Work

11 Easy Ways to Save Money at Work

We go to work to make money but quite often we spend a lot of that hard earned money while we are working! We pay for transport, parking, lunches an more. In this post I am going to show you the best ways to save money at work.

1. Ride a bike
Riding a bike to work is one of the best ways to save money, keep fit and look good. If your office is under 30 minutes away from your home riding to and from work will save you a lot of money over the years. Gas prices are getting higher and higher but you must also consider the costs of health care that you might avoid by keeping fit.

2. Catch the bus
If you don’t want to ride to work the next best option is to catch the bus. This is a better option for a lot of people as it keeps you out of the weather and saves a bit of time. Again, catching the bus will save you money as well as having many other benefits such as helping to reduce green house gas emissions.

3. Get your car serviced and wheels aligned
If you really don’t want to ride or catch the bus it is important to keep your car well maintained. Having your wheels well aligned is particularly important. Poorly aligned wheels create a lot of resistance and make your car a lot less fuel efficient.

4. Fill up on fuel ahead of time
If you wait until your car is nearly empty to fill up you run the risk of paying more for petrol. Whatever the oil companies might say there are cheap days and expensive days. In Australia the petrol price goes up 10 to 15 cents on Wednesday morning for no good reason. If you leave it until then to fill up you are spending more than you need to. Watch your petrol stations price activity for a few weeks and ear mark the days that are more affordable.

5. Buy a yearly parking pass
If you pay for parking everyday you are losing a lot of cash. Almost every parking station in the world offer annual memberships which discount your parking by a massive percentage. If your closest car park doesn’t offer an annual fee service don’t be afraid to ask for one. You will be surprised how often you can strike a deal.

6. Ask a nearby building for a car park deal
Nearby office blocks with their own internal car parking are a sneaky way to save some parking dollars. Quite often these car parks are underutilized and the owners will jump at the opportunity to take a years worth of parking money from you. I know several people in my fathers office who have struck a deal with the building next door and are saving hundreds of dollars a year.

7. Experiment with different routes
The shortest route in terms of distance is not always the fastest. Traffic jams, long lasting red lights, multitudes of pedestrians, etc. can all slow a route down. Experiment with different routes because a long one might save you a lot of time and petrol.

8. Pack your lunch
I know a lot of people who are against packing their lunch and taking it to work because they are afraid of looking like a school kid. I can understand this but there are a few ways around it.

One way is to tell people you are on a doctor ordered health diet in an attempt to get your cholesterol down. Or you might be trying to lose some weight. For some reason these reasons seem more acceptable than telling people you need to save a bit of money.

Packing your lunch doesn’t have to be a sandwich in a lunch box. You can bring in some gourmet vegetable soup in a thermos or the leftovers of last night’s vegetable curry. A lot of this home cooked stuff is better than the local eateries anyway.

9. Make your lunch at work
Recently Mrs. Daily Minder has started making her lunch at work. She heads down to the local market and buys a bunch of fresh produce. Some days she has a tuna and chili salad and other days a salad and chicken wrap. And she has saved a lot of money. This method takes a lot of discipline though. If you are anything like me you will just end up eating at the restaurant next to the market!

10. Don’t buy coffee
I used to buy one of two coffees per day. A coffee costs about $3 so two coffees will set you back $6 per day. That is $2190 per year. Think of what you can do with $2190. Upgrade your car, pay for some medical bills, put away some savings, etc. Why not make your coffee instead of buying them? Over time you will get pretty good at it and it will save you a few dollars a year.

11. Explore your tax options
There are a quite a few work related expenses that you can get back at tax time. For example, you might be able to get back a certain amount for clothes washing, petrol expense, mobile phone bills, etc. Make sure you find a couple income tax calculators handy or even better, talk to your accountant about this when June comes along.

Anyone got any more tips?

Originally posted on September 17, 2008 @ 5:06 am

9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day

photo credit: f_mafra

I use a computer to make my living. Many people do. Over the years I have found some pretty cool tips and tricks that make me a lot faster on the old PC or Mac. In this post I’ll show you how to save an hour a day by utilizing some tight computer hacks that will speed up the way you do things.

Note – These are simple hacks that anyone can use regardless of their level of computer knowledge.

Why use these hacks?

