We here at MUO have published several articles about computer automation programs for the Mac, including Apple’s default programs, Automator and AppleScript. We know that in order to get the most use out of any computing workflow means learning how to automate redundant tasks so you can work faster and more efficiently.

My own Awesome Automation Guide for Mac Users introduces new and experienced Mac users to all of Apple’s smart technology features, such as a smart folders iPhoto albums, as well as Automator.

But let’s say you just want to schedule a few little daily or weekly tasks on your Mac and you don’t feel like hauling out Automator or figuring out a script in AppleScript. Well, a small utility called Task Till Dawn might well do the trick.

You can use Task Till Dawn to set up and run daily tasks for automatically opening files or scheduling iTunes to download the newest Podcast at a specified time.

Setting up automations in Task Till Dawn require less steps than are required in Automator, though the latter program could also be used in conjunction with Task Till Dawn.

How It Works

After you download and install Task Till Dawn, launching the program presents you with a fairly easy-to-use interface, in which you basically add a task, schedule it, and let it run. So let’s put together a simple automatic file opening task.

Launch Task Till Dawn and click the New Task button in its toolbar.

Click the “Select” button and select a file or application in your Finder that you would like Task Till Dawn to automatically open on specified days, at a specified time. Next, give your task a name. Providing a description is optional.

Now set a time for the task to execute. Task Till Dawn uses the 24-hour clock system. So if you want to schedule a file to open at say 1:00 p.m., you should type “13:00″ in the time input box.

Next, click the “Extended settings” button, and check the days in which you want the task to run. Notice you can have it run on a daily basis or a specified day of the month. You can also schedule how many times you want the task to be executed.

Click OK, and your task is ready to run on the specified time and days. But you probably will want to test it out. To do this, simply click the “Run task(s)” button in the toolbar and it should open the file or application you selected.

Notice also that Task Till Dawn provides a detailed description of when a task is scheduled to run, when it was last executed, and when it is scheduled to run again. There’s also buttons for editing and removing tasks.

You need to have Task Till Dawn running in your menu bar or Dock in order for it to execute tasks. It doesn’t run tasks in the background like Automator does.

You can also schedule Growl notifications, which of course will let you know that a particular task has been run.

Task Till Dawn does have its limitations. It can only run one task at a time. So you can’t set up a single task to launch several applications, one after another. You have to set up a task for each application launch. It also can’t quit applications at a scheduled time.

However, because of the program’s simple scheduling process, it might be easier to set up and run Automator applications via Task Till Dawn rather than using iCal.

Despite its shortcomings, Task Till Dawn is a great little Java-based freeware program for those with very basic automation needs. Let us know what you think of the program.

In this article I will show you a simple way to regularly and automatically clean your Windows 7 system. This won’t require you to install yet another cool tool and is thus low on system resources. At the same time you will also learn how to automatically run other tools for other tasks.

There are several tools that can remove temporary files and keep your computer free from clutter, for example CCleaner. However, these programs themselves take up hard drive space and consume system resources, thus adding to the problem rather than solving it. In fact, Windows comes with an accessory utility called Disk Cleanup, which does a pretty good job at freeing up space on your hard drive by removing temporary files, emptying the Recycle Bin, and deleting other obsolete files.

You can run the tool manually by going through > Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. However, you can also schedule an automatic disk cleanup and that’s the procedure I am going to show you in this article.

1. Open Task Scheduler

Go to > Start and type > task scheduler in the search box, then hit > Enter.

2. Create Basic Task

In the Task Scheduler windows go to > Action and select > Create Basic Task…

3. Setup Task With Task Wizard

The previous step opened the Task Wizard. In the first window enter a name and description for your task, then click > Next.

The Task Trigger determines when the task will be launched. In this case I want to the Disk Cleanup utility to run on a weekly basis. Click > Next to set the day and time.

When you have decided on a schedule, click > Next to set an Action.

Here we want to > Start a program. Select the respective option and click > Next.

