We all reach a point at work where we have time on our hands. Sometimes it’s just a couple of hours. Sometimes it may be longer. Either way, working or not, you’re still on the clock – and the payroll. Things like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and other social media portals give us plenty of ways to fill time, but they don’t necessarily fill the company coffers.

It’s vital to remain productive even (and especially) when things get a bit slow. You may think you have no work to do, but you’re wrong. What you have is a perfect opportunity to work on coming up with new ideas.

Down time is the perfect time to catch up on your business periodicals and check up on what the competition is doing. Take a look at industry web sites. You’re almost guaranteed to find something you can put to use for your clients. Look at your own website. Does it still accurately represent your brand? Just like anything else that doesn’t get regular attention, web sites can quickly gather dust.

Try on a new hat and change your mind-set. If you’re in management, grab a fedora from the creative department and think about new ad ideas for your clients. Conversely, if you’re a writer, art director or some other type of “creative” person, put a ten-gallon account executive hat or public relations’ Stetson on your creative mind and try to come up with fresh ways to prospect for new clients and expand your current accounts. 

The point is there’s no such thing as free time at work. Find productive ways to keep yourself occupied and you’ll probably find you keep your job, as well.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 9:56 am and is filed under Risdall Marketing Group. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.