Internet + Work = Procrastination? Wrong! Let’s do the math: 10 web tools that give pep to your productivity!

Start off right with iGoogle - Creating the gateway to your online life is easy. With the hundreds of “gadgets” in iGoogle, on the same page, you can see your Facebook account, your email, your RSS feed, your activity on Twitter, a notebook, a Wikipedia search box… whatever you want! Make iGoogle your Internet browser homepage and, in one click, you’ll be looking at what matters to you.

Manage your projects with Basecamp - Basecamp is the ideal tool for those who want to assemble a team around a project. Online, members can delegate responsibilities, create task lists, exchange ideas or maintain a schedule. Project information is stored on the Internet and, therefore, accessible from anywhere. Say goodbye to lost documents and forgotten E-mails. A free service (with limited functionality) is available. To enjoy all the functions, however, the charge is between $25 and $150 a month.

Store your ideas with Evernote - It’s Post-It Notes for the Web! Evernote allows you to store and organize your ideas or various notes. Put in anything that crosses your mind … and that you do not want to forget. A great advantage: no need to be at your computer to add a new note. You can send it to Evernote by voicemail, E-mail or a photo taken with your cell phone, iPhone or Blackberry. The service also integrates with iGoogle.

Maintain contacts with Plaxo - An online Rolodex adopted by more than 40 million Internet users. Plaxo offers a secure place to store all of your contacts. The stored information will synchronize with Outlook or your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) running under Windows Mobile. Recently, the site has evolved into a social network similar to Facebook.

Never forget with Remember The Milk - The darling of the online Task managers. It is disarmingly easy-to-use and we especially love its capacity to integrate with popular Internet services. Because of this, Remember The Milk allows you to receive your urgent tasks by E-mail, instant messaging, on an RSS feed, Twitter, iGoogle…

Documentation with Zotero - A research to prepare? Invented by an American university, this extension, designed for the Firefox Web browser, [firefox.org] allows you to collect, classify, annotate and cite different sources (Web pages, newspaper articles, PDF or Word documents, images, etc). A must for those who want to tame the flood of information everywhere!

Be productive with Twitter - Can we marry Twitter and productivity? Absolutely. Several applications make it a really effective tool for the famous “microblogging”. GroupTweet [www.grouptweet.com] allows you to broadcast messages to a restricted group; a good way to stay in direct contact with colleagues. TwTask [www.twtask.com] turns Twitter into a Task Manager and Filttr [www.filttr.com] sorts through the “tweets” that interest you most.

Network with LinkedIn - It is often said that networking is the key to achieving one’s goals. On LinkedIn, you’ll be well-connected… This Facebook for professionals allows you to post your resume and get in touch with people - managers of an organization, for example - to whom you wish to submit your projects or offer your services.

Discover the idea of the century with Bubbl.us - To keep track of your thoughts and free up room for that award-winning idea, or to simply bring order to all that mental chaos, there is nothing better than a good outline! This online tool allows you to “brainstorm” using titles, bubbles and arrows. You can save, print, email your brainstorming page or share it with colleagues or friends.

Schedule appointments with Meetways - Where should we meet? Just enter your address, the address of the person you are meeting and the chosen venue (coffee shop, restaurant) and Meetways will make suggestions, on a map, of halfway points where the meeting can take place. Practical and fun.

What better way to celebrate the month of November, than by growing out your mustache to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer.

To give you some motivation and inspiration, here are some of our favourite Mo Bro’s…

Please click the link to view mo-bros.pdf

Word is the economy is not doing so hot. That can mean that even if you’ve been with the company for a while, you’re not necessarily going to be there tomorrow. Of course, your company doesn’t have to be on the brink of implosion for you to start taking steps to make yourself essential.

“Bulletproof Your Job,” a new book by workplace guru Stephen Viscusi provides some strategies that might help you stay on the corporate ladder while everyone else is falling off.

Be Visible: Make sure your superiors see you and notice the work that you’re doing — even if it’s all conveying the “perception” that you’re extremely committed, energized and productive. This includes the old truism of arriving at work early and staying late; dressing up and looking professional (though not gaudy) at the office; paying attention to details; and volunteering to lead projects. Viscusi says to make sure you publicize your accomplishments and to be as rah-rah as you can muster when representing the company or talking to others.

Be Easy: Viscusi points out, rightly, that bosses will keep in mind who the whiners and complainers on staff are when they do the firing. If there’s an opportunity to rid the office of some negative energy, many bosses will take it. So leave your problems at home, don’t mouth off, don’t behave like an ass and don’t talk smack about your co-workers. Everything you do in the office is helping to create a perception of you, so you want to make sure that you are perceived as someone who is positive, upbeat and dependable; not the person who is always making things unpleasant.

Be Useful: Part of being a model employee is being helpful to others. You want to show that you’re not only essential in the work you do yourself, but that you’re also helping to promote the work of others. Viscusi says that this includes being a mentor and helping to train others; being specialized enough that you’re needed for specific tasks, but also having the flexibility to do other stuff when you’re asked to; taking responsibilities on and coming up with new initiatives; and working hard to do whatever you can to add value to the company.

Be Ready: Stuff happens, and you need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, so don’t stop thinking about the long-term viability of your career, even when your job seems to be secure. Viscusi says it’s important to make sure you’ve got some money in the bank to hedge against an unexpected job loss; keep your resume up-to-date; get to know a good recruiter and keep yourself on the back burner of their mind; know what’s going on in your industry and be aware of when there may be an opportunity elsewhere; and keep trying to learn new skills.

A lemonade stand run by twins in North Carolina has been dubbed the best in the country by Inc. magazine. The “Lemon Sharks Lemonade” stand is inspired by Jimmy Buffet, and the boys have donated $200 of their earnings to a local museum’s shark program.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has announced plans to partner with Calgary’s SkyHook International to develop a helicopter that can carry twice the maximum load of the Mil Mi-26, currently the world’s largest helicopter.
          
Technically referred to as a vertical-takeoff-and-landing rotorcraft, the Jess Heavy Lifter (aka JHL-40) will be a helicopter-airship hybrid featuring a helium-filled balloon and four helicopter-style rotors.The aircraft has been designed to overcome the limitations and expense of transporting equipment and materials in remote locations like the Arctic and Alaska.Although the JHL-40 is 302 feet long, 217 feet wide and 118 feet high, Boeing representatives were unable to say whether it would be able to lift the Ci office to 323-10th Avenue SW.

When you work in advertising you sit at a lot of conference room tables. But what do these tables say about the organization in question? According to Ruth Haag, president and CEO of a hazardous-waste consulting firm, the tables say a great deal.

• A round table hampers decisions.

• A long, thin table encourages cliques.

• Face-to-face at a distance encourages rudeness.

• The basic solution: A rectangular table about five-feet wide.

• The perfect solution: A one-ended rectangular table.

Over the past several years it seems likes print making has had a real surge in popularity, at least if the number of art and design students dipping their toes in the water seems to be any indication. You may be familiar with most of the common methods (screenprinting, woodblock, etching, intaglio, etc.) until just now, who would have thought of steamroll printing.

All the basics pretty much remain the same: get some wood, linoleum or other material, make an impression on the plate, grab some ink and paper and apply pressure. One would think the plates would break but it looks like blankets seem to prevent this from happening.