Automate the Start of Your Digital Day

I was recently flipping through a copy of Gina Trapani’s book Lifehacker, and came across a great tip to automate repetitive tasks, as covered in a chapter of the same name. I ended up buying the book for this one tip alone, which will no doubt save me more time than I could possibly track.

Then I thought - this is too good not to pass along (with some tips of my own) for anyone not aware this capability, and I highly recommend picking up the book for plenty more ways to increase your productivity.

Auto Reboot Your Machine

Sometimes Windows bogs down. Waaay down. Especially if you’re running your machine constantly (guilty). Using the task scheduler feature, you can set your computer to reboot when you know you won’t be using it, and start each day with a clean slate. Chances are, Windows will run with fewer snares during normal working hours, and you won’t have to wast time on manual reboots.

How to do it:

• Go to Control Panel > Performance & Maintenance > Scheduled Tasks
• Go to File > New > Scheduled Task. Name it Reboot or Restart, whatever makes you happy.
• After you’ve created the task, right click it and enter the following in the Run box:
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe
• Click the Schedule tab to set the time you want Windows to reboot (mine is set to run daily at 5am)
• On the Settings tab, under Power Management, check the box Wake this computer to run this task. This is only necessary if you’re power save settings put your machine in to hibernation.
• Alternatively, you can use the Wizard by clicking Add a Scheduled Task, and follow the prompts to browse for the file, name the job and set the time all at once.

A very small but crucial step - if the Run only if logged on checkbox is unchecked, Windows will prompt you for your password, and will not run the task without one - even if you’re not using password protection to login.

This seems very backward to me, but then again that’s Windows for ya. If your login requires a password, you’ll have no problem, just enter it at the prompt. Otherwise (if you prefer to login without password protection), leave that box checked.

Auto Launch Applications

The perfect compliment to the tip above is launching your daily programs automatically as well. Imagine sitting down at your desk in the morning with a fresh brewed cup o’ joe, and all that icky computer maintenance has already been done, and your machine has opened your email client, browser, and any other programs you normally run! Ah just the thought of it brings a tear. Ok maybe not. But it’s still that much less work for you!

How to do it:

• Same thing applies for setting up your favorite programs as above. Just browse to the file, give it a name, and set the time.
• I recommend setting the launch times at least 2 minutes apart, with the first no earlier than 5 minutes after you’ve auto rebooted. It could just be my machine, but when I set the times closer, the apps didn’t start properly, meaning Windows Task Manager would show they were running, but I couldn’t access them.
• Be sure to give maintenance programs enough time to run. For example, if you choose to auto reboot at 5:00am, but your anti-virus is scheduled beforehand at say, 4:30, you may want to either rethink that, or select the parameters for only starting the Reboot job if the machine has been idle for X amount of time.

Ok, so your system has now been scanned, cleaned, defragged and rebooted, and all your programs launched… and you just barely woke up! What a way to start the day eh? :)

Tags: getting-things-done