Work Smart

1. look busy! have at least 2 documents on your desk printed always.. and keep changing them every week... print old documents/flowcharts/graphs... it’s not the content that matters, but the presence that matters

2. never walk empty handed around office! Always have a notepad/document file with you... and if possible a coffee mug as well which keeps you fresh while you are working so hard(ly)

3. Always be upto date... keep at least one web-page of some recent news/report/event about your work on the office computer... if someone comes over while you are aimlessly browsing, start the topic of what they feel about that report or news or event

4. Have a to-do list pinned up somewhere on your desk and keep updating it... cut something... add something... but it should be a live one.. if you have a software like sticky notes installed on your system.. have some sticky notes on the top of every window that you are working on

5. Be positive... always have a success story or case study about your work memorized with data and a supporting research report artifact to substantiate that

6. Have a strong social network... make sure you have at 50 similar or better profiles of a variety of experience linked to you on LinkedIn, facebook, orkut, MySpace, myadda, hi5, blahfriends, blahnetwork, blahconnect etc... have some important industry names in it too.. so that you can refer to your conversations with them in your meetings

7. Delete all your not so good testimonials and even the ones which make you look like a super human! You never know who is watching your recommendations and testimonials these days!

8. Demand for two monitors at work. Tell the IT that it makes your work easier and makes you work faster.. and at least one of the monitors should be a LCD, a large one at that because you need to monitor data which would be instrumental in organizations growth and potential

9. Eat with your manager and be ultra-interested in what his life is about! Keep throwing ideas for improvement at him till he resigns or promotes you

10. Don't be stupid enough to follow 1-9 without using your own brain :D

On a partially related and a totally unrelated note!

I at times feel, the good thieves make the best cops! and worst politicians (:P)