Sitting in front of the computer all day at your job doesn’t automatically translate to having a high level of productivity. Just because you haven’t moved doesn’t mean you’ve been fully focused on work, despite what your employer might think. In fact, taking regular breaks throughout your day can actually be the catalyst to a much higher productivity level then if you didn’t move away from your desk at all. If you’re itching to take a break but aren’t sure what to do, try some of these rejuvenating activities:

1.      Take a short walk.  Get outside and get a breath of fresh air during your work day. It can be just the mental stimulator you need to walk back into the office feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the next big project. Not only will you get a nice dose of Vitamin D from being out in the sun for a few minutes, you’ll also get your blood pumping so that you come back more energized than when you left.

2.      Do a mind-challenging puzzle.  If you find yourself stuck on a project and unsure how to move forward then take 10 minutes to complete a Sudoku or Word Cross puzzle. These two types of activities encourage your mind to work harder to complete them so you won’t completely zone out and get out of your working groove, but you will give your brain a break from thinking about work for a few minutes.

3.      Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.  If you’re unable to actually leave your desk then close your eyes for a few minutes and take a few deep, calming breaths to restore some balance in your life. Let your mind wander from work for a few minutes and think of peaceful images. Just don’t fall asleep at your desk!

4.      Do something nice for someone else.  Feeling especially frustrated at work? Take five minutes to do something nice for someone else, whether it’s calling them to tell them you were thinking of them, sending flowers their way or even just typing out an uplifting email to them. Knowing that you’ve made someone else’s day better will help to alleviate some of your own personal stress.

5.      Take a minute to laugh.  You know what they say, laughter is the best medicine! If you’re dragging at work then take a few minutes to catch up with some co-workers or browse some funny pictures or comics online. Laughing is an instant ‘good mood’ booster, and can immediately turn your whole day around.

Taking breaks during your workday is essential to breaking up the day and keeping a solid flow of productivity going. Five minutes here and there can be exactly what you need to stave off work-related frustration and even boredom. The key to taking breaks at work is to keep them short and sweet; they should be long enough to revive you and short enough to not encroach on your day.

This guest post was provided by Kate Croston, freelance writer who holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing home internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to:  katecroston.croston09@ gmail.com.

If you are like many, just the thought of moving will set your head spinning. Moving can be overwhelming, stressful, and hectic to say the very least. So, what’s the secret to making moving less stressful? Follow these tips to break your relocation down into much more manageable tasks that will help ensure a smooth transition into your new home.

The move checklist

If you don’t properly plan your move, you could be in for a rude awakening. That is why it is so important to be as organized as possible. One way to do that is to make a checklist, which will help you to methodically plan every aspect of your move along the way. The move checklist would include tasks including, but certainly not limited to:

• Change of address notifications.
• Disconnecting and setting up utilities.
• Contacting your banks and other institutions about your move.
• Informing your kids’ current and future schools.
• Making hotel and travel arrangements.
• Buying packing materials and choosing a moving company.
• Cleaning out your house and packing it up.
• Booking a storage unit, if needed.

Moving to another city: being prepared

While many of us just move across town, some people move to a whole new city or state. This can be even more stressful as moving to an unfamiliar area can be nerve-wracking! How will you meet people and learn your way around? Will your kids adjust well to a new school and make friends quickly? Here are some quick ideas about making a move to a new city a little easier to cope with:

• Open up new bank accounts as quickly as possible.
• Find a new doctor before you move.
• Figure out where the DMV is in order to get your license and car tags updated.
• Get your kids signed up for some after school activities so they can meet new friends.
• Research your new city before you arrive to learn about the hot spots.
• Save at least three months of living expenses so that you have a safety net when you arrive.

Remember, careful planning is the key.

This guest post was submitted by Ben Brown who is currently promoting storage solutions in US.

