How Not Using Keyboard Shortcuts Makes You Lose 64 Hours Every Year

If you work an office job, chances are you spend all day using a computer. You know how tedious it is: type, type, click, type more…

But, what if you could save time by only typing and not clicking? In fact, by clicking with a mouse instead of using a keyboard shortcut for the same function, you lose 2 second for every minute you spend hunched over a computer.^[1]

Assuming you work 8 hours a day, roughly 240 days a year, you waste up to 64 hours a year if you don’t use any keyboard shortcuts. Here’s how the figure is calculated:

(2 wasted seconds / min) x (480 min / workday) x (240 workdays / year) = 64 wasted hours / year

So, taking some time to memorize some of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts is totally worth it!

When you use keyboard shortcuts, you save the time you spend on looking for the cursor and placing it to the right position.

Let’s say you want to open a new tab and look up some keyboard shortcuts on Google.

You find your mouse, move the cursor to the tiny ‘+’ button and click on it, do the same for the ‘Google’ button (if you even have one on your browser…), then move your hand back on to your keyboard to type ‘keyboard shortcuts’. Alternatively, you can press ‘cmd’ + ‘T’ on your keyboard and start typing right away.

Now do you see the difference?

Not learning the keyboard shortcuts for the functions you use frequently means literally letting time slip through your fingers, harming your productivity. And if this isn’t a big enough motivation to start using keyboard shortcuts, know that using a mouse is actually bad for you.

And if you use the mouse extensively, the chance of wrists problems is increased.

Science tells us that clicking with a mouse all day may cause inflammation of the tendons in your wrist.^[2]

Which is to say, not only does using a mouse instead of the keyboard make you lose time, but also gives you much more trouble than you think.

So, how to kickstart using keyboard shortcuts? We’ve got the essentials for you!

Save this article so you don’t forget these killer shortcuts to save you 64 hours this year.

Credit: Hubspot

Credit: Lifehacker

You should find yourself using most, if not all, of the above keyboard shortcuts every day. But these are just some basic ones, so feel free to explore more of them and stop wasting any more time on your mouse!

Reference

[1]	^	Brainscape: How Keyboard Shortcuts Could Revive America’s Economy
[2]	^	HubPages: The Advantages to Use the Keyboard Shortcuts) Also, you may be at a higher risk of having ‘repetitive strain injury’, a painful condition, compared to someone who uses the mouse less and the keyboard more.((Shortcut Keys: 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Keyboard Shortcuts

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