Office work is great for intellectual stimulation, but terrible for your mental health - you're so intensely focused on your work for hours at a time, you can really drive yourself crazy. Sometimes, there's no time to get up and take a walk or even get a cup of coffee, but you have to clear your head. Here are ten ways to take a break online without leaving your desk. Someday, you may need them! 1) Find yourself in a blog. Go to www.technorati.com and search on your own name, in quotation marks (like "Jane Doe") to see what bloggers are writing about you. Who knows what you'll read on your neighbor's blog, concerning the pile of leaves in your yard? You may be more well-known in the blogosphere than you think. 2) See what your job should be paying. Visit www.monster.com to check on jobs in your field, in your city and at about the same experience level that you possess - focusing on the salary range. Interesting, eh? 3) Create a quick survey for fun. Go to www.zoomerang.com and sign up for a free trial by composing and launching a survey to close friends of workmates. Ask them what they're working on right now, or ask them who's their favorite pro wrestler - ask whatever you want. It only takes a second to complete a typical, brief online survey, and you get the responses, tabulated, in an instant. Cool! 4) See your house in satellite view. Go to www.google.com, choose Maps, type in your street address, and choose 'satellite' view - it's really cool. You can even combine a traditional map with the satellite-view feature to see street names superimposed on the satellite perspective. You can waste hours checking out your neighborhood from above. 5) Get the skinny on those skinny actresses. Visit www.pinkisthenewblog.com to read hilarious analyses of the hottest stars' latest doings. This addictive blog has fans all over the world - souls brave enough to show their shallow side. 6) Learn a new joke. Slide by www.jokeoftheday.com to find a joke on any imaginable topic. Insert your favorite joke as a tagline in your next group email blast, demonstrating your wit and elan. If your office is typical, they could use a laugh. 7) Find yourself or a co-worker captured for eternity. Zip over to www.google.com, chose Images, and type in your own or a teammate's name. It's amazing how many company photos end up online for one reason or another - sometimes years after they were taken. You may spot yourself at a company holiday party from three years ago. Or you may find an unfortunate after-the-sales-meeting photo of your boss. Great blackmail material. 8) Get cosmic. Download iTunes (you don't even have to own an iPod) and listen to one of your favorite songs with the Visualizer feature turned on. (Find the Visualizer in the menu at the top of your screen.) Psychedelic! It's the sixties, all over again. 9) Check out your driving-home weather. Jump over to www.weather.com and type in your zip code to see what your evening commute weather will be like - or tomorrow morning, for that matter. You can get a five-day forecast, air quality, or the current wind-chill if you're the masochistic type. 10) Feel better about your face. Hit www.awfulplasticsurgery to see some really heinous examples of celebrity face-tugging and other atrocities. You'll gain a new appreciation for your own, un-sculpted (we're guessing) visage. Now, get back to work! |
