May 2006

I loves him dearly. Loves his squinky little eyes, his droopy little legs, his fat little fingers —

But an office ogre is anything but cute. He/She makes an already bad situation (which is being at work as opposed to being anyplace else) 10 times worse just by being there. They’re the sort of person that, when they have a sick day - it’s like a vacation day for everyone else.

We all know how to deal with ogres - AVOID them like a bad stink. But, alas, there are days when that just isn’t possible and they’re underfoot and underskin for hours.

A while back, Mayo Clinic put out a good guideline for getting along with co-workers. That guideline’s the basis for the following. It may give you a little inspiration for coping with ogres. More importantly, it’ll help you to not become one yourself - because if your ogre’s in your mirror, you’ll never escape him.

• Be positive. Smile, be upbeat, and greet everyone warmly. Not just the people you think can help you move up the ladder - be friendly to the ladder-holders as well.
• Learn to communicate effectively. Sometimes when we’re in a hurry, we only think we’re making ourselves clear. We think we’ve said exactly what was on our minds to say when, in reality, we only said half. Getting mad at people for not reading your mind is just ugly dumb.
• Be a team player. Come to company meetings and, by all means, come to work prepared and on time. Contribute to, but don’t hog, the discussion. Don’t try to always be right, and don’t try to always have the last word. Those are and ogre’s favorite tricks.
• Be modest. Don’t brag or take too much credit. If you did something particularly well, give yourself a chest bump in the mirror, brag to your spouse and then kind of keep it on the low. Act like you meant to do it - not like it so shocked you that you can’t quit talking about it!
• Respect confidences. If anyone tells you something in private, for crying out loud, don’t say it out loud. If the boss tells you you’re an assett to the office, there’s just little need to go to every person in the office and repeat it.
• Avoid bigotry. Never make suggestive comments or tell jokes that make fun of a co-worker’s sex, culture, sexual preference, race, or gender. That one should go without saying, but we all know there are plenty of barbarians running amok. One thing a lot of people don’t think of is this - if you’re in the presence of someone who is making these sorts of comments, their nasty is splattering all over you. Especially if you happen to laugh. Just vamose.
• Be thoughtful. Clean up after yourself. Knock before entering a co-worker’s office or cubicle. Treat basically everyone as though they were your equal - because, ummmm, they are.

I just found a neck-saver, by reading a post over at Successful Blog. Liz showed me this neat notebook lifter-upper thang.

For more info on Notebookup, click that link and check it out.

If it’s your eyes that are tired and not your neck, this is a primer on ClearType.

Like coffee needs cream, like steak needs A1, like the Cubs need a break that doesn’t involve bones…. That’s how badly I need a few of these Document Organizers. They’re only $7.99 each, when you buy two or more at Home Focus Catalog.com.

These organizers have 12 see-through pockets and hold up to 22 documents. Sounds like they’re ready and willing to safeguard our papers as well as my sanity.

You know how maddening it is to have to search and search for something! Just this week I was searching high and low for a vital piece of paperwork. My cat and I looked in all the normal hiding places, but couldn’t find it. Like, 12 drawers later, it turns up. I pointed out to the cat that we had just wasted a whole morning looking for a lousy piece of paper. We vowed that we had to bring a little more organization into our home.

We’re just covered up in paperwork! My husband has some from his nine-to-fiver, we have piles from our home businesses, and then there are the standard, everyday bills and correspondence. There are also piles that have to do with my mom’s estate.

You know the scene from “Mommie Dearest” where she goes 7 kinds of psycho over wire hangers? By the 10th drawer, I was beginning to have visions of me inside of my own little melt down. Fortunately for me, and the cat who would have been perfectly mortified, I never arrived at that point.

But I don’t want to chance it again. Everything would just go so much more smoothly if all the important papers were separated, organized and divided. A place for everything and everything in its place.

What a concept!

This Lamp isn’t just any old lamp. Oh, no - It’s the most coolest lamp you could imagine in your wildest, Office Freakish dreams. It’s from Stacks and Stacks.com which is a pretty slick site - you might want to check it out. They have bookshelves that are, along with the lamp, just dying to move into our home office. But with our budget this summer, it’s safe to say that the most coolest lamp will beat the shelves here.

What makes this lamp so special?

First of all, it has a built in ionic air purifier that cleans the air by removing allergens and pollutants (pollen, dust, pet dander and smoke particles).

Second of all, it gives off a nice, soothing light which can be adjusted at whim.

Wildest of all, the Lamp with Ionic Air Purifier also features an aromatherapy drawer with included potpourri and fragrance diffuser.

OMG, I love Lamps with Ionic Air Purifiers that feature aromatherapy drawers including potpourri and fragrance diffusers! I AM all about them. Seriously, I love to surround myself with amazing scents - and the heat of the lamp would cause the aroma to fill the air. Making Joi happy happy happy.

Speaking of an emotionally charged me, it’s time to refill my coffee cup.

Getting the word out is one of the main challenges all businesses face, big or small. Both my day job and my own business are 100% web based so we do most of our advertising online. But I meet a lot of potential customers when I’m out and while sharing my business card is pretty standard practice for making contacts, I like to give away something that people will use. This migh help my name come up instead of being forgotten another growing stack of business cards. And who doesn’t love free stuff, especially pens!

