Archive for the “General work pimps” Category Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a automobile that you’re still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the home you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. Image by Lars Sundstrom from sxc.hu
03
09
2008
 
Evernote: Create and access notes nearly anytime, anywherePosted by: in General work pimpsDeciding to “take note of something” and forgetting what that something is can be really frustrating. This is where something like Evernote comes in. Evernote lets users capture information easily and makes it available almost anywhere. Take a snapshot of a product’s brand name, scan a receipt, record your own voice, and save web content with a single click. These are just some of the ways Evernote use to ensure that you won’t forget something that you need to remember (you need to remember to check your account, though). Getting an account is painless and free, though there is a 40Mb storage limit for free accounts. Once you’ve your account, all you need is the right Evernote version for your device. The downside? The mobile phone software is available only for Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone and there is no desktop version for Linux yet. Once you have the software up and running, synchronizing data from different sources is just a matter of point-and-click. To access your files, just log on to your account via your web browser and all the information you’ve saved is available to be searched, sorted and tagged. It sounds like a blessing for overly absent-minded people who, hopefully, aren’t too absent-minded to remember to check out Evernote. Evernote has versions for Windows Mobile phones, the iPhone, Mac OS X 10.5, and Windows XP or Vista. The web versions are compatible with most browsers. I’m going to review “The Art of Learning” by Josh Waitzkin later this month for Pimp Your Work. I’m 2/3 through the book, and I love it so far - I’ll give a more detailed review later on. In the mean time, here’s a video of the author discussing some of the basic concepts from the book.
Before we move on to September, let’s look back at the best posts we had last August:
Here are the book reviews from last month: Other articles I’ve written in the blogosphere this month:
September here we come! Photo Credit: Image from Alem Jusic from stock.xchng Happy Friday, Pimp Your Work readers! Here’s our discussion for the week: What are your thoughts on telecommuting? Do you telecommute? If not, do you want to? Is telecommuting going to be harmful to one’s career, since he/she isn’t visible in the office? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting? Click here to share your answers. Image by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media
Since I tend to see myself as somewhat a non-conformist who questions everything, I thought “How to Self-Destruct” would be a mere affirmation of the things I believe in. Boy, was I wrong. While many of the ideas in the book are very similar to my own thoughts about work and life, I was surprised that the book also brought to my attention some of my flawed reasoning, harsh judgements, and weaknesses. If you think you’ve got it made, this book gives you a wake up call and shows you the things you need to improve. Jason Seiden has such a strong voice that reading his book makes you feel like he’s sitting in the room with you, talking those very words. (Or maybe I lack sleep and I’m just generally hearing voices.) It doesn’t take long for the average reader to realize that the book is intended to be sarcastic, and that if you want to avoid self-destruction, do the opposite of what he suggests. But, as you read on, you’ll realize that such a reading of the text is overly simplistic. It’s not just one large sarcas-tathon. First of all, the book isn’t entirely tongue-in cheek. The sarcastic sections are visually separated from the straightforward sections which are entitled “Surefire Masochistic Alternatives for Rookie Success Seekers”. The latter is printed with a light red background, which Seiden refers to as “the color of pending doom”. Secondly, this book tackles everything from your career to your relationships and even money. What I especially like is his non-institutionalist approach to education:
This passage especially reminds me of my own education, where I dropped out of arguably the ideal university in the country to go to a no-name college. Why? Because I didn’t know how to draw and wanted so badly to learn, and the top art insitutions require rigorous talent tests that obviously don’t accept stick figures. (Which I don’t get - if students are already skilled at something, how much do you expect to instruct them?) What I love most about the book is that reading it requires you to question what you know and challenge the status quo. Even if I’m really happy with my life and my work, reading this book has allowed me to reevaluate my perspective on some things, and to find room for improvement (there’s always room for improvement, no matter how happy or well-adjusted you think you are). Overall, I highly advocate Jason Seiden’s “How to Self-Destruct”, especially for fresh college graduates. But even experienced professionals can learn so much from Seiden’s book. I know I did. However, there are two things each reader must possess to fully take advantage of this book: the ability to think for oneself, and a sense of humor. If you want a sneak peek of the book, click here to go to the website and read some excerpts. (Or, you know, in the spirit of the book’s style, don’t read it. Doing so causes introspection, and why would you want to do that? Your time is superior spent Twittering about your day anyway.) What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. Image by Ryan Heaney from sxc.hu
