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Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Happy November from Peanuts

Happy November from Peanuts 


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Five More Minutes !


While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground. "That's my son over there," she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.

"He's a fine looking boy" the man said. "That's my son on the swing in the blue sweater." Then, looking at his watch, he called to his son. "What do you say we go, Todd?" Todd pleaded, "Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes."

The man nodded and Todd continued to swing to his heart's content. Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his son. "Time to go now?" Again Todd pleaded, "Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes." The man smiled and said, "O.K."

"My, you certainly are a patient father," the woman responded.

The man smiled and then said, "My older son Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I'd give anything for just five more minutes with him. I've vowed not to make the same mistake with Todd. He thinks he has five more minutes to swing. The truth is, I get Five more minutes to watch him play."

Life is all about making priorities, what are your priorities? Give someone you love 5 more minutes of your time today.
Author unknown

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

8 Weird But Effective Strategies for Saving your Time


Got a minute? No, you say?

You need not be a superhero to effectively manage your time at the office. You just need some simple solutions that will allow you to maximize your efficiency. Here are eight weird but effective strategies for managing your time even when you work in a busy office with lots of people who are magnetized to you like moths to light.

1. Stand up.
If someone comes into my office while I’m feverishly trying to get work done, I stand up. I will absolutely engage in conversation, but it’s going to be a short one. When you go from sitting to standing, it sends a message that you are on a schedule. It is my experience that when the other party receives the message, they keep their questions, comments or idea sharing short.

2. Don’t have chairs.
I will admit, I don’t practice this, but I have a business associate who does and he swears by it. He has no guest chairs in his office. He says that the problem with chairs is that people come and sit in them and they chat. No chairs, no chat.

3. Share lunch.
Sometimes your co-workers, employees and staff just want to get to know you. That’s why if I am in the office working during lunch, I’ll have lunch with them so that get the opportunity to chat about fun stuff without losing valuable work time.

4. Set parameters.
If I am busy working in the office and someone asks me if I’ve got a minute, I’ll tell them yes and I’ll tell them how many minutes I’ve got.

“Sure, I’ve got about five minutes but then I need to get back to this project.”

At about the five-minute mark, I will start looking at the clock to signal that their time is nearly over. If I can’t answer the question or offer the needed assistance in that time, I’ll ask if we can schedule a longer meeting later in the day.

5. Know when to take calls.
This seems like a no-brainer. I never take an unsolicited call from a number that I don’t recognize, ever. People can leave messages and I will choose to call back if I am interested. If I am unsure as to whether I’m interested in taking the call, I will likely have an assistant call the person back to get more information with regards to the nature of the call.

It’s important to note here that an unwanted call can also come in handy at times. If you have someone taking up too much time and you are lucky enough to get an unexpected call during that time, take the call while saying to your guest, “I’ll reach out to you later, I need to take this call.”

6. Control dings, beeps and bops.
When I am working in the office, I set a limit on checking my email to every half hour. Important too, I make sure the volume is off on my computer and my phone. The dings, beeps and bops from email and social media are maddening. If my Facebook or Twitter beeps, I have to check it — I must keep the sound off so I can get work done in between emails.

7. Keep a power hour.
There are times when I simply cannot be disturbed. In those instances, I’ll do what every good hotel allows you to do when you want quiet time and hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. I have found it even more effective to make sure that I explain why on the sign, otherwise you will still get people who cross the line.

For example, my sign might read, “Do Not Disturb — Webinar in Process.” The sign coupled with the reason for it has been most effective.

8. Scrap the glass door.
There was a time long, long ago, when I had a glass door to my office. Big mistake! A glass door is like working in a fish tank and even when the door is shut, people wave you down and make bizarre hand gestures while trying to determine if you can talk. Get rid of the glass door in favor of one that offers full privacy for those times when you need to be super efficient.

STACEY ALCORN

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

You can tell you've had too much of the 90s when...


You can tell you've had too much of the 90s when...


  1. You try to enter your password on the microwave.
  2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
  3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
  4. You e-mail your work colleague at the desk next to you to ask, "Wanna go for a drink?" and they reply, "Yeah, give me five minutes."
  5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from South America, but you haven't spoken to your next door neighbor yet this year.
  6. You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date.
  7. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have e-mail addresses.
  8. You consider Post (Mail) painfully slow and call it "snailmail."
  9. Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes.
  10. You hear all good jokes via email instead of in person.
  11. When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone with your company's name.
  12. When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
  13. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
  14. Your company welcome sign is attached with Velcro.
  15. Your resume is on a diskette in your pocket.
  16. You really get excited about a 1.7% pay rise.
  17. Your biggest loss from a system crash is that you lose all your best jokes.
  18. Temps in your department outnumber permanent staff and are more likely to get long-service awards.
  19. Board members salaries are higher than all the Third World countries annual budgets combined.
  20. It's dark when you drive to and from work.
  21. Free food left over from meetings is your staple diet.
  22. The intern gets a brand-new state-of-the-art laptop with all the features, while you have time to go for lunch while yours powers up.
  23. Being sick is defined as 'you can't walk' or 'you're in the hospital.'
  24. You're already late on the assignment you just got.
  25. There's no money in the budget for the five permanent staff your department is short, but they can afford four full-time management consultants advising your boss's boss on strategy.
  26. Your boss's favorite lines are: When you've got a few minutes...Could you fit this in? In your spare time...when you're freed up...I know you're busy but...I have an opportunity for you.
  27. Every week another brown collection envelope comes around because someone you didn't even know had started is leaving.
  28. You wonder who's going to be left to put into your 'leaving' collection.
  29. Your relatives and family describe your job as "works with computers."
  30. The only reason you recognize your kids is because their pictures are on your desk.
  31. You only have makeup for fluorescent lighting.
  32. You've run out of family member's birthdays to use for all of the ATM and banking PINs, email passwords, computer codes, and voicemail IDs you need to remember.
  33. You read this entire list, kept nodding and smiling.
  34. As you read this list, you thought about forwarding it to your "friends you send jokes to" e-mail group.
  35. It crosses your mind that your jokes group may have seen this list already, but you can't be bothered to check so you forward it anyway.


