When you are using the internet and especially multiple web browser windows, one of the biggest killers of productivity (one that I see time and time again) is the homepage. Every time you open a new web browser, by default it loads (or at least begins to load) the homepage. Many people have this set to either msn.com or yahoo.com and while these sites can be very useful and valuable sources of information and I do visit them on a somewhat regular basis, I don’t think that these are best choices for a homepage.

Depending on your browsing habits and what you do on the web, there are a a few different options that would serve your purposes much better. The problem with having msn or yahoo as your homepage is that these pages have a significant amount of content and can take a little while to load. A better choice would be google.com which has less content so would load quicker, and many people are likely to go to that site anyway, this would save them from having to type it in.

There are a couple of other alternatives that are even more attractive. One of which is to set the browser to “blank page” or an equivalent. What this does is allows the browser to open without opening any specific page which can reduce load times considerably depending on the computer. Another good choice would be to create your own homepage that has what you need on it and have this page saved on your computer (or a local server if you have multiple machines to make for easier updates). Not only will the fact that it is locally hosted reduce the load times, but you have the ability to customize it to your needs and preferences.

When creating a custom homepage, it is still a good idea to take it easy on the images and animations to reduce load times and increase productivity, but you can also put links on it to things that you use often and sites you are likely to go to. This will save keystrokes and make it easier/quicker to get to the sites you need. There is nothing wrong with a homepage that is a list of links and without images. If it is saved on the computer that you are using, it will load almost instantly.

You can create a list of links that go to your bank, web access to your email account(s), Google, local weather forecast, and any other sites that you may want to go to on a regular or semi-regular basis. This could include links to romandock dot com and other blogs you like to read. If you don’t know how to write a web page or just don’t want to take the time to do so, a list of links can be easily created in your favorite word processor and then saved as a web page that can then be set as the home page for your browser. While the benefits of optimizing your homepage may be small (only a second or two at a time) it will add up to increased productivity and also make your life easier.