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Beautiful Pens are Just the Beginning: Fascinating Gifts for Writers (gifts for writers) Buying gifts is a difficult project in many cases. Sometimes a person seems to already have everything. They may not enjoy the typical gift ideas that come to your mind. To buy the perfect gift, it is essential to actually know a person. A basic understanding of likes and dislikes will help, but passions will guide you to a really great gift. If you cannot come to a conclusion for what to buy for a friend, you can also consult other sources for gift ideas. Following are some ideas for buying gifts for writers. Writers are passionate people. They are passionate about words and about truth. They are also passionate about their subject matter. Is there a writer in your life? By using these guidelines, along with your knowledge about that person, you can come up with an ideal gift that they will treasure. Under Twenty Dollars As suggested by the title, a beautiful pen is almost always an inexpensive and appropriate gift for a writer. Most writers spend much of their time jotting down thoughts and ideas. As they meander through their day, an idea may strike at any time. Give them a quality instrument to facilitate great thoughts. You can also include a personalized pad of paper to hold on to the brainstorms. Another great gift for a writer is a magazine subscription. A good writer needs to keep up with the type of writing that is being published. Sometimes they need a little bit of light reading to keep their creative juices flowing. Choose the magazine based on some interest that you and your friend share. Under One Hundred Dollars If you want to spend a little bit more on gifts for writers, you can start taking your gift buying to a little bit different level. For less than one hundred dollars your options open up. Books are great gifts for writers. You can buy new books in the writer’s area of interest or expertise. He will probably always be ready to expand his own knowledge base. You can also buy reference books. Style manuals are very helpful when a writer has strict guidelines to follow. Your writing friend probably already has a pretty good dictionary, but you can buy them the best one. Thesauruses and literary guides are also interesting gifts to receive. Moving away from words for a bit, a writer would also love to receive an artifact that has to do with their main subject matter. If he is a history buff, try to find an authentic coin from the particular piece of history he finds most fascinating. Under Five Hundred Dollars At the next level of gift buying, your options start expanding into more elaborate forms of previous gifts. Very old and rare books may fall into this price range. Very old or particularly good quality antiques will also be fairly expensive. Gifts for writers also often fall into the category of electronics. Good printers make the writing all that more impressive looking on the page. Software and other hardware for the computer is also a worthwhile gift for a writer that spends most of his day sitting at his computer. A nice digital camera is also a fantastic gift for a writer that wants to remember situations exactly in order to adequately describe them later. Won’t Cost you A Dime Some of the best gifts for writers won’t cost you anything. Many of the more expensive gifts are extremely practical, but the free ones can be that also. The nature of a writing career leads writers to spend a lot of time alone. A good gift is just some company. Take your friend out for dinner with a group of mutual friends. He’ll appreciate the time away from the desk. If he’s been trying to get an interview with someone, you can put the leg work in for him and schedule it. All that will cost you is some time and effort. Not all gifts have to cost money. Good luck finding the perfect one for the writer in your life.

