6 Desk Organization Tips to Boost Your Productivity

If you find yourself overwhelmed, disorganized or having trouble concentrating, simply improving your work surroundings can have a positive impact. If you are looking for a way to boost your productivity, begin with these six tips for desk organization!

1. Avoid Over-Organizing.
This may seem like an oxymoron in light of the topic but often times we can overwhelm our workspace with all the containers, trays, shelves, writing utensil holders, paper clip cups, sticky note dispensers, etc. In our effort to be efficient, we can actually create a certain amount of organizational chaos. Evaluate your workspace and decide if you can consolidate some of your office supply holders. Does having everything at your fingertips help you or hinder you by taking up valuable work area. How often are you using all of the items on your desk? Even our attempts to be organized can create clutter that stifles productivity. 

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The Career Option of Entrepreneurship

Have you ever considered the option of being your own employer? Done right, self employment can free you from the ups and downs of the employment market, and the impact of personal likes and dislikes of your boss. It can also allow greater flexibility in using your time, like rescheduling work to meet essential personal commitments.

The above and other advantages of self-employment will materialize only if you do it right. Let us explore what doing it right means.

Select the Right Business

Starting self-employment can be seen as starting a business of your own. And selecting the right business is at the top of the right things to do. There are several issues to consider when you select the business on which you will be focusing (probably for the rest of your life):

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Parents in the Workplace: Tips for Returning to Work after Maternity Leave

Your first few months as a parent are filled with getting to know your infant, creating a parenting schedule and sleeping whenever possible. However, just as you’ve settled into your new life as a parent, everything is rearranged once again as your maternity leave is nearing its end.
Returning to work after maternity leave brings many emotions. While you may be excited to begin working again and contribute to the family’s income, you’re likely hesitant to leave your infant for the first time. The following are four tips to successfully make this transition while minimizing the stress it can bring.

Begin with a Half Week
Jumping into a full work week directly out of maternity leave often brings stress, worry and guilt. Rather than taking on more than you can handle, ease into the transition by working a half week or by only going to the office for half days during the first week. This allows you to slowly adjust your schedule without as much stress while your infant becomes acclimated to the childcare setting. Working half days for one or two weeks may also allow you to stretch your maternity leave a little longer before transitioning back to fulltime.

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5 Ways To Reduce Your Stress Levels

Stress is a word we hear a lot these days. For many people stress and work are closely linked. Whether it is about dealing with the boss from hell or managing a work load, there are many opportunities for stress to present itself in the workplace. Here are some suggestions to help you deal with and reduce your stress levels:

1.       Clarity

What is making you stressed? Rather than just thinking it is “everything about your job”, narrow it down and try to get to the bottom of what is causing you anxiety. Being clear about what is the problem is the first step to being able to do something about it (and there is usually something that can be done about most problems, despite what we might first think).

2.       Relax

Create a relaxation habit! It really is possible but it is something that often needs to be worked at if you are not used to it.  There are lots of ways we can relax; you could look into exercising at lunch time, doing a few stretches in your work day or meeting friends for coffee. Taking time out of your day to stop work and relax your mind and body is so important and beneficial. Schedule it into your diary each day to make sure it happens (even if it is just ten minutes)!

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5 Ways To Make Yourself Unpopular At Work

Obviously, no one wants to be unpopular at work so I have put together a list of common pitfalls that could make you unpopular at work, so we can all avoid them!

1.       Gossiping

A little harmless gossip doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but be careful about talking about your colleagues behind their backs (especially being negative) and getting the reputation as the office gossip.  Being seen as a gossip could mean people are less likely to trust you and makes it easier to become embroiled in office politics! Keeping things simple means you can stay out of any drama and stay professional.

2.       Sucking Up

Be yourself with your colleagues and boss without sucking up. Being authentic is an admirable quality; no one likes to be around people who are trying to be nice to people based on their status or what they think they can get out of them.  Treating everyone you come into contact with respectfully and equally is an admirable quality.

