We took a close look at the high-quality keyboards with interfaces optimized for speed and tested them for key technology and volume.
Of
Michael Link Rudolf Opitz Nine gaming keyboards with fast and durable precision keys in the test What is ghosting? In the Hit keys buttons and switches One-on-one meetings Conclusion and test table Article in c’t 2 / 2021 read The goblin horde saw me, damn it! The first lightning bolts are already flying around my ears. I hit shift to run – I have to get out of here. During the sprint, I hammer the E key, which activates the healing spell, but nothing happens. The next lightning strike me down. My friend, who was watching me over his shoulder, smiles: “This would not have happened to you with a decent keyboard.”
Players have different keyboard requirements than writers-only, so offer Models optimized for gaming have some additional intelligence in the housing. We have nine gaming keyboards at prices between 64 and 250 euros not only looked at the keys, but also at what is behind them: The test field includes Asus ROG Strix Scope, K 60 RGB Pro and K 100 RGB OPX from Corsair, Kingston HyperX Alloy Elite 2, the Logitech models G 250 Silver, G 910 Orion Spectrum and G 915 TKL, Roccat Vulcan TKL Pro and Skiller Mech SGK3 from Sharkoon.
All keyboards are equipped with mechanical keys that cheaper keyboards with contact foils and a rubber mat with bulges for each contact (rubber dome) are considered to be more precise and durable. We have the Logitech G 915 and the Roccat Vulcan Pro as TKL Version tested (Tenkeyless) – they lack the right numeric keypad. This makes them shorter and leaves more space for sweeping mouse movements. Left-handers, who like to use the numeric keypad, also get the models with a full set of keys.
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io-Tech’s Live Technology Podcast on YouTube discusses the week’s most exciting events in the IT and mobile world.
io-Tech’s weekly Technology Podcast will be shown today, Friday, January 8, a little later than usual at about 15: 30 starting as a live stream. The technology podcast will be broadcast live on YouTube. Juha Kokkonen and Sampsa Kurri will vote
In weekly live podcasts, we review current IT news and novelty products from the past week, tell you what updates io-Tech may be promising in the near future, and shed light on background stories related to making articles and running io-Tech. Viewers can participate in the broadcast interactively via the YouTube chat window.
io-Tech’s Technology Podcast of the Week can be viewed or listened to afterwards:
Nine desktop browsers in comparison: from slim to versatile Comfort and expandability Performance Individual meetings Conclusion and test table Read article in c’t 2 / 2000 No question: The system browsers Edge, Safari and Firefox – the standard for many Linux distributions – are powerful. Nevertheless, Chrome (or Chromium under Linux) could break into all operating system domains. But then, with these four heavyweights: No other browser can get a significant market share on the desktop.
That’s a shame, because the browser market gives more. For this article, we compared the four “big ones” with five less popular browsers. We only tested on the desktop; an additional comparison on mobile devices would have gone beyond the scope. If there are mobile versions of the browsers, we have indicated this in the table.
Six of the browsers rely on Google’s open source project Chromium / Blink: Brave, Chrome, Edge, Opera, Ungoogled Chromium and Vivaldi. In addition to Firefox itself, Waterfox also uses its Gecko rendering engine. We also included Safari (WebKit) in the test. Safari is the only browser available only for macOS. Due to its close integration with the operating system, it can use the macOS keychain for password management and the content blocker.
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(Pocket-lint) – The Renault Captur was one of the first true crossovers to grace the roads. Sure, it followed the Nissan Juke – which created this segment – but the Captur has seen success.
It’s Renault’s best-selling SUV in Europe and the best-selling UK model for Renault too. That’s no surprise, with a fusion of high ride and practical space – within a reasonable cost.
So does the second-gen Captur tell a similar story as it mixes hybrid technology into the package?
Updated design
The new Renault Captur captures the identity of the previous edition, but with a little more bite – with sharper lines and sculpting that’s a little more dynamic. It’s really around the nose where you see this biggest change, with a lot more definition across all the trim levels.
