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How to Avoid Getting Sick at the Office
It is upon us once again: flu season. Nobody enjoys a cold or the flu, and being stuck in an office where sniffling and coughing are commonplace may eventually lead to germy microbes landing on your desk. Getting sick at work is easy when so many viruses cause the common cold; and colds are the biggest reason why adults miss work. Trying not to catch a cold is tough when you're surrounded by infected colleagues and work spaces. Although it's impossible to stay away from germs altogether, there are steps you can take to avoid getting sick at work.
Wash your hands Frequently
Cold prevention starts with frequent hand washing. Germs lurk everywhere…doorknobs, remote controls, elevator buttons, microwave door handles, pens, pencils and more. If you wash your hands constantly, you will stop spreading illnesses to others and also protect yourself from germs. The most important times to wash your hands are before and after you eat; after using the restroom; and after you sneeze, cough, or blow your nose. Make sure when you wash your hands that you do so for at least 20 seconds.
Try Not to Touch Your Face
Germs spread mainly through saliva droplets that are emitted when people talk, cough, or sneeze. These tiny droplets can easily get in your mouth and nose, or you could breathe them into your lungs. Additionally, they can remain on your skin or other common objects & surfaces near you. And, to complicate matter further, most flu viruses can survive for up to eight hours (while cold viruses can live for about three hours). If you touch a contaminated surface and then touch your eyes, mouth, or nose, this is typically how you contract the illness.
Step Back, Jack!
You don't need to be in close proximity with someone who has a cold or the flu to get sick. Infected patients can spread their germs to others up to six feet away. If you notice a co-worker who is constantly coughing, sneezing, or sniffling, try to avoid them at all costs. If a co-worker is ill, try to encourage that person to stay home to prevent spreading the illness. People who are ill should ideally remain home until they are fever or symptom free for at least 24 hours. Or, if your office has a fairly liberal work from home policy, take advantage of it.
Keep Hand Sanitizer and Tissues on the Ready
Tissues are best used to contain spreading germs from coughing, sneezing, etc. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer typically has at least a 60 percent alcohol content, and although they don't remove all types of germs, these gels can immediately decrease the germ content on your hands. Also, by practicing this behavior of keeping tissues and sanitizer handy, you're subtly encouraging your co-workers to do the same.
Clean Shared Items
If you never saw that news story about hotel rooms and germs, the world was shocked when we learned that the dirtiest, most germ-infected item in the room was not the bathroom – but the TV remote! With that said, you should simply avoid sharing items with co-workers, such as your phone, computer, conference room remote controls and food. And, any other frequently touched item should be disinfected to prevent the spread of germs.
Unique Ways To Generate Creativity During Meetings
Conducting brainstorming sessions during meetings is easy. It’s the actual brainstorming that’s the challenge — and often ineffective. When you are the leader, how on earth do you influence your team to come up with excellent ideas on the spot, and then actually follow through with them? Here are a few ideas.
Think Fast!
Encourage quick, impromptu thinking where every meeting includes a spur of the moment prompt, where each person quickly throws out an idea that comes to mind. Crazy is OK. This action removes the fear barrier of people being afraid to say something stupid; and you will be surprised what you will find
Display Gratitude
Start off the session with a positive thought, occurrence, accomplishment or life event. This always starts your meetings off on a positive note, and is the pathway for everyone having an open mind. The results are spectacular.
Get the Best of the Worst
When creativity is at a standstill or your task is particularly difficult, challenge your team members to come up with the WORST idea possible. This is a easy way to create fun and laughter instead of what might otherwise be a stressful and dead-end meeting. Usually after a few minutes of hideous ideas, someone will have a breakthrough, because without anyone knowing it, you are still igniting creativity, which was your goal in the first place.
Have a Sense of Humor
Humor is brain fuel. Dopamine and endorphins keeps tension low, morale high, and will allow for significant engagement. Everything in a brainstorming session should be fair game; no idea is a bad idea, and set the expectation that everything stated no matter what is fair game for making FUN of. You may even bring in the class clown for these meetings just to keep the mood fun, even if they are not part of the team.
Relocate your Meetings
Get the creative juices flowing by changing your meeting locations. People might be tired of starting out the same window or painting on the wall. Try a new conference room in your office, or try going for a walk. Maybe the lobby of your office building is a beautiful area that provides comfort and aesthetics that will give your team a different mindset for creativity.
Provide Some Sort of Incentives
If you really want to get people to “think outside the box", that make sure there is something in it for them. There is no better motivation than reward, so if your meetings are not yielding worthwhile results, try showing appreciation for their creativity with an award for the best idea. Gift cards or anything related will surely entice your staff to think hard and compete for an award.
Know When To Stop
Try to stay on target with your topics. Digressions are often storytelling and get into a more personal tone than the task at hand. Keep these under control and make sure you stop when you start to see excessive digressions or other body language that dictates boredom. The last thing you want to do is set the bar for a dreadful meeting that people have to look forward to, instead of an exciting creative atmosphere where everyone walks away with fulfillment and self-worth.