The purpose of giving you these time savings computer hacks is two fold:

i. To help you accomplish more work
Obviously, if you are faster at using the computer you will be able to get more work done. This could mean more money or perhaps even a promotion depending on how effective you are able to become.

ii. To give you more time for you
What is more important is that you will have more time for you. This means hobbies, family, meditation or whatever it is you need to accomplish but aren’t due to having too much work.

9 tight computer hacks to save you an hour a day

1. Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox has revolutionized internet browsing – if you aren’t already using it you are way behind. Forget the default Internet Explorer; Firefox is safer, more efficient and much more intuitive.

There are a myriad of reasons as to why Firefox is better than the old IE. Here are just a few of them:

Its safer:
Firefox does a much better job at blocking spyware from jumping on to your computer through your browser window.
Block pop ups:
Know those little pop ups that come along every time you visit a cheap site? Firefox, for the most part, kills these bad boys before they arise.
Remembers passwords:
And not in the way IE “does” it. It really remembers them. Very handy.
Extensions:
The major advantage of Firefox is all the wonderful plugins and extensions that you can use. These extensions are written by coders for specific reasons and often save you a lot of time. For example, I have an extension that allows me to edit a websites coding and see the changes in real time. Great for a web designer! Have a look at some of the extensions here.
Very intuitive:
Firefox seems natural. That was one of the first things that struck me about it. It is easy to use and feels like “home” in no time at all.

Download firefox from the link above and give it a test run. You can keep both IE and FF on your computer at the same time so if you don’t like it just uninstall it – no dramas.

2. Use the tab button
Instead of using the mouse to move the cursor to the next online box use the tab button.

For example, when you write your username and password details to access your email you can press tab to move down from the username bar to the password bar. This is a very basic tip that will save you a lot of time over the span of the day.

You can use this for more than use email boxes as well. The tab button will help you when filling out online forms, signing up for new accounts or entering in your internet banking information.

3. Learn all the hotkeys
A hotkey is a keyboard version of performing a task that you would normally do with a mouse. It is a shortcut. For example, if you are writing a document in Microsoft Word and you want to save it you can just press CTRL and ‘S’ instead of taking you hand off of the keyboard and on to the mouse and going File and then Save.

Both PCs and Macs have hundreds of different hot keys. Not only that, each program you use has a different set. Photoshop has a different set to Microsoft Word, Excel has a different set to Flash and so on. At first it might seem daunting to learn all of these hot keys. Its a lot to memorize. But the result is well worth it, you computer use speed will increase and increase.

So how do you learn these hot keys? Well the easiest way is to look in all the menus on your computer. For example, if you go to Microsoft Word and then run your mouse over the File, Edit, View, etc. menus you will see that next to each command there is a keyboard equivalent. Try to remember the common ones like save, copy, paste, etc. and gradually learn a few more everyday.

There is a great list of hotkey shortcuts here.

4. Use a free feed reader to read your favorite blogs and sites
Do you spend the first hour of your day visiting all you favorite websites and blogs to see if they have updated? If you do you are wasting time. A lot of time.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a super efficient way to read all of your favorite sites. Why? You don’t actually have to visit the site to read the updates.

RSS (or feed) works like this. Sign up for a free feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader and simply use the ‘Add Sites’ button to add all of your most loved websites. The feed reader will then check periodically whether or not those sites have updated and inform you when they do. You can then read that update in the feed reader window without ever having to visit the site.

This is a fantastic way to stay up to date. Imagine how much time you will save not having to go to 10 or 15 different websites everyday. And what’s more is you can use this technology on forums threads, blogs, facebook, etc. To find out more about how to read The Daily Mind in a feed reader check this out. [Read more…] about 9 Tight Computer Hacks to Save You an Hour a Day

Originally posted on September 9, 2008 @ 11:18 am

Lessons From India: Having a Purpose at Work

Guru Rinpoche Statue in Tso Pema

I am in India at the moment so there will be lots of posts coming soon in my “lessons from India” series. Make sure you subscribe to the feed so you catch them all!

Today is the birthday of the most important meditation master in Tibetan Buddhist history. His name is Guru Rinpoche and he is the Indian yogi who brought the teachings to Tibet from India where they stayed safe for over a thousand years.

His birthday is a special occasion for Buddhists; especially those in the town of Tso Pema where I am currently living. The reason for that is because Tso Pema was Guru Rinpoche’s last stop in India before he went into Tibet. There are over 10 caves in this town where he meditated and is said to have attained great realization. These caves are wonderful places to meditate and are very still and quiet.