Fundamentally, it has the same look to it – not like the radical refresh of Nissan’s Juke (while we’re talking B segment SUVs) – with those side segments giving some form to this car in profile, along with the chunky wheel arches adding some protection from urban scrapes.
The Captur is an urban SUV at heart. Well, it’s not really an SUV at all, with no real aims to be sporty or very utility-driven, remaining a front-wheel drive, pumped-up hatch, with no real ambitions of anything more adventurous than parking on the pavement. What it achieves, however, is that clever combination of compact space – especially in the front seats – and we think it looks good too.
It looks and feels spacious, without actually being too large. That sees a rear bench that will accommodate larger kids, perhaps a smaller one in the middle, and a boot that’s pretty generous too (at 379 litres), with a floor that lifts to allow for easy stowage of the included cables to charge this plug-in hybrid.
The interior also gets a quality lift, mirroring the design we’ve seen spreading across the Zoe and the Clio, and it’s a lot more modern than the previous version, mixing soft touch and harder plastics. Yes, it’s not the pinnacle of luxury, but this is a practical family car.
What’s important is that it’s comfortable – while also being functional thanks to that big central display – with that soft-touch finish looking great. And while premium models will put leather in these places, the Captur saves that for the steering wheel and the drive selector as key touch points where it really matters.
An interesting hybrid setup
But there’s a lot of tech flowing into the new Captur, especially on this E-Tech model. The plug-in hybrid is the more interesting (there’s also a non plug-in version, but that doesn’t have quite the same appeal) with Renault talking about the tech that’s come from Formula 1 in this car.
What is the Pocket-lint daily and how do you get it for free?
There’s a 1.6-litre petrol engine – with no turbo – mated to an automatic gearbox, with a pair of electric motors and a 9.8kWh battery. The battery is good for around 30 miles of pure electric driving according to Renault’s figures – again typical for the plug-in hybrid sector and bringing the advantage of emission free motoring, as long as you take the time to charge it.
Once you’re in the car, the technicals of the clutchless dog gearbox and dual motors won’t bother you, because you can just get on with driving it just as you would any other automatic.
There’s the benefit of some electric range, which means you can coast along in near silence, with the advantage of always pulling away in electric-only mode. It’s a low electric range – but that’s par for the course for plug-in hybrids – but what’s more interesting about the Captur is that it’s one of the smaller SUVs with this setup – the Niro PHEV being the notable rival, or the Mini Countryman Cooper S E an alternative.
In reality, you need quite a lot to align for the electric range to be usable. You really need to be able to charge at home so you can do those local journeys in EV mode only, otherwise it’s soon drained and unlikely to recharge by any real measure on regeneration alone. You can set the engine to recharge the battery, but that’s not really the point of these cars.
The plug-in charging is only rated at 3.6kW, so a garage with a regular socket will probably suffice for many – cables for a domestic plug and a Type 2 for public chargers are included. While regeneration will put charge back into the battery when you lift off the power, that favours stop-start urban driving. Once you’re on the motorway, the battery will drain – unless you tell the car not to use the battery at all – and then you’re just carrying the additional weight, with little eco benefit for those longer journeys.
In EV mode the Captur is spritely enough and can get up to legal limit speeds on the road (not that you’ll have much range driving like this), but around town, it’s charming in its abilities.
It remains comfortable, avoiding the harsh suspension that some manufacturers add to boost the sporting credentials. It’s better suited to broken roads and speed bumps, better in that urban environment than on twisting country roads, although the steering is also positive enough.
The Captur can be a little unresponsive as you pull up to a roundabout and look to speed away. It seems to pause and think before it delivers the power and that’s the most noticeable downside when you’re underway: changing pace can sometimes be a little sluggish. It’s not hugely fast either, taking 10 seconds to get to 62mph, but that’s unlikely to be a concern for this type of car.