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15 Little Tips to Increase Your Productivity at Work
With only so many hours in the day, working smart is critical. Efficiency at work isn't rocket science, but it certainly does require re-thinking and re-prioritizing how you manage your time. This post will give you 15 simple and effective suggestions for minimizing your distractions and increasing your productivity at the office.
- Track & time your tasks
You may think you're pretty good at measuring how much time you're spending on various tasks; however, research shows only around 17% of people are able to accurately estimate the passage of time. A tool like Rescue Time is an effective tool that runs on your PC and tells you how much time you spend on daily tasks and goes as far as social media, email, word processing, and apps.
- Take regular breaks
While it sounds counter-intuitive and totally contradictory to this subject, taking scheduled breaks will actually help improve concentration. Some research has shown that taking breaks during heavier tasks helps you maintain a constant level of performance; while executing a task without breaks eventually leads to a steady decline in performance.
- Set self-imposed deadlines & watch the clock
While most think of a stress as a negative thing, a manageable level of “self-imposed stress” can actually help you by giving focus and helping meet your goals. For open-ended tasks or projects, try giving yourself a deadline and then stick to it. You may be surprised to discover just how focused and productive you can be when you're watching the clock.
- Follow the "two-minute rule"
Entrepreneur Steve Olenski recommends using the "two-minute rule" to take advantage of small windows of time that you have at work. The idea is this: If you see a task or action item that you know can be knocked out in two minutes or less, then do it immediately. According to Olenski, completing the task immediately takes less time than having to go back to it later. Implementing this has made him one of the most influential content strategists online.
- Decline unproductive meetings
Meetings are one of the biggest time-suckers around, yet somehow we continually lets ourselves get sucked into them and, inevitably, complain about them. According to Atlassian, the average employee spends just over 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings. Before accepting your next meeting invite, ask yourself whether or not you can accomplish the same goals or tasks via email, phone, or Web-based meeting (which may be slightly more productive).
- Change up your meeting styles
For those absolutely must-have meetings, incorporating a level of creativity can help generate good ideas. Discuss different ways to do simple processes that you never thought of that may be more efficient (like times of day you hold meetings, the leadership style of meetings and where you actually hold them) as shifting these simple elements may generate a behavioral change in those who attend.
- Stop multitasking
While we tend to think of the ability to multitask as an impressive skill for increasing efficiency, the opposite may in fact be true. Psychologists have found that attempting to multi-task can actually result in lost time and productivity. Instead, make a habit of committing to a single task before moving on to your next project, and enjoy the simple pleasure of crossing that task off the list.
- Take advantage of your commute
For those driving, get your hands on some audio books that you can listen to on your commute. Self-help books related to your industry can be quite enlightening. For those taking other means of transportation that do not involve driving, use that time to pound out some emails, create your daily to-do list, or do some brainstorming.
- Give up the pipe-dream of perfection
It's common for people to get hung up on attempting to perfect a task--the reality is nothing is ever perfect. Rather than wasting time chasing after this illusion, bang out your task to the best of your ability and move on. Trust yourself! After all, you have come this far in life haven’t you? Give yourself some credit and try not to second-guess yourself on anything outside of proof-reading. It's better to complete a task and move it off your plate; if need be, you can always come back and adjust or improve it later.
- Take a fitness break
Using office time to exercise may actually help improve productivity, according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. If your company allows it, build in set times during your work days for taking a walk or going to the gym. Getting your blood pumping could be just what's needed to clear your head and get your focus back.
- Focus on proactive, not reactive.
Becoming a slave to incoming phone calls and emails to dictate how you spend your day will mean you do a great job of putting out fires--but that may be all you get accomplished. Set aside time for responding to emails, but don't let them determine what your day is going to look like. Make sure you don’t try to be the jack of all trades and “punt” tasks to others on your team when you can. Have a plan of attack at the start of each day, and then do your best to stick to it.
- Remove notifications!
This one little item that is thought to be so brilliant can be the death of most of us, especially those with ADD. No one can resist the allure of an incoming email, voicemail, or text notification. By human nature, all of us have the desire to be wanted, and these little notifications subconsciously trigger the “Squirrel” distraction. During work hours, turn off your notifications, and instead build in time to check email and messages. This is all part of being proactive rather than reactive.
- Try power-working in 90 minute blocks
Researchers at Florida State University have found elite performers (athletes, chess players, musicians, etc.) who work in intervals of no more than 90 minutes are more productive than those who work 90 minutes-plus. They also found that top performing subjects tend to work no more than 4.5 hours per day. Sounds good to me!
- Give yourself a view
It may sound unlikely, but some research shows outfitting an office with aesthetically pleasing elements--like plants—or a poster with a scenic view can increase productivity by up to 15 percent. Jazz up your office space with pictures, candles, flowers, or anything else that puts a smile on your face.
