Like it or not, office politics are almost impossible to avoid. Even those that try to completely avoid the political scene often get caught in the tangle. Stop running and learn how to leverage the politics in your office. The Dumb Little Man weblog has a series of tips to help you step up your game. But why is everyone so pissy about office politics? You know who is good at office politics, people with empathy, people who are great time managers, and people who see themselves as part of a team. Which means, of course, that you should get good at office politics, because the people who are bad at it have dead-end careers, and spend their lives whining about how it’s not fair because they are so good at doing their work.
How do you survive the politics in your office? Share in the comments. How to Improve Your Skills at Office Politics [Dumb Litttle Man]
David Allen has a zipped archive of 17 articles available to download for free at the David Allen Company online store. Whether you’re a die-hard GTDer or just use certain portions of the methodology (like Gina), the articles are a great supplement to the concepts presented in the book. The downside to all of the free content is that you must provide an email address and a billing address since the download is considered a “purchase” from the online store (even though it is a free download). You don’t need to hand over any credit card information, though. Hit the jump for the list of articles included in the download.
If you’re constantly nagged by writer’s block or struggle to find the motivation to start your work, the LifeClever weblog has a tip to help you get started. Instead of launching an imposing behemoth like Microsoft Word, call up your humble email program and begin your next writing piece as a simple email…It’s my favorite psychological trick for fooling the brain into thinking a writing task is less critical than it is.
In addition to being more convenient and relieving pressure, LifeClever argues that using email to begin your work helps make your writing more concise and sound more conversational.
Unstuck Your Writing With an Email [LifeClever]Productivity and lifestyle blogger, Scott Young, drastically boosts his productivity by scheduling “Project-Kill Days.” The night before a Project-Kill Day Scott makes sure to create a fixed to-do list, blocks off as much of the day as possible, and chooses an isolated location. The following morning Scott gets up early and begins working long and hard on his biggest rocks. The caveat to the Project-Kill Day is that Scott creates a false sense of urgency to help stay motivated. This means no distractions and absolutely no mid-task breaks. When I face this problem [a stressful and demanding workload] , my answer is to take on what I like to call a Project-Kill Day. This is a day where I am at my most productive state. I set aside large amounts of time to kill off the projects on my to-do list and get ahead. I’ve found, if you plan it properly, you can make tomorrow up to 3 times as productive as ordinary days.
Scott’s approach to productivity isn’t that far fetched. Is it possible to make everyday a Project-Kill Day? Sign me up.
Triple Your Productivity Tomorrow [PickTheBrain]For most online retailers the deadline for guaranteed pre-Christmas gift delivery passed days ago (December 18). The mall lines are growing longer and longer and a scant three shopping days stand between you and Christmas. Lowe’s seemed to roll out the perfect solution by offering electronic gift certificates delivered over email. However, as pictured above, overwhelming popularity shut the program down. Just when you thought all hope was lost, CBS News comes to the rescue with 15 last-minute gift ideas that don’t require leaving the house. What advice do you have to avoid the lines and deliver excellent gifts to your friends and family? Share in the comments.
Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas On The Web [CBS News]Frequently using Google Maps for directions? Reader Pham writes in with a simple but interesting way to save time when looking up directions. Basically, the multi-step process of going to Google [Maps] , typing in an address, clicking submit, etc., can be avoided by just putting all your info directly into the URL. For example typing this works: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1683 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
Mac OS X only: Sick of not being able to exit Finder? A quick terminal command will add a “quit” option to the menu in Finder. This means you can run Finder like any other Mac application. If you’re running some heavy applications, simply close Finder and enjoy the extra, albeit small, processing power. Open a terminal and enter the following command: defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem 1
You will need to restart for the changes to take effect. Here’s the caveat: Finder also manages the icons on your desktop. If you exit Finder, you won’t be able to see any of the icons on your desktop. Just click the icon in the dock to bring Finder back.
Add a Quit Menu to the Finder [Freewaremac]Weighting in at the size of a business card, the tiny Thumb Calendar makes it possible to keep a calendar on you at all times. The Thumb Calendar is two sided and in order to use it, you must cover the dates that are not directly below the month header with your thumbs. The designer only has a PDF version for 2007 on his homepage, but you can grab a 2008 version from Flickr (linked below). The Thumb Calendar is a free download and makes a great addition to any purse or wallet.
Thumb Calendar 2008 Edition [Flickr via Adam Sporka's Home Page]Reader Eric writes in with a tip to eliminate hangs and speed up the shutdown process in Windows without installing any extra software.
Whenever I tried to shutdown my work laptop it would take almost five minutes. Five minutes! Since I work in a completely locked-down environment I couldn’t look to any third party applications for help. Entering the following shutdown command in the run dialog speeds up my shutdown time dramatically. shutdown -f -t 0
The command Eric uses immediately forces any open applications to close without warning prior to Windows shutting down. Here’s another way to quickly shutdown your Windows computer. Thanks, Eric!
Turn a notecard into a miniature whiteboard by wrapping it with packing tape. As shown above, packing tape can also be used to laminate notecards you want to protect. The downside to carrying a notecard wrapped in packing tape is that you’d also have to start carrying a dry erase marker. Regardless, if you’re a frequent doodler, big thinker, or work in an environment where dry erase markers are abundant, you can reuse notecards that would otherwise get scrapped.
Make A Pocket-Size Dry Erase Board [via Lifehack.org]