Four Ways to Be a Great Employee Many people in the workforce and go to a job every day face similar problems. These problems include problems such as being a good employee, getting that raise at the end of evaluation period, keeping the job and many more. There are many things that you can do to ensure that you do not get fired or you get the raise that you deserve. Perhaps you just want to learn how to become a model employee. This article will discuss four ways to be a great employee. To be a great employee, your boss first of all wants to see results and good work. If you love your job, giving results, turning projects in on time, mastering difficult assignments is most likely a breeze. But if you are working to make a living and this job is not your dream job, you still need to deliver good work. Often times to be able to deliver your work on time and meet deadlines, it is important to be very organized and efficient. Many employees lack the efficiency needed to do their job right. If your job is a desk job, it might help if you just go ahead and clean up your desk, organize information and get a clear idea of which materials are stored where. A messy desk will leave you searching for the information needed to fulfill your assignment. This takes valuable time out of your schedule, time lost you cannot afford to loose. Another very important way to be a great employee is to be on time and not leave early. Employers like to see their employees arrive at time or just a little bit early, so they know that their employees are ready to start a good days of work when they finally put away their coat and get their coffee. Many of people come in and easily take 15 minutes before really are getting started with work. Employers see this time as a down time of yours and showing your employer that you do care about your work by showing up on time and if needed staying longer, is very much appreciated. If you are almost finished with your assignment, but it is time to go, do not get up, put your jacket on and wait the few minutes left for clocking out. Finish your work then finish your customer call or whatever necessary and then you can leave work. Sleep. Yes, sleep means going to bed early enough to get the necessary rest for your body. A well-rested mind and body makes a great difference. If you are lacking sleep or you are tired at work, you are more likely to make mistakes and forget things. Work is not the place to relax and sleep, but so many of the employees come tired. In some jobs mistakes can be fatal or ruin products worth hundreds and thousands dollars to the company. Another good reason to be rested well is that work will flow easier. You are a nicer person and your happy attitude at work will be recognized by others and is sometimes infectious and can help motivate others. Number four on the list to being a great employee is dressing appropriately. Whether your office has a dress code or not, if you work in an office, wear office appropriate clothing out of respect to your boss, colleagues and customers. Many offices have established dress codes because their employees come with the ripped jeans or dirty shorts while customers could potentially show up at any minute. Nothing makes a worse first impression on a customer than the cloths you wear.

Achieving a Better Family and Work Balance Makes for Better Job Performance Are you constantly working after hours and weekends at the office? Are beginning to forget what your family even looks like? Many people find themselves in this predicament. Work seems to get more and more demanding with every passing day, and to stay on top of your game at work, you feel like you need to put in long hours. The flipside to this is that of course when you are at the office, you are away from home – away from family dinners, play time and your kids’ sporting events or school plays. You may feel like your hands are tied – that no matter how much you want to be more involved with your family life, you have to keep working as hard as ever to make sure your family is provided for in the long run. The truth is, however, that you may be doing yourself a disservice on both fronts. Studies have shown time and again that well rested workers with well balanced lives are more productive in the time they do spend working. In the end, the best way to be a stand out worker at the office is to be fully involved and present in your family live. But wait, you say, “I’m working practically around the clock now, and everything still isn’t getting done.” However, maybe the problem isn’t that you aren’t working hard enough. Maybe the problem instead is that you aren’t working smart enough. Think about the way you spend you working day. Are you taking on more responsibility than you need to, instead of delegating tasks to others? Are you spending a lot of time chatting in the break room when you run for a cup of coffee? Are you procrastinating so that big projects require you to work all-nighters instead of spreading out the work? Keep a journal of all of your activities at work for a few days. You might be surprised to see how you are really spending your time and in what areas you could make improvements. Simply staying on task and delegating effectively could get you home in time for dinner. When you have done everything you can to make your work habits as productive as possible, it is time to turn to other ways to balance your work life and your family life. Rule number one is the hardest one for most people to follow you – draw clear lines of distinction between work time and family time. Family time isn’t really family time if you are constantly on your cell phone making and receiving work calls or if you are on your laptop for the entire family vacation. When you’re working – work. When you’re with your family – concentrate on them. The time you spend actually taking a breather from work will recharge your batteries and make you a better worker when work time rolls around again. Next, you have to evaluate your priorities. Maybe working around the clock will help you make partner faster, but at what cost? Decide if seeing your daughter’s soccer game every week is more important to you than moving up the corporate ladder quickly, and make adjustments in your schedule appropriately. There is no right or wrong answer, but deciding where you priorities lie will make scheduling easier for you. With your priorities in mind, see what work options are available to you to help you meet them. If you want more time with the kids, see if your office offers flex time or part time hours to help you meet your family commitments. Last but not least, don’t feel guilty about taking time with your family. Not only is this time important to your family, you can rest assured that the time out from the office stress will make you more productive when you return to work.