Give yourself time to read about your system, time to play, and time to relax and have fun with your computer. Believe it or not, the best way to understand how to use a computer system is to play around with it. Poke around. Test things. Try weird options, and see what they do. As long as you're not rushed to start your serious work, you have time to easily grow with the system. After the workload comes, you will feel good about the system, and, lo, that expected and much-rumored frustration won't be there.
- After you have used your software for about a month, go back and reread the manual; you will be surprised at how much clearer it seems. It makes sense! (People who write manuals are overly familiar with the product and forget what it's like to be a novice.)
- By reading the manual a second time, you pick up a few more tips and some shortcuts. This trick is just another one the experts use to become experts.
- If feasible, give yourself two weeks to find out about your software before you start doing serious work with it.
- The more time you have to play with and figure out how to use your software, the more productive you become.
- Give yourself three weeks (if you have it) to become used to your new computer system. Then when you're ready to get to work, you will know some tricks, and you should proceed smoothly. Heck, you may be a computer wizard by then!
