The Enjoyable Office: Ten Summertime Joy Breaks

Lily Tomlin once said, "For fast-acting relief, try slowing down." It can be challenging to do that, however, once you get into overdrive. Joy Breaks may be your answer. One to ten-minute Joy Breaks can renew you throughout the day. When you let yourself have a few moments of enjoyment, your mood lifts--and your productivity and effectiveness can increase dramatically.

Business guru Tom Peters maintains, "The number one premise of business is that it need not be dull. It ought to be fun. If it's not fun, you're wasting your life." Make sure you're not wasting that non-renewable resource known as time. Life is short. On your deathbed, you won't remember all the things you accomplished on your TO DO list; you'll mainly remember the precious moments of enjoyment.

"Children have more energy after a hard day of play than they do after a good night's sleep," says Dr. R. F. Gumperson, a probability expert. Anything that is fun, playful, or that stimulates the creative mind is a good place to start. If you can learn to switch back and forth between work and play throughout the day, you may find you leave the office with a bounce in your step.

Gain the support of those around you by letting them know what you need, and where possible, include them. Instead of reaching for another coffee or a chocolate bar, consider some of these healthy alternatives for uplifting your spirit, relaxing your mind, and energizing your body.

1. Flowers

Go outside with a pair of clippers. Clip a few flowers. Put them in a vase, and place them in your work area.

2. Music

Play Baroque music to open up your creativity and soothe your mind. I suggest Vivaldi's Four Seasons (especially Summer). Use a headset if you don't want to disturb others nearby.

3. Mini-Golf

Many people love golf in the Summer, but don't have the time to get to the course. Take a few golf clubs and golf balls to each department. Have each department create a golf-hole--use whatever you can find: paper cup, trash can, etc. When you need to go to another department for a meeting or to get some information, you simply "golf" your way there. You can keep track of your score. Those who get a hole-in-one get a special prize.

4. Whoops Alert

We all make mistakes at work. If you are afraid of making a mistake, you may stop taking risks. Humour can help create an environment where mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn. Go to a novelty store to purchase some kazoos. Assign three co-workers a Whoops Kazoo. In the event of a severe stress, frustration, aggravation, annoyance, or glitch--a person may call out "WHOOPS!" -- at which point the Kazoo Committee sounds the Whoops Alert. The Whoops Alert should only last less than a minute--then back to work.

5. Fun Scrapbook

Take to work a blank scrapbook. Set up a place for it in the staff room or waiting area. Provide glue, scissors, and tape. As a Joy Break, any employee can take a few minutes to add something to the Fun Scrapbook--a cartoon, favourite email joke, photos from a staff event, humorous ideas for dealing with challenging work situations, best "mistake" story, etc.

6. Tropical Retreat

Take a reclining lawn chair and sun umbrella to work. Put them up on the roof or in a sunny area near the office. Leave a pair of sunglasses and a travel magazine on the chair. Offer co-workers a fruit punch in a glass garnished with a little umbrella. Send on ten-minute tropical breaks with their refreshing punch. Rotate co-workers throughout the day.

7. Gratitude Walk

Go for a ten-minute walk. Observe five things you are grateful for or appreciate. They could be cloud formations, sunshine, the sound of children playing, the comfortable shoes you are wearing, etc.

8. Street Dance

Take a portable stereo out to the parking lot; invite everyone from the office to partake in a ten-minute dance break. Put on the Greatest Hits of the '70's, or swing music.

9. Vacation Planning

As we head into summer, you can take ten-minute breaks to plan your time off. Peruse travel books, make hotel reservations, write a note to relatives telling how you'd like to spend time with them, etc.

10. Popsicles

Take a popsicle mold to the office. Pour in your favourite juice. Put the pops in the freezer and during the mid-afternoon slump offer homemade popsicles to everyone in the office.

Use some of these activities, or make up your own. Create a list of ten things you can go do when your energy slumps, and put that list in a place where you will see it. Every time you do a Joy Break, check that activity off the list. Some people go so far as to give themselves a gold star. Positive reinforcement can help make joy a regular occurrence, and help you kick the worry habit. In the words of Oscar Wilde, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

May the FUN be with you!

