If you have ever worked an office job, you know that life can get boring and repetitive at times. You can be locked up for hours in your cubical leaving a butt imprint that lasts the life of that chair. Sometimes it gets hard to move around and keep your blood flowing, and sometimes it gets hard holding on to your sanity as you stare endlessly into whatever document or program you are working on. Hopefully you don’t have a job that blocks access to most every entertaining Website. Either way, hopefully I can provide you with plenty of ideas on how to make time pass by and help you enjoy your workday more. Suggestions are welcome.
Play Computer Games
Have playtime! Take some time to play some games. If you are lucky and your job did not take your games away, you can play some Minesweeper or Solitaire. Otherwise, Yahoo (http://games.yahoo.com/) has plenty of games like Spades, Pool, Scrabble among others.
Manual Games
Play simple games like Rock, Paper, Scissors or Tic-Tac-Toe. Maybe play some sudoku or crossword puzzles.
Gain Useless Knowledge
Play on any of the Wiki sites. Choose a random person or word and start searching for it on Wikipedia. Also try Wikiquote, Wikispecies, Wikibooks, or the Wikimedia Commons. There is so much information on the Wiki pages that you can learn about anything. Sometimes I listen for keywords or questions from coworkers, and I immediately look them up and act like I had knowledge on that subject.
Instant Messenger
Most of the time your favorite chat software is blocked at work. However, if you can access your Gmail or Yahoo Mail, you can load the chats right through your email window. Through Gmail you can even sign into your AIM. You can always pass time when you can talk to your friends, family, or coworkers on the other side of the office.
Bucket List
Take the time to write up a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.” How many years could you have left to do everything you have ever wanted to do? Time is running out. Write out your list and then take the time to plan out how you will tackle the items on your list.
Everyone is on Facebook and MySpace, and it’s a shame they can be blocked in your office. Try a different site. See how many of your friends and coworkers you can find on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/).
Fantasy Sports
Start betting pools with fantasy sports. Bet on games or how a team does for a season.
Random Acts
Stupid or not, perform some random acts that grab your coworkers attention. Be careful not to interrupt too many while they are working really hard, but everyone can use a little mind break from their work so why not let it be you to cause it? Some examples are sudden outbursts, talking to yourself, laughing for no reason, banging on your desk, or walking up and slapping someone on the back really hard.
The High Five
Bring back the high five! A favorite pastime of many. Create super, complex high fives that would even make gangs jealous. Either create one for your department or team, or for your best office friend that is only unique to you two.
Sports
Bring in a small Nerf ball to kick around and dribble through the office. Another idea is to set up some Putt-Putt around the office. As long as you aren’t terrible, practicing your putting can be a relaxing break from work.
Fresh Air
This can go two ways. Either take a smoke break as much as possible, or take a break and go for a walk around the building or local business community you work at. Nothing more refreshing than some fresh air when you are stuck inside all day.
YouTube
Bring up YouTube and search for random videos to watch. Find some of your favorite TV shows, stupid pet tricks, or even go to my favorite and that is FAILBlog.org’s personal YouTube channel of mankind’s failures.
Exercise
Find an empty room or just go to the break room and start ding sit-ups and push-ups. Or you can walk up some steps, or do squats and lunges without weights, do dips in your chair, or try some butt squeezes. That is your own butt, not your coworkers.
Start a Going Problem
Create a fictitious illness that requires frequent bathroom visits. Maybe you caught a butt flu or had some bad hot dogs, but this form of entertainment is desperation to find any excuse to get out of the office.
Create an Alter Ego
Don’t tell anyone about, but see if they can figure it out. Pretend you are a CIA agent or cop, and your coworkers are evil villains. Good ol’ cops and robbers. Or maybe pretend you are on a reality show and everyone is watching you.
Friends
Start talking with coworkers to decide which Friends character each of your team would be. Hopefully you have an even number of guys and girls. Otherwise, pick other shows and have a crack at it.
Drink
Pretend the water cooler is beer and see how many cups of water you can chug in a minute.
Music
Either listen to music or create your own. Start singing at the top of your lungs, or dance around the office. People may stop and stare, but generally you are sure to pull a good laugh. It works for me. You may even want to take up playing the desk drums.
Stupid Human Pet Tricks
Try balancing a spoon on your nose, shoot waste into the trashcan, see how many pages the shredder will shred without getting stuck, spin around as fast as you can in your office chair, learn to juggle.
Talk
Find an equally bored employee and debate ways to look like you are working while not really doing any work. Go back to the water cooler with your office buddies and start some Water Cooler Rumors. They don’t have to be true, but be careful you don’t target anyone who would be offended.
Start a Blog Post!
Hmmmm, maybe that is why I started one. If you are like me and always have a lot on your mind, start a blog and write about your thoughts for strangers to read online, including a blog on office job entertainment.
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