Top Desktop Diversions, 2007

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7. What Tetris?

If you're ready to take on another addiction (now that The Sopranos is a memory), go to bored.com/blockfrenzy/index.html and play Block Frenzy, a simple game that asks you nothing more than to move a red block to safety as blue blocks converge and diverge to eliminate it. Nothing to it! Six hours later, glassy-eyed, you'll come back to your senses in an empty office. I'm warning you.

8. You Make the Call

Jaxtr (jaxtr.com) makes it easy to use your phone even in situations where you wouldn't normally give out your phone number, because when you use Jaxtr, you don't give out your phone number. You give out a link (like jaxtr.com/lizryan) and people use that to call you on your cell phone, office phone, or whatever number you choose. You decide who gets to talk to you, and when they do, it's voice-over-IP so the call is either very cheap, or free. You can add a little Jaxtr widget to your blog, if you're a blogger, so people can click on a button and call you at that moment. If you're not around or don't want to take the call, it shows up as a text message in your Jaxtr in-box. Wicked!

9. Claim Your Bio

Zip over to zoominfo.com to see what random snippets of information about you are floating around the Web. You can "claim" your profile (you have to enter a credit card, but it isn't charged anything) to make sure visitors get the straight dope about you. Search the site to find about what everyone's been doing professionally since you last got word from them, and learn tons about your clients, your competitors, and that cute person you spotted at the gym. Think of ZoomInfo as the WikiPedia version of LinkedIn, as it were.

10. Because You're Smart

When you're feeling stymied in your own job and you want to help somebody else out with his or hers, stroll over to LinkedIn.com and chime in on a question in the LinkedIn Answers area of the site. From using RSS to creating a sales compensation plan to motivating Gen Y employees, you can browse the questions and answers or share your own wisdom with the LinkedIn crowd. While you're there, you can ask a question of your own, and impress your workmates tomorrow!

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Liz Ryan is an expert on the new-millennium workplace and a former Fortune 500 HR executive. She can be reached at liz@asklizryan.com.