Charming interior tech
With an uplift in the interior quality overall, the interior tech puts in a respectable performance too. The system is essentially the same as you’ll find in the likes of the Zoe of the Clio, with a nice 9.3-inch display in the centre of the dash and a digital display for the driver. Lower-spec models have a 7-inch display, but if you’re looking at the hybrid, the only option is at a higher trim level with this larger display.
The only control you might be left searching for is a physical volume control, which sits on a stalk on the steering column, along with other media controls that you really need to learn to control by feel, as it’s not a great place to be looking when you’re driving.
The large display gives a modern feel to proceedings and the tech loadout is usable enough, with good navigation and plenty of information when you’re driving. We like Renault’s solution, but Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are also both supported as standard, so you can plug your phone in to access phone-based apps instead.
The system will give you things like fancy consumption graphs showing the balance of fuel and electric that you’ve been using, but it’s a little baffling. It’s well equipped, however, with the only extras you might consider being hands-free parking or adaptive cruise control.
The digital driver display isn’t as customisable as some, but it’s neat enough, the centre selection letting you switch through major functions to get to the information you want.
Verdict
The updated Renault Captur has plenty of appeal in this E-Tech hybrid version. This plug-in model gives you a usable range of 30 miles – so long as you charge it – meaning that short journeys could be completed emission free.
This is one of the few plug-in hybrid compact SUVs on the market, too, meaning it retains some appeal by its scarcity – although there is quite a jump in price compared to the petrol and diesel models at similar trim levels.
Overall the Captur’s ride, comfort, practicality, and well-considered redesign tick all the right boxes. For those who have the option to charge regularly to take advantage of that plug-in setup, it’s a great car.
Simon Crisp 41 mins ago Featured Tech Reviews, Professional, Reviews, SSD Drives
Aimed at professional users on the go, SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD features an NVMe SSD, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface and a rugged, rubberised case. Priced at £180 for the 1TB model in for review today, could this be the perfect portable SSD if you need something to withstand the rigours of everyday life?
SanDisk’s Extreme Pro SSD range consists of three capacities (at the time of writing this review), 500GB, 1TB and the flagship 2TB model. The drive uses a silicon rubber coating to provide it with protection against everyday bumps and scrapes.
There are no details in the specification information on WD’s website as to the NAND type and the make/model of the controller. Using the CrystalDiskInfo utility, the drive inside the case is recognised as a WD Black SN750E. So we are talking WD’s G1 NVMe controller and 64-Layer 3D TLC NAND. When it comes to performance, there is only a read speed of up to 1,050MB/s quoted in the spec sheet for the drive.
The Extreme Pro SSD supports 128-bit AES encryption and it’s backed with a 5-year warranty.
Physical Specifications:
Usable Capacities: 1TB.
NAND Components: WD 64-Layer 3D TLC.
Interface: USB 3.1 Gen2.
Form Factor: External.
NAND Controller: WD G1.
Dimensions: 57.34 x 110.26 x 10.22mm.
Drive Weight: 79g.
Firmware Version: 0111.
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Due to climate change, the flora and fauna in the Antarctic could change significantly in the next few decades. As the Antarctic waters warm, species from more temperate regions are likely to migrate and diversity may increase initially. Other species are likely to disappear.
Research results like these were carried out by scientists in the major international project “AnT-ERA” under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven ( AWI) together. They evaluated hundreds of specialist articles about the Antarctic from the last ten years and summarized them in a review article. It was published in the specialist journal Biological Reviews .
Problematic changes due to climate change According to this, ice-free coastal areas could become increasingly green during the Antarctic summer in the coming decades because mosses or lichens immigrate. On the other hand, with constant warming, the species adapted to extremely low temperatures would have problems. “We anticipate that such species will retreat to the last remaining very cold areas of the Antarctic,” said project coordinator Julian Gutt from AWI. “This also means that these regions will have to be protected in order to preserve these species.”
Loss of sea ice also leads to increased algae growth in the waters around Antarctica. Simple forecasts indicated that the algae would absorb around 25 percent more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere if the area were completely free of sea ice in the future in the southern summer. However, general statements are difficult.
