Darn Office

Networking Tip No1: Answer ‘What Do You Do?’ the Right Way

Is ‘What do you do?’ not your favorite question, because you don’t know how to answer it? Then I have a great tip for you. Correctly, I should say Michael Port has this simple but unbelievably valuable tip.

In his book “Book Yourself Solid” he writes: “The typical response is. ‘I’m a business consultant,’ or ‘I’m a massage therapist,” or ‘I’m a graphic designer.’ Unfortunately, a polite nod or comment, or worse yet, an awkward silence and a completely blank stare follow.”

Does this sound familiar to you? That was exactly my problem and mine got even worse, because into more different fields I ventured the more impossible it became to find a job description that would describe what I actually did correctly and completely. Obviously, the profession category is the wrong answer to the question “What do you do?”. (more…)

September 23rd, 2013|Tags: connecting|

Grammarly Review – Absolutely Useless or a Second Pair of Eyes?

Last week I wrote that the many Grammarly Adsense ads, which kept popping up for a couple of weeks, had been effective at last. My curiosity for the product was piqued. Whenever a software or service offers a free trial I start using it before I read any reviews. After all, it is free, and I rather go into the test as unbiased as possible. I have never heard of Grammarly before, so it was a clean slate for me.

First impression

On their website, you see the big headline “The World’s Best Grammar Checker” and the suggestion to paste your text into a text field, to get it checked by Grammarly.

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September 17th, 2013|Tags: grammarly, spell check, tools|

Travel Tip No1: Feel Fresh with Baby Wipes

Brad Pitt dropped this tip during an in an interview years ago. The question was about what he does to feel good after these endless transcontinental flights. His answer was “I use baby wipes”!

And it is true, unscented baby wipes are ideal for use as a wash cloth on long flights. Use them shortly before you land to get rid of the sweaty, slept-in-clothes feeling. You will feel even better if you can change into fresh cloths afterwards. I usually try to have a couple of fresh T-shirts in my hand luggage. This really makes a difference.

If you can get the wipes in a travel pack, then they don’t take up more space than a cell phone. For less than a buck they are one of my travel essentials.

September 16th, 2013|Tags: airplane, long flight|

Adsense and AdChoices

One of the deliberate design and conceptual choices I made for Darn Office, was removing Adsense ads entirely about four weeks ago. Google’s Adsense program is a genius and effective revenue model, which has not only helped Google to grow as a company at an unbelievable rate, but also helped so many individuals with online revenue. Just think about YouTube, niche sites and blogs. Adsense has fueled the transformation of the internet and allowed the general user to enjoy a plethora of free services.

So, while I am quite confident, my readers are able to distinguish content created by me from Adsense ads, I grew quite unhappy with the randomness of the ads displayed.

Adsense Ads Are Targeted

Generally, Adsense ads are content driven. Yet, not only the context from Darn Office counts but also the interest of its readers determine the kind of ads that are displayed (How ads are targeted to your site). Interests based means depending on their recent online reading and search behavior.

Therefore, it is not surprising, when makeup banners flank my posts on my wife’s computer. Although I find it weird, and a bit annoying when ads don’t match my content at all, I do see how great it is when the ads match my readers interests. After all, this will increase your willingness to actually click on an ad and eventually increase my revenue.

However, I realized the bigger problem can be when the ads actually match my content. For you, it is certainly good if I write about Dropbox and a Dropbox ad shows up. How about a Google Drive banner? You are looking for cloud storage, find my post in which I review Dropbox, and Adsense offers you another option. That is certainly okay for me and useful for you.

Even better if I review a paid service and Google offers you a free alternative. There is nothing really to lose in these cases, is there? (more…)

September 12th, 2013|Tags: AdChoice, adsense|

Email Tip No1: Summarize Your Email in the Subject Line

So many unread emails! You’d like to know with just a glance which ones are the most important? Good luck with that.

Let’s see: Several emails from your boss titled ‘report’, ‘meeting’, ‘paycheck’, and ‘your last day!’ from your boss, one from your coworker titled ‘question’, then a couple emails from people you’ve met at the conference last week, all titled ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’, one from your wife ‘this is it!’, several newsletters, and one from your new client titled ‘need to reschedule Thursday meeting’.

