Read on Your Kindle (Even if You Don’t Own a Kindle!)

Kindle Cloud Reader Overview
Amazon’s Kindle service has saved me from hundreds of boring work days. Of course, you can’t exactly bring a Kindle to work and read it in the middle of your cube. Thankfully, Amazon has a Kindle Cloud Reader that allows you to read books right on your computer screen.

To sign up, head over to the Amazon Cloud Reader website. The website will walk you through the setup process, which is incredibly easy. If you already have another Kindle account or a physical Kindle device, the website will prompt you for those login details and will then load your digital library in the blink of any eye.

Once you’re signed up, it’s time to start making some purchases. Just search for any book in the Amazon search bar, choose the Kindle format, and checkout. The book will be delivered to your Cloud reader within a few minutes.

There are quite a few awesome things about the Amazon Cloud Reader:

1. The interface is clean and looks almost like a PDF. This means that co-workers will easily think that you are reading an important document rather than enjoying a novel.
2. It automatically syncs with physical Kindle devices and the Kindle phone app. So you will never have to try to remember what page you are on.
3. You can return any e-book within 3 days for a refund, no questions asked. You can utilize this to experiment with books without feeling like you’ve wasted money. And, you didn’t hear this from me, but if you finish a book before the 3-day window is up…well, you get the idea.

Here are some pro tips for making Kindle Cloud reading as stealth as possible:

1. When you open the cloud reader, there is a black toolbar at the top that says “Kindle”. Click in the upper right corner to turn off the toolbar and make the page appear even more like a work document.
2. Sometimes, you will get a book that has huge chapter headings. This means that every time you start a new chapter, half of your screen is taken up by text shouting “CHAPTER NINE”. When I hit these pages, I usually make my browser window a bit smaller and have an important spreadsheet visible in the background so it looks a little less obvious.
3. You can change the text size by clicking on the “Aa” icon at the toolbar on the top. Some books have very large text, so size it down to a reasonable size.
4. Check your local library to see if they offer e-books in Kindle format. If they do, you can quickly check out books and download them directly to your Kindle cloud for free.

I know that there are other ways to read books online, but to be honest, I haven’t utilized any of them. My library has something called the OverDrive Media Library, but I tried to install it once and couldn’t figure it out. If you have any other online reading tricks, please leave a comment!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

An essential for all of the bored workers out there who love to read.

Does Boredom at Work Make You Stressed?

I spotted a very interesting article on CNN.com the other day: "Is Workplace Boredom the 'New Stress'?"

The article doesn't really have a cure for boredom, but it's nice to learn we're not alone out there.

Why Are We Bored?
CNN claims that one reason we are bored is that we are in a "culture of meetings" that are obviously very boring. There are so many automated tasks these days that people are frustrated by meetings. I have to say that I agree with this 100%. It's not like my schedule is packed with meetings, but I absolutely dread the few meetings I have everyday. It seems like the real work is accomplished in five or ten minutes, but the meeting always drags on for half an hour or an hour. And I don't know about you, but I always have one of those people that just won't let the meeting die. They will bring up old or irrelevant topics to fill the time. I try to avoid those people like the plague.

The article also postulates that we are becoming less likely to accept boredom. People expect personal fulfillment in their careers now, and boredom is a sign that your career fulfillment is stalled. From talks with older folks, I think this is also true. My mom and dad are always telling me that work is work, and no one really enjoys it, they just do it to get a paycheck. The optimist in me thinks that they are wrong, but when I really get down in the dumps about being bored, I sometimes think they might be right.

What Are the Symptoms of Boredom?
One of the most interesting pieces of the article are the six ways that employees express their boredom: sabotage, purposely messing up assignments, horseplay, theft, withdrawal, and abusing others.

Personally, I don't mess up assignments, steal or participate in horseplay. But i see a lot of myself in the other 'symptoms'. Although I don't expressly sabotage anything, I definitely tend to 'sway' meetings by voicing an opinion for an outcome that will result in the least boring work for me. I have no idea if these outcomes help or hurt the business, but they help keep me sane. I also don't purposely abuse others, but when I am super bored, I do notice that my tone becomes a bit ruder and I am not as helpful as I normally am. I suppose this is a form of verbal abuse.

