10 Office Hacks to Improve Productivity

10 Office Hacks to Improve Productivity As the nights get longer and the days get shorter, much like the refresh you have with your work wardrobe from summer to winter, it can help to give your work routine a little upgrade. These tips from outsourcing platform Airtasker are essential to killer productivity. Look around your desk right now. Is it organized chaos, or just everyday chaos? A cluttered brain and a cluttered to-do list don’t do much for productivity. Here are ten genuinely useful  office assistance  hacks to help you get organized and do more. 1. Clean between keyboard keys with tape and a toothbrush There have been a few different tests on this, but the consensus is your keyboard has  over 3000 more germs  per square inch than an actual toilet seat. Use some sticky tape to pick up crumbs and even a toothbrush can come in handy to dust between the keys, then an antibacterial wipe to sort those germs out. 2. Stick time slots on your water bottle You’ll have heard just about every fitness influencer stressing about how drinking a minimum of two liters of water a day is a smart choice; however, us mere mortals know this is more difficult to do than it sounds. With the autumn/winter months approaching, all you want is a hot chocolate or a good old builder’s tea. Not only will drinking more water ward off the need for snacking, since  your brain  is mostly  water, drinking it  helps you in many ways, including improving concentration and cognition. The best way to challenge yourself into doing this is to get yourself a refillable water bottle (which we’re sure you own because you care about plastic’s damaging impact on the environment) and mark 1-2 hour time slots on it. You’ll also know at a glance if your water-drinking is behind schedule. 3. Choose a plant for your desk Just because it’s your work desk, that doesn’t mean to can’t add your little personal touch or even a little life to it. Some desks are a bit sad and dreary, even in the freshest and innovative office  spaces. According to the University of Exeter, plants can  improve wellbeing by up to 47%  and enhance creativity by 45%. Searches for ‘air purifying plants’ and ‘aloe vera’ were up a whopping 550% year on year in 2017. Try a peace lily, bamboo, bonsai, or a succulent. The last one hardly needs watering. 4. Learn keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts can help you screenshot, change your font size, or drag an email back from the jaws of being sent too early. While you’re learning them all, pin a handy chart to the wall in front of you. This cheat sheet is for  both PCs and Macs.  Soon though, they’ll become muscle memory. 5. Schedule time for emails It’s estimated we spend  over 2 hours a day  reading and answering emails. That’s a bit disturbing when you think about how much office admin you can do in 2 whole hours. Considering it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task when interrupted by something it’s worth also blocking out a particular time of the day that you use specifically for a team meeting and replying to emails. Allocate a specific time of day for answering emails, rather than swapping between tasks and breaking concentration. For immediate stuff, there’s instant messaging, or even a quick chat. 6. Tidy up leads and wires There are lots of ways to keep cables out of view. Two of the simplest involve attaching bulldog clips or plastic picture hangers to the back of your desk. Just fix the wires to the desk legs and feed down to the plug sockets. If you want to go full Pinterest, label tab stickers to identify what each lead is for and where it’s plugged in. 7. Keep a notepad for ideas and reminders Ideas can hit at any time, and  we all know that even if we say we will, we will not remember them the next day.  Buy a small notebook and jot down anything you want to remember or use later. It’s particularly useful when you’re on the phone and madly searching for a post-it. When you’re stuck for inspiration, or want to jog your memory, refer back to it. 8. Ignore notifications. Temporarily… If you need to focus, you don’t need productivity apps or notification blockers. Just turn your phone to silent and put it face down in a drawer. It feels strange at first, but  push notifications continually distract us, and app developers keep giving us more and more to look at. 9. Stand up every hour The NHS advises we “move more, sit less.“ If you’re often at a desk, it could be slowing down your metabolism and weakening your muscles and bones gradually over time. Stand up every hour, even just for a few minutes. Take calls on your feet, walk for 20 minutes at lunchtime, and park further away from the front door. 1o. Remember, multitasking is a myth It’s virtually impossible for a human to focus on more than one thing at once and do them both well. Our brain switches between tasks quickly, pausing one and picking up the other. Have a to-do list, do each task individually, and tick them off. You’ll work through it far faster. We spend a lot of time in the office and at our desk. Make that time count and keep your admin to a minimum. Oh, and once again,  drink more water.

Tips for Writing Resume - What Should Be Included?

