DO you have a stapler?

If you do, maybe it’s a little dusty in this age of PDFs. Or maybe it’s been missing for a while, after someone borrowed it and never brought it back. Or maybe you’ve affixed your name to your stapler with a piece of clear tape, so your co-workers know: you take this stapler, you die.

Even as data moves to computers and the cloud, staplers continue to help people keep it together. On the computer, we can file copies in folders and send messages to mailboxes. We can cut, copy and paste text and files. But which computer activity is similar to stapling? Sure, there’s the paper-clip icon that attaches documents to e-mail. But nothing, really, comes close to the satisfying ka-chunk of a stapler: it’s a sound that means work is getting done. Full Story »

Earlier this week, CNBC news anchor Maria Bartiromo announced during a segment on Closing Bell that one of her New Year’s resolutions was to start “emailing like a guy.”

What does that mean, exactly? Websites like Business Insider were quick to question.

It might be more straightforward than you think, says Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

Consider the colleague who signs business correspondence “xo” or softens an authoritative statement with a smiley face. There’s one in your office, right? Full Story »

Q. You have been working from home and find that it’s hard to stay focused and productive. Could it be that you simply don’t work well outside a corporate office?

A. Not necessarily. We often assume that people are more productive when they work in an office rather than at home, but that’s not always the case. We are less productive when we’re distracted, and that can happen anywhere, says Jason Henham, managing director of Slate Consulting, a management consulting firm in Melbourne, Australia.

“In the office, lack of productivity is masked by things like meetings, interruptions and socializing,” Mr. Henham says. The key to productivity — whether it’s in a corporate office or at the kitchen table — is a clear understanding of the results you’re trying to achieve each day, he says. Full Story »

In 2012, I got addicted to swiping to-dos off the super-minimalist Clear app, and when I got lazy about doing the stuff on it, imposed a 50/10 rule on myself. Tell us about the productivity hacks that you’ll be trying out in the New Year, and check out these (totally manageable!) tips from other successful, super-productive members of the Fast Company community here:

Keep Email From Crushing You With “OHIO”  That stands for “only handle it once”--a technique that’s espoused by productivity expert Bob Pozen and practiced by Huge CEO and Fast Company contributor Aaron Shapiro.

“No ‘I’ll respond later’ is allowed,” Shapiro says. “Responding later means you take three times longer to get through your email than taking care of it the first time, because responding later means you have to waste time finding and rereading that email... or even worse, the time wasted reminding yourself over and over to get to that message.” Full Story »

While playing the piano, meeting friends for a soccer game, and chopping wood could be spontaneous activities, for the busiest people, you have to make an appointment to go off the grid as surely as to go on it. If you have a three-year-old, for instance, and you wish to chop wood, you need to make sure someone else is dealing with the child so he doesn’t decide to “help” you. That requires thinking through your plan for the day and communicating it with your partner or someone else who might watch the child, or even just sticking him in front of the TV so he doesn’t stick himself anywhere near the axe. Playing the piano for hours means making a commitment not to call an equally busy client or look over endless project plans at that time. Eating dinner somewhere lovely often requires a reservation. Any parent knows it’s near impossible to get a Saturday night sitter on Saturday. Going to worship services often requires getting up and getting dressed at a certain time. Failing to think through what you wish to do on the weekend may make you succumb to the “I’m tired” excuse that keeps you locked in the house and not doing anything meaningful within it--even though we draw energy from meaningful things.

And so we come to the insight on weekends that I find people resist: a good weekend needs a plan. Not a minute-by-minute plan, not a spreadsheet full of details, but just a few fun anchor events sketched in ahead of time. Indeed, some research is finding that skipping the planning stage means cutting yourself off from the major mechanism via which weekends can deliver joy. Full Story »

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak with my friend Mike Del Ponte, who resembles the character of Joe. Today he launches a Kickstarter campaign for his company Soma, which aims to revolutionize the water industry using sustainable design. (It’s awesome. Check it out.) Surprised by how cool, calm, and collected Mike was so close to launch, I asked him what his secret is.

