How to Spend The End of the Workday

A friend of mine once described the “how-to-be-productive” genre of articles as “hyper-masculine, business-world *&$%”.  I suppose she had a point. However, from time to time I find them helpful, and this article from Fast Company fit the bill:

It’s 4 p.m. and you’re having a hard time focusing. So you stare at your computer and click in and out of lots of tabs. But when you look up, you see it’s only 4:03 p.m. Then, you get a glass of water, which takes all of seven minutes. You’re not feeling inspired to tackle something important, but ducking out early—or sitting at your desk and twiddling your thumbs for 50 minutes—aren’t options either.

The answer is soft projects. They don’t demand much attention, investment, or effort, but they’ll still get you through that final hour.

Sure, this may sound like a dream problem to someone who’s buried in piles of work, but if it’s your reality, it absolutely sucks. If you have a smaller-than-usual workload, or are lacking motivation, the feeling of being trapped at work—with time passing agonizingly slowly—can be especially strong. [Read more]

(Five good tips follow. Personally, I want to know who ever has a smaller-than-usual workload. But I digress.)

(P.S. My friend was actually talking about this article on 5 ways to not be lazy. You can go read it too.)