5 Gen Y Tools Even Boomers Can Appreciate
Much has been written about the love fest occuring between Millennials and Boomers in the workplace. Millennials love seeking advice and mentorship from Boomers, and Boomers are happy to give it since Millennials are too young to be a threat. But as digital natives, Millennials have plenty to teach Boomers in return. Here’s a list of tools (no affiliate or sponsored links) even digital immigrants can use to get an edge at the office:
1. Organize Desktop Icons With Windows “Fences” Desktop Theme
Generally speaking, the Boomers I work with are pretty saavy with technology. You might not even know they were a digital immigrant except for one very subtle tip-off…their computer desktops look like this:
Enter the easy-to-download Windows Fences theme. The concept of Windows Fences is simple. You can organize your desktop icons using fences, or simple windows that you can resize and drag anywhere on your desktop. Here is a picture of a busy desktop, post-fences:
…and here is where you can download it.
2. Capture Screengrab Videos and Images For Free with Jing
This is one of those tools that is 200% more useful than you would initially predict. While the video screencast feature is nice, I find myself using the click-and-drag screenshot feature daily. It’s a free download that takes about five minutes to install. Once it has installed, you just need to click your “hot key” (mine is Printscreen) and click and drag over the area of your screen you want to capture. I use it to:
- send screenshots of error messages for IT to fix
- capture images of charts, graphs and spreadsheets (way easier to insert into powerpoints this way)
- capture thumbnails of images, videos, websites (careful not to violate copyrights)
- add annotations to the images I capture
3. Manage Your Career With CareerCubicle.com
No one is savvier about career and image management than an ambitious Gen Y professional. So take a page from our playbook and register for a free service like Career Cubicle, which lets you track your professional career, store and share personal documents, set and achieve career goals, and track your personal analytics. With a service like this one, the stress of preparing for annual reviews or major career moves is significantly lessened.
4. Stay on the Top of Your Field with SmartBrief
The internet is flooded with new information daily, and most of us don’t have time to sort through everything that’s relevant. Let a free service like SmartBrief do it for you. You can select from dozens of categories based on your industry or area of interest, and SmartBrief will send you a daily email digest of the best daily content on that topic. You can subscribe to as many as you want, but I find at least three truly great articles per digest.
5. Control Incoming Phone Calls With Google Voice
Do you want to be accessible to customers, clients, and coworkers without divulging your personal cell phone number? Google Voice is a service that gives you one phone number for all your devices, so you can control who is allowed to access you (plus where and when.) It’s free, and super easy to use. Plus, it reduces the trauma when you need to switch phone providers. Thanks to Google Voice, you can keep one phone number even if you decide to move to a new carrier.














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