“Every day I need physical energy, mental clarity, and emotional balance to tackle everything that comes my way,” Mike said. “Self-care is the secret to performing at the highest level.”

Here are the six simple rituals he uses to perform at his highest, which you too can begin implementing right away:

1. Drink a glass of water when you wake up. Your body loses water while you sleep, so you’re naturally dehydrated in the morning. A glass of water when you wake helps start your day fresh. When do you drink your first glass of water each day? Full Story »

The Cape Times, a newspaper in South Africa, demonstrates how close it is to the news as it happens, by showing the only way you could be closer.

Taking a self-picture, or in the regrettable parlance of our times, selfie, removes all distance between the subject and the person capturing it. It might not be the most obvious premise for a brand promise, but that’s where we are. In the same way that cameras couldn’t possibly get any closer to the sailor kissing his best girl on V-J Day unless he was snapping the picture himself, The Cape Times couldn’t be any closer to the news unless they were making it. (Actual physical proximity may vary.)

Created by agency Lowe Cape Town, the ads put a funny modern spin on visual history. Have a look through them all in the slide show above. Full Story »

Facebook & Too Many Meetings Top the List of Employee Time-Wasters

A Facebook status update here, a Tweet there and finding that perfect dinner recipe on Pinterest. In this day and age most jobs require a computer, most computers have the Internet and distractions to workers are plentiful. But how much time do employees waste visiting personal websites that aren’t work-related during the day? And on a more philosophical note, should that really be considered a “waste” of time?

We surveyed more than 3,200 people from February to March 2012 to find out.

In this era of constant connectivity, the Internet is forever at our disposal via laptops, smartphones and tablets. Ideally, that’s fantastic news for employers because employees can take their work with them wherever they go. But the flip side is the constant temptation to slack off. Of the people we surveyed, 64 percent said they visit non-work related websites every day during work hours. However, that number is down nearly 10 percent from the last time we conducted this survey in 2008. With so many jobs lost in the last four years, it’s likely employees have less time to waste because they’re spending more time on their added job responsibilities. Full Article »

It’s hard to believe, but George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, Jane, his wife -- and Astro, everyone’s favorite space dog -- are now 50 years old.

The show was futuristic in its own right: When it bowed in the early 60′s, it was the first color show to ever air on ABC. But it was the quirky technological advances that the Hanna Barbera show imagined human beings using -- from robot maids to flying cars -- that really formed the backdrop of the show and kept viewers interested.

In honor of The Jetsons’ 50th anniversary, we decided to take a look to see how far we’ve come. And based on where we are so far, by 2062, the year the show is set in, we may just achieve all that the show’s writers envisioned and then some. One thing that’s massively important to us today and wasn’t reflected that way on the show is our powerful mobile phone technology and the importance to us of how small those devices have become, as well as what they permit -- constant access to the internet (not conceived back then) and a variety of useful apps. Full Article »

Business may be all about money, but the currency that’s traded inside every organization is respect. If you command respect, people listen when you talk and take action when asked. If you don’t command respect, well, everyone’s just laughing behind your back. Contrary to popular belief, a fancy job title never commands respect. In fact, there are six, and only six, ways to earn respect:

1. Be Authentic

People will not respect you when they know you’re pretending to be somebody or something you’re not. Human beings have a natural ability to detect fakery and see fakers as untrustworthy, insecure, and ultimately insignificant. On the other hand, humans are always drawn to individuals who truly are what they seem to be. Being yourself (and at your best) is therefore the foundation for earning respect. Full Article »

In an article for October’s Vanity Fair, author Michael Lewis explored some of these behind-the-scenes details of President Obama’s daily life. To prepare for the article, Lewis spent six months in close company of the president — playing in his high-energy basketball games, sitting up front in Air Force One, and chatting with him whenever the president had a free moment.

