So you think you are fast?

Try out this simple test to see how fast your reaction speed is.

A few months ago, I made a blog post about improving your productivity with hotkeys.  This week, I’ll show you how to increase your productivity by increasing your mouse pointer speed.  The logic is simple.  If you move your mouse a shorter distance (at your usual speed) to complete a task, you save time.  Now multiply that time savings by how often you use your mouse.

At first, you may notice that your mouse precision and accuracy will be lower than normal. However, much like a hot tub, you will get used to it fairly quickly and be ready to turn up the speed even higher.

Instructions on increasing your mouse speed: Windows XP / Mac / Vista

One good starting speed I suggest is to set up your initial speed so you can comfortably move your mouse from one corner of your screen to another without moving your arm.  As a result, you can navigate your entire screen just by moving your wrist.  This might be too fast for some users, so slow down your mouse speed if you need to.

Feel free to post your fastest time from the reaction speed test.  My best time was 0.125 seconds after trying it out for a few minutes.  Warning, the test is highly addictive and may actually reduce productivity.

For Nerds: For those of you who have found that you have set your mouse speed to the maximum limit, and still feel like you can handle more: You can bypass your Windows or Mac operating system settings so that you can speed up your mouse speed beyond its maximum.
Instructions: Windows / Mac