So wait a minute. The last one is clear, but am I fired and what is with my wife? Of course I open my wife’s email first only to find out that (more…)

September 9th, 2013|Tags: email, quick tip|

The Propagation of Truth

Before you dive into this post I want you to breathe …
Inhale through your nose. Listen.
Exhale though your mouth. Feel the air flowing in through your nostrils. Breathe.

in… and… out.
Relax… and…breathe.

I am serious, do it. Slowly. Try to calm down and empty your mind.

I want you to be prepared for the next question.

What is truth?

Think for 30 seconds about something you would consider true.
Without getting too philosophical about what truth is, can be, or should be, I hope you can agree with the following definition:

A statement expresses truth when it is in accordance with facts and/or reality.

Do you agree? You reading this post right now is actually happening and thus has to be true. You know that, but how about others? If you told someone in one year from now, would he believe you? Sure, why wouldn’t he? It is not important, why would you make it up? Right? And he would likely have no way to proof you wrong, anyway.

How often do we have the chance to proof stories and facts we read or hear to be truthful? We often take for truth what others tell us, especially if they back up their facts with other facts.
So how does truth come to be? This questions is not only a serious one in the fields of law and science but also affects our everyday life. Because what we hold for truth can have a big impact on who we are and how we act.

There were a couple of facts I always wanted to check and while doing so I stumbled over a couple of interesting articles. Let me share with you what I found.

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September 1st, 2013|Tags: mind-blowing, misconceptions, statistics, urban myths|

Borrow Ebooks – Connect Your Local Library to OverDrive

The local library not only helps saving money on books when you have kids. Who can afford to buy five picture books each week? It is also a great place for me to discover books I would usually not think of. And I get to test books when I am undecided about whether they are worth buying. Although it seems counter intuitive at first, but I actually end up buying more books than I would have without the library, because of that. These are the ones I simply have to own because they are so good.

Borrow Ebooks via OverDrive

One drawback with libraries is when you have to wait for your next read to become available. You also may have a hard time to make the library times or simply prefer ebooks. To my great surprise I just discovered you actually don’t need to go to the library to borrow books if you are o.k. with reading them on a digital device like a tablet, your computer or smartphone. Many local libraries in the U.S. and so far seven other countries can be added to an app called OverDrive Media Console or short just OverDrive. You can check if there is a local library in your area that cooperates with OverDrive. (more…)

August 21st, 2013|

The Power of Don’t

If you are currently spending your time on a deserted Island and you found a hard copy of this post attached to a hidden immunity idol, then read on. It may help you with the other guys. Well, and if you don’t know what I am talking about then you’ve just been part of very ineffective communication.

More than anything when we communicate we want our message to be understood. Our body language and the way, how we say what we say can support our message and influence the degree of understanding. We don’t want to send mixed signals. Saying “Oh, yes you’ve got my full attention” while checking the latest tweets on your cell phone obviously doesn’t fly.

These signals aside, the most important signals are the words we speak and write. Effective communication is short and clear. However, if you want to complicate your life then use ‘don’t‘ as much as possible.

Using ‘don’t’ creates attention, but unfortunately to the wrong message.

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July 24th, 2013|Tags: Psychology|

Make it a good trip

Think about the best and the worst trips you’ve ever had. My best trips were those that turned out to be much better than I had expected. I had great company, met nice people, saw great things, loved the food, etc. They were not necessarily great because I loved every single second, they were great because the overall experience was great. Actually the best memories come from these that make good stories because of the unexpected situations I had to go through. Regardless of how good or bad my trips turned out to be, I am happy I made them all because of the memories they created. But would I want to repeat all of them?
Certainly not.

Trip = Project, Project = Trip

If you look at a project like a trip then there is specific action you can take ahead of time to make sure you will have a good trip.

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June 21st, 2013|

The Productivity Trap – Don’t be ‘Goat Productive’

I am convinced never before in history of mankind have so many people been so obsessed with their self-improvement. Those who are privileged enough to have internet access have the opportunity to learn whatever they want. The information is all there and available to grasp and convert. With all the things we want and can do there is only really one resource we can’t bootstrap, and this is time. So it is no wonder that there are also virtually limitless resources and tools available to help us being more productive. The over-hyped key words are ‘Productivity’ and ‘Time Management’.

Time Management is so great and we love it, because we all love to manage. We now have Sanitary Facility Managers, Front Desk Managers, Office Supply Managers, etc. And of course myriads of Time Managers, and all they manage is their own time…

What!?

What happened to doing?

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June 13th, 2013|Tags: goat, productivity|