As a productivity nut I always have a pen with me and I like finding good pens you can keep in your pocket. I always have my keys on me and I found these handy little pens that you can put on your key chain and have your logo / contact info printed on them. It’s a little thing, but it’s both branding and practical and could give you an edge.

I’ve always felt like my generation got ripped off. At some point the wool was pulled over our eyes and they slipped an extra hour into the work day. What was once a 9-5 job with an hour for lunch became 8-5 with an hour for lunch, if your lucky. Today’s offices are also more connected than ever. Even when I’m at home I can feel that “tug” when projects don’t get done and deadlines are coming up fast.

Over the years I’ve tried to modify my way of thinking and I limit my work to work hours: 8-5. Period. I’m happy to handle any emergencies, of course. But as long as the office isn’t on “fire”, I’m in and out on the button. People ask me how I can be so cold about it and the answer is simple: 1 more minute won’t make a difference in how much work I can do, nor will 8 more hours. There’s always going to be more work. Always. The more work we do the more work there seems to be. So when I read the new issue of A List Apart I found an article that really struck a cord with me.

The Four-Day Week Challenge is right in line with my way of thinking. The article gives some good productivity tips, but my favorite is the 4 day work week. In evaluating what’s important in my life, quality of life always comes up first. I want freedom, flexibility and low stress. In short, I want a life. I work to live, I do not live to work. So my goal is to get my boss to let us work 4 days a week or get my own business going well enough that I can do it myself!

I do, I do, I do! No - I’m not marring triplets, I’m just enthusiastically answering Boca Java’s  call: Always blog on a full tank.

Leave it to boca java to combine two of my favorite things in all the world - blogging and coffee. A match made in Heaven. A blogger really doesn’t have strict, set hours. Sometimes inspiration strikes at 5:00 in the morning, sometimes you’re still searching for it when the clock strikes midnight. I’ve been on both ends and each experience was navigable because I was floating on coffee. It just doesn’t matter what time you’re trying to wax 4 kinds of brilliant - it goes better with a mug of coffee nearby. Very nearby.

I hadn’t really thought much about it, but it does seem that there is a close correlation between bloggers and coffee. Seems most bloggers I read have coffee on their breath. You can tell - even if you happen to be in Kentucky and they’re half way around the world.

So, it’s all kinds of appropriate for the relationship between bloggers and coffee to be celebrated and embraced. boca java (Keep the badges in the pocket, grammar police - they spell it with small letters. Edgy.) is paying homage to the union with some great goodies. I pretty much want them all. No, let’s bump that up to a need - I pretty much need them all.

Check out the names of the coffees in The Bloggers Sampler: Bloggers Boot Up Blend, Bloggers Pajama Party, Late Night Log In, Bloggers Beach Blast, New Media Mavericks and Blogs of Bravery. Late Night Log In - I love it!

The “Always Blog On A Full Tank” Hat tells the world that you’re a blogger, so if spreading the world about your blog is something that interests you, it could open up many a conversation. You would probably meet a lot of other bloggers that way, too - and maybe one of them will even buy you a coffee.

The “Always Blog On A Full Tank” motto is also featured on a great looking mug. The hat and the mug are each around $10.00.

Get this, the Sampler is $14.95 and comes with a free hat or mug. Nice.

There are other coffees on their site also just for bloggers - and I plan to make my way through each and every single one. Check them out at Boca Java . In the top menu, hover over “Gifts” - then slide your cursor down to Bloggers Blends Gifts.

I’ll see you there. - Joi

David Seah is a genius madman when it comes to productivity and in paper based productivity tools especially. He’s the author of the Printable CEO series of tools and yesterday he released his latest addition to the series: Task Order Up!. This is right up my ally.

I’m sure a lot of you worked fast food in a past life, I know I did. I spent 6 years tossing pizza - side note, boy do I miss how simple things were back then! David got the idea from watching a McDonald’s clerk manage the order queue and came up with this handy way to manage to do items.

What I love about it is the at-a-glance view of all your to do items. The biggest problem I have with most productivity tools is that they bury everything on pages and you constantly have to flip through them to review what you have to do. I like to have a solid overview, something paper and computer based tools seem to lack a quality solution for.

David’s Order Up comes as close as I can get right now and who doesn’t want an excuse to by an order check rail. So kudos do David for making productivity a little more productive!

Thanks to a link from David Seah I found some pretty wicked cool items for your office. I would say these fall into the novelty category, but some of them are very practical too.

My personal favorite would have to be the “I HATE MY JOB” award. It looks like those blocks with your name on it that everyone likes to have on their desk but this one simply says “I HATE MY JOB”. I love it, I ordered it!

If you’re late our out of work often you need to check out the Excuse Note Pad so you’ll have a not handy whenever you need it. I should order a case of these.

What day would be complete without a Shit List or To Do List. One is work given by the boss, the other is the stuff that actually needs to be done, if you ask me. You decide which is which

This handy little Menu Organizer is good for the home or office. I don’t know about where you live, but here in the South the whole day revolves around Lunch and Dinner. This thing is awesome.

And finally, one for my wife: Checklist For Leaving The House. It’ll probably add even more time to getting ready, like I need that. But at least once we do leave we should have everything and not need to go back to the house. So in the long run it’ll save me time and gas.

Check Out Knock Knock for more great items. They even have Mother’s Day cards, which you know you need.