usa job typing

It's funny how as I have moved through my career from office to office the way I organize myself has changed.  When I was at the law firm, I used tasks extensively and had a wait bin where I put things I was waiting on.  I had a lot of trigger dates I needed to remember such as when to file a statement of defence after receiving a statement of claim, or putting in a reminder when the mandatory mediation kicked in.  It was important that I pay close attention to my task reminders as these dates were critical to the lawyers I worked for.  I had a few mediation and arbitrations to set up and telephone calls to schedule with clients, but the bulk of my work was preparing documents on time and reminding the lawyers I worked for what needed to be done and by when.  I can count on one hand the amount of travel I arranged for them in the 15 years I worked there as their meetings were usually local meetings with clients or short flights to nearby cities such as Toronto, which is  only an ho

During the holidays it is important to have people in the office to keep things going.  I like working during this time because you can get so much done that you normally don't have time to do.  Here are some of the things I will be doing: Cleaning out my desk drawers - I just started this job a little over a month ago.  The girl who was here before me was there for 9 years and before they hired me there were two temporary people sitting at my desk so you can imagine the desk drawers were very disorganized.  I like to have everything in its place to save time when I need something.  Some things that are nice to have on hand are a box of staples, various size clamps, extra pens and some highlighters.  Everything else should be in the supply cabinet, but having things on hand that you use regularly, makes it very convenient when you need them.  Even if you are not new, the drawers get messy over time so a good clean up really helps. Organizing the desktop - I also like to have a clea

Dolly Parton's  Nine to Five  hit no longer applies to me.  I've become an early bird.  For those who know me that will seem almost impossible, but I've done it.  At least during the work week and it's proving to be very interesting. I was always a 9 to 5 person, but would typically arrive a few minutes late.  I always felt guilty about it and would sometimes get looks from the other girls or they would make a joke about me being late again, but I was a late night person and always worked well past 5, but for some reason that didn't matter.  One girl even nicknamed me '10 after 9 Pat' because that was when I usually arrived.  Now I start work at 7:30 in the morning and it has been very enlightening.  The first thing I noticed was that the early birds don't arrive on time either, but no one is in to notice!  For some reason when your work day starts at 7:30, coming in 5 or 10 minutes late is no big deal. I'm not sure why that is, but I think it might

Starting a new job is more than just changing where you work.  You have to learn a whole new way of doing things, from how to log onto the computer to filling out a purchase order form.  There is a new work culture to adapt to and a new language of acronyms to try and sort out.  Even though they can seem like small things, at the beginning you are trying to do your best to impress and can feel a bit helpless when the phone rings and you realize you don't know how to answer it.  Many organizations provide orientation sessions for new hires, which is helpful, but doesn't usually cover the little things.  Time My former boss gave me some good advice when he knew I would be taking a new job.  He cautioned that I was running a marathon, not a sprint and I should pace myself and not be too hard on myself if I didn't know everything right away.  That has been good advice.  When you start a new job, your new employer is not expecting you to know everything on your first day.  They