The Office Playground Blog

Host Your Own Office Olympics

Are you one of the estimated 28 million viewers watching the 2010 Winter Olympics? Do you dream of being an elite athlete competing against the best of the best for the gold? Or maybe you just wish you were there at the games in the heat of the action. I'm a little of both. In the past, I loved to compete in sports and I was fortunate to attend a live event at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

There is really something special about this sporting event that brings the world together. Let's check out the current medal count for the top three leaders. Go USA!

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
United States	6	5	7	18
Germany	4	4	3	11
Norway	3	3	2	8
(Results as of 8:00am PST, 2/19/10. Source: Comcast.net)

You can get into the Olympic spirit and bring your co-workers together by hosting your own Office Olympics. Compete against your colleagues (and even your boss) for some friendly competition. Pull out your snowboards, ice skates, and bobsleds and let the games begin!

Okay, so not everyone has the equipment (and snow) to host a full winter Olympics at work, but there are still plenty of events you can compete in. We know it's not too practical to build a Speed Skating rink in the parking lot. Therefore, we put together some events that you can do in your office.

Competitive Events

Timed Events
See who can find the most objects in the Find It - Sports within a time limit. One person is the player and another verifies the finds.
Liquid Motion Time Trials – Choose a variety of similar liquid motion timers and have each person flip them over at the same time. The person with the timer that finishes first wins. (This one is great because there is no skill required.)

Competitive Sports
Get an Air Hockey Table and players win the best 2 out of 3. Set it up tournament style.
Slingshot Animal Shooting – Fire off slingshot animals for distance and for accuracy.

Skilled Events
The Basket Case Hoop Game is a hoot. We did it at our office during the Office Playground Summer Games; it takes a steady hand to get them all in.
Whack-A-Mouse – who can get the most whacks in.
Dartboard Toss is easy. Set up a dartboard and aim for the target.

Off to the Races
Line up a bunch of wind-up toys and send them racing. Race the same styles against each other or mix it up by doing a variety of styles. Place bets on who will win. (Or maybe not, office gambling is probably frowned upon. And while we're at it, steroids probably won't help participants wind faster.)

Puzzle Solving
Find out who can solve a given puzzle in the fastest time. We recommend the Puzzle Pen for beginners and a Rubik's Cube for puzzle masters.

Design your Own
Be creative and develop your own games to match your tastes and co-worker skill levels. Check out the Sports & Games category to get started.

Once you decide on your events, set up game stations and assign point values to each activity. Have folks go in groups of two or three to each event simultaneously. People rotate through each station and post their scores as they complete a game. Keep a scoreboard on the wall. Tally up the points at the end and award 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. You can also give out consolation prizes to everyone who participates.

Speaking of prizes, adding a reward enhances the competition and encourages people to be more playful and to have fun. You can be creative with your prizes and here are some suggestions:

• An extra paid day off.
• Gift certificate to Office Playground, Inc.
• Extended lunch break.
• Gift certificate for a local store or restaurant.
• Higher end office toys (Zen Garden, Newton's Cradle or Stellanova, to name a few).
• The office toys you used during competition.
• Awards to post on the desk. Who doesn't love bragging rights?

Serve up some lunch or have folks bring a potluck. It's fairly easy to put together some games and it is a lot of fun. At Office Playground, we host an annual Summer Olympics and have a blast each year. And you may remember that hilarious episode of The Office.

Whether you win or lose, we hope you enjoy being more playful at work.

Playfully,

Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy
OfficeToyGuy@OfficePlayground.com

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

Top 10 Toys that Promote Creativity

How important is creativity in your job? Being "creative" and thinking "outside of the box" are huge business buzzwords these days. We don't claim to be business consultants who can help you creatively "re-engineer, re-organize or re-invent" your business model. We do claim to be experts at playing with creative toys at work. We believe that if you can express creativity with desk toys daily, the bigger picture stuff will fall into place naturally. To make sure you have the right creativity toys on your desk or meeting room table, we have compiled a list of our Top 10 Toys that Promote Creativity.

Often, it's hard to have a breakthrough moment when you are focusing too hard on finding a solution. By playing with toys, you actively work your brain while giving your subconscious a chance to come up with the answer. With these fun office toys, you can maintain a clever and productive mind while creating sculptures, shapes or designs from putty, magnetic art, or buildable puzzles. Have a pumped up brainstorming session with a fun shaped wipe-off board. Take your drawings and doodles to the next level with a pin art board, magnetic drawing board, or Wikki Stix.

Check out our Top 10 Toys that Promote Creativity. What will you create?

