10. Doable to-do lists

Here are some breakdowns of the art of the doable to-do list and practicing a simplified Getting Things Done method that are great places to start out on the path toward getting better at setting up your tasks and knocking them down.

9. Ninja-like search skills

Building up your abilities to find obscure stuff on the web, and in your email, makes you more prepared and ready to roll with whatever you have to learn more about next. Start with 10 obscure Google search tricks. Get the same kind of thought-to-search-result powers in Gmail with advanced filters and persistent searches, or do much of the same in Outlook with categories and search folders.

8. Remind your future self

Tickler files are date-labeled folders that reporters check every day and put documents or story ideas into that aren't needed now, but could be vital down the line. A lot of folks have probably switched over to calendars they can access online, but the principles and usefulness remain the same, such as a Yahoo Calendar tickler.

7. Ubiquitous capture

If you're always ready to jot down or photograph an idea and, more importantly, are in the habit of doing so efficiently, you can pull your long-forgotten ideas from your secondary brain when you need them. Evernote is an increasingly popular platform.

6. Timers and working in dashes

Set up a timer on your desk or on your computer, pick just a small part of a bigger task you need to do, then hit the clock and go. At day's end, you've turned out way more than if you'd pretended to work "all day," and your to-dos are swept away as you run toward the weekend.

5. Quick searches (web)

In Firefox, right-clicking on any search box lets you create a quick search. Here are  15 quick searches, the easier system for Firefox 3, and a demonstration showing that Google's Quick Search has similar powers.

4. Quick searches (local)

Your computer knows where everything is inside it. An app like Quicksilver on the Mac, Launchy on Windows or Gnome-Do on Linux connects the first few letters of what you're thinking about to exactly that thing. With practice, you'll search out files you can't even name, perform multi-step actions, and search the web from the same launcher.

3. Inbox Zero

Email can't overwhelm you if it isn't there. Practicing the art and craft of Inbox Zero is kind of like clearing off a desk -- you act on the items you can quickly dismiss, assign the stuff that's actually somebody else's job at the moment to them, and put the rest somewhere to be acted on at a specific date.

2. Keyboard shortcuts

Learning and internalizing the keyboard shortcuts of your operating system and most-used applications keeps you moving in them. Here's a list of Windows 7 shortcuts, Microsoft's shortcuts list for XP/Vista, and Apple's official list.

1. Text expansion

You write some blocks of text over and over. Text expansion tools instantly write those blocks for you when you write a trigger word. Windows has Texter, while the Mac can use TextExpander. For Linux, there’s AutoKey.