26
08
2008
Invisibility Cloak for Firefox: Eliminates Mindless Web Surfing (Almost)Posted by: in General work pimps
In an effort to boost productivity by minimizing time lost due to aimless web surfing, the Invisibility Cloak script for Firefox was born. Taking advantage of Greasemonkey’s ability to run scripts to enhance your Firefox experience, Invisibility Cloak allows you to block sites that doesn’t have anything to do with your work and would normally consume your working time.Invisibility Cloak comes pre-configured with several sites already blocked and cannot be accessed till 3 in the afternoon. You can easily add more sites to the blocked list and even include excluded sites as well. When you try to access the blocked sites, it will let you know how much time is left before you can go to that site. The latest update includes the option to turn off the script every weekend. However, while it does a great job at blocking sites, the Invisibility Cloak is very simple to deactivate. If you can control yourself from pulling the script’s plug and going back to your usual surfing habits, Invisibility Cloak does the job quite well. Otherwise, you might want to look at more “tamper-proof” alternatives out there. Invisibility Cloak requires the Greasemonkey extension and is compatible with Mozilla Firefox 3.0. Screencapture by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media Tags: firefox add-on, firefox addon, firefox plug-in, firefox plugin, invisibility cloak, web surfing Last week, I asked Pimp Your Work readers about their to-do list strategy. Here’s what some of them have to say: Lindsay from Writing For Your Wealth says that she doesn’t have a to-do list. However, this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a strategy for accomplishing her daily tasks.”I generally just approach my work day with one or two major things I want to get done, and I make sure I do them. Then I work on other littler projects or call it a day.” While I’ve a to-do list, I concur with Lindsay’s perspective on lengthy lists. She adds, “I’m highly suspect of long to-do lists, as I equate them with the ‘be busy’ mentality instead of ‘be productive’ mentality.” Wayne from Joint Contact took the chance to tell us about Joint Contact as a to-do list. He says, “In addition of tracking basic tasks, Joint Contact supports a module called “Conversations” that can be used to track and share project notes with small groups or an entire team.” Personally, I just use Google Calendar and write my to-do list there. I use the 2-week view, so the daily boxes are small and I don’t make the mistake of being over committed. It’s very rare that I have more than 4 things on my daily list. I selected Google Calendar because most of my actionable items are done online, such as writing articles or emailing people. I also list offline activities, but having less than 4 items on my list everyday makes them easy to remember - I only have to look at the calendar once. Don’t forget to share your answers for this week’s question: Do you think you’re efficient? Click here to answer. Up until Sunday, August 21 only.
This month’s Business Channel promo day is centered around the theme “taking a break”. I realized that I’ve been writing a lot about sabbaticals and 9-hour workweeks here at Pimp Your Work, so I’ve decided to take the “break” idea up a notch. As a result, I’ve decided to write about one of the most permanent breaks you can possibly take (second only to death): Getting fired. So, if you feel you really, really must be fired (and why wouldn’t you want that), here’s are some surefire ways to do it: Blog freely about your colleagues and company. Don’t attempt to censor yourself or use code names - especially if there’s juicy water cooler gossip. Why prevent the general public from getting in on the fun? Search for the phone numbers of all your high school classmates and spend hours speaking to them on an office phone. Why would your company invest in a phone if no one was meant to use it? Surf the net for fun throughout your entire workday. As I mentioned last year, a Japanese government employee was fired for spending his workdays editing and writing Wikipedia entries about the cartoon series Gundam. If you want to be fired, follow this gentleman’s example. After all, if you won’t edit those Wikipedia entries, who will?  Steal something. From a stapler to the boss’ chair, the office is filled of hundreds of things you can steal. The more massive and the more costly the stolen thing is, the stronger your punishment. Use that as a rule of thumb. If all else fails, fire everyone publicly - even if you’ve no authority to do so. Karmic law recommends that whatever you give to the universe, you’ll eventually receive the same. What better way to get fired than to fire everyone else? You’ll get bonus points if you say “You’re fired!” like Donald Trump does. Note that you should only do the above if you really want to get fired and have a complete understanding of what sarcasm is.  Pimp Your Work is not responsible for any lawsuits or foul smells that occur from following the above advice. |
Powered by WordPress, Mandigo theme by tom.
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
Jason Seiden’s new book, 
