I've seen Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Tool List a few times and adopted some of the tools in the past. He updated it for 2014 and has added quite a few new tools. I downloaded F.lux the other day and am giving it a test run right now. I'm not sure how well it works, but I like the idea of this little utility. I also used Chocolatey for my new machine after Troy Hunt blogged about the utility and thought it was amazing. AutoHotKey is the new items I'm testing.

We are in the business of technology and using computers to work more efficiently. We manage, build, and deploy software that allows our organizations to get more work done with less resources than ever in the past. We have, or should have, utilities that automatically check our math, our spelling, that communicate quicker than in the past. 

Those of us working with computers should be using utilities, tools, and helpful software all the time. We should test it, share our thoughts and results, and help others to learn to let computers improve their lives. While there are places computers aren't needed or aren't appropriate, there are many more ways in which computers can help us save time and effort by tackling tasks, even simple ones, with automation.

I'd encourage you to look at some of the tools on Scott's list and see if they might help you work more efficiently in the new year. With the slower times that usually occur during the holidays, this is a good time to experiment with some utilities that might help you in the new year. There's also a SQL Performance Tool collection from MSDN in this week's newsletter.