Many office workers are as dependent on the coffee pot as a baby is on its bottle. Because coffee drinking is so common, they seldom stop to ask themselves, ‘is this healthful?’ Office workers need energy, after all, and everyone is familiar with that 4:00 slump. A cup or two of coffee can really get you through a tough day. Sometimes it even feels like that cup of coffee can be your only friend in the world!
But lately, many office workers have been switching to green tea, and there are some very good reasons for that. Green tea has anti-oxidant properties that reduce the signs of aging. It also has plenty of caffeine. Depending on the variety of tea you choose, you may drink a tea with less, the same, or more caffeine as your typical cup of coffee, so be aware! Of course, the taste is different. There is no denying that. But it is not a bad taste for most, just different, and if drinkers gradually switch over to the tea, they will soon learn to prefer the light, clean, slightly bitter taste of green tea to that of coffee. However, although green tea is more healthful than coffee, the caffeine it provides is still a danger to your health.
The problem with a coffee addiction (or any caffeine addiction, including tea) is that the constant influx of caffeine overstimulates your adrenal glands. Sounds fun, right? Stimulating the adrenals? Of course, adrenalin is what makes us run fast, jump high, and generally feel like supermen and superwomen. Who wouldn’t want to stimulate those? Well, there is a reason, and I’ll keep it simple. Most folks who feel the need to stimulate the adrenals on a regular basis, like with a constantly perking coffee pot, do it because their blood sugar is not giving them the energy they ought to have naturally. The energy from eating regular meals should keep you going with plenty of vim and vigor throughout the day without the need for additional stimulation. So if you need that additional push from caffeine, what that means is that your diet is not sufficient!
Are you eating junk food for lunch? Are you having complete breakfasts? Are you too tired for anything but a frozen dinner at night? These bad eating habits are where your lack of energy begins, and the coffee addiction is only a band-aid over that wound. As you continue your bad eating habits, your health will gradually deteriorate until eventually the coffee won’t be enough to perk you up any more. Don’t let it get to that point! Remember that you should be providing plenty of energy to your body through eating good, healthful food. That means plenty of protein in your breakfast: an omelet, not a muffin! That means plenty of protein as well in your lunch: ensure that it includes a protein and a vegetable! A salad for lunch is not enough to provide the energy needed for a long day at the office, and supplementing your salad with extra coffee is a recipe for long-term health disaster!
Sit down to a relaxing hot dinner with a loved one, if possible. Make sure that there is plenty of protein, sufficient vegetables, and enough carbohydrates to provide your body with the nutritional glucose it needs to run efficiently. Remember- coffee may seem like a wonderful panacea today, but in the long run, you are making your body work too hard for a little thing like daily energy. If you have been using coffee (or tea) to substitute for the nutrition that should be found in simple, healthy foods, do yourself a favor and gradually ease off your caffeine addiction and trade it in for an addition to square meals!
Today’s technology has made it possible for most of us to be accessible all of the time. It allows us to do business from home, from the beach, from our vehicles . . . from anywhere. This can allow you to get out of the office more, but the flip side is that it allows you to take the office with you wherever you go, and that may not be a good thing.
Sometimes the allotted yearly vacation time just isn’t enough. Employees often want time off for personal reasons ranging from taking that extra family vacation to caring for a loved one. But often workers are afraid to ask for it. This is not without reason, after all. Contracts usually state explicitly the time allotted for paid vacation and bosses are loathe to extend it for fear of budget constraints as well as the problem that other workers may sense favoritism to the employee receiving the extra vacation. However, bosses (as they say) are people too and if you know how to approach them with tact, they can be very amenable to providing that extra time off, either with or without pay.
In today’s world, “green” is in—meaning that making ecologically sound choices is something at the top of all our minds. So when it comes to choosing a first home, many professionals are asking themselves, “which lifestyle is the most green?” Of course, if you have always dreamt of living in the country, the green revolution will probably have little effect on your aspiration. By the same token, if you have always dreamt of living in the heart of the city, you shouldn’t change your preferred lifestyle based on some builder’s notion of which lifestyle is more “green.” Never the less, it can be interesting to look at these different modes of living and really analyze the ecological sensitivity of that first home you buy.
If you have had it with the workaday world and just don’t feel like it challenges you enough, perhaps you will be tempted to start your own business in 2010. Sure, who wouldn’t want to work overtime for nothing? Who wouldn’t want to give up a steady paycheck for the risk of going bankrupt? But seriously, there are so many incredible benefits to owning your own business. At first, you may not feel a lot of freedom. You’ll be tied to your work day and night—finding new clients, setting up your office, and marketing. But in the long run, with a lot of skill and a little luck, you could see that business grow and become successful.
Well, its official. Kindle is Amazon’s “most gifted product ever.” Ever? Yes, I said ever! Amazon also notes that on any given day, buyers purchased more digital books than actual books. So what is it that finally got people to eschew their tattered paperbacks and handsome hardbacks for digital editions? The kindle got off to a slow start, but eventually it was “discovered” for lack of a better term, and it looks like 2009 was its heyday. (So far.)
Have you ever felt like you work too hard? No, it’s not a matter of working harder than you want to, this is a matter of working harder than the results warrant. Wouldn’t you like to streamline your work? Whether it’s financial, creative, business, sales, or even housework, there are six primary steps to reducing wasted work time.
IT workers had a big year in 2009, what with the economy going south, virtual schools seeing a boom, and internet marketing changing character completely. Staying on top of all that is new and emerging in technology can definitely be hard work these days, so we have compiled five freebies for 2010: tips you can use and abuse as you like. No charge!
The 2009 national stationary show debuted some really interesting office products that could just make your business more productive and efficient. 
In today’s business environment, we have fax machines, telephones, mobile telephones, car phones, FedEx, snail mail, and of course email. With all these methods for transferring information, there sure is a lot of knowledge changing hands. But is that always a good thing? A company called 
