What if I told you that with only a little upfront learning, you could save up 47 hours of your time?
I’m going to share one of my most often used (we’re talking multiple times a day) simple tech tools. And one that is commonly overlooked by others.
Hang with me because it’s also a bit boring and not very sexy, but trust me, it’s a game-changer.
What is this magical marvel?
A text expander.
This innocuous, rather bland-sounding tool is truly your ticket to ease and efficiency.
A text expander is a simple but powerful productivity tool that lets you type short abbreviations — called snippets — which automatically expand into longer words, phrases, or even full paragraphs.
For example, instead of typing your full email signature every time, you might type ‘sig’ and have the tool instantly insert your complete signature.
A text expander tool is perfect for frequently used text, such as:
- The opening line of your emails
- The last line of your emails
- Your email signature
- Any long URL that you access frequently
- How you introduce yourself to new connections on LinkedIn
- A frequently repeated instruction
- An answer to a question that you’re asked a lot
Why you really need to use a text expander:
- It saves time, and lots of it
- It improves accuracy
- It keeps your communication consistent because it reduces repetitive typing and avoids mistakes
- It makes you feel like a boss babe
- It’s cross-platform. It works anywhere you type — in email, documents, web forms, chat, etc. (The only place I’ve found it doesn’t work is on Zoom calls, as it puts the text on the slide rather than in the chat.)
Six steps for how to use a text expander:
- Watch my demo of how a text expander works. I dare you not to ohhh and ahhhh.
- Make a list of text that you type over and over and over
- Pick a specific text expander tool. I use TypeItForMe, which works for Macs. FastFox and Breevy work for Mac and PCs.
- “Teach” your text expander what snippets stand for what text. Make sure your snippet isn’t a word you’d normally type, as it will then expand when you don’t mean it to.
- Get text expanding.
- Adjust your snippets as needed.
I use my text expander tool more than a dozen times a day, and while I haven’t calculated how much time it saves me, this writer says, “In the last year or so, I’ve saved over 47 hours of typing time using TextExpander. That’s more than a full working week!” Source.
The more you use it, the more those small seconds saved add up to hours — even days — over time.
So get going and expand into ease and efficiency.
Now go on and learn, laugh, and lead
Learn
- Watch my demo for some examples of how I use my text expander.
Laugh
- Uhm, sometimes going beyond the borders and expanding using tech can be not so good.
Lead
- Pick the text expander tool you’d like to try and get going with the six steps above.
P.S.
- Have you heard the big news?! I’ve launched the Transformative Trainers Academy. Curious? Check it out. Share it with a friend or colleague. If you refer someone, you’ll get your first month’s membership for free!
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