To celebreate his birthday my three friends and I decided we would hike up the mountain to his caves. The hike takes about four hours and is extremely tough on the back and legs. It is well worth the trek, however, as the experience at the top is incredible. It was during this massive hike that I realized how important it is to have a purpose at work.

Having a Purpose at Work

Let me set the scene for you. It is 39 degrees celcius, pouring with monsoon rains and very sticky. The altitude is Himalayan; we are so high that it is difficult to get your breath back when you are puffed out. We walked the hill at a snail’s pace and we were still dripping with sweat and struggling to take each step.

But we made it because we had a purpose. We wanted to see Guru Rinpoche’s special caves on his birthday.

Having a purpose in the back of our minds made the difficult trek easier. Each step had a purpose and each hardship became part of something more meaningful. It was not hardship for the sake of hardship, it had a deeper purpose for us.

Half way up the hill it struck me how important this sense of purpose is for accomplishing difficult taks.

This is especially true for the workplace.

So the first lesson from India for you all is about finding your sense of purpose at work. Why do you go to work every morning? It can’t just be for the money. It has to be something deeper and more satisfying. Something that can keep you going when the times get tough.

If you have a good purpose you will find it easier to reach your goal, endure hardships and make it to the top. And then you will see a view like this…

The vew from the top of the mountain

Originally posted on July 12, 2008 @ 1:41 pm

How to Become the MVP at Your Work

Michael Jordan Slam Dunk

MVP is a sporting term that stands for Most Valuable Player. Every year one player in the league is awarded this title to acknowledge their skill, leadership qualities, outstanding sportsmanship and overall excellence in their area. It doesn’t always go to the player who scores the most goals or points. It is quite often the player who brings the team together, motivates them and forms a solid base for the point scores to work from. The MVP is reliable, innovative and above all he/she is respected.

I think that the workplace is a lot like a sporting team. You have to work together to get things done. Everyone has their own skillsets but without a good group of people around you your work is going to be much more difficult. In this post I want to show you how you can become the MVP at your work.

How to become the MVP at your work

Becoming the MVP is not an easy process. Micheal Jordan was awarded the MVP many times but it did not come overnight. It took years of training and hard work and dedication to the team. The same will be required of you. If you want to become your team’s most valuable player you will need to put in a lot of hard work and stay focussed.

Help others
The first thing the MVP does is take care of his team. They motivate and inspire people when they are down and they get thing moving when people are lacking energy. The MVP will also help other when they need it even if they have to put aside their own needs for a while.

If you want to be the MVP at work you should try and be there for other people. If they need some help with a task you should always have your door open so they can come in and ask questions without fear of being percieved as stupid. This does not mean be a pushover that everyone uses when they feel lazy. It is about helping people grow and become better.

Be level-headed
The MVP stays calm under pressure. You hardly ever see a great sportsperson lose their temper. Sure they fire themselves up but they will never let themselves get out of control.

An office MVP is also calm and level-headed. They stay cool when the deadlines are on and they do not yell at people when they are feeling the pressure.

When you can keep calm like this other people will come to rely on you. They will also learn from your example and develop calmness themselves. Hopefully, sooner or later your whole team will become level-headed players who are able to operate under extreme pressure. This is seen a lot in the army where the officers and commanders are trained to stay very cool. If they lose it their troops will also lose it soon enough.

Dress well
It might seem insignificant but the MVP’s around the work are always presented perfectly. They have neat haircuts, cleanly shaved faces and their clothes are sharp and fresh.

Dressing well conveys a sense of professionalism. When you dress well it shows people that you are ready to do business and you are 100% right for the job. What you wear on the outside quite often reflects how you are on the inside. A sloppy dresser will rarely do well at high powered meetings because he will not be percieved as organized and in-charge.

I find it quite amusing that we humans place so much importance on our clothes. It is very materialistic. However, this is the reality of the business world so it is important to make sure you look sharp and portray yourself as a professional person.

Refine your skills everyday
When other people were asleep in their warm bed Muhammad Ali was out on the street running at 4am. When they were getting ready for bed at 11pm he was doing a weights session. The MVP’s of history always seem to work harder than the rest. They are devoted to their art and they refine their skills every single day.

To become an MVP at work you have to be the best at what you do. You need to do it in such a way that shows you have gone above and beyond in your training. You need to know your subject matter top to bottom and have innovative ways of applying your skills. This is the true arena of the MVP.