But the symptom that I show the most, by far, is withdrawal. I am not really engaged with my colleagues because I am just so bored of everything involved in the office. I often leave in the middle of the day to go to the gym for hours, and sometimes I just don't even make it into work. I skip meetings that I deem too boring or unnecessary to participate in. Not anything I'm proud of, but it happens.

A Solution?
So what's the solution to office boredom? CNN theorizes that it needs to become an acceptable emotion to discuss and deal with in the workplace. There are hundreds of options to relieve stress, but no where to go for boredom. I think this is the first step needed to help fight office boredom. Make it an acceptable topic, and you can better understand the triggers of boredom and make your employees happier. Everyone knows that a happier worker is a more productive worker, so this is really in the best interest of all businesses.

What do you think? Do you show any symptoms of boredom? And how can companies reduce boredom?

Finding Your Dream Job?

Of all the things I’ve done while bored at work, searching for my dream job has definitely taken up the most time. It sounds so simple: find what you’re passionate about, get someone to pay you for it, and live happily ever after.

But what if you don’t know what you’re passionate about? That’s the problem I’ve run into again and again. Sure, I like a lot of things, and I have hobbies, but I don’t feel like there is anything that I am so passionate about that I want to make it my career.

If you find out how to locate your dream job, please let me know! But in the meantime, here are some things I’ve tried with varying degrees of success. At the very least, these are pleasant distractions from the work day. And if you do end up with a dream job, even better!

Myers-Briggs Test

You probably took this test while you were in school, and there is now a free version online. Answer some Yes/No questions, and the test spits out a personality type, broken into four categories: Extraversion or Introversion, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, Judging or Perception. I am an ISTJ, which means I am basically a quiet thinker and duty fulfiller.

Once you find your personality type, you can see a list of jobs that fit you. The Personality Page website has a complete job list.

I’ve taken this test, and I do agree with my personality type, but I just can’t get excited about any of the jobs that are recommended. A police officer or detective? No thanks. A computer programmer? Maybe. A business manager? Already doing that, and not too excited about it. So while I think the test is probably helpful for some people, it unfortunately hasn’t led me to my dream job just yet.

Self-Help Books

Ah, I love self-help books. I love them the most when I first buy them and am so excited about the revolutionary change my life is about to go through. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any self-help books that have really improved my life.

There is one book on finding your passion that I would highly recommend: I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher. This book describes the reasons that we all fail to see our passion and gives concrete steps to discover your true calling.

While I don’t know what my passion is yet, I do feel like this book is pushing me in the right direction. One of Barbara’s recommendations is that you go out and start trying things. If you think you might like gardening, plant some seeds. Want to program web pages? Take some courses online and see how it goes.

I’m a planner, so I like to lay out exactly how everything will go before I jump into it. It’s been hard for me to take Barbara’s advice, but I am trying new things, slowly but surely. I started this blog to see if online writing is something I really love, and I’m learning HTML and CSS slowly online to see if I perhaps like web programming. How would I make money doing these things? I have no idea just yet, but if I find my passion, I’ll do more research into how I can make it a full-time job.

Friends & Family

At first, I was very hesitant to speak to my friends and family about my search for a dream job. My father comes from the old-school train of thought that a job is there for money, not to make you happy. He spent his whole life in a career that he was lukewarm about, and although he did extraordinarily well financially, I know for a fact that he would have been happier in a different career.

Once I opened up to my family and friends, I found that this was the best outlet for discussing ideas and soliciting feedback. These are people who know and love me and have a sense of what I would and would not like to do. I remember speaking to a friend a couple of years ago and mentioning that I really thought I would like to be an actuary. Every year, actuaries are at the top of the “best jobs” poll, so I figured, why not?

My friend smartly pointed out that I would hate that job. Yes, my hours might be reasonable, and yes, I might like some of the analysis work. But I get bored easily and love to try new things, and that career does not exactly provide outlets for continued growth and varying tasks. I also want to be my own boss, and that’s never going to happen as an actuary. My friend helped steer me away from actuarial work and put me back on the path of looking for my true passion.

