos is quicker than trying to click on the little ‘x’ in the top right hand corner.)
TAB – used to tab across the screen to the next tab stop. Provides a uniform/neat indentation.
SHIFT – shifts other keys into another mode. e.g. make letters capitals, use symbols above numbers
CTRL – performs special operations in conjunction with other keys.
Ctrl+A = Selects ALL texts/objects
Ctrl+B = Highlights all text in bold
Ctrl+C = Copies selected text/other object
Ctrl+V = Pastes text/image that has been copied
Ctrl+S = Saves document/file
Ctrl+Z = Undo previous action
Ctrl+Y = Redo any “Ctrl+Z” action
ALT – a modifier, this key alternates the functions of other pressed keys
Alt+F = Opens ‘file’ menu in an open program
Alt+F4 = Closes the open program
Alt+Spacebar = Opens the window menu of an opened program
Alt+Tab = Switches between open programs, from L to R
Alt+Shift+Tab = Will reverse the order of switching programs
Interacting with Text
Select text >> Press Shift+Right Arrow, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, or Down Arrow to highlight text
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Keys do the same thing but more quickly, since the cursor is moving per new word now instead of per character
Shift+End to select the end of the line
Ctrl+C to copy selected text to the ‘clipboard’
Ctrl+X to cut selected text
Ctrl+V to paste copied text from the ‘clipboard’
Ctrl+Z to undo an action
Ctrl+Y to redo an action
Ctrl+Right Arrow (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
Ctrl+Left Arrow (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
Ctrl+Down Arrow (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
Ctrl+Up Arrow (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
Ctrl+A (Select all)
Ctrl+Delete (Delete the rest of the word, or entire word if cursor is placed at beginning)
Keep in mind that this is just the shortlist of keyboard shortcuts! How many have you mastered?
I found your post on G+ when Lisa shared it.Thanks for putting this together.
This is definitely a time-saver and every administrative assistant, virtual or no should have this!
Thank you Corina! There are many to use and even just shaving off a few mins, it all adds up.
Suzie