		Magnetic Cubism
		Human Pyramid - Color
		Thinking Putty - Chameleon
		Wikki Stix
		Ball of Whacks - Red
		Incrediwall - Talk Bubble 24x18
		Executive Sandbox - Day at the Beach
		Finger Drums
		Etch A Sketch Keychain
		Pin Art - Metal 5x7"

Are you inspired? Send us a photo of your creation using a product from Office Playground for the chance to win a free surprise gift. Send entries to officetoyguy@officeplayground.com by 2/28/2010. Click here for more details.

Playfully,

Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy
OfficeToyGuy@OfficePlayground.com

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

New Year's Resolutions or Vices?

Now that 2009 has come and gone, I'm thinking about my 2010 New Year's Resolutions and how much I really can't stand them. Everybody resolves to do the same old feel good self-improvements, such as lose weight or learn something new. You don't usually hear New Year's Resolutions like "I'm going to take up smoking" or "I've decided to eat cake every single day." What if your New Year's Resolution was to start a new vice?

Of course, I'm not recommending you actually start a vice in 2010 (we want you to be happy and healthy, after all). Just be a little more playful this year and have some lighthearted fun with your co-workers. As a joke, it would be funny to tell folks you have a New Year's Vice. We assembled some of our best vice related office toys to assist you in your quest to bring humor to the office. Put some of this stuff on your desk to get a few good laughs.

As you reflect on the past year, can you honestly say you enjoyed it as much as possible? Did you smile enough? Have you shared enough laughs with the folks in your life? Now is the time to relieve yourself of some stress and have a bit of fun. Are you going to start a New Year's Resolution or adopt a New Year's Vice?

Playfully,

Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy
OfficeToyGuy@OfficePlayground.com

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

How Scary is Your Office?

It’s the time of year where ghosts, witches and goblins are making plans for their favorite day of the year, Halloween. Have you let them visit your desk yet?

Halloween isn’t just for children dressed as spooky (or sometimes adorable) creatures, going door-to-door asking for candy; you can have just as much fun at work! This year, bring the spirit of Halloween to the office. Here are some ideas for making your workplace "spooktacular"!

• Decorate your desk or cubicle walls with a row full of smiling pumpkins
• Host a number of spooky Halloween contests: Scariest Costume, Jack-o-Lantern Carving, Pumpkin Seed Spitting, and Best Decorated Desk
• Hide fake giant spiders in your co-workers’ desk drawers
• Ask each of your co-workers "Trick or Treat?" Give those who say "treat" a piece of candy; pull a fun office prank on everyone else
• Host a Halloween Fright Wind-Up race
• Bring a large bowl of Halloween candy to share or bake a batch of Halloween cookies

Adding a little Halloween spirit to your workplace can make your day a little more exciting and everyone a little happier. Try out some of our ideas and let us know how it goes!

Image courtesy of Elvia Dametto.

Business Decisions

Bad business decisions are something every company tries to avoid, but they happen. Some legendary ones include the makers of M & M's decision to not allow their candy to appear in the movie ET. Reese's Pieces were used instead and the sales exploded. Jerry Yang decided to walk away from Microsoft and missed out on receiving $44.6 billion of Bill Gates' money. Many book editors rejected the Harry Potter book series and Decca Records had the opportunity to sign the Beatles and didn't.

An example of important decision making can be shown through choosing stock investments. The Chicago Sun-Times wanted to illustrate the often chance nature of picking stocks, so they had a monkey sit on newspaper stock pages and make marks on five stocks. As of January 2007, the stock-picking monkey had beaten the market four years running.

If you don't have the resources to hire a monkey, perhaps a fortune-telling item such as the Wall Street Guru Ball, the Mystical Orb, or the time honored Magic 8 Ball may help. The Dartboard Decision Maker is a fun and active alternative.

Next time you're faced with a landmark decision, give the Affirmation Ball a shake; its response might be "Brilliant Idea!" However, the Sarcastic Ball might warn "Not a Chance!" and the Wall Street Guru might suggest "Ride it Out". The Dartboard Decision Maker offers many options. Give it a spin and toss the dart, which might land on "Take a Vacation," "Stay Late," "Call a Meeting," "Hire" or "Retire". A fortune telling ball or decision maker may not offer the appropriate advice, but it's sure to generate some lighthearted stress relief.

Is the Lunch Break Going Extinct?

Today, it seems that the "lunch hour" is the biggest myth of office life. Many workplace experts suspect that even those workers who are allotted a half hour for lunch, often never leave their desks.

The move to shorter or non-existent lunches is in some cases self-imposed. Many workers remain at their desk and graze throughout the day. Those who do leave the office often dash around doing errands, especially women who must rush from work to pick up children. People are just too busy these days to take a leisurely lunch. They want to finish their work and leave at a reasonable hour so they can have some quality time with family and friends.