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tick Tock: A Brief History of Clocks



Throughout the millenniums various groups of people have developed ways in which to record time. The Sumerians and Egyptians used Sundials, although telling time during the night was somewhat difficult. In order to keep track of time when no sunlight was available, waterclocks were developed in Greece. The clock as we visualize it today evolved in the Far East and Europe from approximately 100 - 1600 AD.

Early inventors struggled with the dilemma of finding a reliable power source as sun, water, and sand can be somewhat undependable. The power source “turns a wheel and a system of gears that move the hands of the clock and are controlled by an arresting mechanism called an escapement, which allows the teeth of one of the gears to ‘escape’ one by one.” (trollvalley.com) A major breakthrough came in 1500/1510 when Peter Henlein developed “spring power.” This was followed by Christian Huygens’ pendulum clock in 1656, although Galileo is credited with the original design. Huygens again advanced the clock’s evolution by inventing a balance wheel and spring assembly, similar to what we use in wrist watches today.

The size of timepieces has changed radically over the years. Many early clocks were large due to the need to encase large group(s) of mechanisms. Finally Peter Henlein’s development of a ‘spring powered’ clock allowed for a reduction in the size of the clock. ‘Spring powered’ clocks could be made mantle or table size. In fact, Henlein went so far as to develop the first portable watch; it was six inches high. The development of the long pendulum ushered in a new era, not only in timepieces but in furniture. To house and protect this long pendulum and its mechanism required a tall case. Why shouldn’t that case be reflective of current furniture styles?

Time Line of Clocks

c. 3500 BC
“Shadow” clocks or Sundials first appear.
c.325 BC
Waterclocks are invented.
100 - 1300
Clocks evolve in Far East & Europe
1088 Complex mechanism using water driven power source first used.
1500 - 1510Spring powered mechanism designed
1505
Peter Henlein designs first portable timepiece.
1577
Minute hand mechanism designed.
1582
Design for long pendulum invented.
1656
Development of long pendulum clock .
1657
Christian Huygens invents balance wheel & spring assembly (as used in wristwatches today).
1660
Longcase or tallcase clocks become popular.
1660 - 1730
“Golden age” of clock making.
1671
Anchor or “recoil” escapement invented.
c. 1685
Tall case clocks imported to American Colonies.
c. 1695
First tall case clocks constructed in American Colonies.
1721
New design to improve accuracy developed.
1880
Term “grandfather’s clock” becomes popular based on a song Grandfather’s Clock that was popular in England and America.
The “golden age of development” (Edwin) of English tall case clocks was from 1660 to 1730. The first of the tall case clocks was made for kings, queens, and nobles. Early clocks were constructed using the popular classical proportions of the day. These clocks were characterized by a narrow pendulum cabinet and a portico type bonnet. Eventually cabinet and clock makers developed ways to bring down the cost of these tall case clocks making them more widely affordable and thereby developing a greater demand for tall case clocks.

Early American tall case clock construction was based on the English tradition. Having no trained clockmakers in the colonies, the first tall case clocks were imported from England. Eventually only the mechanisms of the clocks were imported for ease in shipment, requiring a craftsman for assembly. The first clocks made in the American colonies were copies of those being made for the English market in the “then popular Baroque style.” New York, New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia were colonial clockmaking centers. Benjamin Chandlee from Philadelphia developed a case under seven feet in height for colonial homes which often had lower ceilings. (Johnson)

Each early American-made clock was constructed using hand tools and took months of work. Machinery that might have aided colonial production was “prohibited by law from being exported to the colonies” (Johnson). Therefore, tall case clocks were found in the most well to do homes in the colonies and would have been a symbol of one’s socio-economic status within the community.

John and Elizabeth Chads were well-to-do Chester Countians. John oversaw several businesses and owned a quantity of land. Elizabeth came from a family equally well established. The architecture of their house and, I’m sure, its furnishings were symbols of their success and position within early Chadds Ford society. While we are far from determining if our “new” clock was, in fact, John and Elizabeth’s, those who have seen it can attest that it looks right at home in its surroundings.

By Elizabeth Rump
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