Supplies For Staying Efficient On the Job

Sometimes it feels like there’s too much work to do and not enough time to get it done. When the pile gets too high, it’s easy to panic, which can slow things down further. Instead, take a step back and think of ways to be more efficient and handle the load better. Building off our prior advice for setting goals and organizing your work space, putting them together can set you on the road to efficient habits. Having the right stock of supplies helps too. Here are two tools to help you get the most out of your time.

C-Line Shop Ticket Holder

Shop ticket holders have been around forever and were designed for warehouses, factories, and other large facilities with a lot of workers constantly on the move. Holders have holes for hanging and sheets can easily be swapped in and out. They also have a hidden feature making them perfect for using at your desk: the vinyl covers work as a dry-erase surface. You can use them to make reusable checklists, to-do lists combining routine tasks with unique jobs, or any assignment where you have to answer the same questions repeatedly. Just insert a sheet with the parts that stick around and write whatever is temporary. You’ll even avoid desk clutter by hanging it on your wall.

Victor 1180-3A Desktop Calculator

We’ve emphasized clearing your desk of all but the daily essentials. You might think shoving off a calculator is a smart move. After all, you’ve got one on your computer and your phone. But if you are regularly playing with numbers, especially outside of spreadsheets, you’ll want to keep it around and it may even stay on your desk. Pulling a calculator app on your computer pulls you away from the window you’re working on and opens another one. Your monitor(s) should be treated like your desk with only the important stuff on it at any given moment. Meanwhile, your phone is a minefield of potential distractions. Keep a desktop calculator within reach, preferably one with nice big buttons like the Victor 1180-3A, so you can make quick calculations without leaving your screen or losing focus.

Fine Addition

Do they still teach kids how to use adding machines? The ones that evolved differently from calculators and had to be keyed in a different order, such as pressing the subtract button after the number you're trying to subtract? Without prior warning, those things can throw you for a loop. Before my schooling days, there were times when I desperately needed to do some subtracting and sat down to an adding machine without being in on the joke. Imagine this young lad's shock when I not only ended up with a negative number, but heard a jolting whir as my shamefully incorrect data was printed out for all to see.

Nowadays, all the kids have calculators on their iPhones and can perform basic subtraction operations to their heart's desire. If I had an iPhone, that's all I'd use it for. But my mistakes as a youth illustrate the significance of one of Victor's latest achievements in calculator/adding machine technology: a Help button.

Victor PL8000 Printing Calculator

What makes the Help button really work is the alpha-numeric display. Messages are clearly shown on the LCD display. You don't even have to turn the calculator upside-down to read it. In fact, you can even customize messages for printing, producing make-shift receipts. You can also calculate loan payments, cost/sell/margin and time units, plus program two tax rates and a currency exchange. Set your rate of choice and go from working with American dollars to Turkish lira at the drop of a fez. With all this, no wonder there's a Help button.

Victor 1310 Big Print Calculator

Victor has several other calculators with nifty features, like this machine that can print in a 17 point font. Most calculators only go up to 11. Given how old I feel from the earlier story and how I spend all my free time doing basic arithmetic, my eyes are going to give out soon and this will help me continue subtracting well into my elder years.

Victor TUFFCALC Calculator

After the flooding we had in town last week, a water-resistant calculator sounds like another great idea. It holds up well in the elements, so you can stand outside in a storm and calculate just how crazy you are. It does not protect you from the elements, however, so please find shelter once your calculations are complete.