Giving up your lunch break could actually diminish your productivity, causing you to end up putting in more hours in the long run. The brain needs a rest in order to maintain concentration. Joe Takash, a business consultant, claims lunch breaks can "help boost creativity and profits."

People need the mid-day break. "They need to eat," demands Kathleen Hall, a stress and work-life balance expert. "Food boosts mental and physical productivity and regulates moods. Certain foods can also fight anxiety, stress and panic, which is good if you're having an especially difficult day."

Popular among younger employees, is lunch break computer games. Available online, these free games offer short, fun, stimulating diversions, but they don't provide a leisurely environment to eat lunch. Remember, the human body needs food, fresh air, exercise and relaxation to perform at its best.

Top image courtesy of Ziv Pugatch. Bottom image courtesy of Matt Seppings.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month

Since 1983, May has been observed as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Individuals and organizations everywhere have joined in the fun to promote awareness of the value of physical activity in the pursuit of happier, healthier, more productive lives.

Many people spend most of their work week sitting at a desk. "We are made to move, not sit at a desk 12 hours a day," says Joan Price, author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book. "As ergonomic as your desk or chair may be, sitting produces back pains, headaches, and listlessness. You become less productive." The Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day, but with today's hectic schedules, even 30 minutes of exercise can be difficult to squeeze into a busy day. Micro workouts are a step in the right direction. Get in a few minutes of exercise right at your desk. Three minutes of exercise ten times in a day at work and you've done your required thirty minutes of exercise. There are exercises you can do at your desk. Stretching is good for your neck and back and it can be done while sitting. (Read more about stretching at your desk.)

Zig Ziglar is an author and famous motivational speaker focused on inspiring true performance in the corporate world. He said "for every five minutes of exercise you do, you'll get back fifteen minutes of productivity". L.L. Bean recently tested this theory. They provided their workers with three five minute exercise breaks. At the end of the day when they measured productivity, they found that they had gained thirty minutes in output.

The key to exercise and physical activity is fun and convenience. At work, do fun activities during breaks such as play office golf, magnetic darts or a quick game of air hockey. At lunch time, take a walk or play catch with a Nerf ball in the parking lot. Walk up and down stairs rather than using the elevator. If you ride a bus, get off a few blocks early and walk the remaining distance. At home, take advantage of summer's long hours of daylight and warm evenings by enjoying sunset walks or bicycle rides. Working in the garden or playing games with the children can be a great way to end a day.

Office Playground offers scores of choices to help you score on the exercise scale. Add fun physical activity to your day with Indoor Sports Games, Sports Balls, Basketball Hoop games, Magnetic Dart Games, Disc Shooters and Safe Shooters. At your desk use Therapy Balls for hand and arm exercises.

Images courtesy of About.com © Anne Asher 2006-2007 licensed to About.com

Relieve Work Related Stress with Office Toys!

Work is often accompanied by a fair amount of stress. We still have a job to do, so it is important to manage some of this workplace stress and remain focused on our tasks.

Office toys can help you cope and keep you calm. The products available at www.OfficePlayground.com are intended to make you feel good. Silly stress balls, such as Sir-Squeeze A Lot and Monkey Groan Ball make you laugh. Mr. Bill, Magic 8 Ball and Slinky are cool vintage stress relievers that remind you of happy childhood memories. Raking the sand of a Zen Garden or listening to the click-clack of a Newton's Cradle can send you into a mini-meditation. Icky stress relief balls like the Blob Brain or Gurgling Gutz will give you a good gross out. While Tangle Relax Therapy and IsoFlex are therapeutic toys designed to help you release tension. So, don't forget to take a break from all the chaos around you to refocus your mind and do something that makes you smile.

Why is smiling so important? Because a smile can go a long way towards making you optimistic. A smile relieves stress, helps you stay positive, causes other people to smile and makes you feel better. When you start smiling on the outside, pretty soon you will start smiling on the inside.

You don't have to spend a lot to put a smile on your face. Stress toys pack a big punch for a small price. Our office toys have a positive effect on people because they are fun distractions full of stress relieving power.

The folks here at Office Playground, Inc. aren't scientists or psychologists; we just know what makes us happy. We are people like you with every day challenges and pressures. But, we still want to have fun and keep a positive attitude and we believe that a little bit of play can go a long way in helping you make it through the workday.

Office Playground, Inc. was founded in 1999. Since then, we have been focused on bringing you fun new desk toys and stress relievers at affordable prices. We value your business and our Customer Service team is waiting to answer any of your questions. As we head into our 10th year of business, our goal is to get to know you better so we can continue to bring you the best office toys the market has to offer. (TAKE A QUICK SURVEY!)