There was one particular question that Lewis asked repeatedly of President Obama. Lewis presented the president with the following scenario: “Assume that in thirty minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. Prepare me. Teach me how to be president.”

The president first touted the necessity of daily exercise — a habit that I endorse wholeheartedly. But what he said next was even more interesting: “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” Full Article »

IN December 2008, Georgette Kaplan and her two daughters, Stephanie and Jamie, felt as if they were receiving a wonderful holiday gift.

Products from their personal-care company, Ms. & Mrs., were going to be showcased on “The View,” the ABC talk show, as part of its seasonal gift guide. Giddy with anticipation, the women huddled around a television in their Chicago office on the day of the broadcast as heavy snow fell outside.

Then it happened: their company, which makes cleverly packaged items like the Shemergency Kit, a brightly colored pouch containing breath freshener, earring backs, blotting tissues and other “emergency essentials” — was misidentified as Mr. & Mrs. on national television.  

“It was kind of like, ‘Ugh,’ ” said Stephanie Kaplan, the company’s creative director. “It was one of those moments when you realize, ‘Wow, this is really a problem.’ ” Full Article »

When Joel Simkhai came out of the closet at age 18, he was worried about what kind of professional future he could have as an openly gay man.

“One of my problems was I thought I couldn’t be as successful,” Simkhai says. “That’s partially because I didn’t have any gay role models who were very successful and in high-profile jobs.”

Now, as founder and CEO of the location-based gay social network, Grindr, which has more than 4 million users in 192 countries, Simkhai has become the very example of success that he says he never had.

The fact is: Sexuality remains a sensitive subject in big corporate environments, especially among C-suite executives. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that there’s not a single openly gay CEO on the Fortune 1000 list. Even those who are widely reported to be gay, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, have never publicly admitted it, a phenomenon often referred to as “the glass closet.” Full Article »

Are you a night owl? If so, you’re probably less happy and less productive than morning people.

In a recent study published in the American Psychological Association journal Emotion finds that “larks”—people who wake up early—have a more positive affect than “owls”--those who prefer staying up late at night. Additionally, the study revealed that morning people reported feeling healthier than night owls. Full Article »

In the months before a US Presidential election, the quality of political discourse hits new lows. Blue State/Red State tropes dominate the news cycle as the media gins up outrage over perceived injustices in the culture wars. It’s all about our differences. So I started wondering, how do Americans really think about “those people” in other states? What are the most common stereotypes? For each of the fifty states and DC, I asked Google: “Why is [State] so ” and let it autocomplete. It seemed like an ideal question to get at popular assumptions, since “Why is [State] so X?” presupposes that X is true. Full Article »

You’re ambitious, hardworking and smart. Your resume is polished, your cover letter is relevant and you’re networking. Yet, you’re still getting rejected from every job you apply for. Sound familiar? If so, you may be ignoring one of these unwritten rules of job searching.

1. Be organized  Use a label for all job-search-related emails. Use a program like SpringPad or Excel to track all the positions and organizations you’re interested in, all the resources you use and all the people you meet with. You can also get extra fancy and track other data such as date of application, date of interview and related contacts. Full Article »

Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection.

But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number—a couple’s lifetime cost of being gay. Full Article »

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender retirement community (LGBT) has set aside more money for retirement than the general population and believes its retirement spending needs will be substantially larger as well. According to a recent survey by Wells Fargo, the median LGBT retiree has saved $450,000, compared with $350,000 for a national sample of retirees. Whereas the median national retiree thinks he or she needs a median of $500,000 in savings, the median LGBT retiree believes he or she will require $800,000. Full Article »

When you use compassionate communication in your conversations, something quite surprising occurs: both your brain and the brain of the person you’re talking to begin to align themselves with each other. This special bond is a phenomenon referred to as “neural resonance,” and in this enhanced state of mutual attunement, two people can accomplish remarkable things together. Why? Because it eliminates the natural defensiveness that normally exists when people casually converse. Full Article »