Enter the link to the respective utility in the > Program/script: field. The link for Disk Cleanup is > C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe. To run the tool automatically, without requiring your input, also add the command > cleanmgr.exe/sagerun:1 into the > Add arguments (options): field.

Click > Next once more to see an overview where you can check your settings and then hit > Finish to save the task. In this configuration, the tool will run with default settings.

4. Change Disk Cleanup Settings

Naturally, it is desirable to change the default settings to suit your preferences. First of all, you basically need to save your preferred Disk Cleanup settings in a profile. Then you manipulate the command in the > Add arguments (optional): field above, to point to the instance of Disk Cleanup you launch with your scheduled task to the profile you created. This way you can set up multiple scheduled tasks, running different Disk Cleanup profiles. Now let’s see how that works.

Click > [WINDOWS] + [R] key combination to launch the Run Windows. Type in > Cmd and click > OK.

In the DOS-like window that pops up, type in > cleanmgr /sageset:3 where ’3′ will be your new profile.

The Disk Cleanup Settings window will launch. Select which files you wish to have cleaned, then click > OK to save your settings in a registry key.

Now return to your scheduled task. Launch the Task Scheduler as described in step 1 above. Your task will be listed in the top middle column in the Task Scheduler window. Double-click the task, then switch to the > Actions tab and double-click the > Start a program action. In the > Edit Action window change the number for the > sagerun command to your profile number, for example to > cleanmgr.exe/sagerun:3

That’s it! For more information about how to manipulate the Disk Cleanup utility, check out this Microsoft Support article.

For more tips and tricks on how to keep your Windows system lean and clean, check out these articles:

• How To Clean Up Your Computer Back To Its Original State (Without Reinstalling Windows)
• Top 8 Programs That Can Make Your Computer Run Faster
• 10 Quick Fixes to Make your Windows Computer Faster
• Top 5 Free Computer Maintenance Tools You Should Know About
• Last Minute Spring Cleaning of your Windows XP System
• 7 Common Reasons Why Windows Can Get Unresponsive
• 2 Effective Tools That Can Increase Your Hard Drive Performance on Windows

What tools have you been using to clean your hard drive?

Image credits: Kurhan

I am sure for many people, your process looks similar to mine. I start working by going through all shared news, email subscriptions and updates from blogs I follow. This is the time when I actually want to tweet a lot. Then I start working and try not to get distracted by sharing anything on Twitter. Obviously, I don’t want to tweet dozens of good stories within an hour – that’s where various Twitter scheduling tools might come in handy. However scheduling takes more time than I usually have. Besides, it somehow makes tweeting less fun because you get distracted from the normal Twitter flow by the need to think about when you want the tweet to go live.

Buffer App offers a different approach: you drop your links into your Buffer account and the tool queues them for future publishing. This way you can still enjoy your spontaneous tweeting without stuffing your Twitter stream with multiple updates within a short period of time.

With Buffer, you set your schedule once and then let all your tweets get published based on your schedule daily:

The free Buffer App plan currently allows you to have 10 tweets in your Buffer queue which has proven more than enough for me – but I am not that heavy a Twitterer. This also means the free account has been considerably extended since it was first reviewed on MUO.

While the Buffer App itself lets you enjoy your genuine tweeting without thinking about how often the actual tweets get published, the newly developed Buffer for Firefox addon increases your Tweeting productivity.

As an active Twitter user, I’ve tried various ways to easily tweet any page (without repeated copy-pasting work) including the Bit.ly bookmarklet, HootSuite Hotlet and others but the Buffer App one seems the easiest to me. It offers 3 major ways to instantly tweet any page or “buffer” the update (for it to then get published on Twitter based on your set schedule):

1. Tweet / Buffer With Your Keyboard

I find this option a huge time saver – and that’s actually the main reason why I am sticking to the addon. What can be faster than tweeting with the key combination:

CTRL + ALT + b

The above combination will also let you tweet any text from the page. Just highlight it and use the shortcut to generate the tweet:

2. Tweet / Buffer Any Page Using The Status Bar Icon

Tip: If you have lost your status bar in FireFox 4, try Statusbar 4 Evar to get it back:

The same option is also accessible from the context (right-click) menu.

