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Time management is essential for most busy executives. One of the first things workers need to help balance meetings, appointments and tasks is a calendar. Most cubicle areas have walls that allow for push-pin inserts. Find a calendar that suits your personality and cubicle "theme" and tack it your cubicle wall. You can also customize calendars with family photos or vacation pictures.
When seeking a calendar, keep in the mind the following:
Do you need dates only or do you need areas to write notes?
Do you need a work-week only calendar or a calendar that shows the weekends, too?
Do you need a calendar with months-ahead featured on the current month?
There are many varieties of calendars available for your workspace. Take time to consider your needs before purchasing.
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Add-ons for Bulletin Boards
Office Depot Tip: Bulletin boards make great accessories at home and at the office. Families use them to communicate and keep important information at their disposal; today people even decorate corkboards as memory boards for decoration at home. Bulletin boards are also important office accessories.
Bulletin boards are essential workstation or cubicle accessories. There are cork, dry erase and fabric boards available to choose from in various sizes. Some are enclosed with locks as well for display in more public areas.
When shopping for bulletin boards to have at your employee workstations or cubicles, consider using a combination bulletin board. There are models available that are half cork and half dry erase. This is a great tool for the average cubicle where the staff members wants both to pin up information as well as have a place to write notes or messages to one another. There are also thin cork borders available to install along the trim of an office partition wall where a thin border can allow employees to post notes or papers along the perimeter of the wall.
If you have a community bulletin board in your office or church, designate someone to keep the information current so people aren’t looking at old or outdated information.
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Holiday Cubicle Decoration Ideas
Okay, so you can't fit a 10 foot Christmas tree in your cubicle, but you'd at least like to have some sort of cubicle decoration for the holidays. Lucky for you, there are hundreds of ideas out there. Here are some tips to decorating your office cubicle for the holidays:
Hang holiday lights around the inside of your cube
Pickup a two foot plastic tree for hanging miniature decorations.
Throw a Santa hat on to the top of your computer monitor for decoration
Have a candy jar filled with holiday-colored candies
Hang a stocking on your cubicle wall
Hang drawings of dreidels, menorahs, trees and candles
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Personalized Office Signs to Boost Morale
Office Depot Tip: When you work in a large or unfamiliar office, finding your way around a big office or locating office machines can be difficult. The same can be said for offices that have regular guests or customer tours. Office signs labeling departments, employees, copy rooms, supply closets, and storage areas are a good idea. If the office is large, consider having office signs near the front of the office that tells new staff members and visitors how to find locations such as:
Board rooms or the lunch room
Photocopier and Faxing Stations
Departments
Individuals
Rest Rooms
Coffee Stations
Label common areas with signs that can be seen by anyone visiting. Empty sign holders can be purchased as well. These can be a great asset to your office as well as they can hold literature about your company, awards given to you, motivational posters for staff members and bulletins as well as sign holders with brochure pockets where you can place information about coming events or corporate value statements. Your outdoor office sign tells people where you are but signs inside your office can help them navigate more easily around your location.
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Mousepads Make Great Gifts
If you are in the market for a quick and affordable Holiday gift with lots of personality, try customizing a new mousepad for various members of your family. Here are a few suggestions for personalized mouse pads:
Add a photo of the entire family
Customize a mousepad with a favorite sports team
Order a college alumnae mousepad
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Mousepads Make Great Gifts
A gift certificate or gift card to buy office supplies could make a fantastic holiday gift for numerous people on your list, because it covers needs from pens and pencils to new office furniture. At Christmas, birthdays or for special occasions, a gift card is a great gift to give to:
A recent high school graduate who is planning to go off to college or university. Students need every bit of help they can get paying for their education and an office supplies store gift card can help them when they go off to school with a very tight budget and a long list of needs to help them be an effective student.
A teacher would always benefit from a gift card for an office supply store. Teachers often have really small classroom budgets to work with and many have been known to buy office supplies out of their own pockets to help their class complete projects with the right supplies. As a Christmas gift or end of the year Thank You, your teacher would really benefit from a gift card to help them
The person with a home office needs supplies! Many people are telecommuting today and office supplies are always needed for someone who works at home. Office supplies can help them be more successful at their business and many home business owners start off with small budgets and a gift card in a congratulatory note for string off a new business would be a thoughtful gesture.
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Choosing the Right Picture Frames for Your Workstation
Boring two dimensional frames don't say much about the person inhabiting the cubicle. Look for deals and you may be able to pick up a nice three dimensional frame or better yet, you could get an electronic frame that swaps out photos every few minutes.
