Hasta La Ideas

The month of December is a notoriously unproductive time of the work year. Clients, vendors, and co-workers are off on vacations, attending holiday parties, or perpetually snacking on cookies and flavored popcorn in the office kitchen. Getting someone to weigh in on a decision or to complete his portion of a project can be — or at least seem like — an impossible task.

To reduce your frustrations and keep the proverbial ball rolling, try these techniques for managing your workflow during this hectic month:

• Communicate. Find out exactly when your clients, vendors, bosses, and co-workers will be available and in their respective offices. Mark this information on your calendar, and remember that many people mentally check out the day before they leave on vacation.
• Manage expectations. Let everyone you’re responsible to know when you will be in the office. Additionally, regularly update people of your work progress so they can better manage their time. If you fall behind on a project, let people expecting work from you know as quickly as possible.
• Set small deadlines. Now is not the time of year to take on the Next Big Thing. As much as you can manage, set small, achievable deadlines and save the larger projects for the spring.
• Set realistic deadlines. Double or triple your expected work times. If it usually takes you three hours to write a weekly report, give yourself six hours — especially if other people are involved in reviewing your work.
• Tackle your mindless work. Let’s be honest, your motivation tanks in December, too. Instead of goofing off and getting nothing done, actually finish the mindless responsibilities on your to-do list (filing, returning phone calls, filing out forms).

What tips and tricks do you employ in December to stay productive? Share your advice in the comments.

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Here’s one of the more interesting green initiatives I’ve seen recently, enacted by Denmark’s Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers hotel earlier this year: Guest-powered electricity, with rewards. The hotel will actually feed you for free if you generate some juice for them.

The 366-room Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, one of the world’s greenest hotels, is taking efficient energy production one step further by installing electricity producing bicycles in its gym for guests to use. Anyone producing 10 watt hours of electricity or more for the hotel will be given a locally produced complimentary meal encouraging guests to not only get fit but also reduce their carbon footprint and save electricity and money.

Guests using the new electric bicycles will be able to monitor how much electricity they’re producing via iPhones mounted on the handle bars. Avid fitness fans can also race against the hotel’s solar panel system in a bid to produce the most electricity.

This reminds me of the Netherlands’ Sustainable Dance Club, whose exportable Sustainable Dance Floor, you guessed it, generates juice from boogeying club-goers:

It’s pretty ingenious, and the only gripe I have with it is that in its current iteration, it generates electricity whether you dance well or dance badly. And that just doesn’t seem right.

John Travoltage

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Given the crossover between creative types and fancy bikes, London cycle shop Push could be onto a winner with its new art club, selling cycling themed posters

Starting from December 11, Push will be selling original screenprinted posters in editions of 30 at £30 each. Half of the profits will go to the artist and half will go to the Brain Tumour Trust, we are promised.

The first five posters to go on sale are by Riccardo Guasco (above), Jean Jullien (below)

Rami Niemi

Richard Cooper

and Sheer Power

More details here

Bespoke Innovations is a San-Francisco-based firm founded by industrial designer Scott Summit and orthopedic surgeon/engineer Dr. Kenneth Trauner. Bespoke is using rapid prototyping to make a product with surprisingly little competition in the marketplace: Personalized prosthetics that not only work well, but look freaking cool.

“A current prosthetic is an amazing piece of engineering and research, but it’s half of the equation,” says Summit, featured in the NY Times video on rapid prototyping below. “A person is about form and shape and beauty and sensuality. That won’t be reached by an assemblage of off-the-shelf mechanical parts.”

Stepping in to fill the void, Bespoke makes kick-ass prosthetics using RP. If a person is missing just one leg, Bespoke can scan the other, mirror it in CAD, and crank out a counterpart; further production methods can then be applied to the prosthetic, like chrome-plating and/or wrapping it in leather that’s been etched with tattoo-like patterns. The end result becomes something that the user would be proud to leave visible, rather than hide underneath pant legs.

Hit the jump to read Bespoke’s well-reasoned mission statement.

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The Temporium: Spanish designer Cristian Zuzunaga will be selling these scarves printed with a pixel-like pattern at our pop-up store The Temporium in London next month.

Called Alchemy, the collection of ten designs are digitally printed onto Italian silk.

The Temporium runs from 9-19 December at 221 Brompton Road, London SW3 2EJ. Click here for full details plus a list of participating designers and brands.

The information below is from Zuzunaga:

Zuzunaga presents Alchemy silk scarf collection

Alchemy consists of ten designs in various sizes, all digitally printed on to high quality silk and made in Italy. All the designs are constructed from pixels – the designer’s trademark pattern.

About Cristian Zuzunaga

Barcelona-born, London-based Cristian Zuzunaga studied Typo/Graphic Design at the London College of Communication followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art in London, where he started exploring the use of pixels to produce unique colourful visual landscape.

About Zuzunaga

Zuzunaga is a London-bsed company specialising in unique interiors and fashion accessories. Our mission is to create beautiful, colourful products that encapsulate the complexity of modern-day city living. Drawing inspiration from supermodern architecture and the way cities like London, New York and Shanghai function, our designs reflect the unique characters and architectonic shapes of today’s global cities.

We believe in quality over quantity and uphold sustainable and ethical ways of working while aways valuing handmade craft over mass-produced, trend-following products. Finally, we believe in collaboration – because working with others makes you challenge yourself to create better and more inspiring designs. Welcome to our colourful world!

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Paperself at The Temporium	Lee Broom at The Temporium	Undergrowth Design at The Temporium