ProductivityGoal

Online Alarm Clock With Rooster Crowing Sound

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:07:38 -0700

Are you one of the few who are into using an alarm clock to wake up early?

Many are annoyed by alarm clocks, particularly those with common electronic sounds. Who won't get annoyed? The alarm clock's sounds usually signifies having to leave the la-la land to get back to work-work land.

There are some suggestions that one should wake up in a sound that's more calming than annoying as that of an ordinary alarm clock. Others, like me, who are used to rural lifestyle prefer the sound of a rooster crowing. But what if you're in the city where there are no roosters to help you wake up to a more refreshingly calm morning? With the help of the Internet technology, the KukuKlok online alarm clock can be our best bet.

It has three alarm clock sound options - the classic clock, electronic clock sound, the slayer guitar and of course, the cockerel sound.

One more good thing about this online alarm clock is that your computer don't have to be always online to make it work. With or without Internet connection, as long as the clock has been loaded it will still do its job.

via

How to Beat Monday Blues: Just Psyche Yourself + 1 Dark Tip

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:22:53 -0700

If you don't have an office romance to get you in the mood everyday, how do you get rid of the Monday blues?

Stop thinking 'I hate Mondays!'

Really, most of the time, like any motivation method, it's only in the mind. So it's important to learn how to psyche yourself to get out of the bad mood. Think of things that make Mondays more likeable. What does Monday signify aside from piles of paperwork to do and meetings to attend? How about thinking of Monday as another chance to make your career more fruitful. I know this might sound too corny to some, but it works for me.

Okay, now about the dark tip on how to beat Monday blues...

Still Kickin' Sunday Reads: Fun Meetings, Creativity and Changing Your Life

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:28:54 -0700

What are your plans this Sunday? Going to a spa? Treating your family to a nice and fancy dinner? Planning for your meeting on Monday? What?!

I get it. You only want everything to go smoothly at work for next week. So here are some links that might be, hopefullly, of help to your meeting planning.

Jazz up your meetings with some sound effects - AppScout has some suggestions.

Get your productivity and creativity flowing - FreelanceSwitch shows us how.

Want some life-changing reads? Now I don't know how these would help you plan your meetings but still - here are 11 info-packed blog posts that might just give you the career kick, personality improvement inspiration that you've been wanting to read more about.

Motivational Quotes on Your Office Wall: Keep Calm

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:43:14 -0700

It's inspiring to see offices that are conducive to productivity. Aside from appliances and office furniture designed to help make our workplace a better place aesthetically and functionally, there are some small items that can also give us a kick in the you know and get things done. One of the most popular office items that many employers use in putting workers in a good mood are framed motivational quotes.

As a part of my get inspired to get organized offices feature, don't you think it would also be great to feature these pictures of offices with motivational quotes in frames?

Here's the first one - a calming motivational quote on a craft room's (I think) white wall, courtesy of sarahleeab.

Do you also have one in your office? Care to share the inspirational quote you got there? Or do you have an picture of your office with it shown?

How to Get to Work Early: Top 5 Tested and Proven Ways

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:16:59 -0700

For all of 'us' snooze button hitters, there's more reason for you to get 'our' sleepy heads off that pillow and head for the shower on Monday mornings. Being late is one of the top reasons why people get fired from work. It's also a criterion for employers to determine whether or not you're ripe for a promotion. So when it's time to get to work, know that it really IS time to get to work. Here are the top 5 proven ways you can get to work early… or at least on time:

Organize the night before.
Work can get very tiresome and at the end of the day, the only thing you probably want to do is get through dinner without choking on your steak or have a good night's sleep. However, there are a few stuff you might want to take care of for the next day just before you get to bed.

Some of these can include:

Accessory to Make a Chair Ergonomic for the Disabled

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:04:05 -0700

Still in the subject of ergonomics, there's this one device that promises a better sitting position, and hopefully towards an improved working condition for the disabled. Called Movement Lock, this is an inflatable ring (not the one that makes funny noises) that locks chairs with wheels to stop them from sliding when a disabled worker transfers from a chair to another. Stephen Hobday, a known inventor of ergonomic keyboards is the brainchild behind this tool.

Although it looks like a small UFO that's landed, it might be of great help for our co-workers with special needs, even our elderlies who still can't get enough of office work.

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Encourage Ergonomics for a More Productive Workspace

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:00:47 -0700

Planning for a more productivity-inducing office is the first part of this mini series on how to improve productivity in your workspace.