3. Buffer Your Retweets

Our retweeting tends to be as spontaneous as tweeting itself: you go through your timeline, click through links and retweet easily with one click of a mouse. However we tend to forget that our retweets get published to our stream and all our followers see them, so it’s a good idea to somehow schedule the retweets as well.

The Buffer extension adds a tiny icon to each update on your Twitter home page, which lets you quickly add retweets to your Buffer account:

While I am using Buffer on FireFox, there seems to be extensions for other browsers as well.

Have you tried using the Buffer App yet? Any better alternatives? Let’s share our feedback in the comments.

Pester is great for setting alarms on the fly. You set the time and the type of alert you want, and you’re done.

Pester is a free application, and it’s an easy to use; however, there a few little quirks and hidden and missing features that I discovered in using it.

Set Up

First off, as with any application, you want to open Pester”˜s Preferences and set a keyboard shortcut so that it can be launched from within any application.

Note: my keyboard shortcut would not show up in the screen shot.

If you work at your computer throughout the day, you might check the “Wait for idle to display alerts,” box so that the alarm notice doesn’t pop up when you’re typing or performing some other task. This happens a lot with iCal alarms. I can be typing away and all of a sudden an alarm pops up to distract me from what I”˜m doing.

Setting Alarms

Setting your first alarm is easy, but setting additional alarms is not as obvious as it could be. When you set your first alarm, be sure to click the Set button to lock the alarm into place.

After you set your first alarm, you select File > Set Alarm (Command+N). You might expect a new clean interface to pop up, but it doesn’t. What you have to do is set an alarm over the existing one, which is already logged into the application. To set a new one, you delete the existing alarm message and change the other settings. Again, choose the Set button to log in the alarm.

Viewing and Editing Alarms

Choose Alarms > All Alarms (Command + L) to view all your set alarms. In this interface, you can remove alarms; however, you can’t click on one and edit it.

If you want to edit an alarm, click the Alarm > New Alarm and then select an existing alarm from the drop-down selection in the Message field.

Next, click the View button and change it to Edit. After making changes to the settings, click the Set button again to lock in the changes.

Notice that Pester will show data for exactly when the alarm will execute.

Setting Times and Alert Types

Setting alert time and days is pretty similar to what you get in any calendar program; however, Pester of course is not as robust in features when compared to iCal. Pester is more useful for setting quick daily alarms, or alarms that you don’t want in your iCal program.

You can set times in terms of seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks. There are also different types of alerts to choose from, including sound and bouncing dock icons. You can’t set the same alarm for different days of the week or month. If you want the same alarm for say Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of a week, you need set up a new alarm for each day. In iCal, you can just copy and paste alarms to the various days you want.

Alert Notifications

When alarm notifications are displayed (if you choose that option) you can conveniently set a snooze time or dismiss the alarm all together.

If you choose to have Pester alarms to play a sound, you have the option in the application’s Preferences of setting which sound output you want to use. Pester also supports Growl notifications.

All and all, for a free application, Pester is pretty nifty. For more examples of alternative alarms, check out this MakeUseOf article. For a web-based option, check out this short review.

Let us know what mac alarm program you use and why.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

If you’re anything like me, both Laytr and Deferred Sender are great services that are an ideal way to combat this problem. Rather than stop yourself from checking your email whenever your want, or disabling push notifications on your smartphone, use either service to remind you of the emails that could fall between the cracks.

Laytr

What Laytr does is it allows you to re-send emails to yourself after any given period of time, whether it’s one hour later, or one year later. It’s up to you how long you want to delay the email being re-sent. Of course Laytr can be used for more than just reminding yourself of emails that you have received. It can be used, in general, as a reminder of just about anything.

You can either sign up for a free account, or if you’re a Facebook user, you can simply connect Laytr to your Facebook account.

