Christmas has arrived and I wish everyone a fantastic holiday break. Hopefully you are surrounded my friends and family. If you’re browsing for something to read this crisp, food-filled day, I recommend the following posts. Cheers!

Modern Worker Week in Review - Blogosphere Santa Edition

Holidays Have You Feeling Tired? 5 Tips for Amazing Weekend Sleep

Reboot Your Morning Routine - The Night Before

Start Your Day with Mental Stretches

How to Make and Keep New Year’s Resolutions - Bonus 10 Easy Goals for 2008

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I’m settling into a few days away from my full-time job to relax and celebrate Christmas with family, so needless to say I’m excited to be near my loved ones. It’ll be a good opportunity to recharge my creativity and work on the blog here at Modern-Worker.com

How is everyone’s drafting of New Year’s resolutions coming along? Thus far, I have settled on 5 main, inspiring goals for 2008. Back to the matter at hand; let’s list off the best in self-improvement blogs over the past week.

The Fever of Humanity and the Antidote: Reconciling Self-Love and Self-Improvement

Albert, the net’s Urban Monk, offers up a dish of refreshingly tasty self-realization advice through his caring, insightful writing style.

Who cares about your job title - tell me what you DO!

Alexander, the Chief Happiness Officer, inspires professionals to focus on the work we do in the world and not being tied down to a specific title.

Making the Decision to Improve Our Standard of Living by Spending More

David illustrates the decision we all have to make on whether or not a higher quality of life is worth the hefty price tag. Weigh-in by commenting on this post.

Are You Winding Down A Little Too Much?

Cathering tackles the issues When relaxing become slacking. This n.h.b. blogger injects a swift jump into the ’sphere’s collective step by pointing out the downfalls of extended breaks.

Using Questions To Control Communication

Leon Ho of LifeHack penned a helpful piece on improving talks inside and out of work by posing questions. A must-read.

Don’t Break Your Back! Tips to Healthy Posture

Tina at Think Simple Now hits on a point many office workers ignore… posture. Be good to yourself, read Tina’s article.

The Right Seat on the Right Bus

Sonnie who hails from the Filipines, always produces tough-invoking writing. Bookmark his blog and you’ll be glad you did.

Interested in being featured in the Modern Worker Week in Review? Simply comment on this post.

I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

Photo by: Flickr user benimoto

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I’ve been involved with a lot of design lately at work, and it has been a great source of self-discovery in regards to keeping creativity afloat. Staying increasingly focused has been a fun challenge and new content by some of my favorite bloggers have fueled my productivity fire.

Holiday Gift Guide, Part 4: Frugal Homemade Gifts - Flexo at Consumerism Commentary serves up some great gift-giving notions that keep wallet size in mind while still pleasing the ones you love. As cheesy as it mauy be perceived, a knit sweater is still a great present.

Your Guide to Get Spinning in the Idea Tornado - Tina Su’s blog Think Simple Now has quickly become one of my favorite blogs around. Reading her truthful insight goes down like a warm cup of tea. Enjoy this recent post on how to spurn creativity.

Are You A Doormat? - Catherine Lawson asks us to stand up for ourselves and stop being a doormat. Grab an extra helping of motivation by checking out her article.

Customer Service At Its Best - Thanks SmugMug - Top-notch customer services is rare to find these days, but for David at My Two Dollars… it found him.

Be Frugal and Use Public Transportation - Commuting to work takes time, effort and money. David of MoneyNing illustrates why you should take advantage of public trans systems and save on all of these.

Reader Discussion: Should we have beliefs? - Browse through an interesting comments section in which Albert aka the Urban Monk asks his readers whether belief development is healthy.

Interested in being featured in the Modern Worker Week in Review? Simply comment on this post.

I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

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This is a guest posting by Lise of Frugal in the Fruitlands. Her blog is a fantastic resource for plumping your wallet through inventive saving techniques. (subscribe to her feed here)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Finding Flow suggests that we are happiest as humans when we pursue tasks that are challenging, but not so challenging that they discourage progress. This is a challenge when you consider that human beings also crave routine. Nothing is wrong with habit - but it can discourage the kind of supportive challenge that leads to flow experiences. In other words, if mental stimulation is lacking in your work or home life, it will be more difficult to bring new ideas to the table.

Nowhere is our craving for habit more apparent than in the morning, when we arrive–sometimes zombie-like!–to work, slurp down some caffeine, and try to make sense of our email and to-do list. Many people use caffeine to make the transition from slumped proto-human to functional worker, but here are some non-addictive ways to jumpstart your mental day:

Start your day with a puzzle. I freely admit stealing this from Trent of The Simple Dollar. Delve into your local paper; do the New York Times crossword puzzle, or check a puzzle book out of your local library. You don’t even need to opt for a dead-tree variety, either: pull up WebSudoku and pick a sufficiently challenging puzzle.

Work on your vocabulary. I recently spent several months studying for the GRE, including a solid vocabulary workout. If you wonder how knowing that taiga is an arctic forest will make you happier and more productive, consider this: English is a language that “runs down other languages in dark alleys and goes through their pocket for spare words,” and so the process of learning new words will teach you how to take words apart, attribute them to their source language, and learn a little bit about other cultures. You can pull out your old standardized test review books for this, or you can visit FreeRice.com, where you can “learn free vocabulary and give free rice.” Eradicating world hunger AND learning new words? That’s the kind of multi-tasking I like!

If you’re more of a contemplative, start your day with Poetry Daily. I enjoy reading the poem slowly, picking out phrases that catch my eye, and considering the meaning. If your only exposure to poetry has been high school English classes, then this resource will definitely broaden your horizons.

Learn a language while you commute. Audible.com has a good selection of language courses to purchase in audiobook format, but I wouldn’t be fit to run Frugal in the Fruitlands if I didn’t suggest that you try your local library or look for free language podcasts first. Natalia Worthington’s Spoonful of Russian is one that I enjoy, and is available free in the iTunes store.

Doodle. I wonder sometimes if my employers are offended by my doodling in meetings. I wish I could explain how it works for me - if all I have to do is listen (and not take notes), it’s actually really good for keeping me on target so that my mind doesn’t wander. It also seems to keep new ideas churning to the surface - something about doing something with my hands triggers a learning response. Maybe it’s a throwback to taking notes in high school and college.

When I was in college, I would start my day with Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast. There’s something about playing a fast-paced, highly reflex-based video/computer game to get the blood pumping in the morning. I don’t have a Wii, but I understand that that’s exactly what it’s good for. Hint: Don’t do this one at the office, unless maybe you work for Nintendo.

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The Nintendo Wii video game console has taken the world by storm since its release last year. Not only is it being played by youngsters, but many older professionals like myself are getting in the action. The highly sought-after, hard-to-find platform comes at an attractive price point and provides some serious fun for both serious and casual gamers alike. This of course, made the Wii a hot-ticket item from the get-go and millions of people snared up the units upon release.

Myself, and personal finance blogger David of MoneyNing, have waited it out for months of debate on whether or not to purchase the highly praised toy. I had bought a couple and flipped them on eBay for profit, but never kept one for my own enjoyment. David recently bought one though, and explains why it’s a good investment. He details many valid points as to why a Nintendo Wii will save money in the long run.

If you’re on the border of dropping 200+ for a Wii, or already have, read this post. Remember folks, it’s important to keep it fun outside the workplace!

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