Darn Office

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Do you know what makes the Internet so great in my opinion? It is the thought of it connecting me with virtually everyone else on Earth. Well, everyone who has internet access, that is. And that we have access to an abundance of information like no generation before us.

I still love libraries, but I really don’t miss microfiche. (If you don’t know what that is, watch this YouTube video to get an idea). Finding answers is so much easier and a lot faster these days.

The internet is also great at delivering me with a lot of stuff I haven’t asked for – not saying I don’t enjoy it – like funny cat videos, epic fails, hilarious memes, insanely useful lifehacks, animated gifs, etc.

found at: awesomegifs.com

Yeah, you got it. Good job! How dare I sidetrack you, even before I got to the core of this post?! (Please click above links responsibly.) So what is the point? (more…)

November 1st, 2013|

Networking Tip No2: Follow up Reasons on the Back of Business Cards

Here is another simple networking tip, which helped me a lot. An often replicated picture: Shake hands and a swift exchange of business cards.

And there your are at the end of a conference week. You managed to trade your stack of business cards with a similar stack of very different cards. Now what? After all, the purpose of exchanging cards is to give your new acquaintances the chance to connect with you and vice versa.

When you write one or two reasons for a follow up on the back of the business card as soon as you get a chance, then you’ll make your life much easier afterwards. (more…)

October 28th, 2013|Tags: business cards, connecting, follow up|

October Update – How Are You?

How are you? It is a simple question and at the same time pretty powerful. It is often asked without much thought and more a greeting than a sincere expression of concern. We often get a quick “Fine” or “Good” and the life goes on.

So I am asking you to sit back for a moment and think about how you are doing.
Are you content with you life right now? Do you feel rushed, passively pushed through your day? Are you worried or are you absolutely happy right now?

Regardless of what your answer is, I found out that it is a great way to consciously live a positive life, when we just stop for a second and think about the things we value in our life right now. Think about what is great, something you like. It may be something small like the haze in the morning, the yummy juice in the fridge, the shower at night, your favorite show, a nice comment on Facebook, a good book to read, or anything else that you may easily miss. Acknowledge it. If you are happy right now, acknowledge it. If you have a crappy day ahead of you, acknowledge now that it’ll be over in 24 hours AND make sure to acknowledge it the moment it is over. Try to see the nice things. (more…)

October 27th, 2013|

Email Tip No3: Always Act on Emails You Read

When an email comes in and you read it or just open it just for a second, its label turns from ‘unread’ to ‘read’ and the entire line from bold into, well not bold. In our scheme of bold being equal to ‘new’, ‘exciting’, ‘interesting’, maybe ‘threatening’ this email turns to ‘old’, ‘boring’ and ‘unalarming’.

Even if we have enough willpower to not read every single incoming email, we can still hardly resist opening new ones as soon as we open our email programs. Especially when the subject line is promising or too general to be sure.

It is like having someone ringing the doorbell. For friends and family we readily open the door, and for strangers, we peak at least through the curtains wondering what they may want. (more…)

October 21st, 2013|Tags: inbox|

The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself

I admit, when I first heard this famous quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt, I had no clue what it meant. I was seven and my Grandpa had just asked me to get some coals from the basement. “You are not scared, are you?” Of course I were and of course I said no.

That was when my Grandpa said: “Good, because the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. A very smart man said this long ago, and he was right.” On the way down I was wondering what it meant. I was afraid the timer of the light switch would run out before I was done, and I would be stuck in the pitch black, mazelike basement. And, yes I was afraid of seeing someone or something there. Someone or something that would scare me. There never was. By the way, the timer was set to 10 minutes, so I never got stuck although, I was always worried I would. (more…)

October 15th, 2013|Tags: spotlight effect|

Paperwork Tip No1: Fax Without Fax Machine

Do you know what I consider the greatest waste of my time? Sending a fax! Because I don’t know any other task that is so pointless and unnecessary as sending a fax.

First of all whatever you send is still not the original. So there is no reason why sending an email with a scan attached to it is not the same. Scans even come in color and without blurry lines.

Secondly, sending a fax with a fax machine takes forever. Even before I even fax anything, I usually run into an issue: The paper is either gone or jammed, the toner empty, or the machine busy. And even if I manage to have the machine not shred my draft then there are usually some issues on the other line. (more…)

October 14th, 2013|Tags: fax|

Email Tip No2: Table of Contents for Long Emails

You are afraid people may not read this long email and thus miss the important information it contains? I know, sometimes we simply have to write long emails.

A meeting may not be possible and the situation is just complicated. But I’ve also heard the notion “When the email is longer than two paragraphs, I am not reading it!” more than once. Avoiding long and often pointless email rants is indeed a good method to be efficient with emails.

So if there is really no way to shorten what you want to say any more and it is still an epic email, then I suggest you start with a brief introduction why you are writing the email and then continue with an inventory of the parts of your email. Sort of a table of contents if you will; like you would have in a report. (more…)

October 7th, 2013|Tags: email, long, summary|

Setting Expectations

After ending yet another phone call with some customer support, I realized how much every interaction with another human being is characterized by the expectations at both sites. Being an optimist and despite better knowledge I still go into each conversation with customer support expecting to get my issues quickly resolved.

Here is how it went today:

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
The reason for calling was a missing item that was supposed to arrive two days ago.

Joe: [the introduction takes about 5 minutes with all the pleasantries and cross-checks to confirm it’s really me, he asks for the problem and checks the order number] When did you order?

Alex: On Monday

Joe: You know, delivery can take up to 10 business days depending on the shipping method you choose. What method did you choose?

Alex: Over night express

Joe: Ah, I see. [hectic keyboard noises] So…. you ordered on Monday?

Alex:Yes

Joe: This week? (more…)

October 4th, 2013|

Web Design Tip No1: Find Styles and Elements with CSSViewer

If you are, like me, not a coding pro, but you want to perform small changes on your website yourself, then I can recommend using the browser add-on/extension CSSViewer. It is available for Firefox and Chrome.

Just Click on the links above to install it for your browser. After it is installed there should be a small button where the other extensions are.

CSSViewer is simple to use: Click the button and it shows you the CSS properties of any element on a webpage when you hover with your mouse over it.

For example, you want to change the font of your menu items, but cannot make sense of your CSS style sheet? (more…)

September 30th, 2013|Tags: CSS, website design|

Focusing on Elephants – Inattentional Blindness

In Propagation of Truth I gave examples for of how our perceived truth can be quite different from reality. Which means, actual facts can be the morphed into generalizations, exaggerations or falsifications of a true core or just be a one-sided account of a complicated situation.

So we justly like to say that we only believe what we see. And here you may correctly interrupt and ask “What about optical illusions?” Brusspup’s Youtube channel for example is full of great examples of how our brain can be tricked into “seeing” what is not real.

And also true, at times we prefer to ignore an obvious issue because it is too inconvenient to acknowledge its existence. The elephant in the room remains intentionally ignored. But what if we focus really hard on finding one specific problem? Can it happen that we miss the bigger one, the real elephant? (more…)

September 27th, 2013|Tags: Psychology|