So I was sitting in the office waiting for a report to be processed and I went on the Interweb and saw this article (CNET.com: Extreme office time-wasters) about the Top 10 extreme office time-wasters. Curious, I checked my report and it saw that it was still churning along so I continued on with the article. I found myself guilty of many of these time-wasters, at one time or another. In no particular order, here is their Top 10 list.

1. Instant messengers – My IM of choice is MSN Messenger, although I hardly use it these days. My previous place of employment blocked the use of MSN Messenger so we’d have to use Meebo, Web Messenger, or some other method but it’s not my time-waster of choice.
2. Social networks – For me, the only social networking sites I’m on are Facebook and LinkedIn. I joined LinkedIn when I was without a job at the beginning of the year. But I quickly found a job and I don’t use LinkedIn now. In the first couple of months when I first joined facebook, I frequented it a lot but nowadays, I go days on end without logging in because I don’t really have a need for it anymore. I don’t check at work and I hardly check at home, either. Maybe I need more friends.
3. Newsreaders – Now this I can attest to. The first thing I do in the morning when I get into the office is settle down, get my coffee, and load up Google Reader. Newsreaders are awesome because I don’t have to go visit individual sites to see what’s new and I don’t have to ask myself whether I’ve read this article or that post already. In reality, I only spend about 30 minutes a day total catching up on Google Reader (and that’s usually when I’m stuck in a work-related wait).
4. YouTube – Nope, not at work. I assume it uses a lot of bandwidth so that’s an IT flag. Plus, you typically need the sound with the video and most offices don’t tolerate loud noises coming from computers. The only time I go to YouTube is if someone sends me a link to view. I’d never go to YouTube without a purpose.
5. PC and online games – Playing games at work? Are you kidding me? Maybe if you work at EA or something. I don’t think work computers even have the default games installed on them (at least not for the companies I’ve worked for). Besides, I love me some PS3.
6. E.mail – My primary e.mail account is at Hotmail and my previous employer blocked access to Hotmail. That totally sucked (not just for me but a lot of people). We had some IT-inclined co-workers that found backdoors via proxies but IT caught on pretty quick once more and more people went that route. My current place of employee doesn’t seem to have any firewalls blocking wbsites (like Hotmail or Facebook). I guess they trust their employees to be adults and not abuse the system. I check Hotmail three times a day: morning, lunch, and right before I leave work. I just see if there’s any new e.mails and if I can respond quickly, I do. Otherwise, I wait until I get home. I try to get people to e.mail urgent things to my work e.mail address because thanks to my BlackBerry, I’ll always get that immediately.
7. Photos – I confess, Flickr is my BOF (best online friend). I go to Flickr quite often throughout the day, just to catch up on comments to my photostream and new photos from my contacts. But when I need to leisurely browse through groups and view photos in more detail, I save that for home. The photos look better with Safari anyways.
8. Manual file-searching – No comment, I don’t even think this qualifies as a time-waster. At least not a voluntary time-waster one would like to do.
9. iTunes – I had iTunes installed on my computer at my last place of work and I imported ALL my music from home. We also shared music over the work networks so that was cool. With my new work, I don’t have iTunes installed but I did bring some music from home and I rock the Windows Media player with tunes while I work. As long as the music doesn’t get too loud and it doesn’t bother anyone, I think you should be allowed to listen to music at work. I have a small problem with headphones; they’re fine, as long as you’re not oblivious to the world around you.
10. E-commerce – Again, I’m guilty of this time-waster. Once in a while, I do my banking online at work. And once in a while, I’ll check online stores for deals or price comparisons. But I’m not a shopaholic. I know what I want to buy and I buy what I want. When I don’t know what I want to buy, then I go searching for reviews.

That’s not a very comprehensive list but it does include a few things I do at work. I think my worst is Flickr and e-commerce. Other than that, I’m pretty good with my time during work. I get all my work done and I don’t really waste that much time. The non-work things I do at work are usually time fillers, like in-between meetings or if I’m waiting for the computer to process something. It’s all about responsibility and not abusing the trust your company has put into you.

I hate to admit it but I think I’ve grown fond of the BlackBerry I got from work.

If I had known prior that I would be getting a BlackBerry for work, I would have fought tooth and nail against it. Who wants to have a 24-hour lifeline to work all the time? I didn’t need to have constant access to my work e-mails and I definitely didn’t want to be easily reachable via phone. Lucky for work they just sprung the BlackBerry on me without consent. But I have to say, today I am singing a different tune.

The BlackBerry is convenient and I don’t even mind the constant access to e-mails. I haven’t received very many calls (outside the work hours) so it’s not the horror story I imagined it would be. This will probably all change in the future once I’ve been with the company longer but for now, I like the BlackBerry. In fact, I don’t think I can go back to my Windows Mobile PDA smartphone anymore. It’s funny how you can go from detesting something one day and then being enamoured with it three weeks later. And now I bring you the top 10 reasons why I like the BlackBerry:

10. It’s sexy. Look at it, I know you want to lick it. I don’t keep it in a case or anything because I like how it looks.