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Questions to Ask the Employer If You Don't Get the Job

You have completed your application and are delighted to be invited for an interview and think it has gone really well. Everything is looking good, and then you find out… you didn’t get the job!

If you are not successful at an interview it is worth asking for feedback from the employer.

Turn a failed interview into a learning experience and plan for your next interview. This will increase your chances of a successful interview and getting the job you want.

Rather than trying to guess the reasons why you didn’t get the job, being proactive and asking could give you valuable information that could make all the difference to your job search.

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How to Not Waste Your Life

In high-school you are told to get good grades to get into a good college. In college, you are told to get good grades so that you can get a good job. As a student, you live semester to semester, report card by report card: a structured set of measurable grades which disappear the second you graduate. But, what if the career path you set for yourself during you student days was not at all what you expected? According to Harris Interactive, only 20% of employees are very passionate about their jobs.

Most of us don’t know what we want, what our passion is, and will end up hopping from one job to another or stay with one company because of the steady paycheck. A look at 3 big achievers shows us how to stop this life-long game of musical chairs or endless complacency: follow your dreams.

Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg’s original purpose was to create a site for Harvard students to connect with one another. As his site grew in popularity, his dreams got more ambitious.

“The last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. In the next hundred years, information won't be just pushed out to people: It will be shared among the millions of connections people have.”

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Using Your Blog to Help Launch a New Career

Blog this, blog that. It seems like everyone has a blog these days, and that's not too far off – millions of blogs have been started (and just about as many abandoned) in the last decade. Have you been toying with the idea of starting your own blog? Does the desire to be part of this vast universe of cyber-talking appeal to you?

The good news is you can - there is no quota for blogs. However, there are some things you need to do first before you post that first article, and the very first one is to know the goals of your blog, which can be determined by two very basic questions:

• WHAT do you want your blog to be about? Technology? Cooking? Crafts? Childcare? Auto repair? Sports? Fashion? Gardening? Creative writing? Design and décor? Whatever it is, you need to have a basic idea before you invest any money or significant time. Don't start a cooking blog if you also plan to talk about interior design. Start from the beginning saying that your blog is about the home, which covers a broader range of topics.

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Changing Careers After 10 Years? Consider Becoing a Chiropractor

Choosing the right career path can be one of the most difficult decisions a person can make in their lives.  Even for a person who is fortunate enough to decide on a career early there can many obstacles and stumbles along the way.

Take my situation for example.  I always knew I would be a Doctor Chiropractic, working alongside my father and sister, both also being chiropractors.  Not only that, but I have two uncles, two cousins, and a plethora of friends who are also chiropractors.  It seems that once it is in your blood you have no other choice but to become one also.

Well, eight years into practice as a Seattle chiropractor, I ran into a colleague at a special event held at the Columbia Tower.  We spoke about our profession for a few minutes, only to find out he was quitting his career as a chiropractor to become a children's book author in Los Angeles.  When I asked how he could do such a thing, he replied, " You've never heard of the 10 year itch?"

Obviously I hadn't.

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Working From Home: How To Be Effective

I have always loved the idea of working from home.  I imagined how great it would be to work in your pyjamas if you wanted to, and just generally make the best of being in your home environment to do your work. Now that I do work from home, I enjoy it very much but have found that there can be headaches to working at home. Here are are a few of the things I have learnt that have helped me to enjoy working from home and be effective:

Create A Schedule

Like many people, I imagined working from home could mean getting up whenever I wanted to and working whenever suited me. The flexibility is great when it is needed but the reality is that a schedule can help you to get your work done and keep boundaries around your work and home life.

Set Boundaries

Boundaries are important when working from home, in getting your work done and also ensuring your work life doesn’t leak into your personal life. It might be that the people in your life may think you are always available to drop in on or look after their kids as needed unless you set clear parameters. If you can create a work space or office in your home it allows you to set a physical boundary and also enables you to close the door at the end of your work day.

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