“The publications we have analyzed make it clear that the situation is geographically very different,” said Gutt. By the end of this century, the experts also expect extensive acidification of the Antarctic waters. “There is no question that especially those living beings get problems that form lime shells.”
With the ID.4, VW is offering an electric car in the SUV segment for the first time – where it meets the bestseller Tiguan. We show which model is cheaper in the end.
The Tiguan was recently the most successful VW globally. The ID.4 – here in the picture – now competes with it internally.
(Image: VW)
Electricity vs. fuel: who drives cheaper – VW ID.4 or Tiguan? Purchase Taxes Maintenance Loss of value Conclusion Table of cost comparisons SUVs enjoy sustained great demand – despite all criticism of their environmental compatibility. Accordingly, it is not surprising that VW wants to benefit from this with the ID.4. The electric car, which at first or second glance would also pass as a station wagon that has turned out to be too high, should benefit from the popularity of the segment – thanks to the drive, but without a bad climate awareness.
Technically, it moves ID.4 very close to ID.3 (test). The new model is also based on the modular electric drive kit (MEB, originally also known as the modular electrification kit), which Volkswagen uses throughout the Group, for example in the Skoda Enyaq – another electrically powered SUV. The last one in autumn 2000 overtook the second generation Tiguan is on the other hand on the modular transverse matrix (MQB-A2). This differs from the Golf 8 (MQB evo), but is also available as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle).
The second model of the ID series, the ID.4, is technically similar to the ID.3 and should find its buyers in the SUV segment.
(Image: VW)
Purchase For the comparison we used the VW ID.4 in the Pro Performance equipment line. This is the combination of 158 kW strong rear-wheel drive, net 77 kWh battery capacity (gross 82 kWh) as well as the basic equipment (as of January 2021). In addition, VW offers five other equipment options – in the course of the year 2021 three more motor-battery combinations are to follow. The cheapest ID.4 should then 109 kW and net 52 kWh – but VW has not yet given a price for it. The situation is different in the ID.4 configuration: Since we have waived special equipment, the list price is without funding and taking into account the since January 1st 2021 again 19 Percentage VAT at 44. 450 Euro.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we’re back! On YouTube, that is. The saga of our channel being hijacked is now finally resolved (you can read more about that here if you weren’t aware of what was going on). And now we’re back in business.
Like we mentioned before, we never stopped recording review videos during the past few weeks when our channel was out of our hands, so now it’s time for an absolute bonanza of video content coming your way in the next few days.
Starring today is the Samsung Galaxy A42, a phone we reviewed in writing last month. Here is our video take on this mid-range smartphone with its interesting and unique back design, 5G support, and quad rear cameras (although of those one is macro and one is a depth sensor – surprise surprise).
So sit back and enjoy the ride, Angie will tell you everything you need to know about Samsung’s cheapest 5G phone yet in a sweet and short video review.
Samsung is announcing the next generation Galaxy S-series flagship family next week, and we figured a sort of a look back on last year’s model was most appropriate. As luck would have it, one of our own has been long-term using the Galaxy S20+, and this here long-term review came naturally.
Perhaps you remember that we did a long-term review of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Still, the S20+ is more than a little different from the Ultra in several important ways like camera and handling. Additionally, it’s another person writing these paragraphs, so even if you do consider the phones alike, the different perspective could be informative in itself. And last, with the approaching release of the S21, the context of the times introduces its own level of specifics.
The Galaxy S20+ is the middle option in the 2020 lineup, sharing most of its hardware with the smaller S20. And when we say most, we mean it – other than the extra screen estate and the scaled-up battery capacity on the Plus, the two are virtually the same phone. Obviously, pocket-friendliness considerations do come into play, but we’d argue that the Plus to Ultra jump is more considerable than the Vanilla to Plus.
Our usual long-term reviewing typically takes place over about a month, maybe six weeks. This time, the S20+ has been the reviewer’s daily driver for over 6 months, so you could argue he’s had an even deeper bond with it than is customary for this type of article.