Ergonomics refers to the study of the interaction of humans and machines. In short, it focuses on men and their workplaces, particularly how the workplaceinteraction.jpg manifests safety, comfort, and ease for the employees at work.

By encouraging ergonomics, this means that you have to make it a point that your workstation suits your needs and allows you to work properly. If you work with a computer, begin by checking the distance of the computer screen to your eye. It should be between 24-36 inches. Check if the eye level of the screen suits your sight. Make sure that your chair does not promote back pains or improper posture. Also, ensure that you are not exposed to any chemical that may cause sickness, impaired senses, or fatality. Aim for a work area that allows you to work efficiently, and if present circumstances do not fit your preferences, ask for company assistance.z

image credits to ezu

Planning Your Way for a More Productivity-Inducing Office

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:00:48 -0700

Do you want to put an end to being bored with your daily job routine, hating your bosses, cursing your dull workstation, and blaming it all on the company? If that’s the case then, alas, your dreary days are over. All you have to do is to recognize that the power to change your job situation lies within your hands. As one of the prime foundations of your company’s growth, the employees can make their own office a better place to work with. You just need to realize that you are the catalyst for productivity at your own office, and all you have to do is to start working at PEACE.

Promote Planning.
Plans are the blueprint of your future. If you don’t make plans, you will probably end up nowhere. Working without planning is like traveling without a map and without a destination. Thus, if you want to make sure that you will have real accomplishments...

Home is Where the Work Is: The Top 7 Productive Work Habits of the Self-Employed Part II

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:18:16 -0700

You need to get into good working habits if you want to be able to make money while staying at home. Here are seven work habits of the self-employed that you should make note of as you start your self-employed odyssey to financial freedom.

1. Stick to a Corporate Mentality. The problem with many people who work at home or are self-employed is that they are hung up on the idea of being their own bosses and therefore forget that they need to work. They often fall out of the rigid, but still productive corporate structure by not keeping to a schedule, or by spending too much free time. If you are working at home, think as though you were still at the office. Success begins with the right mindset, so don’t scrimp on being a corporate person even if you are working in a home office.

2. Don’t be Afraid to Accept Help When It’s Offered – and Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for It When You Know You’re Out of Your League! Many people go into self employment because of problems or circumstances at home. For instance, many mothers still want to make money even while they are at home taking care of their children. They may not be going to the office every day, but they can still juggle family life and work without leaving their homes.

The problem with this is that it can be difficult for first-time moms or moms with many kids to keep on juggling family life and work without one of the two collapsing. If you area stay-at-home mom or dad with kids to take care of, and with a self-employment scheme that you still have to work out, don’t hesitate to hire a babysitter when you feel that you’re over your head and getting too much work on your hands already. The idea is that you should be happy in your home environment, not getting mad over both your accounts and Junior spilling his milk all over the kitchen floor.

3. Have a Schedule. True, this sounds very rigid and boring, but if you have a definite time for waking up, doing work, eating meals, and going to bed, you will not suffer from long hours of guiltily playing games, or overextended work hours. Remember, you need to have a corporate mentality, so don’t think that your time is all your own: you need to set boundaries on when you should work and when you should stop.

4. All the Same, Don’t Forget to Get Out and Smell the Flowers – Literally. Being self-employed can often mean long hours spent at your work desk, in the same way that being employed by a corporation can mean long hours spent in your cubicle. Don’t waste your life away: have Alone Time for yourself, and force yourself to get out of the house. Take a hike, drive to the grocery store, or just walk around your neighborhood. You need to clear your head once in a while, or you’ll go nuts with too much work.

Home is Where the Work Is: The Top 7 Productive Work Habits of the Self-Employed Part I

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:52:06 -0700

Thanks to increasing gas prices, increasing clothes prices, and a general lack of diffidence in the workplace, many more people are turning to the home as a great place for their employment. Indeed, being self-employed has long been a great way to earn money. From freelance writers and editors to virtual secretaries, many people can work from the comfort of their homes without having to worry about their cars, transportation, wearing the right clothes, fitting in with co-workers, and pleasing at least one boss.

However, working at home can also be a good incentive to laze around and forget work. There are many different temptations that can put you within debt’s reach, such as the television, neighbors and gossip, the telephone and the license to blab all day, and even the Internet, where you do not have to worry about people looking over your shoulder as you look at the latest celebrity news or catch up on your favorite sports team online. In fact, working at home, with its lack of structure and often uncontrolled freedom, can drain your bank account if you do not have good work habits.

