Asian Tiger

Depending on how your performance is measured, there are a few ways to survive the dreaded appraisal period.

If your company uses balance scorecard and measurable KPIs for performance appraisal, you have no choice but to make sure you perform consistently.  Most balance scorecard that I have seen have a month to month measurement, so, you have a chance to buck up towards the end of every month to make sure you meet your KPIs.

If your company use the traditional once-a-year-superior-subordinate-mark-your-performance-based-on-how-much-the-superior-can-remember, you are in luck.  Most superiors can only remember 3 months into the past.  So, if you know that your appraisal is in June, just make sure you work hard from April onwards.  Try to recall your previous appraisals, think back about what your superior said; is it not true that he/she only mentions recent events – good or bad?

During your appraisal, just make sure you smile, dress proper, be extremely courteous and agree with what your boss says.  Compliment him/her whenever he/she mentions good points and take note when negative views are given.  Don’t create a scene and don’t make your boss angry or frustrated.  Most bosses will only recommend for promotion or salary adjustment after the face-to-face appraisal.  So, don’t piss him/her off.

Some bosses prefer to write in pencil and have you sign off the appraisal form in pen.  If this happens to you, it’s time to look for a job.

Before we get into answering the question, let us understand first what causes the Nokia 6300 battery to drain so quickly.  Firstly, to maintain the slimness of the phone, a lower capacity battery is needed. Secondly, the phone comes with 16 million colours and the display is bright.  Thirdly, the phone has lots of functions that causes the battery to drain quickly; e.g. Bluetooth, GPRS, camera and music player.

In order to extend your battery life, you can do one or more of the following:

1. Turn off everything – Leave only the essential functions you need.  This method is not very practical since the Nokia 6300 was designed to do beyond calling, texting and MMSing.
2. Drain and charge – Use your phone until the battery completely drains and charge it to full again.  Repeat as necessary.  Some owners have reported longer battery life after performing this and a few owners reported that if you charge the phone while switching off, the results would be better.
3. Change to BL-5C battery – The Nokia 6300 comes with the BL-4C battery.  If you change to the BL-5C batter (which is of higher capacity), your phone will last longer.  However, you will need to sand off about 1milimeter in order to fit your phone.  DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. This method may void your warranty.

Many of us own a printer at home; most commonly, the inkjet printer. Why so? Because the initial cost to own one is so darn cheap. Imagine, for below RM200, you can own your own colour printer and start printing out your own digital photos. However, many of us fail to realise that it is not that the printer is cheap, it is the printer ink that is expensive.

There are 2 ways that I can think off to save printer ink and the associated cost:

1. Print in black – always print in black even for pictures (unless you want it in colour) because black ink is the cheapest compared to coloured ones.
2. Print in draft – printing in draft mode uses less ink than necessary. If you are hard pressed for high quality colour printing, go for this mode. Do not use this if you are printing photos; it simply won’t look good.

One final piece of advise; if you are one that does not print on a regular basis, don’t own a printer. Simply have your document printed in any cybercafes. Infrequent use of the printer will cake your ink rendering it useless when you actually need to use it.