Author: Alyssa Ochs

Game-Changing Ergonomic Upgrades for an Epic Workspace

Posted on by Alyssa Ochs

October is just around the corner and also National Ergonomics Month, which gives us the perfect opportunity to share with you the latest and greatest trends in office ergonomics today. Now is the time to start shopping around for ergonomic solutions that work for you so that you can finish the year off strong, happy, and healthy.

Fellowes is an industry leader in ergonomic products and has developed solutions to help you prevent and overcome the most common health issues related to workplace design.

If you’ve been settling for the same, standard office setup for years without giving it a second thought, the unexplained pain you experience may be due to your workstation.

Here are some of the most common ergonomic issues that our customers approach us about and how Fellowes products can help you feel better and be more productive throughout the day.

1. Ease Your Tight Back

Back tension is very common among office workers due to poor posture and slouching or hunching over throughout the work day. Fortunately, foot and back supports can remedy this problem, easing tension and helping you work more comfortably.

Foot supports benefit the back because they promote good circulation and back alignment. Fellowes offers standard, mid-range, and ultra-comfort foot supports that revive tired feet, relieve back stress, and encourage movement.   

You can further support your back with a back support device made with mesh or memory foam. Fellowes’ products contour to the body, allow airflow, and provide lumbar support where you need it most.

2. Support Your Hardworking Wrists

If you type all day for a living, your wrists are under a lot of constant strain and pressure. Wrist supports and keyboard trays are ergonomic solutions to consider to keep your wrists properly lifted and aligned to prevent pain and fatigue.

There are various wrist support products that you can try using with your mousepad and keyboard so that your forearms remain horizontal and your wrists stay in a neutral position. There are gel wrist supports with non-ski backings and also products covered in a soft, breathable material for ultimate comfort.

Keyboard managers also help you maintain a neutral forearm and wrist position for ideal muscle and joint alignment. A Fellowes keyboard manager offers height and tilt adjustments with soft wrist support and antimicrobial protection to reduce germs.

3. Keep Your Neck Relaxed

Another common workplace ergonomics issue is a stiff neck because staring straight ahead at a computer screen all day causes neck strain. However, you can support your neck while maintaining an optimal screen-viewing position with monitor arms and laptop lifts.

Monitor arms reduce neck discomfort by elevating your computer to an ideal viewing angle. Some of these Fellowes products come with quick-release plates, tool-free height adjustments, gas spring technology, and even USB ports. To choose the right monitor arm for your setup, consider the number of screens you use, the various mounting options available, and the level of movement you need.

Monitor risers bring your computer’s elevation up to reduce neck strain and have multiple height adjustments, with premium options even including cup holders and media storage drawers. Laptop risers have the same effect but just with a laptop rather than a desktop computer.

Meanwhile, document holders can help protect your neck from strain while reviewing a paper document alongside your computer. A good document holder will be made of sturdy, impact-resistant materials and maybe 100% recyclable with the capacity to hold up to 250 pages.

4. Stay More Active Throughout the Day

Office workers typically find it challenging to take breaks and get up to move very much between the hours of 9 and 5. However, you can be more active by simply adjusting your working position and seeing noticeable changes in how you feel.

Sit-stand workstations allow for multiple working positions to introduce movement to your day. These are significant ergonomic upgrades but worth the investment if your goal is to stay more active and healthy. They are available at a range of price points based on the technology features and convenient perks, such as built-in wireless charging stations and USB ports.

Meanwhile, floor mats provide an extra layer of support between your feet and the hard floor. A Fellowes floor mat is an economical, ergonomic update designed to promote stretching and movement with beveled edges to prevent trip hazards.

Contact Us for More Ergonomic Solutions

From our team at OnTimeSupplies, we hope you’ve found this guide to workplace ergonomics helpful and that you now have a better understanding of how to feel better as you work with a few simple upgrades.

If you have questions about the ergonomic products we offer or how they work, we’re here to answer them. Please contact us online, call us at 866-501-6055, or live chat with us to learn more!

5 Ingenious Ways to Use a Label Maker

Posted on by Alyssa Ochs

If you’d love to get more organized in your personal or professional life, you’re certainly not alone.

At least two-thirds of Americans crave more organization in their lives, thereby driving the home organization industry up past the $12 billion mark.