Video Marketing Review - A Powerful And Effective Marketing Tool

Video marketing is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools used online today. An accurate video marketing review would include that this method has been proven to be a very simple and free of cost way to drive traffic to websites.

An average individual beginning in the online world of marketing who owns a camera and has internet access would be next to foolish to not consider video marketing as a way to bring about more targeted traffic to their online business.

Why? Online customer's these days prefer to see a testimonial on video because in the past non-video testimonials appeared too phoney and salsey. A video of a live human being who testifies on behalf of a product provides a more valid visual for the viewer, giving him or her a live example of social proof that is much more believable or convincing.

Also, according to video marketing review recent statistics, the number one search engine Google loves video, and loves YouTube even more because more people are using YouTube as a primary search engine for information, so a lot of marketers have noticed that by posting videos on their page they have moved higher up in the search engines.

Another reason as to why video marketing has taken off has to do with how cost-effective it is. In the past video making was quite expensive because you had to include lights, sound and visual effects, cameras, a hair and make-up artist, and a lot of expensive editing.

Advertising companies have spent millions on making commercials and still do to some extent, but today you can make a video for your online business by just using your cellphone camera.

A cell phone camera? Yes, you can actually shoot your video coverage from an iPhone or a cell phone and it will come out acceptable for a 3-5 minute video that you can upload to YouTube and YouMogul absolutely free of charge.

Can any marketer do it?

Sure. Online marketers can get the very most out of using video marketing as long as they can be creative in their visual delivery and are good at using effective titles and keywords to attach to their videos. With the use of social network marketing, posting videos to go viral can reach millions of social network users all around the globe.

These are all reasons as to why the new video marketing review holds is holding its own concerning delivering more traffic and higher SEO rankings, making online marketers everywhere take heed to the powerful and effective video medium of marketing.

Step Up To Success

Sometimes it is better to just get on with doing something rather than thinking and planning for too long.

Philip Humbert makes an interesting evaluation of the race for the South Pole by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott (Scott of the Antartic).

Scott spent days in planning and preparation for the trip whilst Amundsen set off quickly with far less preparation. Not only did Amundsen get to the South Pole first. He arrived back safely.

Scott reached the pole second and was hit by cold weather on his way back. He and his brave band of heroes died eleven miles from their home base. If Scott had set off earlier he might have missed the cold weather on the way back.

Another key factor was Amundsen's reliance on dogs for pulling his sledges; Scott did not use dogs.

I do not entirely agree with Philip Humbert's assessment since Amundsen had already done his preparation some time before his assault on the South Pole. On his successful trip to find the North West passage through the Arctic seas north of Canada some years before, he had spent over a year living with the Inuit.

They showed him important tips like how to coat the runners of his sledges with ice so that they would slide easily over the snow and help the dogs to make fast progress.

He learned on the job and not by reading and planning from a distance and he did prepare in the best way possible in the type of freezing cold environment he would later face in the Antarctic. He did his planning and preparation by learning from the experts who actually lived in a freezing environment.

However, planning and preparing for too long can allow negative thoughts to creep in. And negativity can kill off any project. Amundsen's crew were not at all happy with their long stay in Arctic conditions while Amundsen learned from the Inuit.

Sometimes action is king. You can always learn as you take action and create your own mistakes and successes. Eva Young sums up this point cleverly:

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."

Another succinct comment on the same point comes from a minister called Vance Havner:

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - We must step up the stairs."

If we spend too much time thinking about our potential we may never turn that potential into reality. Fear often makes us pause and cogitate for too long before taking action.

Michael Dell of Dell computers puts his success down to the fact that he was not afraid of making mistakes.

He did not wait for perfection before he took action to produce and sell his computers. He took far more action than most people and made more mistakes than most but he learned from the mistakes and corrected things as he went along.

If we are following a how to do it manual, it is probably better to read a bit and then put that bit into action before going on to the next bit. Few people can read a manual straight through and, if they do, become so bored or overwhelmed with information that they lose their focus and enthusiasm for implementing it.

In life we can both think and do. Most of us spend too much time thinking instead of doing.

Instead of thinking too much, let's do some preparation and planning and then just get going and take action. We need to step up the ladder to success and not just look at it.