- Eliminate interruptions (to the best of your ability)
Having colleagues pop in just to say hi may seem innocuous, but even brief interruptions can shift your work pattern and a create a corresponding drop in productivity. Minimizing interruptions may mean setting office hours, keeping your door closed, or working from home for time-sensitive projects.
If you feel the need to increase your productivity at work, resist the temptation put in longer hours or pack more into your already-full calendar. Instead, take a step back, and think about ways you can work smarter, not harder.
How to Easily Turn Your File Cabinets Into Digital Documents
Are you tired of your file cabinets getting bigger and bigger? Are you tired of that one employee not returning the client folder you need to the right place? Life would be easier if you could just do a quick search with some keywords and find the exact document you are looking for, like your own private Google search index made just for you. Now, with Digital OCR technology you can easily do this with a scanner and some software. The Canon imageFORMULA DR-C225 Sheetfed Scanner does all of this with ease and will take you from the stone ages to the new ages in just minutes.
Not only is the scanner fast (25 pages per minute), but once your documents have been scanned in, you can use the bundled software to OCR your documents & add meta data to them making these documents fully searchable and easily retrievable by adding meta data to each PDF you create and the OCR feature.
Not only can you digitize these documents, but you can also do more with the software, such as:
- Convert PDF’s into Word, Excel, Powerpoint & WordPerfect Documents
- Create digital, fillable forms easily
- Combine and Assemble Documents easily into a single format
- Speak to Text Feature
- Easily Edit PDF files
- Create Digital Signatures
- Compare Document Feature – Detects unauthorized edits
- Scan to Box, Google Docs™, Windows Live® SkyDrive®, Office 365, Evernote® and Dropbox
And much more!
Scanner Features--
The DR-C225 scanner is ideal for general purpose distributed scanning of a variety of document types. In corporate or remote offices, this scanner is well suited for use by individuals or small workgroups to modernize paper-based processes, helping to increase efficiency and productivity. Many areas, such as legal, financial, healthcare, and government, can benefit from its small size and ease of use. When combined with the bundled software, the DR-C225 scanner can be used for converting documents into editable electronic files; scanning business cards and organizing contacts; file archiving, retrieval, and sharing; PDF creation; and much more.
Space Saving Design
With top feeding and default top eject, the DR-C225 scanner has a very small operational footprint. This slim, narrow scanners unique upright design is ideal for environments where desk space is at a premium.
Easy Use
By default, the DR-C225 scanner features intuitive front-sideforward, top-up item feeding. It also includes a mode through which a single click can adjust multiple feature settings to easily deliver an optimal scanned image. This scanner is bundled with Windows and Mac drivers for easy integration with third-party scanning software. The bundled Canon CaptureOnTouch software enables users to configure routine scan jobs for quick and easy, one-touch access and can also route scanned images directly to various cloud applications, such as Evernote, Microsoft SharePoint, and Dropbox.
Flexibility
Scanning at up to 25 ppm, both sides of an item at the same time, the DR-C225 scanner can reliably handle a wide variety of document types, such as thick or thin documents and plastic or embossed cards. The DR-C225 scanner also includes features to handle long documents up to 118 in length or oversize documents up to 11 x 17, and double-feed detection to help ensure no data is lost in the event that one occurs.
High Image Quality
For maximum image quality, the DR-C225 scanner includes features to help improve character legibility, as well as to straighten and remove shadows from scanned images. Another setting is useful for scanning mixed batches of documents and photographs, automatically adjusting the output resolution to help improve image quality while reducing image file size. The DR-C225 scanner can even detect color documents automatically, helping to reduce batch preparation time.
and Do you want to make a digital format out of the hard copy of any document? If you do, OCR (abbreviation for “Optical Character Recognition”) is the technology you need. Optical Character Recognition is a modern technology used for digital replication. The OCR program software does more than simply reading the fonts from scanned documents or digitally captured images - it can recognize line breaks in the document, split up columns, turn images into graphics, allow searching the text by keyword, allow document editing, etc. The process is quite simple, easy to manage, and can take just a few seconds. Some even say that OCR program software can replace a Data Entry service. However, there are advantages and disadvantages to both forms of digitizing content.
ADVANTAGES OF OCR
If you want to convert a document into an editable digital format, the OCR program software is the best choice. The Optical Character Recognition process can save both time and effort when developing a digital replica of the document. It provides a fast and reliable alternative to typing manually. All you need to do is use an optical scanner or digital camera to turn a document’s hard copy into the digital format. When scanning, always remember to enable the “scan to OCR” option. The OCR program software can convert a document into many different electronic formats, like Microsoft Word, Text (and Rich Text), Excel, and of course, it can also convert scanned PDF documents
All documents created through OCR program software are editable and allow you to modify the content as you see fit. If you compare the cost of OCR with the cost of manual data entry, OCR is a lot cheaper. It is already an indispensable part of most large companies’ office equipment and a valuable technology in industries that are heavily scanning documentation, such as the legal department, financial institutions, government agencies, etc.