9) BlackBerry Messenger. An IM network strictly for BlackBerry users? Awesome.

8 Apps. There aren’t as many apps available as there are for Windows Mobile smartphones but the apps I’ve installed so far are kick-ass. There’s hardly any loading time and it’s very integrated with the rest of the BlackBerry OS. So far, I’ve got apps for weather, instant messaging, Twitter, and Facebook. And although they are technically applications, they never feel like the applications of the Windows world.

7. It doesn’t feel like a resource hog. There’s a distinct lag whenever I run programs on Windows Mobile. If I want to view a picture, there’s a lag. If I want to launch the browser, there’s a lag. When I want to text, there’s a lag. With the BlackBerry, I don’t get any of that.

6. No reboot required. The BlackBerry doesn’t run Windows. Therefore, it doesn’t hang, it doesn’t crash, I don’t need to reboot it. Actually, let me qualify this by saying I’ve yet to reboot my BlackBerry. Like any OS, the BlackBerry is prone to problems that require a reboot. However, I’ve had my BlackBerry for about a month now and I’ve yet to reboot it. I think I rebooted my Windows Mobile OS smartphone about 10 times within the first week.

5. It’s got this status symbol attached to it. Maybe I’m being brain-washed by the might of the BlackBerry but it makes me feel important. It says I have a BlackBerry because people NEED to be able to get in touch with me anytime via phone and/or e.mail. It’s like a power suit, but for my hand.

4. The trackball. It’s just awesome. It’s just like the trackball on my Mighty Mouse

3. I can use the BlackBerry with one hand. That might not sound important but when you’re used to using a stylus to move around Windows Mobile and using two hands to type on the keyboard, being able to use a device with one hand is immeasurable. If I’m driving and I need to make a call, send a text, or look at the map, I can do it while I still have one hand on the wheel. Not that I do that, mind you. Never.

2. If I want to call or text someone, it’s super easy. From the main screen I can start typing in a name and it will automatically bring up the dial menu. Once it filters down to the name I want, all the numbers appear and I can call them by pressing the dial key or I can hit the menu button and then choose to text them. With Windows Mobile, if I want to call someone, I need to bring up the dial menu and type in the contact. If I want to text someone, I need to go to the text menu and type in the contact. If I want to call someone and go into the call menu but then change my mind and decide to text, I need to exit the call menu and go to the text menu. It shouldn’t be this cumbersome.

And the #1 reason why I love the BlackBerry…

1. The BlackBerry OS. I never really liked the organizer and address book on the Windows Mobile OS. I had to download PocketBreeze to meet my organizer needs (and even that seems sub-par). The BlackBerry OS, however, has a great organizer and address book. Every syncs to/from my desktop exactly as they appear. Entering a new appointment or a new contact is easy, sweet, and simple. The BlackBerry media player is pretty great, too. It shows all the music, videos, ringtones, and pictures you have and viewing anything is simple. The image quality is top-notch (though that could be just a comparison between the two specific units I have). The log screen shows everything (calls, e.mails, text) so I don’t have to jump from one area to another. Seamless integration is the key phrase here.

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BlackBerry, work

Five months ago, I left my job. During that time, I got some much needed R&R and I made a trip to the UK and Europe. When I came back, I bought a new MacBook Pro and then I found myself with no money left. That’s when I knew I had to find work again.The whole thought of the job application process was not appealing to me. It took a week for me to even update my resume and post it online. Within two weeks, I had an interview set up with a company. I didn’t even have to look through job postings, they came looking for me. A second interview was not necessary and I was offered the position three days after the interview. Now those are results I can live with.Last week was my first week at work and on Day 2, they already had me on a site visit to Kamloops. I was there for three days and back in Vancouver on Friday. So far, everthing’s been going well. The only thing is that I’m not very busy right now (even though it’s month-end). I’ve done everything that’s been tasked to me, but with people in and out of the office, there’s not as much training as I had hoped for and thus not as much work. I never thought I’d be complaining about not having anything to do! I’m sure that will change next week.

Along with a regular paycheque again, other perks with this new position include my own laptop and a 20″ widescreen display (for my cubicle in the office). I didn’t have either at my old job. However, my new cubicle doesn’t have a window, which I did at my old job. You can decide if that’s an equal trade. My thoughts go like this: private corner office > private office > cubicle with window > personal notebook > widescreen display. I’m going down the perks chain, that’s not good. However, I do have a speakerphone now, which was something I had asked for repeatedly at my old job. There’s just something about being able to talk on the phone as I’m working; it’s like I’m too busy to even hold the phone to talk.I’m still the new guy but I’m starting to get to know people in the office. Hopefully the people here will be just as good as the people from my old job.