If your day has been anything like mine, you’ve been swamped! As for me, I’ve been working with my colleague on a freight challenge; I’ve been revising job descriptions with our Office Manager; I’ve been trying to hit my quota for sales calls; and my 15-year-old son just called to announce that he’s tired of babysitting his 6-year-old brother and could he please go to a friend’s house instead? Oh, and by the way….what’s for dinner? After telling my son: “No” and “Spaghetti”, I got back to worrying about coming up with an idea
Read more →Archive for the Tuesday Tips Category
A few months ago, I sent a Tuesday Tip called Customize Your Cubicle. In that email, I shared some creative ideas to add personality to your office space. If you haven’t already done a complete cubicle makeover, maybe you’d like to start with a tennis ball. The humble little tennis ball has many practical uses in a cubicle. It can be a key holder, a mail holder, or a towel holder. Add some plastic eyes, and even I have to admit, these little fellas are pretty darn cute. If you don’t want to press
Read more →Summer is in full swing; the heat is on; and, the office feels more stifling than ever. Looking for a way to inject some fun back into your work routine? Check out these five fun purchases* that will bring some refreshing summer entertainment to you and your co-workers: 1. Chill out: A tiny desktop refrigerator can hold and cool exactly one standard 12 ounce can. It’s powered solely by USB via your computer, which makes it a fairly portable personal fridge that can sit on your desk and keep your drinks cool, one at
Read more →Last year, after 244 years of publishing, Encyclopedia Britannica stopped printing its 32-volume set of printed encyclopedias. So many things about printed encyclopedias seem insane now: an entire set weighed more than 100 pounds, took up tons of space, was obsolete by the time it was printed, and had to be paid for in installments by middle-class families who wanted their children to be well-informed. Today, thanks to free, crowd-sourced sites like Wikipedia, we have a reservoir of infinite knowledge, most of which is virtually free to access. And, it takes up no more
Read more →There’s an old adage: “A day spent without learning something new is a day wasted.” I was feeling about as old as that adage recently, but it was a small price to pay to learn something new from my employees. I learned about life hacks. Bear with me…the concept is actually much cooler than the scary-sounding term. No axes or serial killers involved, I swear! Life hacks are more along the lines of “sharpening your saw”. Life hacking refers to tips, shortcuts, and tricks that lead to productivity boosts. In other words, any clever,
Read more →I recently read this phrase that drives home a great point: “There is no such thing as time management; only event management.” One of the best ways to manage your time (when it isn’t yours to control) is to make sure the meeting (or event) is well managed. That’s why you should always: Ask for an agenda. Meetings can be a major time drain. Have you ever sat in a meeting wondering why you were there or thinking about the million other things you should be doing? When you get a meeting request, no
Read more →Business News Daily says that smartphone addiction actually pays off! A new study suggests that using apps on your smartphone can save you 22 days of free time a year, or $12,000 in productivity! Here are three great apps to get you started: 1) Business Card Reader: Do you have a ton of business cards stashed in desk drawers, your purse, or in the back of your wallet? The Business Card Reader will seriously de-clutter your life. Scan cards to upload your new contact, sync to your address book, and you’re all set! ($4.99
Read more →Advertising executives say that the power of an ad is in the “white space”. Think of the Nike “Just Do It.” ads. Those words were even more powerful because they were surrounded by lots of white space. When it comes to managing your calendar, time management experts say you need lots of white space there as well. Do you tend to jam-pack your calendar from 8am to 5pm without giving yourself a single minute to re-group, eat lunch, or return phone calls? Plan for a little white space so that unexpected events, meetings,
Read more →Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, highlighting text with the keyboard and pressing Ctrl + C is much faster than taking your hand from the keyboard, highlighting the text using the mouse, clicking copy from the file menu, and then returning to the keyboard again. You might already know these quick and easy shortcuts: CTRL + C = copy CTRL + X = cut CTRL + V = paste But did you know that CTRL+HOME will take you to the first character
Read more →Bored with your bland cubicle? Keep the walls from closing in with these strategies from Lifehacker or grab a few of these funny cartoons from Doug Savage. They’re cleverly designed to look like Post-Its….so the boss won’t even notice what they say! If you really want to create a fun first impression with your coworkers, make your “cube” even more unique with this book!
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