A Light(box) at the End of the Tunnel

Although I've only been working a 40-hour week now for about two and a half years, I still find it difficult to focus some days. I've made progress and certain days don't even seem like eight hours long, but other days seem like I've been working for 14 hours by 11 o'clock (Editors note—I include a Facebook Status from July 28, 2010 to further illustrate my point: "How the *level one* is it only 11?!! I feel like I've been here for 14 hours already."). I owe my success to several survival tactics I've come up with—one of which I will describe below—

Most projects at my job require some sort of photographic element in order to achieve the esthetic nirvana that all hospital patients are expecting from their healthcare public relations department. Luckily for us, we have www.istock.com, a stock photography site that sells you the rights to thousands upon thousands of professional photos. One very convenient service istock provides is a page on your account called a "lightbox." Simply put, a lightbox is where you can store images that you like but are not planning on purchasing right away. I use mine quite often to store photos of different services (i.e. rehab, surgery) that I come across in case I might need them in the future.

Well, to make a long story even longer...I have a coworker who rarely uses istock. I also have another coworker that manages our account and has created a lightbox page for everyone on the team—including this coworker who doesn't really use it. One day I came across a photo that was really awkward and made me a little uncomfortable. Holly (yet another coworker) and I decided we would put it in Ethan's lightbox. We thought it was really funny (and may or may not have laughed ourselves silly for longer than is normal for two working professionals. Sine that fateful day, I have been adding photos to his lightbox whenever I come across something bizarre.

I don't know what it is about secretly putting weird pictures in a digital folder that is so fun, but I giggle like a little kid every time I think about it. I laugh even harder when I pull up the folder online and shuffle through the collection.

I guess the lesson here is don't let monotony govern your work days. Look for ways to shake things up...even if it's at someone else's expense!

Here are a couple of the gems from my coworker's lightbox for your enjoyment: