Do you find yourself constantly opening 20 windows on your computer and flipping between them over and over all day long? It may not feel like you’re losing productivity while that’s happening, but you could be losing several minutes every day as you bounce around to find what you’re looking for. This adds up to a lot of hours as the year goes by. You also lose focus every time you have to find a different window on your computer. It can then take you up to 15 minutes to regain your focus. Here is a shortcut that can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend searching through your open windows:

To switch from one open window on your computer to another, hold down the Alt key (Command key for Mac), and click the Tab key.  You’ll see all of your open windows pictured, and you can hit Tab (while continuing to hold down Alt or Command) until you get to the one you need. If you want to move backwards through the lineup of windows, use Alt-Shift-Tab (Command-Shift-Tab for Mac).

It takes some time to get used to this shortcut, but once you do, it should save you a lot of time. Several of my clients were blown away by this little-known shortcut.

Bonus shortcut: To switch between open web browser tabs, hold down Control (Ctrl) + Tab while in a page of the browser. Like the other shortcut, you can move backwards using Control (Ctrl) + Shift + Tab. For Mac users, you will use Shift + Command + arrow key (left/right).

For more life-changing, or at least time-saving, shortcuts, see the links below.