Gina Trapani is the chief editor at one of the most popular blogs in the world, lifehacker.com which offers daily advice on how to work smart, not just hard.  The second edition of her book, a productivity manual-slash-computer book, is packed full of tips to making technology your ally instead of your adversary.  In today’s fast paced world, time without distraction is a priceless commodity.  This book can certainly simplify the pressures exerted by our ever increasing connectivity. 

In a recent interview with Harvard Business Review, the author noted that Focus is under-rated in too many work environments today.  Instead we hop from one thing to another like coked-up bunnies wearing Bluetooth headsets and thumbing our Blackberrys.  Bad multi-tasking, the constant scanning and switching from one thing to another, like checking email every three minutes when you are writing a report, is ultimately not productive.  The cost of switching between tasks is high and the quality of your work suffers.  My frustration with consumer tech is the focus on more features and more connectivity versus simplifying and protecting users from unnecessary distractions.  Power users on the front line are dealing with all sorts of overload but mainstream, recreational users are still having the “oh look!  I can get emails in my pocket even on the weekends!” revelation.  I can’t wait for them to catch up and for things to balance out more.

Upgrade Your Life contains an abundance of sensible tips and tricks for anyone who uses a computer on a regular basis and would like to be more efficient. The information in this book is designed to streamline the way you currently do things and help you develop new, more productive habits.  It also points you in the direction of an enormous number of great downloads, websites, and other resources - most of them free or relatively inexpensive.

Whether you are a Mac or Windows user, you will learn valuable ways to upgrade your life so that you can work and live more efficiently, such as: empty your e-mail inbox, search the Web in three keystrokes, securely save Web site passwords, automatically back up your files, and many more. 

Over the span of the chapters, the author presents 116 different "hacks" that you can incorporate into your daily computer life to work smarter, faster, and better. As with most books that are a compilation of different tips, some will resonate strongly with your current needs, while others are skimming material that may not be relevant.

The recommendations are covered down to the last detail so you don’t need to an expert programmer to be able to use them!  If you are a person with any level of computer experience you will be using these programs and tips more or less from when you adopt them.

This is an invaluable resource for any professional who wants to work smarter, not harder.