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What to do when you are bored at work...

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:51 am
by infolock
Well, the past month here at my job, I've not done anything. And i do mean nothing.

It's not my fault either... I mean, I go every day, I ask what they want me to do, and it's always "umm... we don't have anything... soo... I guess I'll get back with you on that".

Joy.

So, now I have time to troll on these boards, smoke a LOT of cigarettes, and do some other things. Since I've mastered this so well, I thought I would share with you "Things to do" for those of you who have simliar situations but don't know what to do (I think I just confused myself with that sentence. That's too bad.. but you get the point ;) ).

So, here we go:

8:30am - Open the office door, setup your lappy, and put your headphones on. Boot up to your favorite OS. And start with an opened browser.

8:35am - 9:30am - Read FoxNews and MSNBC reports on the web (available at : http://www.foxnews.com, http://www.msnbc.com) == Trust me, there is a lot there...

9:30am - 9:45am - Smoke a cig or 2.

9:45 - 10:30am - Refresh your cup of coffee. Walk around and admire the cartoon sniplets some of your fellow workers have posted on their doors for your amusement.

10:30am - 11:15am - Check up your own personal website (if you have one), and see if you need to make any changes. If your site doesn't require any changes, check out your daily/weekly/monthly hit stats (if you have a control panel for it). If you don't have a personal website, go to forums.devnetwork.net, find a person, and check out their site...

11:15 - 11:30am - Check out the latest stock prices of your favorite company(s) (I personally enjoy checking out ININ, CCU (company i work for), SE, and a few others...)

11:30 - 12:00pm - Check out what is new on forums.devnetwork.net

12:00pm - 1:00pm - If you have quake 4 on your machine, try to get a LAN game going. Else, play some chess on http://www.uschesslive.org (i'm on there as elitepos). Otherwise, if you are hungry, just go grab a bite to eat.. Choice is yours man.

1:00pm - 2:00pm - Verify none of your existing code has broken. If it hasn't, at least try to make it break so they come to you with something to do... I mean, you SHOULD be getting pretty tired of staring at this screen by now shouldn't you? Ah well, maybe not..

2:00pm - 3:00pm - Check your google mail, or whatever personal email it is you have.. Maybe you have a new job offer! Or maybe, JUST maybe, you are one of the lucky millions with a few hundred spam letters. IF you are, indeed, one of the lucky millions with some spam, take the time to respond back with a big middle finger to the sender, promply sign up that email with a list of spams, report the spam, and then finally clean up your email box with a few extra deletes...

3:00 - 4:00pm - Go to your favorite radio station's website and check out some videos they may have in stock... If not, just try http://www.web.com/cc-common/videos_on_demand . Trust me, you'll at least be amused or not so much bored at this time of the day.

4:00 - 4:30pm - Check out your resume. Make sure it has those extra touches, and if it doesn't, add them. If your boss see's ya working on it, just say "I always keep my resume updated.. Nothing personal, I just like to be prepared in case the worst case happens..."

4:30 - 5:00pm (almost time to leave) - check with your boss, make sure there isn't anything they need from you.

5:00pm - 5:30pm - Sit back, read a book, or check back with forums.devnetwork.net or your favorite news website. Something is bound to have happend by now...

5:30 - Go home, drink a few beers, and prepare for the long day at work you have tomorrow...


Somewhere in there, throw about 3 or 4 visits outside for a cig or 2.. never hurts to keep the day interesting.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:07 am
by shiznatix
hahahahahaha

excellent, excellent.

the way I keep from dieing of boredom is having a personal project to work on. something you can just slowly build that might one day be your ticket to be able to sit back and only do the 'drink beer' part.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:08 am
by GM
I've had days like that, but not many.

I tend to work on PHP for my own website in my quiet moments. Only problem is that I haven't got Apache/PHP installed on my work laptop, so I have to write it all "blind" in notepad and debug at home.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:18 am
by RobertGonzalez
I usually spend a bulk of my non work time here. Then I spend more of my time at home, here. Then I go to bed. Then I wake up and go, here. When it is time to work, I work. When there is no work to do, I play like a geek would play, writing code and testing it.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:53 am
by Luke
GM wrote:I haven't got Apache/PHP installed on my work laptop
How come? Have you ever used WampServer? I love it for testing my php stuff. Although I guess it kind of cripples me as far as knowing how apache and php are set up because it really does it all for you.

EDIT: If you are on a windows machine, that is...

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:08 pm
by infolock
Everah wrote:I usually spend a bulk of my non work time here. Then I spend more of my time at home, here. Then I go to bed. Then I wake up and go, here. When it is time to work, I work. When there is no work to do, I play like a geek would play, writing code and testing it.

Been there, done that. The whole "play like a geek would play, writing code and testing it." comment is what I did the the first week of this dry spell.. But, we're now working on week 5 of twiddling the old thumbs. 8O

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:09 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Do they have any skin left? Too bad you couldn't 'work from home'...

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:10 pm
by Luke
rewrite everything on hotscripts.com... that should keep you busy. Problem solved. :)

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:14 pm
by infolock
Skin? Yes. Blisters? Almost.

I can work from home, but I get so bored that I usually end up back in the office anyways. Plus, shows that I'll at least show up when I have nothing to do =P
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:rewrite everything on hotscripts.com... that should keep you busy. Problem solved. :)
I already soiled my eyes by looking at some legacy code here at work. Doing the whole "hotscripts" thing would garuntee my position in a mental hospital

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:44 pm
by Nathaniel
When I'm too (tired|bored|lazy) to program, I usually browse /. and DevNetwork.

I program at home on mostly my own projects, though, so lack of work is rarely a problem :)

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:55 pm
by wtf
I usually read PHP documentation function by function, copy/paste examples and try to think of place where I could use it. Beside that I check digg.com/devnetwork.net/craigslist.org but that's about it. Lately I've been playing with Flex/CodeIgniter/CakePHP.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:04 pm
by RobertGonzalez
[quote="wtf"]I usually read PHP documentation function by function, copy/paste examples and try to think of place where I could use it.[quote]
I think I feel a migraine coming on...

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:03 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I browse devnet or work on my own personal projects. If there really is nothing to do I'd tell my boss I'll work from home. You should probably suggest working from home to your boss yourself ;)

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:17 pm
by infolock
ahh, like i said, i have vpn access and could, i just choose to sit here instead.. plus, i don't have to waste money on electric, drinks, or human interaction.

anyways, after a little over a month, they came in with a new project for me. *yay team*

looks like i'll be redesigning our ad management application. *rubs hands together*

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:37 pm
by thiscatis
i'm never bored at work :)