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Dry Erase Boards and Their Markers
Office Depot Tip: Dry erase boards don’t have to just be for the office. Families can utilize these too. These boards are available in various sizes and styles. Dry erase boards or whiteboards are as washable as a chalk board but without the dust. These are easily cleanable as you use special erasable markers for them. A large dry erase board in the kitchen or a common area of the home such as by the telephone or in your den, can be left for notes, family chores, telephone messages , household information and reminders. They can also be used to set up weekly calendars.
If you want to get really organized, you can also use a small dry erase board on the back of everyone’s bedroom door can house things like telephone messages, reminders and chores.
Of course dry erase boards are now considered practically essential in any office. A dry erase board is much friendlier to the environment and to your office supply budget than a paper flip chart that always needs refills and so a dry erase board is now found at the heart of just about every boardroom or breakout room in an office.
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Personalized Office Signs to Boost Morale
Adding office signs outside cubicles, such as engraved name plates, awards and recognition plaques are a great way to boost employee morale. In today's busy workplace, having a personalized sign of recognition shows that the employee is valued. Moral boosting perks like personalizing an employee cubicle can help rejuvenate long-term ambitions and subside ideas of seeking outside opportunities.
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Choosing the Right Office Mats
Office Depot Tip: Office mats are used for a variety of reasons.
They need to be used in your entrance ways for wet or slippery floors to prevent falls by employees, guests and delivery personnel. They also give your employees a place to wipe their feet. In winter, consider having an extra mat somewhere for overshoes or boots. You can even order mats with logos on them and hire a cleaning service to keep them fresh and clean throughout the wet seasons
Office mats are also used under employee’s chairs to prevent damage from chair casters to carpet or floors. Office mats can be made from fabric or vinyl or even hardwood to help protect whatever floor is underneath the employee
Employees also find having an office mat under their chair useful in reducing back and neck strain from moving their chair around their cubicle when doing repetitive tasks. Employees constantly wheel around the area at their desk or workstation and a smoother surface requires less effort
Some office mats are anti-static which prevent shocks and can be important for anyone who is repairing a computer
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Add-ons for Bulletin Boards
Bulletin boards are a great way to post valuable company or department information and share event news. But some bulletin boards are simply loaded with clutter.
Add-ons are a great way to break up the clutter of overloaded bulletin boards. Add On Boards include an Easy Mounting hanging system for easy/accurate installation, attached marker tray and Quick Clips to simply slide items under the clip. Other add-ons can be custom designed such as character pin-ups, surveys, sign-up sheets, and possibly a flip album from the last employee event.
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Dry Erase Boards and Their Markers
Remember that Dry Erase boards only work with dry erase markers. If you attempt to use a normal (non-dry erase) marker, you'll find your reminder note is a permanent one. Stick to dry erase markers made by companies such as Expo and Marks-A-Lot who have both been in the marker business for years.
Most Dry Erase boards come with markers and a cleaning solution in the same package. Take special care to use the markers that come with the board to ensure you don't leave permanent stains on the board.
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Choosing the Right Office Mats
There are a variety of office mats available. It's important to know the difference before you purchase them from an office supply store.
Indoor Office Mats should be super absorbent, have an eye-friendly color or pattern, raised rubber areas, have a heavy rubber backing and should be considered "all weather".
Outdoor Mats typically have an extra tough grit surface. The heavy recycled rubber backing keeps outdoor mats in place.
Anti-Fatigue Mats are typically more industrial and offer up to half an inch or more of cushioning.
Anti-Static Mats are designed to protect sensitive equipment by quickly drawing the static off workers before they touch susceptible chemicals or apparatus.
Kitchen and Rubber Mats are made specifically for traction and should be grease proof.
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Webcams and the Work Environment
If you need to be in video teleconferences with other webcam users then you shouldn't have a problem getting authorization to have your own webcam at your desk. Use caution however, as one inappropriate video conference could cost you your job.
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Feng Shui in the Cube
Before diving into your cubicle redesign, remember that other people will see your workspace. Keep in mind that organization design changes frequently and you may be asked to relocate to a different cubicle.
However, with the Feng Shui design in homes, many employees are also bringing the Feng Shui design to their cubicle space.
Feng Shui is known to add a calming atmosphere to your workspace and bring certain elements to the area which help promote productivity and creativty, among other things. This could include plants, fountains, and soft lamps.
There are many books on the market that offer Feng Shui decorating guidelines for the cubicle or office. After planning your Feng Shui cubicle design, check your local office supply store or go online to buy supplies and accessories that will enhance your Feng Shui design.
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