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What to do when it is slow in the office   by Susan Silva

Most every position has its ups and downs in the amount of workload. As Admins at times we feel overwhelmed, at times we feel bored and hopefully the majority of the time, we feel we have the perfect workload. When you have a down time, do you take advantage of the time? Surfing the internet and cleaning our desks is fine, but here lies the opportunity to learn new things and expand knowledge. You and your company can benefit from the down times! Some ideas for slow days in the office:

• Look around the office, is there something or some procedure you have thought could be streamlined or improved? Maybe a spreadsheet that may just work a bit better in a database? Are there any forms that would be great as an electronic copy? Would your office benefit from a department intranet site to share information?

• Online tutorials are a great option when it gets slow. Pick a topic you would like to enhance your skills and find a free tutorial. Make it a fun search, but one that will enhance your business skills. Desktop publishing is a popular and fun area. Learn to make a creative newsletter or flyer! There are many Excel tutorials, find a fun way to turn learning a more advanced feature of Excel in a project you may enjoy and learn from. Track your workload or incoming phone calls and learn to turn it to different charts and trends!

• Take advantage and get organized! Organize your email! Clean out your files in your desk! Set up folders on your computer and organize your desktop.

Find something that interests you. Then take that interest and look around and see how it can help your office. In the end you will do something you want to be doing and helping your business as well.