On the other hand, it was only recently that the idea for an S20+ long-term review came to be, so he hasn’t strictly scrutinized it for all 190+ days it’s been in his pocket. At least not quite like he would have, had he had the LTR in mind from the get-go. Maybe he should be more mindful of such things going forward.
And go forward we shall, starting with a few words on the Galaxy S20+’s design.
The new Arlo Essential Video Dorbell doorbell allows you to monitor the front door of your home 24 hours on 24, 7 days a week. Here are all the features and the selling price.
by Manolo De Agostini published 07 January 2021 , at 18: 41 in the Home channel Arlo
Arlo presented the wireless doorbell Arlo Essential Video Doorbell , equipped with a 1: 1 viewing angle, a field of view of 180 degrees and a built-in siren to ensure protection from the outside to the inside. Sold at a recommended price of 119 ?? , the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell wireless doorbell is available for pre-sale and will arrive on Amazon and other authorized retailers from February 2nd.
With a shooting capacity at 1080 p with HDR , offers nighttime image capture that allows homeowners to have control over the front door even in the dark and in poor visibility conditions. When Arlo’s “smart” doorbell is pressed, a call starts directly on your smartphone. It will then be sufficient to answer the call to find out who it is.
As with Arlo’s outdoor security cameras, users also receive an alert when the doorbell detects motion and they can activate a live video to find out what activated it . The video doorbell allows users to communicate with visitors directly from their smartphone, without physically reaching the door.
Furthermore, when no one is at home, visitors can leave a voice message to the hosts . Arlo Essential Video Doorbell is compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and SmartThings and can be connected to others smart products available within the home for sending notifications.
The deterrent siren can be set for a automatic activation or remotely via the smartphone, in order to drive away unwanted visitors. Arlo Essential Video Doorbell is designed to withstand the elements (heat, cold, rain and sun), and is designed to be installed independently via the removable and rechargeable battery. You can also plug it into the mains for continuous power, no need for a transformer.
Arlo’s wireless doorbell finally can benefit from Arlo’s AI SMART security platform : the SMART subscription service guarantees advanced detection and quick response, offering greater security. New users can test its features with the three-month trial included with the purchase of Arlo Essential Video Doorbell.
What’s it about? First of all the storage of videos in the cloud for 30 days to review the videos and share them with law enforcement if necessary. It is then possible to set customized control areas to decide the areas on which to monitor, but also add continuous video recording .
The system is also capable of detect people, animals, vehicles and packages by sending you a notification, but also activate the fire alarm detection. In the event of an accident or problems, you can call for help without unlocking your smartphone screen, activate the built-in siren to deter intruders and set up an emergency contact so you can quickly call for help.
Short tests: Smart LED light strip, NAS hard drive and USB table microphone LED light strips Eve Light Strip Toshiba N 300 NAS hard drive with 16 TByte Mini table microphone Mikme Connect A new firmware update provides the Eve Light Strip with the HomeKit function “Adaptive Light”, with which the LED light strip should automatically adjust the color temperature to the time of day,
Toshiba’s NAS hard drive from the N 300 – Series is now available with 16 TByte storage space. Thanks to conventional recording technology, the drive is pleasantly fast.
The Mikme Connect microphone box promises good results Voice recording quality for video conferences with little effort.
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The c’t appeared 1983 for the first time; at the time the editorial staff consisted of only a handful of people. Today it includes assistance 70 colleagues Colleagues.
In the foyer of the Heise company building a tower stretches out 587 c’t booklet 5, 71 Meter into the sky of Hanover. It weighs 400 kilograms and was created according to ideas from Sven Hansen and Uli Hilgefort in October 2020 on 30. Anniversary of Europe’s largest computer and tech magazine.
Assistant Stefan Labusga lend a hand as c’t editor Ulrich Hilgefort Tower erected. Before that, the two stacks of magazines had been artfully glued together.
Please do not touch: The tower 5 is held in place by steel cables, 70 meters in height.
