Displaying All Posts from June, 2010

Productive Working Hours: What Are Your Best Work Times?

Although most offices operate on 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6) working hours, not all workers work best on this timetable. Night owl workers prefer to burn the midnight oil, working late into the night when there are no distracting coworkers and their brain is at its sharpest.

I, on the other hand, prefer to follow regular business hours (roughly 9-6), so I’m available for dinner or drinks when my cubicle-dwelling friends get out of work. Plus, I like that feeling of accomplishment when the clock strikes noon and I can strike a bunch of items from my to-do list and break for lunch. When I’m still tethered to my computer at 7 or 8 at night, I feel antsy and unproductive (though I’ll do it if that’s what it takes to meet a deadline).

What about your working hours? What are your best work times? Why? Click Here to Read Article …

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Buzzword Bingo

Peter North 23rd June Communication 12 Comments

Have you heard of Buzzword Bingo?

The idea is that you have a little fun during a dull meeting by using bingo cards filled with vague, commonly-used office terminology. The first one to connect 5 buzzwords in a row wins.

I doubt anyone has ever truly played this game (and it’s hardly productive), but many of us have found ourselves in a meeting where the conditions are perfect for buzzword bingo. Let’s give it a try now.

How many buzzwords can you find in the following example:

If we have some extra bandwidth while we’re circling the wagons, perhaps we could piggy-back a little morale booster to add value to the meeting and get our arms around the bigger picture. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but if we commit to best practice, this paradigm shift could push the envelope and ramp up to be a win-win situation with a strategic fit that lands us on the fast track towards proactive thinking outside the box.

(Just writing that made my head buzz.)

Do you have any favorite buzzwords? Do some make you laugh? Do some make you cringe? Let’s “bat this around” for a while.

Click Here to Read Article …

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Google Voice: How it Can Change How You Use the Phone

Carl Natale 23rd June Communication 17 Comments

Google announced yesterday that Google Voice is now open to everyone with a U.S. telephone number. Until now, you had to get an invite from someone who was invited to use it.

What is it? It’s a nifty Internet phone service that works with your existing phones and gives pretty good competition to Skype. Here’s what makes it so awesome:

You link your existing phone numbers (land line, cell phone, work phone) to the Google Voice number. When someone calls it, all those phones ring.
Google Voice stores your voicemail and can send you SMS and/or e-mails with transcripts of the message.

Not so awesome:

The transcription is far from perfect. But you can get enough info to identify the caller and listen to audio of the message.

You can also view a list of voicemail messages and delete unwanted ones. Yes, you can do that on an iPhone. But this allows you to do it from your computer or mobile device.

Speaking of mobile devices, you can use the Google Voice mobile app to send SMS messages without charges from your cellular carrier.

And all that is free. (You do pay to use it to call landlines and international numbers.) If you’d like to see more about the service, you’ll be happy to know that Google’s put up some video demos of its key features.

Will you start using Google Voice? Have you been using Google Voice and – if so – how does it work for you? Click Here to Read Article …

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Burn Your Resume: Alternative Strategies to Get Your Dream Job

Jason Finnerty 23rd June Career 14 Comments

A dream job usually isn’t something conventional. Nor should your approach to getting hired. Have you ever thought of the whole resume process? You spend many hours, and in some cases many dollars, creating – fabricating – a document for that your potential employer is going to probably dedicate less than 30 seconds to reading it. Sure, there are going to be some occasions where they will read the whole resume because they are hoping to find that you have listed your hobbies, and you share a love of butterfly collecting. But a happy coincident like that is a tad rare. Click Here to Read Article …

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Where Do You Work Best?

Susan Johnston 22nd June Productivity 20 Comments

Some people need absolute, morgue-like silence to get real work done. Others are content to type away amidst chaos like chattering coworkers or screaming kids. As a work-at-home freelancer, I love being able to vary my work environment. It was tough when I had roommates who watched TV in my “office” (also a corner of the living room), but I managed to bang out dozens of articles, blog posts, and copywriting assignments.

Now I alternate between rocking out to show tunes in my home office (blissfully devoid of coworkers or kids) or heading to the library or a coffee shop to change things up and be among other people. I’ve even been known to type on the subway with my netbook, but that’s far from ideal for me.

What about you? What’s your ideal work environment? Does silence make you nervous? Do you need a little background noise? Or do you prefer peace and quiet? Click Here to Read Article …

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Getting Down to Goalsetting: The Freelancer’s Bucket List

Mike Vardy 22nd June Goals Leave a Comment

Having goals is an automatic tendency for everyone – and the goals will be wide in range and scope. What might be something you find not really worthy of being pursued another may envision as an ultimate achievement. It is the achieving them that is the challenging part – although I’d argue that even sitting down to set goals is a larger challenge. It should serve to be an offshoot of your to-do list…and once you’ve put them down and have them in writing, they’re a lot tougher to ignore.

The Freelance Folder blog put together a great post that not only outlines a few of the author’s “bucket list” items, but challenges the reader to come up with their own. It’s an inspiring read and will hopefully serveto get you thinking about what you really want to achieve to live your life to the fullest.

The Freelancer’s Bucket List Click Here to Read Article …

The Value of Workmates: Do You Need a Work Buddy?

Abhijeet Mukherjee 22nd June Productivity 10 Comments

I came across this interesting article a few days back discussing how to get more done with a work buddy and how he or she can help you stay on track.

I agree with most of the points mentioned, especially the one about collaboration. I have found that when I collaborate with people on projects, I can get more work done in less time. While there can be some loss of time in communication (although solutions keep cropping up on the web, such as Google Wave), I have found it to be a productive exercise.

A work buddy can keep an eye on you when you procrastinate, help you solve problems and motivate you during difficult times.

So, what do you think? Do you need a work buddy? Click Here to Read Article …

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How to Improve Productivity: 6 Lessons from Great Software

Peter North 22nd June Productivity 6 Comments

Well-written software applications are fast, powerful and flexible: They are remarkably disciplined, following a rigid set of self-imposed rules. Their meticulous organization allows them to keep track of millions of bits of information, and their multitasking ability is unmatched. As air breathing, flesh-and-blood work processors, we could learn quite a bit from our binary-based brethren. Click Here to Read Article …

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