From Lisa – The Zen of Toshiba

“Ommm…”

A few years ago we began leasing a new copier – the Toshiba E-Studio 2540c. It’s not fancy, but certainly satisfies our copier wishes well enough. Of course, as with all technology, it needs a timeout once in a while when it freezes up for no apparent reason. And so, we happily perform the universal cure of turning it off and back on again, which usually does the trick.  The other timeout thing it does is it goes to sleep if we aren’t using it for a while and then takes about 30 seconds or so to turn back on, which, when in a hurry, can feel like forever. The other day, while I was impatiently waiting at the copier I decided instead of rushing back to my office to accomplish another quick task, I’d wait and take a timeout myself.

September at Touchstone feels like the start of the New Year, and I always make some resolutions about things I need to move forward in the new season. In addition to these larger, long-term goals, I also make smaller, “work smarter” resolutions. These smaller ideas, which I come up with to help my workload and stress level, tend to snowball, because I end up making too many resolutions. Singly they would be achievable, but when taken on all together, I set myself up for failure.

So this year, my “work smarter” resolution is simple! Whenever I go to the copier to copy something and it is asleep, instead of pressing the Start button and then immediately rushing off to do something else while the copier wakes up, I will wait and enjoy the down time. I will take a few deep breaths and remind myself how nice (and productive) it is to be still for a moment. Once I accomplish this without thinking about it, then I’ll move onto another simple work smarter resolution. Wish me luck!