Tips for Writing Resume - What Should Be Included?There are plenty of web sites that offer information about how to write a resume, and the free articles on how to do it are the same as the paid ones. Both are full of tips, techniques, and learning materials that can help you improve your resume and get you the job you want.The Writing Basics: The importance of the fundamentals in writing resumes is one that many don't realize. A successful resume will be the product of good writing that highlights your previous education, experience, and skills, and other related aspects. That way, it will show employers what you have to offer them.Using the Best Online Resume Writing Services: It's almost an automatic thing when you have to prepare a resume; you search for a website that offers the services you need for that. The best one to turn to will be those that are reliable, and well-established. Look for any reviews they might receive from potential clients, and look for testimonials.Use bu llet points: Some websites let you format your resume in a way that will make it easier for search engines to pick up and read. Your name and contact information are usually included in the header, so you might want to use that for your bullet points as well. This will make it easy for anyone to find your information.Use relevant dates: Make sure to keep the date of employment up-to-date, and use it throughout the resume. You can even use it to link to other elements. In most cases, employers will notice this.Insert your skills: Use those specific skills you have in your resume as much as possible. It will make employers take notice. They'll think of you as someone who is hardworking, organized, and intelligent.Avoid boring content: The content of your resume should be relevant to the job you're applying for. If you have many achievements, make sure to include them. Instead of just having an article on your educational background, you could have one that focuses on your work experie nce in an industry you're aiming for.Resume writing is not rocket science. The basics are these, but there are still more things to consider. Once you get the hang of using these steps, you can move on to creating the resume that lands you the job you've been hoping for.

A New Way of Hiring Hidden Messages in Website Code

A New Way of Hiring Hidden Messages in Website Code Fancy yourself a bit of a coding whizz? Well you may be at an advantage when it comes to finding hidden job vacancies that arent being advertised widely. Traditional job hunting is all good and well, but you must face a great deal of competition if you choose to take this route. Employers also have  to test out  different ways of advertisig jobs  if they want  to sift through the hoards of job seekers and identify the top candidates amongst all the noise. One method that a few of the top global firms have been testing out is leaving secret hiring messages within their website code. You can check out a websites source code by  visiting their homepage, right clicking and selecting view page source. Though a lot of the code may look like a load of gobbledoogook to you if you are not familiar with coding, some businesses are including more obvious messages within the code. StandOut CV had a hunt around and here are a few companies who are using this technique to advertise their latest job openings: eBay The Guardian Kit Kat Paypal Flickr Mozilla See their secret messages below! Top image: Pablo

Resumes How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

Resumes How to Make Your Resume Stand Out Are you applying for your dream job?   Do you know how to stand out from your competition?   At my job, I look at a resume for 30 seconds and can tell you if I think you should come in for an interview, scary huh? Photo by Caitlin Regan Scary Facts: A recent survey of 2,500 employers  found that  38% of HR managers said they spend less than a minute reviewing a resume, and 18 percent said they spend less than 30 seconds.    48% of HR managers surveyed by CareerBuilder say they typically review up to 25 applications for open positions.   These statistics show how important it is to spend a lot of time perfecting your resume. ~Great Ways To Stand Out From Your Competition~ Should I submit the same resume to each job?    My advice is to not submit the same resume for each job that you apply to. Look at each job description and  think about how your experiences match the qualifications and requirements.    Most likely, your  resume will go through Human Resources  first  who may not be familiar with the actual job  but they do  know all the keywords to look out for. How many pages should my resume be?   I am a big fan of the one-page resume.   Think you  have too much work experience to fit  on one page?   You might want to think again.    If you are including  3 pages of  information that doesnt apply to the job you are applying to, you may want to  leave  it out.   Just because you did it, doesnt mean you have to put it on your resume.   I dont care about everything you did in college and high shool  unless you tell me how it applies to your job.   Make your resume short and sweet and remember that  quality is better than quantity. What are some  other tips that can help my resume stand out? Use a professional email address (not your college nickname). Show impact like cost savings or increased productivity.   Dont sell yourself short if you rocked your last job! Have someone  review   your resume and provide you with feedback.   I just had my career counselor at school help me with my resume and she offered very valuable feedback.   I then passed it over to my mentor and he  made  great recommendations  as well.   Dont be afraid to ask for help!   Often, people are very happy to help you out! I recently learned that Human Resource departments are carefully checking applicants online  profiles to find history on applicants.    Take a moment  to review your online activity and check your privacy settings on your social media accounts.   Try googling your name and see what comes up.   Better to find out  what comes up  before your future company does! For  additional resume advice, check out monster.coms advice on  How to Write a Resume. What is your advice to make your resume stand out?

