Working smarter is a goal for lots of us but often we do not know the best ways of doing it.  Business coaches have some great ideas such as default diaries and ways for prioritising work as Urgent, Important, not urgent and not import, they have quadrants and other devices. All good stuff but what about IT. It was designed to allow people to work smarter and faster but often people don't take advantage of some of the way in which IT can help.

Here are 10 top ways IT can help.

1. Use Outlook's Quick Access toolbar
Office 2007 still has the ability for you to create shortcuts for regularly used commands. In the top left of any office application with the ribbon interface you will find the Quick Access Toolbar (which contains the Save, Undo and Redo icons by default). Click on the down arrow to the right of the toolbar and there is an option to customise the buttons that appear here. So for example you can create a shortcut to insert a table, without having first to navigate to the insert tab in word or excel.

2. Pick up the phone
How many times a day do you have an email conversation or Messenger/Skype exchange that goes backward and forward. Not only is a phone call quicker you often get a better understanding and more covered. Unless you are a world champion touch typist think if a phone call is more appropriate next time.

3. Create PDF's in word
You can install any one of many applications to create a PDF from a word document, but you do not need to. If you search for "Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS" and you will be able to download/install a plug-in for Word 2007. Once installed saving as either a PDF or XPS will be an option under the Save As menu.

4. Use the two-minute rule in Outlook
How much of your working day is spent looking at things you have already looked at? Wouldn't your working life be easier if you could only look at things once? That is the principle behind the two minute rule, developed by David Allen's Getting things done book. The idea is simple: if you can respond to an email in two minutes then do so. If you cannot then action it in some other way: move it to a Pending folder for your attention when you have more time.

5. Replace your bog standard keyboard
It is incredible how many people disregard the humble keyboard in their search to work faster. But a simple upgrade is one of the quickest and cheapest ways of improving the speed at which you can work. Touch typists will find upgrading their keyboard to a model featuring proper mechanical switches rather than cheap rubber domes under the keys - such as the excellent Logitech Illuminated Keyboard - a revelation. Other will appreciate the increased accuracy and comfort a proper keyboard can provide. You will find several top models for less that £50 on the PC Pro website.

6. Buy a business card reader
If you are the type of person whose idea of filing business cards involves piling them up in box in your drawer, consider buying a business card scanner. Most modern models are bundled with software that reads the cards for you and will then input the details into the correct areas in outlook, saving you typing the details in. Take a look at Cardscan from Dymo

7. Run Multiple monitors
If you constantly have several programs running at once it pays to take full advantage of multiple displays, especially if you compare figures or articles etc. If you have an application running that you want to monitor such as Tweetdeck or a financial stock program. You can have up to 4 monitors as standard.

8. Uninstall unwated programs
We all have a habit of installing software on a whim and toying with it once or twice and then leaving it to gobble up resources on our system. Get rid of it! Uninstall it from add remove programs, or for the more techie of you use MSconfig to control what is run at start up.

9. Make use of Macros
Many popular programs let you set-up macros - sets of actions that can be repeated at the touch of a button. For example, in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007, you will find a macro button in the view tab. Click on it and select record and the application will record your steps until you select stop. You can replay these steps by pressing a shortcut key, or create a button for your macro on the quick access toolbar. Similar features can be found in Photoshop and other applications.

10. Install Xobni
Xobni will allow you to search and find email, attachments, contact details much quicker than features built into Outlook. It is a great addition to help you fight email overload. Find it at www.xobni.com