Some effective methods of doing this include:

extra study
finding a mentor who is willing to show you new methods
taking risk and trying new things
travelling overseas to see how things are done there

This type of thing will help you refine your skills and teach you new ones. By doing this you will become a valuable member of your team because you will be able to teach people things. It is not about knowing more than them – it is about being able to help them grow into their full potential.

This is what MVPs do best.

Originally posted on July 4, 2008 @ 3:03 am

How to Stand Up to Your Boss (Without Losing Your Job)

Every few days I hear one of my friends tell me how much they hate their boss. They dread going in to work each day because they simply cannot stand him/her anymore. Having a happiness-sucking demon of a boss puts stress on every part of your life. In this post I want to show you how to stand up to your boss without losing your job.

[Read more…]

Originally posted on June 14, 2008 @ 1:29 am

How to Get Interested in Your Job Again

photo credit: purpleprimate

“When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.” – Eric Hoffer.

Over time we all seem to lose interest in our work. The first month on the job is characterised by good work ethic, motivation and friend making. But as one month fades into two we slowly start to get bored. After a year or two we wonder why we ever took the job in the first place. In this post I want to look at a few ways you can get interested in your job again.

1. Look at the jobs other people are working
One thing I like to do from time to time is take a look at some of the other jobs in the world. When you look at the jobs that other people are working you can inevitably find some interesting aspects about your own work. For example, if you work a desk job you might realize that it is much more interesting than being outside in the heat digging up roads and paving streets. Or, if you work outside you might realize that being out in the sun all day talking to your work mates (while you dig up that street) is more interesting than sitting behind a desk.

2. Study the history of your profession or firm
Sometimes it is really interesting to discover the lineage of your profession or firm. If you feel like you are a part of something bigger you quite often become more interested in it. This is why people follow sporting teams. Take a few minutes each week to look into how you firm got started, who started it and so on. You might find you have a really interesting history at your workplace.

3. Find new and interesting challenges

photo credit: ninkinanka

Mrs. Daily Minder remarked on her way to work this morning that she always finds work interesting when she gets new challenges. Even though they might be difficult or sometimes frustrating it is better than sitting at your desk all day doing the same thing over and over. If you find work is getting a little boring then perhaps ask your manager for some new challenges. They will be extremely impressed that you have asked this and, even though it means perhaps more work, it might mean you have a lot more interesting things to do.

4. Remember why you started
Most of us have some sort of positive motivation for starting the job we are at now. Some of us might have taken it because we needed more money to support our family. Some of us might have taken it because we thought we could help a lot of people. Some of us might have thought that the subject matter was really fascinating. But, as always, this motivation drifts away as time goes on and before we know it we are bored again.

If you can re-connect with that initial motivation you might be able to make your job more interesting again. Finding a lasting motivation for work is extremely important for your long term satisfaction. Sometimes when I don’t feel like writing an article for The Daily Mind I always remind myself that thousands of people encounter this blog and something I write might help one of them. This motivation always gets me going.

5. Make new friends
Whenever I listen to my friends talking about their work they are always at their happiest when they are talking about things they have done with their workmates. Making friends at work is one of the best ways to get interested again as these people will help you get through the workday – everyday. We are at work for eight hours a day, five days a week. If my maths is correct this means that we see our workmates even more than we see our own family! Try and make friends with the people around you at work and your day might become more interesting.

6. Get a new job
If you want to get interested in your job again and you really cannot get it happening at your current work then maybe you need to get a new job. Sometimes our work just doesn’t turn out like we hoped. It might be a collegue that we cannot connect with, an unreasonable boss or something to do with the work itself. If that is the case then getting a new job might be the only solution. Start looking in the papers and if you apply and get a new job then quit your old one and promise not to make the same mistakes at your new place of work.

Take a look at this interview on Guy Kawasaki’s blog about escaping corporate America. It has some really good points on how to get out of your job, how to know when to leave, how to find a better job and so on. Some of the tips are really handy for people who think that their job might be a dead end waste of time.

7. Ask the hard question
Would you be better off at a new job or would the same problems all pop up there as well? Like the opening quote of this post alludes to – is it you or the job that you are not interested in? This is a hard question to ask.

Conclusion
Staying interested in one job for many years is not an easy thing. Don’t just expect it to happen by itself – start putting in the work that will help you stay stimulated and interested when you might otherwise be bored out of your mind. If anyone has any other tips I would love to hear them.

Originally posted on June 11, 2008 @ 2:39 am