If you're going to the Post Office or someplace else with some time to waist, don't just stand there and read the wall posters. Be more productive, here are some creative ideas to make your short wait time a little more productive:

Fill out some store surveys!
Got a smart phone? Take one of the receipts from Starbucks/Pizza Hut/wherever and visit their website and fill out the customer support survey. The few minutes of time may actually net you some extra cash.

Clean out your jacket, pocket, or purse.
Take a few minutes and clean out. Throw away the gum wrappers and receipts that you save thinking that you would need it, when in fact you probably forgot the reason you saved it.

Make a List of things to get done
Got a buzy day ahead? Why not spend at least five minutes to organize your thoughts about what you need to get done. Then plan your time.

I am sure that you can come up with some ideas on your own. The best thing to do is to have something planned when you know you're going to be sitting around a while.

In her presentation, Wilma Matthews, the Co-Author of On Deadline: Managing Media Relations, described a four step strategic planning model:

• Set a goal: the business outcome. What you want your communications to achieve.
• Establish strategies: The broad approaches you are going to take in order to achieve the goal.
• Define objectives for each strategy. Objectives are the measurable tasks that will be undertaken in order to realize the strategies.
• Develop tactics - the tools that will be used in order to achieve the objectives.

Wilma used the example of World War II in order to illustrate the application of these concepts.

• Goal: Win the war.
• Strategy: Surround Germany to choke off the resources that fueled its military force.
• Objective: Invade France. This is measurable. You'll know if you've succeeded and to what degree.
• Tactics: What will you use to do this? e.g. ships, planes, soldiers, etc.

In summary:

• Goals = the broad outcomes
• Strategies = the approaches you will take
• Objectives = the measurable steps to achieve the strategies
• Tactics = the tools you will use

We are in the process of building a home office. A very exciting and rewarding home improvement project. We have painted the ceiling and walls, added Ethernet and phone jacks and updated the electricity in the room.

One of the problems that I have encountered is when I moved my desk into the room, it was going to block the Power and Ethernet jacks. We had a flat power plug power strip available, but I haven't been able to find a flat Ethernet cable.

I have search several websites for a flat Ethernet Cable and the only thing that I keep finding is a flat cable that goes under a rug. I haven't found a low profile cable anyplace. I know there was a company that made these, I just can't seem to find them right now.

One of the places I was looking at is X-TremeGeek.com they sell all sorts of cables and the popular Power Strip Liberator Cables, which I have plenty of in my power supply bin in the basement. 

Another good source is CyberGuys, they have all sorts of great technical products. I was not able to find any Ethernet cable products that would fit my needs. Still a great place to shop, lots of neat things!

How true is Parkinson's Law?

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Which basically means that if you plan 2 hours for a project, then the project will take 2 hours, regardless if others can do it in half the time. Something will make the project last as long as you schedule it.

If your into Productivity, you should read more about Parkinson Law and the famous Cobb-Webb theorem.

I saw the following quote on someone bulletin board today:

Do the things that you have to do
so you have time to do the things you want to do

The quote was attributed to someone, but I didn't write down the name.