Tips For Writing Professional Healthcare Resume

Tips For Writing Professional Healthcare ResumeWhen you are looking for the right tips for writing a professional healthcare resume, there are many things that you should consider. You will find that while the tips for writing a resume can help you, they will not make the job of a healthcare resume writer any easier. However, they can help you write a resume that will make it easier for you to get your dream job.The first tip for writing a professional healthcare resume is to take the time to craft a cover letter that says everything you want to say. Remember that the cover letter should be everything to the person reading your resume. The cover letter should be something that looks professional and gives a glimpse into what you are looking for in a position. A well-written cover letter will often times make or break your chances of getting a call for an interview.Another one of the best tips for writing a professional healthcare resume is to set up a one-on-one interview. This will allow you to ask the person for more information about their career before interviewing them. There is nothing worse than sitting in an interview for hours only to find out that you are about to interview the same person over again.Remember that the cover letter is also going to be your first impression of you as a professional. Your cover letter is going to be your first impression of the employer so you will want to make sure that you have the right opening and closing statements. Also, if you are writing a letter to an insurance company, make sure that you tailor your letter to the needs of the company you are writing to.The resume is also a huge part of a resume. When applying for a job, the resume is usually the only thing that you will see for the first time. Therefore, it is important that you use the cover letter to get your resume noticed. As long as you know how to write a resume, then you should be able to write a good cover letter.Make sure that the resumes you look at s how your personality and don't look rushed. Also, remember that you are going to have to be able to show that you have experience that is related to the job you are applying for. Some employers don't require that you have some sort of previous experience before they will hire you.Finally, when you apply for the first time, you may find that the old resume you received is no longer valid. You may be able to still get a job by changing the cover letter to reflect your new employment. Sometimes you can rewrite the cover letter by taking out the job title and then listing specific jobs you have worked at before.As you can see, a professional healthcare resume is something that is a little bit different from a resume. While it can be difficult to find the right tips for writing a professional healthcare resume, you can be sure that the tips for writing a professional healthcare resume will help you land the job you deserve.

8 Best Baby Boomer Career Websites - Career Pivot

8 Best Baby Boomer Career Websites - Career Pivot Best Baby Boomer Career Websites Good career websites that focus on baby boomers are few and far between. Recently, Hannah Morgan, The Career Sherpa, published her list of the Best Job Search Websites 2015. Of course, Career Pivot made the list in the over 50 category. There was only one other website in that category, Kerry Hannon’s website. Kerry regularly writes for Forbes, AARP, and PBS Next Avenue. When Career Pivot made the Forbes 2013 Top Career Website list, I wrote a post where I dissected the list, and was very disappointedâ€"there were only three career websites that focused on baby boomers. Let me give you my top 8 baby boomer career website list! Top 8 Baby Boomer Career Websites 1 â€" Career Pivot Okay, I am being self-serving, but Career Pivot is the only website that has made just about every list. 2 â€" Next Avenue NextAvenue.org is owned by PBS. This website was launched in 2012 to serve the baby boomer community exclusively. It focuses on many issues that baby boomers are facing, not just career-related. 3 â€" Life Reimagined Life Reimagined was launched by AARP starting in 2012 and relaunched in 2014. AARP is very late to the career market, but is making a good effort to address the needs of the baby boomer community. 4 â€" Kerry Hannon KerryHannon.com is a place where you will find all of Kerry’s materials. Kerry writes for Forbes, AARP, and PBS Next Avenue. You might say that Kerry is a pioneer in this field. 5 â€" My Lifestyle Career MyLifeStyleCareer.com is a creation of Nancy Collamer. Nancy is the author of Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit from Your Passions During Semi-Retirement. What I love about Nancy’s book is that it lays your possibilities out in bite size chunks that are easily digestible. Her blog is full of great ideas. 6 â€" Encore.org Encore.org was created prior to the onset of theGreat Recession.Their mission statement says it all: Listen to the most recent episode Encore.org is building a movement to tap the skills and experienceof those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world. 7 â€" 40PlusCareerGuru 40PlusCareerGuru.blogspot.com is the creation of my dear friend Neil Patrick. Neil is like most of you. He was part of a redundancy (he is from the UK, so I need to use the funny language they use), and now works for himself. Neil started his blog in order to brand himself, and he has done a fabulous job. 8 â€" John Tarnoff â€" Boomer Reinvention JohnTarnoff.com is the creation of John Tarnoff! Specifically, you will want to check out John’s blog. A career development coach, speaker, university educator and former media/entertainment executive, John Tarnoff focuses on personal and professional transformation across generations â€" reintegrating the Boomer Generation workforce into the rapidly evolving 21st century workplace, and developing programs, opportunities and curriculum to support newgenerations of leadersand entrepreneurs. Why not the top 10? My intention was to give you a top 10 list, but I could not find 10 well established websites! Let me point to two other websites that are either new or under new ownership ItsAllAboutMe.Today â€" Midlife Enpowerment ItsAllAboutMe.Today â€" This is a brand new website that was developed by another friend Hugh Taylor. Check it out. Boomers Next Step BoomersNextStep.com â€" Jenni Proctor bought this domain and has re-launched it. Check it out. Am I missing something? If so, comment below and tell me about any other Baby Boomer Career Websites you think are valuable. Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Creating a Powerful Personal Brand