In a viral video, a long-time professional organizer named Christen Fackler (@iorganize) shared her tips for using a Brother P Touch D400 label maker to level up your space.

@iorganize

Level up your space with a label maker! #professionalorganizer #iOrganize #iOrganizeeverything #HappyOrganizing #organizing #howtoorganize

♬ original sound – iOrganize

Christen describes how the label cartridges you buy for it come in different colors and how the labels are commonly weatherproof and waterproof.

“I think I’ve had this label maker for about 10 years now,” she said, a testament to the product’s reliability and longevity.

There are many other models of Brother label makers available, too, which you can learn about and compare in Brother’s Quick Guide to Label Makers & Label Printers:

If you’re a little overwhelmed by the options available, we would love to help you find the label maker and label-making supplies that are best for your business or household. We have the most knowledgeable and friendly customer support team in the industry and are here to get organized better than ever before.

Here are 5 reasons why you might reach out to OnTimeSupplies and give label-making a try for yourself:

  1. Keys – never grab the wrong set and get locked out again
  2. Folders & binders – keep better track of your important documents
  3. Meal prep – labels foods for canning and freezer storage
  4. Plants – ensure proper care for your home and office plants
  5. Cables & cords – remember what’s plugged into where and what extra chargers go with

Ready to get your own Brother label maker and get organized? Give us a call at 866-501-6055 or contact us online today!

Trends in the Calendar Business: How Workplace Shifts Are Changing the Way We Schedule

Posted on by Alyssa Ochs

How to you keep track of your business meetings, conference calls, personal appointments, and family obligations?

Many of us grew up and entered the working world with day planners in hand and calendars on the wall. The monthly ritual of flipping back the calendar page on the first day of the month is oddly satisfying, and there’s something to be said for having a constant visual reminder of your daily events. However, modern technology has introduced us a wide variety of electronic calendars and smartphone apps that have taken scheduling to a much more complex level.

As we prepare to turn the page to a new month, we became curious about how much of an impact mobile calendars are having on the traditional calendar industry. What types of calendars appeal to the modern professional, and which calendar features are most valuable in our changing work environment?

To learn more about these recent trends, we connected with our partner and calendar expert, House of Doolittle. This sustainably minded company provides eco-friendly calendars, desk pads, and appointment books for the modern world. In doing so, HOD’s national sales manager, John Pattinson, has noticed some significant shifts in the industry that we think are worth sharing.

Shrinking Cubicle Offices  

Due to economic constraints and minimalistic approaches to modern office design, cubicle spaces appear to be shrinking. As a result, there is not as much wall space or desk space available for displaying personal calendars at work. As a response to this trend, Pattinson says that House of Doolittle has seen an increase in the demand for small wall calendars, desk pads, and free-floating styles, such as tent calendars. “We have noticed a trend to smaller compact desk pads and wall calendars printed with four-color designs and scenes,” he shared.

A Growing Mobile Workforce

An increasing number of companies are embracing the mobile workforce trend and allowing their employees to work remotely. Remote workers who perform most of their duties at a home office tend to use calendars in the same way they did in a traditional office environment. Meanwhile, digital nomads who make frequent use of co-working spaces or who travel as they work are more likely to use digital calendars on laptops and smartphones.

Calendars for Notetaking

In talking with customers, we have found that many people have a tendency to jot down quick notes on a desk pad as they chat on the phone or read emails. Having a desk calendar is a quick and easy way to always have a notepad at your fingertips. It’s also a nice place to doodle as you wait for an endless conference call to wrap up or sit on hold listening to that dreadful elevator music.

AT-A-GLANCE Desk Pad Calendar

Calendars as Personalized Décor

One really interesting trend in calendars is that many people are using them today as a form of decoration. With so many interesting calendar themes available, it’s easy to express your personality or share your interests with co-workers by proudly displaying a decorative calendar that appeals to you. As far as office décor is concerned, it doesn’t get much easier or affordable than hanging a calendar!

Calendars as Vacation Schedulers

But it’s important to note that office calendars aren’t all work and no play. In fact, full-year wall calendars, especially the laminated versions, have been extremely popular in office settings. Small offices in particular, such as physician offices and law offices, have really adopted this type of calendar as vacation schedulers.

