Office1000 Blog April Archive

Is your energy getting stuck behind your desk?

By Disorganization at 04/30/2007 11:38

When you come into your office, do you ever think of what is behind your desk? if it looks anything like mine, you are looking at a pile of jumbled wires and cables, extra paper clips and stuff, and probably a lot of dirt.

Did you know that energy gets stuck in neglected places, in messes, in tangled up stuff, and in corners. Not being a feng-shui master, I did not realize this, but after reading the information, I intend to tackle the space behind my desk. Maybe I won't have to get up so early in the morning, cause all my energy is probably hiding back there!

History of Pens; Metal Nibs

Metal nibs appear to have very early origins. A pen with a bronze nib was found in the ruins of Pompei showing nibs must have been in use in the year 79.

There is also a reference in Samuel Pepys diary for August 1663. A metal pen point was patented in 1803 but the patent was not commercially exploited.

John Mitchell of Birmingham started to massproduce pens with metal nibs in 1822. During the 19th century metal nibs replaced quill pens. By 1850 the quality of steel nibs had improved and dip pens with metal nibs came into generalized use.

Plain and Simple Fun Facts About Office Supplies

Imagine a store where everything is free. Better yet, imagine a store where everything isn't just free, but where, regardless of the price, someone else pays for it. Now imagine that all you have to do to earn such free things is keep a job at an office, and use these things to advance your professionalism. Sounds too good to be true? It shouldn't, because this is what the rest of us call "a job", with the buyer being "your boss" and the random stuff being "office supplies".

You can take them home if you like, but the criminal justice system calls that stealing, at least in the 96 nations where I've researched it. If you also maintain a legitimate home office as a satellite to your work place, that might be okay. There are those who partake in this so-called "stealing" activity, but they are the most peculiar of all, since after all, 99% of the things freely provided in the work place have no value outside of it. I mean really, what are you going to do with envelops branded with your corporate logo?

But you can steal them, if you like, and that's no discredit to you. It doesn't mean you're a bad person by any means, just some sort of social deviant, miscreant or other sort of negative thing ending with the suffix of "ant".

If you have a home office, which I assure you that you do, and you have needs for these supplies, which I would likewise insist that you do, you owe it to your business, your office and your boss to take home all of the myriad things you need to insure your home office is as productive as the space you keep at work.

For example:

• You can take home ten boxes of staples, even if just to insure that your sandwich bags are sealed, your neck ties are properly affixed to your shirts and your many report pages are properly affixed to one another, specifically in the middle of pages.
• You can take home twenty or so rolls of Scotch Tape, even if just to insure that your Secretary's Day gifts are properly wrapped, your tie is affixed without the detriment of damaging staples, or that you multi-page reports are properly bound, even if improperly so with merely Scotch tape (since you took only staples, but no stapler.)
• You can take two or three whole boxes of paper supplies, even though you only need so many thousands of pages to insure that your 10-page report can fully print out at home without the possibility of running low on paper.
• You can order mad gaggles of toner cartridges for you home printer, even though you'll only need to print maybe 100-pages of office related documents per month, in sharp contrast to the many thousands of pages you'll print out of pictures of your children, random copies of your blog (about how much you hate your work) or many dozens of spreadsheets pertaining to your cat… maybe that last one is just me.

Regardless of your needs or purposes, there is a wealth of available products just sitting in the back storage room in wait for your rampant pilferaging, and it would be derelict of you to not act upon those needs.

Get organized and stay organized

• Online Organization: If you are computer-friendly, you may be familiar with the program Outlook. You can use Outlook to keep track of your emails, your daily schedule, your to do list, client phone numbers and email addresses and more
• For those that are not as technologically advanced, you can still get organized by using old fashioned paper products. If you do not have a day planner, get one
• Oh, the Dreaded Taxes: April 15 is a day that many Americans dread – it is the due date for your taxes! An easy way to keep track of receipts is to get a hanging file folder and 12 manila envelopes

Safco Product Changes

We have two announcements to make with regard to products we carry from Safco Products.

First we have added a fair number of new products. These can be ordered now and complete product information and photos will be available soon.

Second there have been some price changes to reflect UPS's new system for charging for large items based on "dimensional weights". Previously UPS had two different prices for oversize items.

The OLD UPS system used "over size 1" and "over size 2". For these items the shipping charges refelected either 30 or 70 lbs. The new UPS dimensional weight system is more complicated as the dimensional weight can be any number.

The advantage of course is that an item which is larger than the old "over size 1" may be charged less than the 70 lbs rate of "over size 2" in the old system.