Career Counseling

If you find a great career counselor, please let me know! This was one of my initial ideas in searching for my dream job. I made an appointment with a counselor nearby, and was highly disappointed. The sessions were more like therapy, with the counselor asking me questions about everything from my childhood to my love life. There were few discussions, and after she had analyzed me enough, she really had no concrete suggestions.

I do believe there are some good career counselors out there, but I would be very picky when choosing one.

Please leave a comment if you have any other suggestions for dream job searching. I’m willing to try anything out!

Review: Textbroker.com

If you have a basic grasp of the English language, can write reasonably well and are good at internet research, you can earn a few bucks on the side by writing articles for Textbroker. I love writing online when I am bored at work, because once I select an article to write, I can compose it in Microsoft Outlook and not make anyone suspicious of what I am doing.

What is Textbroker?

No way to sugar coat it: Textbroker is a an online content mill. The site employs a large number of authors who write articles for clients, generally website or blog owners. Articles are submitted and approved via the Textbroker website.

How Does It Work?

Interested authors can sign up at textbroker.com. In addition to providing basic information, you will have to submit a sample of your writing. Textbroker then rates the sample and assigns you an initial author rating between 2 stars (the worst) and 5 stars (the best).

Once you are signed up and accepted, you can begin writing orders for clients. There are three types of orders: OpenOrder, TeamOrder and DirectOrder.

If you are a new author, you will only have OpenOrders available. These are orders that are available to any author that meets the rating criteria set by the client. You can search orders by rating and by category. However, I find that the easiest way to search is by choosing today’s date and searching for all articles requested today. This way, you avoid some of the junky or hard-to-write articles that everyone has passed by. Good article topics will usually get snapped up within an hour or two. One kind of annoying thing is that you can only claim one article at a time. So be sure it’s something you really want to write.

If clients really like you, they can offer you DirectOrders. These are orders that are only available to you. You can accept or reject them as you please, and you can also set your own pay rate. I usually make this rate a bit higher than my pay-off for OpenOrders. If you write quality articles, you’ll be surprised how quickly clients contact you for DirectOrders. There are a lot of crappy writers at content mills, so they are happy to pay a bit more to ensure they don’t have to do a bunch of editing. You can also try to acquire clients by sending them personal messages through Textbroker, but I’ve found that this is not very effective if you are hoping for a higher rate.

TeamOrders are orders that are available to a specific team of writers. Teams are generally a collection of experts on a particular subject, for example web hosting, copywriters or legal bloggers. Each team has its own pay rate, and some can be very lucrative. You can apply for a team on the TeamOrders tab, and you will generally have to submit a writing sample for approval. I haven’t had much luck getting on any teams, but I haven’t spent much time in this area of the site.

Proofreading is one additional way to earn on Textbroker. In order to become a proofreader, you must have at least a 4 star rating and pass an editing test. The test is pretty difficult, and a lot of people do not pass. I wouldn’t worry too much about it if you can’t get approved as a proofreader, because there aren’t usually any assignments available to claim anyway.

What Can I Earn?

Authors are paid per word based on a rating. 2 star authors receive 0.7 cents per word, 3 star authors get 1.0 cents per word, 4 star authors get 1.4 cents per word, and 5 star authors get 5.0 cents per word.  Articles are usually anywhere from 250-500 words, so a 4 star author would get $7.00 for a 500-word article.

How Do I Get Paid?

Once you submit an article, the client has the ability to accept it or send it back for edits. If the client doesn’t make a decision within three days, the article is automatically accepted. I can’t speak for everyone, but I have had only a handful of articles come back for revisions, and the edits have been very quick and easy. As soon as the article is accepted, payment is sent to your Textbroker Pay-Off account.

Once the balance in your Pay-Out account is above $10, you can request money to be transferred directly to a PayPal account. Payments are made every Friday.

How Can I Improve My Rating?

Each article you write is rated by Textbroker and sometimes by the client. Your rating is calculated by averaging the Textbroker rating of your last five articles. So long story short, you have to write better articles in order to improve your rating. It is not too difficult to get a 4 star rating as long as your articles are reasonably well-written. However, it is nearly impossible to achieve a 5 star rating. My guess is that most 5 star authors are not working for Textbroker.