Today you would have to go around the tower since then published 60. 314 Increase pages – that would be more 67, 93 Kilograms on top. Incidentally, we did not include the c’t special issues that were also missing in the tower.
Tiles instead of a tower: Those who don’t stack their entire c’t collection, but instead would like to lay staple tiles, you need a scarce 60 square meter room.
c’t test laboratory From the beginning many devices were tortured in the c’t test laboratory. Laboratory manager Ralf Schneider has only just got the serial number 600 in the category ” Computers / notebooks “. Under “Hardware items of all kinds” is the counter at 6957.
When purchased, the measuring devices in the laboratory had a roughly estimated purchase price of around 600. 000 Euro, there are also numerous in-house developments, because there is not something ready-made for everything that c’t wants to test.
c’t readership Without our loyal readers, we would not be where we are today. They give us hints, provide exciting tips and also point out errors to us. In this process you help us to maintain the quality we want right from the start.
Who reads c’t by subscription, often does so for a long time. Some subscribers have been for more than 000 Years included.
c’t calendar and sidereal hours As technology-loving as the editorial team is: Critical questioning is always part of it – just in the year 2020 c’t revealed many scandals. But one or the other idea from the editorial team sparked the creativity of the readers. Some coups stand out.
Milestones in the history of c’t
c’t press coverage Research, Testing and writing are part of the editorial work. Because exciting and sometimes very surprising results come to light, the editors are often asked for interviews in magazines, newspapers, on the radio and on television. It also provides assessments of current events, such as security issues.
c’t is often called “influential”. The editors are in demand for interview partners.
2 / 2021 In c’t 2 / 2021 take a look into the crystal ball and shed light on the IT trends of the coming years. You will learn how you can surf privately and securely, and which browser supports this particularly well. In the IT salary report, we examine whether the pandemic is a good job engine. We test multifunctional printers for the home office, show you how to protect your NAS from hacker attacks, and introduce a universal Windows boot stick. You can read this and much more in c’t 2 / 2021. The issue will be available from January 1st 2021 in the Heise shop and at the well-stocked newspaper kiosk.
Bash is a full-fledged programming language with which you can easily automate everyday tasks. Take a minesweeper game as an example.
(Image: Thorsten Hübner)
Introduction to Bash Programming: Developing Minesweeper in the Linux Shell Quick start Two loops Distribution by chance Endless fun Leadership skills Damage Control Article in c’t 2 / 2021 read Shell programming is one of the basic skills of Linux admins, but it is also useful for everyday users because it can easily automate complex tasks. Using a minesweeper game, we will show you how to use the possibilities of bash without in-depth programming knowledge.
Shell scripts are often underestimated, after all they were originally little more than a list of commands that you had previously entered manually. That is why many shell scripts, or rather shell programs, are still created today, in which the last commands entered are saved in a file.
Quick start The file extension “.sh “You can also omit, it only serves as an indication to the operator that this is a shell script that can be read as plain text and not a binary program. And that is exactly what characterizes scripts in general: you can simply open and edit them in a text editor. It is crucial for the execution of a script that the interpreter with which the script is executed is named in the first line after the so-called She-Bang. Bash scripts therefore always begin with the line:
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Time also needs to be planned and organized so that it can be used as effectively as possible. You can find out how this can be done in this article on the method of timeboxing.
At some point in my life I read the following sentence: ” Work expands to the extent that time is available for its completion “. This phrase comes from the British sociologist C. Northcote Parkinson and is widely considered to be the best known Parkinson’s law.
Originally Parkinson wanted to refer to the increasing bureaucracy in the administration of his home country in the year 1955. What would this man say to our modern bureaucracy today? Well, maybe he would be speechless. Sometimes words are lacking to describe something. Simply because the right words have not yet been invented.
In any case, I have made the experience in my working life that this law is confirmed in a surprising number of situations. That wouldn’t be tragic if the time available to developers weren’t incredibly volatile. Too many influencing factors play a role. Therefore, you should never assume that there is too much time available for a task. If it is, you may have missed a holiday and should devote yourself to your free time instead of work …
The antidote Fortunately, a few years ago I read about a method for using time effectively: timeboxing. In my experience, it is precisely this method that counteracts the law described above. One could speak of an “antidote”.
