What is Alltop you ask? Alltop is a site that takes the best blog feeds from all types of categories and displays them on their site. Their description of what they do goes like this…

Alltop’s Purpose

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — ”aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, celebrity gossip, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the latest five stories from thirty or more sites on a single page — we call this “single-page aggregation.”

You can think of an Alltop site as a “dashboard,” “table of contents,” or even a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points — they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In this way, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation.”

I have officially become a valued source to the work happy industry. I know that to become a self actualized person I shouldn’t need validation from outside sources, but I can’t help it. The inclusion of my blog feed into their site makes me proud.

So take a look around and see if you can discover any other great sites. My recommendations would be…

1. Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
2. Escape from Cubicle Nation
3. Passion, People and Principles
4. Three Star Leadership Blog
5. The Chief Happiness Officer

There are so many great sites and I hate to pick only a few, but I wanted to give you a head start. So check them out and be impressed, and If you don’t want to miss any more of the action from Work Happy Now then subscribe to my blog feed and get your daily work happiness fix.

-

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, it was pointed out to me that my Google PageRank is at a 5. The scale goes from 1 being low to 9 being so crazy good that it makes you pee your pants. Being at a 5 in less than 3 months is pretty good. I want to thank everyone who has left a comment. When you join in with the conversation it makes this blog 10x better. Just think, when this site explodes you’ll be able to say you were there from the beginning. Okay maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but that’s what this site is all about – living your work dreams. Thanks, now it’s back to work leaving comments, editing my next blog, and online networking.

-

Popularity: 1% [?]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’m back from Iceland and I’ve got some great feedback from everyday working Icelanders. We hear how wonderful other countries’ working environments are, but it’s not that different from America. They too have problems with…

• Communication

• Retention of Employees

• Motivating Their Staff

It’s not any easier working in Iceland than it is in America, India, or Australia.

They are paid three times as much as we are paid in America, but they also pay three times as much for their food, gas, and other necessities. It really all balances out. It’s amazing how a free market does that.

Icelanders live very similar to middle class Americans. They live in average size homes and have extra spending money for the movies, a night out, or mini lobsters, lamb, fresh fruit, and a myriad of other wonderful foods.

My uncle works for an Icelandic computer company and he has a work hiking group that he hangs out with every week. This promotes healthiness and camaraderie. I know that we have these clubs in almost every big company. So why are Icelanders working happy?

I believe the culture of their happiness comes from how they treat each other.

They tease each other and aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves. You may wonder, how does this make them happier? When you can laugh at yourself or a co-worker it eases the tension. They don’t hold on to these emotions. They let it go and just move on to the next part of their day. I know not all Icelanders are this way, but many of them are able to laugh off the stress.

I recently wrote a post called Inside Out Shirt Day. At first I wasn’t sure if I should publish it because I might look like a boob. After a minute of running it through my mind I decided to go for it because I’m not perfect and we should understand that mistakes are a part of work. We should learn from these mistakes, but also be able to laugh at them, so it doesn’t feel like the world is going to come crashing down on us.

I know most of us are capable of enjoying a good laugh at other people’s expense, so next time a co-worker makes fun of you, don’t get upset. Why not laugh with them? You’ll be harnessing your inner Viking. Just put your ego aside for that moment and let out that laugh. Just maybe you’ll feel like a working happy Icelander.

What was the last mistake that embarrassed you? Come on, you know you want to share.

-

Popularity: 11% [?]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There are many ways to work happy, but some days can feel like a torture rack, pulling every last bit of joy out of you.

Meetings are a major culprit to unhappiness at work. We can’t all be like Timothy Ferriss of the 4 Hour Work Week and not attend. So what tools do you have that can improve the meetings you must attend?

The Daily Mind wrote a great post about finding happiness in a meeting. He wrote about board meetings, but I think this can apply to almost any meeting you attend.

1. Don’t say a single word

2. Get interested

3. Don’t go

4. Meditate

He wrote a short paragraph on each, but my favorite little gem was from – Get Interested.

…take a bit of an interest in the meeting it can become a wonderful opportunity to make some changes around the office. If you present things in the right way you can often get the ball rolling on something exciting and new.

Almost everyone I know can get a little more involved in improving their company. It may be something as simple as organizing a gathering at the local pub or coffee shop, but whatever it is you’ll feel more engaged. An engaged you is a happier you. A friend told me that. I thought it was a little cheesy, but as you can see it stuck with me.

I would add one more to his list.

5. Take breaks

When you take the time to go to the bathroom or grab a drink you can readjust your thinking. When I’m out of the room I like to think of one thing that I am enjoying about the meeting. Maybe it’s someone’s new mustache that needs to be shaved or the fruit platter. There is always some little thing that attracts your interest besides the material at hand.

Meetings should also be a great place to get things done. If you don’t like how people are sharing ideas or not sharing ideas then speak up. You should try to make these meetings as useful as possible, to you as well as the people you are sharing this time with.

What is your biggest pet peeve about your meetings?

-

Popularity: 16% [?]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites