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Len Babauta of Zen Habits has an excellent on Unclutterer on how to create a minimalist workspace. In essence, the best minimalist workspace actually involves using no tools at all, with only yourself and mind as your work “space.” However, since that is not possible for most folks, Len has a few tips on how to maximize space with minimum clutter.

1. Have one inbox.
2. Clear your desktop.
3. Get rid of knick knacks.
4. Clear the walls.
5. Clear your computer desktop.
6. Re-examine your paper needs.
7. Eliminate unnecessary tools.
8. Simplify your filing.
9. Go through each drawer.
10. Use a minimalist desk.
11. Clear the floor.

While most of these tips are most appropriate to folks who actually use desks for work, it can also apply to those of us who don’t. For instance, writers, bloggers or online entrepreneurs might be accustomed to bringing their laptops anywhere they go. So the trick here is to keep a clean, streamlined computer desktop with no clutter. I know I usually fall victim to a cluttered desktop, cluttered task bar and browser windows cluttered with tabs. And these are a few things I’d like to be able to fix so I can be more productive.

[via Unclutterer]

Lateral Action has a list of mostly free tools that creative types can use to boost productivity. You probably use many of these already, but in some cases there are features that can make the difference in terms of ease-of-use and efficiency that are just waiting to be discovered.

In the creative world, you don’t have to confine yourself to costly enterprise-level applications. Free (or really affordable) opportunities are available. In this article, I discuss my favorite tools to manage my clients and time online, and I invite you to share your favorite tools of the trade too.

These include Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, invoicing software, time tracking software, and even IM clients. If you’re an online professional like me, or if you run a small business based at home or a small office, then these could be very helpful.

For people who frequently use computers, technology has to be thanked a lot. Unlike the days before the computer age wherein we had to rely on the traditional typewriter, documents no longer have to be re-typed nor corrected with the usual “snow fake” or erasers to ensure that we come up with good documents for approval and of course presentation.

Ever since the advent of software applications which went as far as the first “Word Star” or “Word Perfect” one thing that is glaring is the fact that we can just open a previous document with the same template and just change the data needed like the addressee, location and subject and save it under a different name. Print it and you can imagine the time you saved for it. All of this thanks to technology.

Today, this is familiar to us using the Microsoft Word program. While the on-screen presentation and formatting has surely been made better through the years, the process of opening, editing and saving document files under a different name has been a common practice from computer users. We see it done at home and the office and you can imagine the time element saved thanks to this practice.

There may be instances that you have accidentally overwritten such files but you can always use the traditional CTRL+Z to the point where the original document started. Just don’t close it though as that would be the end of it.

So as you can see, this is one basic task. It shows how productive you can get if you put your mind to it. A simple document preparation has a large bearing on being able to create and submit reports on time. It is all about using the right template at the right time.

As far as being able to be productive, it is apparent that you have to make sure that most of your working space peripherals are where they should be. There are things we see atop and alongside our tables and if we really give them much thought, they were placed there for a reason, namely:

1. Desk Calendars
2. In/Out Tray
3. Pen/ Pencil Holders
4. Drawers
5. Filing Cabinets
6. Magazine Boxes

Now these things were not placed there just to give you that usual office ambiance. They are there so you may know where to place objects such as papers, reports and other office stuff like pens, paper clips and folders. Having a clean desk allows you to be more productive since it will not look like a war zone wherein your cubicle seems to be always in shamble.

The key towards being inspired to work is knowing where the things you need like documents and office supplies. It takes away the need to look for them, something that may eventually lead you to forget what you are doing or even eat up the time you have in being able to accomplish a certain task.

There are exceptions. Some people prefer to leave their working place as it is even if it is a mess. But while that may depend on the person using a specific working place, it is not always consistent. Hence, in the end, it would depend on how he or she is willing to adjust accordingly to the proper work routine that can optimize his work output and production.

Do not take for granted the value of a clean and organized workplace. It can make a bid difference. Employing a basic and systematic way of carrying out your office tasks and work-related endeavors can help you a lot. In fact, it can hold the key to working smarter and becoming a reliable career-oriented individual as well.

Many of us face the need to log into a single service with distinct identities one time or another. For instance, you want to access your company or client’s AdSense account, but you’re logged into Gmail. Instead of logging out of Gmail, you can fire up a different browser. Say, your main browser is Firefox. You can open IE for this purpose.

But with Google Chrome’s Incognito mode, life is now easier. You don’t have to open an entirely new application just to login with a different identity. Lifespy has an excellent tip.

Since it handles cookies separately, that also means that you can load two sessions of the same service and log in via separate accounts for each window. Well, this isn’t too different from launching a Firefox window and an IE window but at least you’re just running the same application.

You can even login multiple times. The fact that each of Chrome’s tabs and windows is a separate process makes it even better. Each session is distinct from the other.

Just be sure to open a new Incognito Window by typing Ctrl-Shift-N, or selecting the feature from the dropdown box at the right of the unified URL/search box.