Creating a Powerful Personal Brand Creating a Powerful Personal Brand Creating a Powerful Personal Brand October 6, 2010 by Career Coach Sherri Thomas Leave a Comment Powered by Podbean.com Personal Branding is a hot topic these days, and I have 5 ways you can create a powerful personal brand and leverage it to get into the career you really want… Step #1. Understand your value. Having a powerful personal brand means that you consistently deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. In other words, it’s the skills, experience, and value that you provide to your employer or clients. Whether it’s bringing in new streams of revenue, managing highly valued projects, developing creative marketing campaigns, or whatever, your career is fueled by the value that you consistently deliver to employers. Your value is a unique blend of your strengths, professional accomplishments, and personal characteristics (such as being a good leader, risk taker, problem solver, strategic thinker, etc.). All of these things combined make up your “value package” which makes you truly unique from a crowd of colleagues, business associates, and even job applicants. Step #2. Get into a career where you can thrive (and not just survive!) Being in a passionless job is a career killer! If you’re walking around dull and listless (like the Clairol Herbal Essence girl before she shampoos her hair), then others are sure to see you that way. It’s impossible to have a powerful personal brand if you’re just going through the motions at work. You need to be in a career that challenges you, flexes your professional muscles, and excites you! You want to be working on projects that excite you and teams that energize you! Start gravitating towards those projects and assignments where you can thrive. Or, if you’re in between jobs right now, then you want to focus on talking about those kinds of projects and accomplishments that you worked on in your networking and on your resume. Step #3 Send the “right” messages. Everything you do and say sends messages to your manager, senior managers, clients, peers, and potential employers. Your words, actions, presentations, reports, work deliverables, all shape the perceptions others have about you and the value you provide. So you should take every opportunity to send a very clear message that you are a hiqh quality and results-driven contributor. Talk about the successes of your projects and teams, and the benefit they’re providing to the company. Talk about the obstacles that your team overcame, and the key lessons that you learned. This is how employers and potential employers can view you as an asset to their company. Step #4 Act as if your are on a stage. Think about how you want others to perceive you. Do you want to be recognized as being smart? Strategic? Having specific expertise? A great leader? Whatever it is, you should be striving to send that message loud and clear. Every day you have opportunities to shape and manage your personal brand. In every presentation that you give, in every meeting you attend, in all your conversations with other professionals â€" think of yourself as being on a stage. It’s your opportunity to shape and manage the way others are perceiving you. Step #5 Network strategically. If you want bigger promotions, better clients, and a richer, more meaningful career you need to work with people who value and appreciate you. So focus on creating a strong support system of what I call, career influencers. These are people who can hire you, promote you, inspire you, teach you, and open doors to new opportunities. Nurture your relationships with these people, and ask about their career path and strategies for blasting through career challenges. Seek out people who can give you the roadmap, guidance, and inspiration to help you advance your career. Powerful personal brands don’t happen overnight. It takes time, focus, and commitment, but the payoff is huuuuuge. Imagine a world where you wake up every morning excited about your career! ??

Save gas and the environment - Hallie Crawford

Save gas â€" and the environment I read this in a recent Ideal Bite, emails I receive with environmental and health tips. I sent it to my husband because he tends to leave his car running while he’s fiddling with things in the car like his Sirius Satellite radio! I enjoy writing these entries because of my value of health, which for me means health of the environment and my own. And I think we all need to be much more conscious of our impact on the environment. (My mom finally purchased a recycle bin for her house-go mom!) I hope you enjoy these posts too, Hallie Certified Coach Save gas dont idle. Idling for more than 10 seconds produces emissions at almost 2x the rate of normal driving. For post-1970s cars, turning the car off and on again doesnt use extra gas or cause additional wear and tear. Use cruise control when you can youll get up to 15% better mileage. Take a load off. Stuff you dont use all the time, like toolboxes, drag you down less weight means slightly better fuel efficiency.