For our customers there is no difference in the ordering process, though some prices may have changed (up or down) to better reflect our costs. Remember all the products we sell which ship via UPS Ground have free shipping for all orders over $100. Including so-called "UPS Oversize" shipments.

For purposes of our website, "oversize" means its too big for UPS to ship at all. For packages too large, or too heavy for UPS, we note on our website that these are "heavy weight" or "oversize" and must manually calculate the freight charges based on your delivery specifications.

Why Using White-Out is More Fun

If you've ever had a desk in a place where you work, it's almost certain you've known the magical benefits of White Out and what it can do for you. In the unlikely event you're new to this whole arena of workplace delight, you can still use the following list as a handy reference for the fun that is to come, specifically thanks to White Out.

• You can artificially make exciting even the dullest of filler words.
• It can cover that pesky drop of coffee you couldn't otherwise hide on your shirt or tie
• Especially in the case of boring, interoffice memos, it can make such boring subjects as "the time of the meeting on Monday" seem romantic and sexy, just by needlessly blocking them out.
• When the FBI comes in to do an audit, they'll spend countless hours scraping it up just to verify what you've always asserted; that you have nothing to hide. For the sake of fun, start by whiting out words like "the", "and", "to", and single digits of telephone numbers.
• Assuming you've invented human invisibility, only to accidentally inflict yourself with it, this will give your teeth that bright, white luster people expect from real, visible teeth.
• If your Styrofoam coffee cup gets that "not so ivory" appearance, you can cover over even the most pesky stains of coffee or cocoa with just a quick dab or two of White Out.
• In the unlikely event your manager requires legal-sized sheets of paper in white, instead of the standard yellow, don't fret or sweat it, just paint over the entire sheet with a mere buck-or-two of White Out per page. Sure it makes for lumpy writing, but he or she isn't likely to actually use it anyhow.
• You called in sick but went skiing, and today you have an unholy red ring of raccoon eyes from your ski-slope sunburn. You can worry that you'll lose your job for the lie so undeniable, or you can make the very best of it by covering up the reddest parts of your tender punum with broad strokes of white out. It's not like you're going out for any kind of beauty contest this week, so liberally apply the liquid paper correction to your nose, forehead and cheeks as needed. If you are asked about the texture, insist you have a skin disorder, and that you're in fact quite sensitive about the whole issue.
• If you are a personal assistant, and your boss asks for 7-Up or Sprite, but all you have is cold coffee from yesterday so stale it's already begun to bubble of its own accord, don't admit you've brought the wrong drink, but instead coat the outside of that clear, plastic cup with white out. If it's clear, you're in the clear, and your promotion can't be too far behind.
• If you break off a bicuspid right before that big meeting that could make or break your career, glue a niblet of corn to your jagged chomper and paint it white. Not only will it pass for a legitimate tooth, but an exceptionally pasty one at that.
• Assuming you take prolonged, six-or-so hour naps in your cubicle, it's imperative that you appear to be awake. Nothing says "my eyes are open and I'm working" like insuring the whites of your eyes are plainly visible. Use White Out in the graphic murals you paint on your eyelids that look as though your eyes are open. Think about it, if they can see white in the place where your eyes ought to be, they must be open and you must be awake. While you're at it, make sure the pupils aren't pointing all callywompus googley, because that isn't convincing a bit. This list, however long it may be, is by no means exhaustive. Count on Office1000.com to post even more handy uses for White Out in the future.

Clean up your desk in thirty seconds and improve your attitude for work!

Do you come in to your office and sit in your chair and just sigh? Is your workspace covered with papers, bills, envelopes, pens, pencils and every other type of clutter imaginable?

Who could work in an organized fashion under those conditions? Take 30 seconds, maybe a little bit more if your desk looks like mine, and create a breath of fresh air for your work day!

• Put all the pens, pencils and highlighters in a container or pencil holder. I personally use a coffee mug.

• Put all the little items such as paper clips, post it notes, stamps (you know what I am talking about) in their respective places. You may keep them in a supply drawer in your desk or in an organizer on top of your desk. Either way, put them where they belong.

• Get rid of all the trash. This includes pop cans or whatever, junk mail, empty envelopes (all of the "trash" into your trash receptacle.

• That should pretty much leave the paperwork and folders. Make two stacks: one for work that should be accomplished ASAP and put it right next to you on the right or left. The other pile (and file away what you don't need) should go in a stack out of the way AWAY from your monitor. You shouldn't have to look over anything in order to work. You should not have anything directly in front of you.

• That should pretty well cover it. Now enjoy your day!