What is it about? Well, in simple terms: you define blocks of time in which you work on a task. The above-mentioned regularity is therefore set limits and takes away its leeway.
In my last blog post I wrote about short-term and long-term tasks. To keep track of things, I suggested managing personal tasks in a list. If you have a calendar at hand, this allows you to define a time block for each upcoming task.
The task is processed in this time block. I am deliberately writing “edited” here. Actually, I should use the word “do”. In my experience, that doesn’t always work. In situations like this, it is important for me that I have started processing, but have encountered an unforeseeable problem, have initiated measures to resolve the issue and have defined a follow-up time block. That helps a lot.
Practical use In order to use timeboxing in everyday development work, as always, some planning and organization necessary. These are the basic “ingredients”. As in many tasty dishes, olive oil and garlic form the basis.
I have already described how to get your list of tasks. That this list is sorted according to priorities suits us. The next step is to consider how much time you need for a task. Don’t worry, estimating this time is neither an exact secret science nor a psychic ability. But experience helps. As so often in life. Then you need a suitable time block in your calendar. That’s it Nearly. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.
Details and subtleties At this point I want I will first talk about some details and subtleties. For a long time I have been working with exactly two colors in my calendar. These are orange and red. I use orange to mark blocks of time that I can cancel or postpone. Time blocks marked in red are fixed. Force majeure means that I do not devote myself to the planned task during the period.
From the time of planning, anything is possible with me. Many tasks are planned the day before and processed the following day. Due to the very short planning horizon, disruptions are less likely. However, I also put a time block directly in the calendar during a phone call or a personal meeting and tell the person I am talking to. This creates trust that I take his concerns seriously and makes it possible for my counterpart to plan when a response can be expected at the earliest.
What, by the way, also deserves a lot of attention: The time periods between the time blocks. This does not mean, for example, traveling to the customer by train. That’s worth a separate block of time to me. By that I mean more valuable lifetime such as breaks. For example, having lunch with the family together.
On top of that, you should follow your own rhythm of life if possible. Those who are particularly fit in the morning can devote themselves to creative work and in the afternoon to administrative work. But watch out: if you have to work together across time zones, you should of course take this into account.
There may be days when it is better not to work with timeboxing at all, but let the day approach you. That is also good.
The real challenge Now we come to the real challenge . I had already announced that there was something else there. So, you have to have an incredible amount of discipline to use timeboxing.
Anyone who has not yet learned to say “no” and tries to do their personal tasks in a highly dynamic environment will run into problems. Regarding the underestimated value of the word “No”, I am also writing a separate blog. In order to work effectively in a block of time, it is sometimes necessary to ignore a phone call. It is best to allow the mail client and the private smartphone should be at least five steps away from the workplace. Because you can answer the ignored call and the incoming e-mails later and you can look at your private smartphone while having a coffee.
Daily review helps Since at the end of a working day I usually plan the next working day in detail, this is also a good time to review the day. What was my assessment? Which time block did I choose too small or too large? The Friday afternoon plays a special role here, because it is worth looking back at the week and at least roughly planning the following week.
Not for everyone and not for everyone Situation Due to the discipline required, timeboxing may not be suitable for everyone. After all, discipline also costs strength. One shouldn’t deny that. On the other hand, it has already cost me a lot more energy to bring order to chaos.
There are also positive side effects. On request, you can tell someone when you are working on a particular task or what you have planned for the next day.
Example from everyday life By the way, there is a well-known example from everyday life, that illustrates the positive effects of timeboxing. Let us assume that a guest unexpectedly announces a visit. Let’s say it will arrive in about two hours. That wouldn’t be a problem if the apartment didn’t have to be tidied up. What is effectively tidied up in these two hours is in no way compared to a complete Saturday on which you have decided to finally clean up.
In this sense, stay healthy and structured
Your Michael
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