Unlike a computer screen, these types of calendars allow you to see the full year all at once, simplifying the process of scheduling multiple employees. And with a laminated surface, making changes is as easy as wiping your words away with a damp cloth.

Busy mom

A Step Back from Technology

It may surprise some of you to learn that the popularity of smartphones and mobile apps have actually had a very small impact on the traditional calendar industry. As we can personally attest to, it’s often much faster to glance up at a calendar on the wall or on a desk rather than fiddling with a stubborn software program to search for dates.

Despite the most impressive efforts of app developers, it’s still easier to find dates and appointments in a monthly or weekly planner. Of course, the larger numbers and text are easier to read for the older generation, compared to the small screen of a smartphone. But the Millennial generation is embracing a rediscovered love for calendars too. There’s a strong movement to disconnect from technology when possible for the sake of our health and streamlined efficiency. And with a paper version, you don’t have to worry about your battery dying or accessing a digital calendar on the same phone you’re talking on!

“Fortunately for those of us the make calendars for a living, the old tried-and-true paper calendar business is still very strong,” said Pattinson. We wish our partner, House of Doolittle, many more years of continued success, to build upon the legacy it began in 1919 and has been adapting with the times ever since.

When Compared Apples-to-Apples, OnTimeSupplies Has the Sweetest Deals

Posted on by Alyssa Ochs

Today we bring you a true story about a call that our CEO, Miles Young, recently had with one of our valued school customers. If you’ve ever struggled to redeem order reward points or wondered why product prices vary from one company to the next, perhaps you can relate!

I recently received a call from a school administrator who had a corporate account with Office Depot and regularly used its website to order school supplies. She was just moments away from clicking the “checkout” button on Office Depot’s website, but an issue with redeeming the school’s reward points stopped her. You see, one of the reasons that customers keep coming back to retailers like Office Depot is that it feels rewarding to accumulate points that can be redeemed for free gifts, or “chachkies.” However, those chachkies aren’t always something that you really want or need, and the process of actually getting them can take up more time and energy than they’re actually worth.

But I digress. Back to my phone call with the school administrator!

The reason that she called OnTimeSupplies in the first place was because she was looking for a product that she couldn’t find on Office Depot’s website and stumbled onto our site in her search. You can imagine her surprise when she discovered that many of the items on her shopping list were priced significantly lower on OnTimeSupplies when compared to the Office Depot prices. Naturally, she was interested in learning more about our pricing model and how we can offer such competitive rates.

To get started, I asked her to send me a copy of her shopping list so that I could provide her with an “apples-to-apples” quick quote before settling on her standard Office Depot purchase. While we were chatting, I explained to her that OnTimeSupplies has been transforming the way the office supply industry works over 12 years, and that our motto is “Your Time Matters.”

This means that you don’t have to waste your time keeping track of reward points or coupons just to get a good deal or collect a chachkie to collect dust in your office. We offer our very best pricing right off the bat to our customers because we value your time and understand what it means to work within a budget. I also explained to the administrator how OnTimeSupplies utilizes over 35 locations nationwide to keep shipping prices down, how our dedicated employees work remotely to reduce overhead costs, and how our innovative software helps us manage our business with maximum efficiency. All of these components of our unique business model help us afford to offer top-notch customer service with rock-bottom prices.

Not only that, but we deliver in 24-48 business hours, offer over 40,000 products, and have live U.S.-based customer support. We’re here when you need us, but we aren’t going to waste your time by calling to solicit additional business either. Our service speaks for itself, and our customers choose to work with us because of the awesome buying experience we provide.

After sharing a bit about how OnTimeSupplies works, the school administrator emailed me her shopping list, and I turned around an apples-to-apples quote in about 10 minutes. I couldn’t have been more happy to help this customer save at least $314.02 on a single order. I’ve uploaded a sample page of the comparison sheet here so you can see for yourself! Needless to say, the administrator was thrilled to save this much money, and the savings allowed her to buy a lot more for her school than a $29 blender she didn’t need.

I hope that this true story provides you with a real-world example of the value that OnTimeSupplies can provide to your school or business – every order, every day. If you’re curious to see how our pricing compares to your current retailer’s on the items you buy the most, send us your shopping list for a free apples-to-apples quote today!

Save on your discount school supply order with bulk pricing at OnTimeSupplies.com.