Top 3 Less-Popular but Efficient Time Management Tips for College Students

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:13:30 -0700

Being a college student is not an excuse to go party and get drunk. In the past, going to college was an option, and it as often seen as a privilege of the rich and the powerful. However, in today’s demanding and technologically-advanced times, college is a necessity, even a requirement. Today’s colleges, moreover, are no longer as easy to deal with as they were in the past: research and applications of technology are gaining greater and greater prominence in today’s colleges, and students are expected to know more and be more. In four or five years, students are expected to learn and make themselves ready for a career path – but how can they do this effectively?

The problem of time management becomes especially critical when students take part-time jobs or have fewer credit hours in their semesters in order to find ways to earn more money. Tuition and fees are particularly high, and in order to offset these, along with living costs, students have more on their hands than their homework. If students have no scholarship or fellowship as they go through college, they may end up incurring loans or simply not going to college at all. How can college students manage their time while still taking care of their finances?

There are many ways for college students to manage their time, say by keeping study schedules and by sticking to homework at a certain time of the night. However, there are still many efficient time management tools and methods that college students should know about. Here are the top three less popular ones that can still work for college students as they go about studying, building a career, and making ends meet.

One at a Time? Prioritizing versus Multi-tasking

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:38:57 -0700

Today’s technology and our ways of thinking, feeling, knowing, believing, and behaving are all tied together. Not only do we demand that things happen immediately and that we get what we want at the snap of our fingers (or the click of a mouse) but we also demand that people should be able to finish so many more tasks than anyone once could. This can lead people to multi-task: they will take on as many as ten tasks at the same time, and they claim that doing so saves them time and energy. However, can multi-tasking really work?

Studies show that multi-tasking is still not a good answer to the need for productivity in the workplace. Although studies also show that women are better multi-taskers than men, neither gender can still finish more than the required load at any one time by taking on many different tasks and expecting to get the job done. In fact, multi-tasking slows down work in that it can make people feel burned out easily: because people put too much work on their hands, they lose all the energy that they need when more work comes along. In effect, people can leave the workplace after being battered with work – and only because they took too much upon themselves in the first place.

So how can we solve the problem of multi-tasking? Prioritizing is the only way to go, it seems: instead of talking on the phone, finishing your report, writing your proposal, looking at your accounts, replying to your emails, chatting with a friend, checking on your children, and talking to your boss all at the same time, you can make a list of priorities. For instance, if all of these tasks are urgent, you can list your tasks from easiest to hardest to finish, so that you finish up many more tasks faster (and get a good sense of accomplishment at the same time). On the other hand, if the tasks are of varying urgency, you can go with the most urgent tasks first, and then move on to more tasks the next time around.

GTDInbox Ended One of My Gmail Woes

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:11:51 -0700

GTDInbox used to be one of my most favorite online productivity finds until I got overwhelmed by its email labeling feature a.k.a. actionable labels.

However, no matter how I tried to forget about my Gmail being stuck in GTDInbox mode, it found a way to update its version - a version which includes a simple yet amazing feature that I'm not sure Google has.

No, it's not about my dream feature that rids of having to learn how to setup an smtp for email forwarding. It's...

On Web 2.0 Impeding Employee Productivity

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:32:25 -0700

Everyone praises technology for the gifts and productivity that it brings. Never have offices been more connected through the power of instant messaging, and never has communication been more efficient than through the use of today’s email. However, technology can also bring with it a good deal of trouble, especially when people are so dependent on it that they can lose their sense of reality. The slightest power outage can cripple a company and even cause damage to its IT infrastructure that can be felt for weeks and weeks post-outage. There are times when Web 2.0 technology (such as social networks) can actually stand in the way of productivity, but there are certainly ways that you can get around these roadblocks.

Make 'Em Laugh: Keeping Employees Productive Through Humor

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:50:21 -0700

Good humor is the kind that can get you through anything – even the toughest job. It's been known to change perceptions, avert disasters and improve relationships. It's also emerging as one of the most unlikely techniques to keep employees productive. Make them laugh, keep them happy and they'll perform better.

How humor keeps employees productive
According to consultant Steven Cony, humor obviously works. With humor, he says, the management is able to show employees that it cares about its workers. That encourages people to show up for work. With humor, they are much more relaxed and are more likely to work harder.

Humor is also associated with fun, camaraderie, something light and friendly. It also takes away whatever aggressiveness is present. As a result, employees don't feel threatened or bullied into performing.