Once you’re signed up, you can start sending email reminders to yourself using the easy to follow keyword system that they have set up. So for example, if you want to receive the reminder the next morning, you would send it to tomorrow@laytr.com. If you wanted to receive it after a month, you would send it to nextmonth@laytr.com. You can also specify an exact date and time to receive the reminder, by sending it to oct.2.1500@laytr.com, for example.

A full list of the keywords available can be found here, which is also available in Norwegian.

While Laytr has both paid and free accounts, the only difference is branding. There is no limitation on the number of reminders you can receive, which makes Laytr an invaluable, free service.

Deferred Sender

Another similar service that allows you send reminders to yourself right from your inbox is Deferred Sender.

Signing up for a free account allows you to not only send yourself reminders or forward emails to yourself at the time of your choice, but it can also delay your emails, allowing you to choose when your replies are sent to your colleagues or clients.

Simply send your email to deferred@deferredsender.com, and enter all the details of the email in the body.

Start the message with the email address you wish to send it to, followed by the time. You can also add email addresses to the CC and BCC lines. For example, if I want to receive a reminder the next day at 9am, the body of the email would look like this:

Check out Deferred Sender’s Help page to see more methods on how to delay your messages by a few hours or to send it at a specific date and time. You can also log in to your Deferred Sender account to keep track of the emails you have scheduled.

If you’re going to use services like Laytr or Deferred to stay on top of your correspondence, be sure to schedule the reminders at times that you have set aside specifically for replying to emails.

One other possibility is Boomerang which Mark recently profiled, here on MakeUseOf.  This however is a browser extension / plugin and only works for Gmail accounts.

What methods do you use to stay on top of your emails? Let us know in the comments.

Enter TimeComX. This nifty, light-weight piece of software lets you set up timers which count down to certain tasks.

Let’s take a look at the things this program will let you do.

Let’s Make a Date

There are only two tabs in the small TimeComX window. One is the Event tab and the other is the Task tab. Let’s talk about the Event tab first, as it is what controls the activation of tasks.

There are four “modes” available. The first two, simple counter and advanced counter, are simply countdown timers. Simple counter users a slider to adjust time, while advanced counter lets you make precise changes to number of hours, minutes and seconds you’d like to have before a task executes.

Time of day, as you’d expect, lets you pick a specific time and date at which the task will execute. The most interesting event, however, is usage/activity. This allows TimeComX to execute a task based on processor usage, network usage, or idle time. It can serve as a more precise substitute for Windows power manager, or manage your computer after a large file has just been downloaded.

Once you have decided on the proper event you must activate it by clicking the play button. The countdown will commence. One interesting touch I noticed is that the progress bar will appear on the Windows 7 Taskbar icon so you know at-a-glance how much time you have left.

Picking a Task

Of course, an event is no good without giving your computer something to do.

The first few selections are fairly obvious and are shared other programs that are similar, such as Shutdown Timer. These tasks include restart, shutdown, sleep, hibernate , lock computer and log off. All of these tasks are pretty self explanatory, but that isn’t to say they’re not interesting or useful.

The final two task selections are more unique. The first is Run File. As the name suggests, this task will run any file that you’d like. There are a lot of interesting ways this can be used. If absolutely must be reminded of something, for example, you can write it in a text file and then make an event that runs the file at a certain time. If you want to begin downloading a torrent at a certain time you can tell TimeComX to run the torrent file or program. Your own creativity is the only real limit here.

The second task selection is Play Audio File. This is most useful as an alarm clock feature. You can play a certain song at a specified time to make you wake up from whatever task you’re concentrated on. Or, if you keep your laptop in your bedroom (college students, I’m looking at you) this can simply be used as an alarm clock, period.

Conclusion

TimeComX is a basic but very good automation program. In addition to be very functional, it is very user-friendly. The program takes up very few system resources and can be minimized into the Windows task tray so that the program is no longer in your face. But if you want it to be in your face it can do that too, as you can set it to always appear on top of other windows.

Do you automate tasks? What programs do you use?

