Ever have a tedious phone meeting to endure? Ever get caught with your brain on another topic during one of these things?
Meeting Chair: So, NM, what do you think?
NM: I think I really need a red five.
Hey, we've all done it, it's called multi-tasking. We're just trying to do something productive or entertaining while suffering through an obligatory conference call that doesn't require 100% of our attention.
Here's an idea that will relax you and focus your attention on the call *just enough* to get through the meeting, all while allowing you to soak up some actually meaningful information.
Computers and modern telecommications were supposed to make us more productive. Instead, they've opened up a whole new world to lure our brains down endless ratholes, scatter our attention and waste our time.
Yet we wouldn't have it any other way. We can now attend business meetings in our skivvies, for example. No shower, no makeup, no hair gel, no commute, even no getting out of bed! No complaints about that.
But the meetings haven't gotten any better, have they? Still boring. Still monumentally stressful just to be stuck in them.
Next time you're stuck in a teleconference from home, try turning to an old standby: paint-by-number.
It is a real stress reliever. It doesn't matter that the product is a kitschy mess, it's the process that works.
Holding the brush steady. Filling in the right colors. Loading and spreading the paint just so. Ahhhhhh!
It almost makes the person who is yammering on ad nauseum bearable. That and the mute button so they can't hear you yawn.
But one more picture of a lighthouse or a dolphin isn't edifying. Paint-by-number needs to upgrade its offerings with meaningful geography and sociology.
How about some of these for paint-by-number sets? Fun and educational!
Kids of all ages can learn as they paint! No talent required.
Where are Turkmenistan, Eritrea and Bahrain?
http://www.worldatlas.com/...
Where's Osama?
http://images.google.com/...
Economic stress map of the US
http://hosted.ap.org/...
Poverty maps
http://www.povertymap.net/...
One of my favorites, because it makes me feel like Nebraska is a pretty nice place to live.
US map of the Seven Deadly sins:
http://www.wired.com/...
Or anything else you might want, from the gumshoe librarians:
http://www.llrx.com/...