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How Can I Make More Of My Cubicle?
hv writes "I reside in a 10' x 10' space better than 12 hours a day... as do a lot of you. How do you make the most of the space? I'm looking for creative ways to add storage and unclutter the stacks of lab notebooks, USB peripherals and the O'Reilly Zoo that also inhabits my space."
One thing I've found really helps it look neat is that I mounted power strips to the underside of my desk instead of them sitting on the floor. I also cable-tied all my cables up underneat there as well leaving it so you can't really see any cables. Makes it look a whole lot tidier.
FWIW
-- Cameron
All my screwdrivers are cordless.
Get promoted and move your arse to a wall office with a nice view and a hot secretary :)
Most people keep more crap in their cube than they actually need. You can open up a lot of space if you trash or take home the stuff you haven't touched in six months.
> That's no big deal, really. ... You learn to ignore it.
No, you learned to ignore it. Noise (particularly from conversations) is a major distraction for a lot of folks. I think the computer industry loses a tremendous percentage of productivity because it insists on stuffing engineers into cubes rather than giving them offices with doors. I assert without evidence that the increased productivity and increased job satisfaction would more than pay for the extra cost overhead of offices.
Simple. Stay out of it. What the hell are you doing spending 12 hours a day in your cube?
Unless you are part owner (and I don't mean like, you have some options or a bit of stock.. I mean like a HUGE interest in the business), there is no reason for you to be spending 12 hours a day at work. Get a life (I mean that seriously.. you will regret the wasted youth later in life.)
As for 'sprucing up' your cube... why do you need suggestions? Just do what you want, within what your office will allow.
As my guru once said, you aren't doing your job properly if you can't do it between 9 and 5.
Or, get promotoed and move your arse to an area with a nice view OF a hot secretary!
Live plants will do amazing things for your cube. Not only do they bring a little of the 'great outdoors' (that everyone is trying so badly to get to) in to your space, they can actually improve the air quality.
If you go to a Nursery they may have specific indoor plants, or look for 'shade' plants. Spider plants are reliable and tough. Aloe is a good one too, and you can cut off a sprig and squeeze the sap on cuts and burns. If you need a plant with personality to keep you company, try raising a Bonsai Tree.
Start Running Better Polls
Paint it with penguins
Works for me. I pile EVERYTHING on my desk. Know where in the pile the important stuff is. Don't tell anyone else how the pile is arranged. Nobody will touch your stuff for fear of having to clean it up when it falls.
Many people will bitch, but the trick is to know how the pile works. People will ask me for some 'important' piece of paper, assuming it will take an hour to find it. It doesn't. If they complain, the answer is "it only took me a second to get it, what's your problem".
Another good trick is to keep extra cards lying around (I have an abundance of ISA SCSI cards and NIC's. Almost useless, but most people are afraid to touch them. Ergo, my stuff isn't touched.)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
- turn off the fluorescent light above?
- remove the tubes from the fluorescent light above?
- replace the "cool white" tubes with "warm white" tubes in the fluorescent light?
- add a few strategically-placed incandescent spotlights here and there to counter the annoying colour of fluorescent lights?
Just asking...For the love of God, all you poor cubicle workers should quit and work at a place with an atmosphere. A place where you can talk and interact with your co-workers. Go abroad.
Unable to read configuration file '/bigassraid/htdig//conf/14229.conf'
Geocrawler error message.
Never, EVER organize your cubicle. When I started my first sysadmin jobs, one of the older guys gave me the following advice:
Always have a messy cube. This will make people think that you are actually BUSY, and already have too much to do, and may get them to dump new work on someone else. This leaves you more time for things like experimental kernel compiles, mp3s, pr0n, and long lunches.
Ideas for a busy looking cube include:
- Techie books left open. It is best to do this with books you actually use, so that they get moved around. Good choices include Unix in a Nutshell, The UNIX System Administrator's Handbook, and anything related to PERL.
- Coffee mugs. Don't wash old ones, get more from vendors and pile them up.
- Manila Folders. Leave them open too, as if you are actually doing something with the information they contain.
Follow this path, and offload all of your work onto PERL scripts. You will soon be free, as in beer.