Cougars Do Cut Corners

As a BYU student, you may have been pressured into believing that Cougars don’t take shortcuts—across the lawn or otherwise. But today is the day to revisit that adage. You can—and should—become familiar with tech shortcuts that will not only save time but also boost organization.

With the same enthusiasm as a recently returned missionary looking for a first date, you can seek easy ways to streamline your efficiency. Start by implementing these simple hacks and see where they take you. (Just don’t ruin the grass in the process, okay?)

We’ve all been there. You’re closing excess browser tabs, and you get a little—or a lot—carried away. The good news is that there’s an easier way to recover those websites than retracing your virtual steps. If you’re using MacOS, selecting “Command + Shift + T” will restore sessions that were previously closed. For a Windows system, “Control + Shift + T” will get the same result. You won’t regret memorizing this game changer.

Gmail has several handy desktop shortcuts, but you first need to visit Settings > General >Keyboard shortcuts and then enable shortcuts. Once you do that, simply pressing “c” will create a new message—and the magic doesn’t end there. Type “r” to reply, “a” to reply to all, and “f” to forward. A slash (/) takes you to the search bar, and “Command + Enter” sends an email. You can even toggle between messages by typing “k” to go to a newer email or “j” to visit a previous message.

We naturally speak faster than we can type, so why not use that ability to your advantage? Enabling voice dictation for text messages is common, and it can work on computers too. On a Windows system, press “Windows Key + H” to set up dictation. On MacOS, go to System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation and enable dictation. Select your shortcut option to start dictating, clear your throat, and—voila!—you’ve got your very own stenographer.

It’s probably time to take some emails to the virtual trash. To permanently remove Outlook messages, highlight the email(s) then press “Shift + Delete,” and they’ll be gone for good. If you simply want to move messages to the “Deleted Items” folder, highlight them and hit “Delete.” Beware: With some computer systems there’s no easy recovery option when you permanently delete items, so practice this method on unimportant emails before you purge your inbox.

Does entering your email address on an iPhone cause your carpal tunnel to flare up? Or maybe you lost out on tickets to an event because it took so long to type your email. Here’s a nifty little time-saver to help when filling out forms. On an iPhone, go to Settings >General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Create a new replacement by hitting the plus sign, typing your email address in the “phrase” line, and then entering shortcut text (such as @@).