Overall Review of Textbroker

Textbroker: Pros

I like that Textbroker provides me with a super simple way to pass some time and earn some cash on the side. The interface is very simple, and I’ve never had any problem clients (knock on wood). Payouts are consistent, and I always know exactly what I’ll be paid when I accept an article.

Textbroker: Cons

Let’s be honest, you aren’t getting much pay for your work at Textbroker. Since I’m already getting paid at my full-time job, this doesn’t bother me too much. But it’s not something that I can do all day every day. In addition, some of the orders available are really crappy and difficult to write. It can take some time to sift through everything to find something you actually want to write.

Overall Rating: 4 of 5 stars

An easy way to kill a good chunk of time and get paid to do it. Not going to become rich here, but a reasonable source of slush fund money.

Want to sign up for Textbroker? Click here.

Review: Swagbucks.com

Swagbucks is basically a cleverly design affiliate marketing website. Nonetheless, it is an entertaining way to pass a couple minutes at work and to earn a few free gift certificates on the side.

What is Swagbucks?

Swag Bucks functions on a virtual currency known as “SBs”. You receive SBs for performing simple tasks online, signing up for offers or utilizing the Swag Bucks search plug-in. Once you accumulate enough SBs, you can redeem them for gift certificates or other items in the Swag Bucks store.

How do you Earn Swagbucks?

There are literally hundreds of ways to earn SBs, so I’ll highlight a few of the ones I use a lot.

You receive 1 SB per day for participating in the Daily Poll, and 2 SBs for clicking through some special offers (you don’t have to accept any of them). I usually do this every day in the morning, when I’m looking for some brainless activity to wake me up.

You can also install the Swagbucks toolbar. You’ll receive 1 SB per day just for opening your browser, and you can win SBs randomly if you use their toolbar’s search function. I’ll warn you that the search functionality is absolutely terrible. I usually type in one or two searches in the morning, and if I win something, great, if not, no big deal. I also installed the toolbar on Internet Explorer, which I use very rarely, so it doesn’t junk up my main browser.

The way I earn bigger chunks of SBs is by checking my Swagbucks inbox every day. A lot of times they will send out offers that cost money, but every once in a while you’ll have the chance to get a quick 100 or 200 SBs. Some examples of easy SBS include filling out a survey, signing up for free auto quotes and signing up for a new account on Mint.com.

There are a lot of other activities that earn SBs, but, in my opinion, a lot of them require more work than I’m willing to do. You can participate in surveys, but it seems like every time I try to fill one out, it says I am not eligible. You can also perform online tasks, such as categorizing search terms. There is a Swagbucks TV site that gives you 3 SBs for every 10 videos you watch. This can be done in the background, so you can just click on them and go about your business.

What Can I Earn?

I’ll be honest, it takes a lot of SBs to earn anything in the store. The item I usually choose is a $5 Amazon gift certificate, which costs 500 SBs. I like it because I can easily deposit the certificate in my Amazon account and not worry that I’ll forget to use it.

There are hundreds of items in the Swagbucks store, but to give you an idea of prices, there are magazine subscriptions for 700 SBs, earrings for 700 SBs and DVDs for 600-1,100 SBs. Of course, there are higher end items, but I doubt anyone makes enough to get a 16,000 SB Keurig coffee maker.

You can also use SBs to enter Sweepstakes (aka “Swagstakes”). Entry costs anywhere from 5 to 100 SBs, and you can win things such as video games, gift cards and electronics.

Overall Review of Swagbucks

Swagbucks: Pros

I like Swagbucks because over the period of a month or so, I can usually get a small gift certificate without doing too much work. I also like it because I tend to multitask, and it’s nice to have a way to kill a minute or two throughout the day without doing too much thinking.

Swagbucks: Cons

You are never going to get rich on Swagbucks, or even get anything substantial from using it. A lot of the interfaces are weird and confusing, and it’s not uncommon to start a task for SBs and then be told you don’t qualify or the offer is no longer available. The search toolbar is basically worthless, other than giving you SBs.

Overall Rating: 2 of 5 stars

A nice way to kill a few minutes, but nothing I’m willing to spend a ton of time on. Definitely need other outlets to kill the work boredom.

Want to sign up for Swagbucks? Click here.