MySpeed, a tiny free software, allows you to control the speed of online videos. That means that you can watch a YouTube video in twice the default speed, or slow down the video to half of it. The speed-control window automatically appears whenever a video is played, and disappears when the page is closed or the video is paused (see screenshot).

As you may imagine, there are various situations where it is more efficient to speed up a video (or a part of it) or more effective to play it slower . I find it useful, for example, when I watch lectures and want to speed them up, even 10 or 20 percent faster, if the lecturer speaks slow or when I just want to get the hang of it quickly.

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Checklists help to deliver high quality outputs by recognizing routine procedures and must-have attributes of these outputs. Checklists have several more benefits and they are easy to create and use. Here is how to get going:

What is a checklist

Checklist is a list of items (names, characteristics, tasks etc.) you check or consult when performing a task. It is used to make sure that the output is complete and consist, that no mandatory attributes has been forgotten. For example, you can use a checklist of activities you must take before publishing new content in your website. This might include spellchecking, review by others, adding tags, adding picture, writing an extract and so on.

Some Benefits

Using a checklist provides these benefits:

• Standardization – it helps keep outputs standard when more than one person is involved or when one person produces many items over time (for example, blog posts).
• Prevent cognitive overload - it frees your mind from the the routines so that you could think about the main activities and process innovations.
• Continues improvement – as new insights, activities, and attributes are added to the checklist, your outputs will improves.
• Collective learning - people who are new to the process can use the checklist to learn it and to avoid reinventing the wheel.

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