Gathering the data and generating reports may not be a big deal for you, but remembering to write up that email every so often can turn into a real hassle. And if you forget once or twice, it looks like you’re not on top of your game.

This is where your computer comes in handy.

Most Windows users know about the Windows Task Scheduler by now. In this article, I’m going to show you how you can use Windows Task Scheduler in combination with the awesome SendEmail SMTP command-line tool to send off scheduled, automated emails that include multiple attachments.

Configuring SendEmail to Correctly Send Reports

The task here is fairly simple. You have a directory where several automated reports are stored. Maybe it’s a logfile summary for servers that you support, which you need to forward to your supervisor. Maybe it’s an Analytics traffic report that you need to forward to your website clients. Regardless of the need, this technique will let you automatically fire off an automated report email that will include as many of those attachments that you need to send. So long as you have a system set up to automatically update those files before the scheduled email goes out – you’ll have a completely automated reporting system.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say I send out three Google Analytics reports that I generate and download every Thursday and I store them in a directory called C:/Analytics. When you download SendEmail from the link above, there’s no setup required. Just place it in any directory where you’d like to run it from. In this case I’m just placing it in the same directory, so that I don’t have to include the directory path to the attachments in my command line.

Linux users have been using the “sendmail” command for ages, so this isn’t really new to them, but the Windows compatible “SendEmail” tool is something that lets Windows users have the same sort of command-line functionality. Once you have the executable sitting in a directory like this, as long as you know the syntax, you can do a lot of cool stuff with the tool.

When you issue the “SendEmail” command at the command prompt (or run it from an application), you have to follow it with a number of parameters. The critical ones that we are concerned with are shown in the examples below.

• -f xxxxx@gmail.com : This parameter is the email address that will be the “sender.”
• -t rdube@yahoo.com : This is the recipient’s email address.
• -u Monday Status Updates : This is the subject
• -m Here’s the analytics data for this week! : This is the message body.
• -a Analytics_Channel1.csv Analytics_Channel2.csv Analytics_Channel3.csv : These are the attachments.
• -s smtp.gmail.com:587 : SMTP server and port
• -xu xxxxx@gmail.com : SMTP authentication ID name
• -xp A1ienz2A51 : SMTP authentication password
• -o tls=yes : SMTP uses TLS (or SSL)

These are all of the parameters you’ll need to complete the task that I’m detailing in this article. Once you’ve downloaded the SendEmail.exe file to your computer, you’re ready to use Windows Task Scheduler to issue your SendEmail automated email command every day, week, or month.

Setting Up Windows Task Scheduler

Open up Windows Task scheduler by going to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Task Scheduler. Click to create a basic task.

This will walk you through the task scheduling wizard, where you can assign any calendar schedule you’d like for these emails to get sent.

On the next screen, select “Start a Program” and then you’ll see the screen where you need to set up the task. This is where you’ll enter the path for your SendEmail executable and the parameters.

The entire argument line that I typed in was as follows:

“-f xxxxx@gmail.com -u Monday Status Updates -m Here’s the analytics data for this week! -a Analytics_Channel1.csv -t xxxxx@yahoo.com -s smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu xxxxx@gmail.com -xp xxxxxxx -o tls=yes“

Refer back to the parameter list above, but as you can see this sends out an email from your Gmail account to a recipient who has a Yahoo account with a subject line, “Here’s the analytics data for this week!” When this task runs (which will run every week), it fires off your message and attaches the file attachments that you’ve defined your parameters above.

This is what the received email looks like.

As you can see, there’s no indication that it comes from an automated script. Instead, it has a personal message and the necessary data/information files attached to the email. So long as you make sure the files are updated before this email goes out, you’ll never have to worry about forgetting to send out another one of these status updates again. You can look as though you’re being extremely productive. Meanwhile, you can work on Saikat’s approach to being a procrastination ninja!