Talk to any of the highest-performing executives, and they will most likely tell you they have a system for productivity. It might revolve around a certain piece of software, a filing system, stack of index cards, or something altogether different, but all of the biggest achievers use one.

What you should learn from that, however, is not that there is necessarily a best system, but that you have to have some sort of effective process if you are ever going to truly succeed as a professional. In other words, it is not the brand name, the parts, or even the price you pay… just that you are able to make full use of your organizational system.

Here are three important details to help you get started and make the right choice:

Your organizational system needs to work for you. Some people cannot live without high-tech gadgets, and others prefer to handwrite notes and lists on cards and in address books. Either approach, or any one in between, is perfectly valid; you just have to be sure you find a system that makes sense for the way you work and think.

You have to use your organizational system religiously. Consistency is the best way to breed good habits, which is why your organizational system has to be an everyday part of your work. Otherwise, it is too easy to lose track of important details.

You have to have faith in your organizational system. Take the time to learn, establish, and use your organizational system from the first day, because you have to be able to trust it completely if you are not going to fall back to old habits or be tempted to try something else. If you have more than one organizational system, you don’t have any organizational system, so make yours into something you trust completely.

Take my advice and learn from the highest-performing professionals: You can have almost any organizational system, but it has to be one that you make work for you–and only one, used with consistency. Follow these tips to find the right one, and you will never have to worry about losing control of calendars and details again.

OfficeTime is surveying freelancers and business professionals on how they spend their time each day and why they may track their time (for billing or productivity purposes, or not at all). If you are willing to participate, please take their survey.

This is a follow up to OfficeTime’s Top Time Killers survey.

In times past, napping on the job would have gotten you fired, or at least seriously reprimanded, but that isn’t always the case in today’s workplace. With studies finding that a simple 26-minute nap can boost performance by as much as 34% and alertness by 54%, many employers have decided they’d rather have well-rested employees on the job and have added designated napping areas to their facilities (there’s still some napping under a desk George Costanza-style, however).

Alissa Alvarez contacted us to share this article  posted on her blog.  While this isn’t a complete list of all the employers who’ll let you catch a few minutes of sleep throughout the day, it does give you a good idea of just how many big businesses are realizing that naps can be great for business. Here are some examples of places that are embracing the power of naps to help get the most out of employees.

• Google

  Google is renowned for the perks employees can enjoy on the tech giant’s Mountain View, Calif. campus, and for good reason. Employees can take advantage of a gym, hair salon, game room, dry cleaning and laundry, gourmet food, on-site medical care, massage and meditation rooms, and, of course, napping pods. Called EnergyPods, these napping stations let exhausted Google employees enjoy a quick nap during the work day. They block out light and sound and are timed to wake employees once their nap is over, helping to ensure that employees won’t oversleep. Like many other employers on this list, Google believes that naps can help employees be more productive and creative, and with their ever-growing suite of web applications, the policy doesn’t seem to be doing them any harm.

• Ben & Jerry’s

  Natural ice cream producer Ben & Jerry’s is another business that endorses napping at work. The company wanted to ensure that all employees were happy and healthy, and sleep is an essential part of the health equation that Ben & Jerry’s didn’t want to overlook. The company’s headquarters is home to a nap room, where those who need to catch 40 winks can come in for a quiet nap. When asked about the napping perk one employee said, “It’s great to be able to just get away and then come back ready to go after it,” and you can’t blame them for loving this awesome at-work perk.

• Zappos

  Online retailer Zappos is known worldwide for its amazing customer service, but it’s not just customers they’re treating well. The company provides employees with perks like free lunch, free coffee, and fully-paid health benefits, but one of their newest benefits is on-site napping rooms. At the company’s Nevada headquarters, employees can take a few minutes away from work to head into one of the napping rooms. The rooms were upgraded from couches to napping pods, but employees lobbied to get their couches back, finding them more relaxing and comfortable than the fancy nap pods.

