I Am Bored 75% of My Work Day

I will admit it. I am bored. Especially when my boss is in a different country and I fibbed and said I have about a gazillion projects to work on while she is away. In short, I spend most of my time 'looking busy' and preoccupying my time by surfing the net and talking to my fellow Working Girls while they are too suffering from the 9 to 5 grind. Looking busy while really putzing around is an art form, one that I feel I have perfected enough to let you in on my secrets. And then, and only then, will I reveal the best sites to scroll around on when bored at your workplace.

First off, open up at at least six or seven programs on your computer. This indicates that you are working on several different things at once and if you happen to be g-chatting with your Working Girl best friend then the people who pass by your desk just assume that you're flipping back and forth between work and your frivolous conversations. No one needs to know that you've actually been chatting with Working Girl One since 9:03 a.m. 

Always makes sure your desk is mildly messy. I say mildly messy desk because 'too messy' tells your boss that you're overwhelmed and therefore not good at handling pressure. But a 'messy enough' desk says you're busy, but not too busy. My boss also requires me to keep a to-do list (please refrain from your chuckles), so I always try to keep that as bulked up as possible so when she roars past my desk she can see all the things I haven't checked off yet. 

The major (said like Posh Spice) trick to looking like you have no time for 'extra projects' (which by the way are my most hated because they mean 'no one else will touch  this with a ten foot pole but you have no say in whether you will touch it because you're an assistant'), is to partake in a little thing I call the Internet (insert oohh's and ahhh's from the peanut gallery). There are many blogs and games that can take up time and look inconspicuous. 

The trick to browsing around the net during work is to pick sites that aren't too flashy or scream 'I'm really reading about useless facts instead of making Excel sheets'. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite 'how to avoid work' websites. 

1. Free Rice - Maybe it's because I'm an English major, but this delights me to no end. The website give you four definitions for a word like 'inception' and you have to guess the best match. Greatest part is that for every word you get correct, the United Nations will donate 20 grains of rice to help end world hunger. 

2. MASH - Not as inconspicuous, but I couldn't resist adding this to my list. And yes, this is the old school kind of MASH where you marry Jonathan Taylor Thomas, live in a shack, drive a garbage truck, and have 100 kids. Play on my friends, play on. 

3. The Pioneer Woman - To put it lightly, I am obsessed with this blog. I could read about her beautifully uncomplicated rural life all day if you asked me to. I have to admit that the credit to finding this blog goes out to Working Girl One.

4. Dlisted - This celebrity blog is one of the less colorful (a.k.a. Pink is the New Blog) and less popular (a.k.a Perez Hilton), so it goes unnoticed when you are reading at work. The blogger is also merciless, evil, and sometimes downright mean, which is exactly how I like my celebrity blogs. 

5. Shop Bop and Bluefly - Two great sites to 'window shop' in. Unfortunately, the price tags on these little numbers only allow me to do that. 

6. Fashion Under $100 - So after I skip around Shop Bop and Bluefly, I trickle onto this site and remind myself that dresses under $50 are more in style for my pocket book. 

And one more Working Girl warning, turn your sound off before you start surfing your way out of boredom.