Have you ever used the command-line SendEmail tool for Windows? Or maybe you have a different method for sending out automated emails?  Share your own insight about this tool or other similar tools in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Tory Byrne

Keeping up to date on a daily to-do list stored on a desktop or even an online application isn’t always possible when you don’t have constant access to a computer or to the Internet. Thankfully, once I got a new Motorola Droid and started exploring the Android Market, I stumbled upon one of the best mobile personal organization application that I’ve ever used – Astrid.

Mobile Personal Organization With Astrid

Astrid is a to-do list and “task tracking system” from the good folks at WeLoveAstrid. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Astrid completely transformed my time management style, and it dramatically improved my efficiency and the amount of work that I’m able to accomplish in less time. It does this by evaluating the information you provide and then prioritizing your work appropriately.

By inserting everything that you need to get done, when it’s due, as well as priority status and what alert settings you would like, Astrid becomes your virtual secretary that assists you with your personal organization – telling you what you need to do right now and how much time you have left to do it. This lets you focus on the most important things instead of jumping from task to task, because you can’t figure out what’s really the most important to do first.

This is the main list that you’ll review every day. These tasks include everything – the daily, weekly and monthly tasks that you schedule to repeat as well as the one-time tasks that you need to get done every now and then. The main screen provides you with a quick glance at your workload, with your most important tasks (by the priority you set and the deadline) listed at the top. On this main screen you can see the task title and when it’s due.

Adding a new task can be as quick or as detailed as you want it to be. The fastest approach, when you’re in a hurry, is to just type in the task at the bottom of the screen and then press the “+” character to the right. This immediately adds the task to your list without any deadline set. When you’re running around from place to place, but you really need to remember to do something, just type it in quickly. You can always set the deadline and priority later, but at least you know you won’t forget about it.

Later, when you’re ready to assign a deadline and priorities, just scroll to the bottom of your task list (since there’s no deadline it has the lowest priority) and then click on the Edit button.

These three screens – basic, dates and alerts – are where all of the magic happens. This is where time management professionals will tell you that you can really do a stellar job at more efficiently managing your time, and more effectively spending your time. On the basic screen, you can assign one of four priorities to the task. This is intuitive enough – one exclamation mark for not very important, and four for tasks that are critically important. Insert tags to categorize your task (if you want), assign how long the task will take once you start it (this helps with the timer feature later), and any special notes that you need to remember for the task.

The dates screen is the one that I’m on most of the time, because I have so many deadlines throughout the week that I need to remember. On this screen you can set both an absolute deadline and a goal deadline. I love this, because it gives me a personal “early” deadline that I like to shoot for, and if I miss it because life is too hectic, I know that I still have until the absolute deadline (when the task is really due) to finish it. You can also click “Add Task To Calendar,” which automatically inserts it into your online Google Calendar (very, very cool!) and if it’s due far into the future, you can also select to hide the task and only have it show up on a certain date. If you’ve partially completed the task before entering it into Astrid, you can fill that in – which also helps with the timer feature.

I don’t personally like a whole lot of alerts ringing my phone all the time, so I usually only set up Astrid to ping me with an alert either at the deadline itself, or as the deadline approaches. However, Astrid is flexible enough to really perform any alert structure that you like, such as alerting after deadline or can set it up to annoy you with constant reminders every so often if that’s what you like!

When you click on a task in your main to-do page, you have the option to edit the page or start a timer. The timer basically counts down the time that you have left to complete the task once you start it. If you believe writing an article should only take you two hours, Astrid will count down two hours. A lot of people like to use this because they need to move on to other things whether or not a task is completed in the assigned time. I personally like to work through my estimated time to task completion whether I estimated correctly or not, so I don’t use the Timer feature – but a lot of time management enthusiasts use it. So, it’s there for you if you need it!

I’m not kidding when I say that using Astrid has nearly doubled the amount of work that I’m able to accomplish each week. I’ve also better aligned my time toward the most critical tasks, and I’m much less likely to be quite as forgetful as I used to be about those lower-priority tasks. Don’t get  me wrong…some things slip through the cracks, but only because I forgot to enter them into Astrid!

Do you have your own personal favorite mobile personal organization application? Share them in the comments section below!