• Nike

  The Oregon offices of this athletic apparel giant are home to some pretty great perks for employees. In addition to amazing benefits like on-site gyms and childcare facilities, employees of Nike can take advantage of the company’s quiet rooms, which can be used for napping or meditation. The company doesn’t just provide space for naps, however, but actively encourages sleep-deprived employees to nap, with the aim of increasing productivity, health, and happiness on the job.

• AOL-Huffington Post

  The Huffington Post’s namesake, Ariana Huffington, is a big advocate of workplace napping and has given numerous talks on the value of being well-rested. It should come as no surprise then that at the shared offices of this online blogging giant and AOL, napping is not only allowed but actually encouraged. Employees can rest up in facilities referred to as “NapQuest” rooms, which are outfitted with the same nap pods found at Google. According to employees, the nap rooms are incredibly popular and stay pretty well occupied throughout the day with napping employees.

• Pizza Hut

  While you’re not likely to find workers napping in the open at your local Pizza Hut franchise (one would hope, anyway) the company doesn’t frown on sleeping at work. Pizza Hut is one of a growing number of employers taking a pro-nap stance, allowing employees to take a nap on their breaks, no questions asked. While it may not provide the fancy napping rooms offered by other companies, workers at this fast food giant can still find time and space to rest while working, and that may be all that matters when it comes to boosting job performance.

• Deloitte Consulting

  Employees at this consulting firm won’t get in trouble for sneaking off to take a nap during the middle of the work day. In fact, the company actually supports the practice and has created several nap rooms for employees. Equipped with comfy furniture and black-out shades, the rooms are a popular place for not only lower-level employees but managers and upper-level employees as well. While in full-swing now, employees report that it took awhile for the idea to catch on, as many felt guilty leaving work to nap. As many saw their bosses taking advantage of the nap rooms, napping in the company’s office has become much more common and doesn’t seem to have hurt their bottom line.

• British Airways

  If there’s anyone you don’t want falling asleep at work, it’s a pilot. That’s why British Airways is one of many travel-based businesses allowing employees to snooze anytime they have free time or when there’s someone else to stand in for them. Pilots are allowed to sleep during long international flights while colleagues take over the controls, though the practice is prohibited on domestic flights by the FAA. Other airlines, like Continental, also allow napping, as do the bulk of major train travel companies, which should help us all feel a little safer.

• Workman Publishing

  Employees of Workman Publishing have taken a page right out of an episode of Seinfeld when it comes to napping at work. Rather than have a designated napping area, employees sleep under their desks or behind room divider screens. Other workers bring their own mats and lay down on the floor, preschool style. The higher-ups at Workman don’t judge and promote the practice, however employees choose to do it. Says Workman’s editor-in-chief Susan Bolotin, “We’ve seen very positive effects. I keep a nap mat in my office, and I’m still known to lie down, put my sleep mask on, and see what happens.” She’s also distributed sleep masks to her employees and offers up her office floor for naps when she’s not using it.

• Yarde Metals

  Yarde Metals was one of the first businesses to really embrace napping on the job, building a nap room into its office space way back in 1995. The company was fairly small at the time and employees weren’t sure what to make of the boss-sanctioned napping, but things have changed as the company has expanded and now each office of the large company comes complete with its own napping room. Craig Yarde, founder of the company, laughs about the popularity of nap rooms in today’s work culture, stating, “It’s funny how these things go. It went from being totally ridiculous to being cutting edge now.” Yarde doesn’t regret his decision, after seeing firsthand what naps at work can do for productivity and morale.

Alissa Alvarez contacted us to share the above article  which can be found on her blog  for Online MBAs.

Although New Year’s resolutions may feel pretty far back in the rearview mirror for a lot of us by now, the great news is that 2012 is still new enough for each and every one of us to hit the goals we set for ourselves. There are still well over 250 days left before we have to turn to a new calendar, which is plenty of time to reach a dream, get something done, or change your life.

