We could all use a little less stress at work, but for a lot of people that stress leads to serious consequences. Product designer Tomomi Sayuda knows those consequences first-hand: her father committed suicide in 1995 due to work-related stress. Her Desktop Fireworks installation art is a fun reminder that we all need a bit of a break in the midst of a pressure-filled day.

Desktop Fireworks is an office desk set that looks pretty mundane on the surface. There are a set of drawers, a mug, a pencil cup, some binders, a memo board, and a tape dispenser. And then there’s that big red button that practically screams “Push Me!”

In a moment of mounting stress, the worker pushes the button to unleash a short but sweet stress-relieving party for one. Disco lights flash, confetti shoots up, bubbles waft around, and for a few brief moments the office seems like an ultra-exclusive club and you’re the only one who got in.

The installation might be humorous in nature, but it is a reminder to everyone that work isn’t everything. You need to indulge your human side by having some fun during the work day, even if it is just for a few minutes. The effect of this little mini-break can be surprisingly positive on a stressed-out office worker.

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Sitting all day isn’t great for you – our sedentary lifestyles have recently been called even more dangerous than smoking. One of the more popular ways to combat this sitting epidemic is to work at a standing desk. While this method is excellent for your health, most standing desks are ridiculously expensive.

The StorkStand makes standing desks affordable for everyone by using something you’ve already got but don’t need if you’re going to start standing up at your job: your desk chair. The StorkStand is a platform that attaches to the back of your chair to provide a stable work surface complete with an iPhone holder.

It works on any office chair that can be raised to the appropriate height. The mechanism is quite simple: the end nearer to the user rests on the chair’s back and two braces hold it steady. A strap provides stability and security so your expensive laptop doesn’t go tumbling to the ground. With a weight capacity of 50 pounds, you can even put a few more things on the StorkStand with no worries.

Since most office chairs have wheels, it’s safe to say that the StorkStand makes your workstation easily portable. When you aren’t using it, its compact folded size and light weight (a smidge more than four pounds) make it easy to carry between work and home, or store it between your sitting desk and the wall until you need it again.

Multiple degrees of adjustment let you choose the right position for your roving desktop. The clever designers behind the product have made sure that weight is evenly distributed so you don’t have to worry about your chair tipping over while it’s got your office tools all over it. StorkStand’s Kickstarter campaign was a success, and the company is now taking $199 pre-orders for handy portable standing desk.

The post Genius Standing Desk Latches Onto Existing Office Furniture first appeared on Gajitz.

Productivity is such a hot issue in recent years in part because distractions have all but taken over our days. We spend time checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and dozens of other sites – and before we know it, half of the workday has eroded away. Designer Lucas Neumann was driven to create a real, physical object that would help us stay on task and accomplish goals throughout the day.

Bossy is a small desktop cylinder that Neumann likens to a sticky note. It combines the unlimited organizational powers of the internet with the tactile satisfaction of finishing a task and crumpling up the note that reminded you to do it. The big difference – other than the difference between analog and digital, of course – is that Bossy breaks up your daily tasks into three to-dos at a time, eliminating the overwhelming feeling of having a million things to do.

The Bossy pulls your to-do list from your task management software and serves your tasks up three at a time. The display is pleasantly uncluttered, with a white background and three cute circles displaying the things you need to accomplish. When you finish one, you press the soft silicon surface and the bubble pops, giving you a satisfying tactile experience to go along with your sense of accomplishment.

One of the more interesting aspects of Bossy is its ability to mute your distractions. It can turn off your Twitter feed and Facebook notifications so that you can keep all of your attention on the tasks at hand. Will Bossy ever replace the ubiquitous sticky note? Possibly, but at the moment it’s just an interesting prototype that the designer hopes to fund via Kickstarter after some further development.

The post Meet Bossy, the Friendly Digital Sticky Note Task Organizer first appeared on Gajitz.

Printers have shrunken dramatically in size since the days of the first inkjets, but they are still unattractive boxes that we have to deal with. To add insult to injury, there are so many things that can go wrong with a printing job – paper jams, ink smears, a total refusal to do the one thing it’s supposed to do – that office workers genuinely hate having to use this unfriendly piece of office equipment.

Design graduate Mugi Yamamoto came up with a simpler and more fun design for his diploma project. It’s called Stack, and instead of feeding paper into a little tray over and over, you set the whole machine on top of a big stack of paper. As you print, the Stack feeds paper through the bottom and spits out your finished projects onto the top, creating a new stack.

While Yamamoto’s goal was to create a functional and less ugly printer, the machine is also surprisingly entertaining. As it eats its way through papers, you have to wonder whether the stack of paper is going to tip over and spill printer guts everywhere. For those of us who have ever felt the need to go all Office Space on an inkjet printer, this new idea could prevent a lot of appliance-based violence.

The post Simplified Printer Eats its Way Through Stacks of Paper first appeared on Gajitz.

Throwing away those credit card offers, bank statements and other personal mail without shredding it all first is a risky proposition. Maybe that’s alright for the gamblers out there, but we prefer to keep our identifying info safe and obscured. The problem with having a document shredder in the office is that they’re super-ugly and using them once a month doesn’t seem to justify the cost.

The impossibly adorable Manual Shredder designed by IDEA International is a totally different aesthetic for the document destroyer. It’s powered entirely by a hand crank so it’s quiet, and its plastic construction makes it look more like a kids’ toy than a serious office tool. But make not mistake: this cross-shredder really does tear it up when you need it to.

We can deal with the $42 price tag since this shredder can slide right onto the bookshelf or even sit right out on the desk without looking really unpleasant. The cranking arm folds down flat, allowing the shredder to look just like a small plastic box when not in use. Plus it comes in a variety of colors, including pink – so if you must outfit your home office to look like a cotton candy dreamscape, you won’t have to compromise on account of a stodgy old document shredder.

The post Hand-Powered Minimalist Shredder Destroys Papers in Style first appeared on Gajitz.