It is time to pull out your list of hopes (you did write them down, didn’t you?) and check on your progress. With the quarter of the year mark coming up, how are you doing on your 2012 goals? Depending on the answer to that question, you might want to do one of three things:

1. Celebrate your accomplishments and reassess your goals. If you are ahead of where you hoped or expected to be at this point, then give yourself a little bit of a victory lap – you have earned it! Maybe take a day off, buy yourself a special treat, or make sure you get some kind of other reward. As you do, think ahead to the coming eight or nine months. Is it possible you could achieve even more than you had set out to this year?

2. Figure out how to get back on track. On the other hand, if you are falling behind on your 2012 goals, then now is the absolute perfect time to get them back on track. You still have a big chunk of the year ahead of you, and maybe all it will take is an extra bit of motivation or a little better time management. If you need to, trim down your list of two or three goals that are most important, and then review some of our past articles to find time-tested ways to achieve them. The year may be a quarter of the way over, but you still have plenty of time.

3. Make new goals. If you can’t even remember what your goals were, or if they feel completely unrealistic now, then do not simply write off 2012. Instead, focus on making some new goals that are more meaningful to you, or that fit more realistically into your life right now. Remember, everything worth doing takes time, so do not be discouraged.

The more focused you are on what you’re trying to accomplish in life, the better every year is going to be. So, make the most of the coming months and achieve everything you can for 2012.

You can organize your phone, organize your calendar or organize you closet, but in the end there is only so much you can do with actual, physical clutter.  Holiday decorations, outdoor lawn, pool or summer game equipment, outgrown baby clothes, furniture and clothes are all among items that may be filling your basement, garage, attic or closet space so that it cannot be used for anything else. 

Closets are meant for daily use, linens, towels, extra pillow and blankets and clothes.  They are not a place to stuff things, so that when you open the door items inevitably tumble out.  Organize your closets with the items that you need to have easy access to rather than using the space to hide surplus. 

Attics are difficult to get items in and out of, especially heavy or bulky stuff.  Pests often make their way into attics as well and can wreak havoc on fabrics, so storing blankets and winter clothes here is not a good idea.

Basements are often overlooked as another room to use.  Whether it be a studio, kid’s hang out room or parental escape room, spend a little time sprucing up the dank subterranean area and you’ll find that you have another whole and useful room in your house.

Car paint is a precious thing; garages are for cars and tools, not boxes.  The best thing you can do with your seasonal and unused items is to get a little storage unit near your house.  Ask anyone in Manhattan how valuable a few free feet of space is and they’ll tell you it’s worth its weight in gold.  The peace of mind that is generated by the luxury of open space is unparalleled.  Even a small storage unit could give you a whole area of freedom.

This guest post was provided by Garret Stembridge.  Working with self storage users all over the United States, Garret helps customers store their stuff in places like Bloomington self storage facility and the self storage unit in Fontana.

What do you see as the biggest waste of time in your work day?  OfficeTime.net recently conducted a survey of working professionals on their Biggest Time Killers. Survey participants were asked to name their top-three time killers.

Of all the ways people manage to squander their time each day, “Email” was named as this year’s biggest time killer by 47% of respondents.

Other Top 5 Time Killers included:

• Procrastination (42%)
• Social Networking (36%)
• Meetings (34%)
• Surfing the Internet (30%)
• non business-related conversations (24%)
• dealing with computer / technical issues (23%)
• “bureaucracy / red tape” (19%)
• travel time / commuting (14%)
• playing computer games (10%)

“Time management is really about decision management,” says Stephen Dodd, director of OfficeTime.net. “Some people are better able to successfully choose what they do and how much time they spend on it. Some are more apt to be distracted by time killers that get in the way of a productive work day.”

To help counteract these Top Time Killers, OfficeTime.net offers its tips for prioritizing how people spend their time each day:

1. It’s important to recognize that while some issues that arise are not known at the beginning of each day, some of the urgent issues in our lives are known right now. Each Monday, take a moment and list the hot, urgent items you know must be done this week.
2. Priority 2 items are not only business-oriented. Be sure to include time with family, time to work out, time to feed the soul and body. After those items are scheduled, add in firm deadlines for the week – and then block out time before the deadline to work on the project.
3. All the rest of it. While the inbox is never empty and all the rest must be fit in as well, by going for #1 and #2 priorities first, your own Top Time Killers will be less of a distraction, resulting in more free time and more room for “all the rest.”

If you continue to struggle with productivity and managing your daily work flow, try a time management seminar to help you establish systems and good habits each day.

This guest post was submitted by Kevin Doel of OfficeTime.net  which is the creator of  OfficeTime time and expense tracking software.  53% of respondents to their survey were business owners, freelancers or executives, while 39% work in professional “white collar” positions.

What comes to your mind when you think of a hard-working executive or professional? Is it someone who puts in long hours at the office, even after others have gone home?

We tend to associate really hard work with the hard-driving types of people who seem to always be “on the clock.” They are certainly working hard, but is all of that hard work actually paying off, in terms of steady progress towards their most important goals?

In my experience as a time management and productivity consultant, I have seen that the “always on” approach can be counterproductive. Not only do your mind and body need regular rest, but without them the results you get from any amount of work you do are greatly diminished.

With that in mind, here are three times you definitely shouldn’t be doing – or thinking about – any work:

When you are too sick. It is one thing to push through a case of the sniffles, and another one altogether to try to handle a full (or even partial) workload when you are too ill. For one thing, you should be concentrating your strength and energy on recovering and coming back to work healthy. And for another, you might only make things worse at the office – it’s hard to make great decisions when you are sick, and you won’t make your job any easier by spreading your illness to other coworkers.

When you are on vacation. Everyone needs a mental break now and then, and taking a vacation away from the tasks and projects that normally fill your day can actually lend you a valuable perspective on them. One of the most peculiar – and predictable – quirks of the human mind is that we often reach the greatest insights indirectly, so leave work out of your vacation day.

During family or personal time. At what point in your day are you “finished” and available to give your loved ones undivided attention? You should be able to draw a line somewhere and stick to it. Although there might be occasions where you have to take work home with you or interrupt a planned activity, it is not worth it to destroy your personal relationships just to try to finish a bit more. Besides, problems at home can turn into a bigger distraction that hurt your productivity even more.

Know when to work and when to give your mind and body a break. It might seem counterproductive to “stop working hard” once in a while, but it can actually be the best thing for your productivity, health, and career.

Many jobs and occupations require us to spend long hours in front of the computer. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in your computer chair, you’ve got to make sure it’s a good one. But what exactly about a computer chair makes it a good chair?

It start, of course, with personal  some preferences.  A good computer chair to you might be a fabric or mesh task chair, but to your colleague it might be a leather executive chair. You might be more comfortable in a low to mid-back chair, while your boss prefers a high-back.

Next consider the ergonomic  factors. Not all computer chairs adjust to fit your needs.  To weigh ergonomic factors, ask yourself the following:  

1. Does it provide enough back support? If not, “lumbar support” is a great option and many models offer this with adjustments, making it suitable for all body types.
2. Does your chair give you a stiff neck? If so, a chair with a high back is probably your best bet. Some models take the high back solution to the next level by offering a head-rest (sometimes as an add-on).
3. Do you feel strain on your lower back? If so, a computer chair with tilt & tilt lock mechanisms can be your best friend. You should also be aware of your armrest situation.
4. Are the armrests adjustable?

As more and more people become concerned about their comfort and well-being while sitting in front of the computer, ergonomic chairs are adding style as well as health benefits.

 This guest post was submitted by Katie Schmeltzer.  For more information on computer chairs, head to ComputerChairs.com .