One of my favorite interns used to always say, “Yea, I’m game!” or “Sure, I’ll play!” when asked to do even the smallest task. We grew to love that phrase, and it stuck with us long after she graduated.

Although she meant it as a purely light-hearted comment to show her enthusiasm for work, it also reminded me not to take work so seriously. Deadlines, bosses and paychecks give you enough to worry about every day, so no need to feel guilty in – gasp! – having fun once a project lands in your lap. (If you are in the advertising, public relations or marketing world, this may come a little more natural. This particular breed tends to thrive off stress, unrealistic deadlines and late nights in the office so often they are now best friends with the cleaning lady).

Passing "Go" can help you know

Like everything in life, practice makes perfect. Or at least perfect enough to fake it ‘til you make it. [Insert other random cliché here].

It’s easy for me to subconsciously make work a competitive game in itself, since admittedly, I am a game freak. I love anything with dice, cards, words, puzzles and timers. Throw in those tiny pencils and I’m there.

I’ve compiled a short list of some of my favorite brain exercises. Even though the competition is in a different environment than the office, the familiar essentials are there. Timer ticking, stress building, bursts of excitement rising up your chest until “bam!” You win.

Please note that in the office setting, it’s a little more difficult to tell if you “won” because goals are not always quantitative and results can be difficult to interpret. Your boss is not going to run into your office screaming and cheering, you won’t get an obligatory fake clapping from an audience, and a pretty hostess is not going to pull back a curtain to tell you what you’ve won. Unless you have a very, very cool workplace.

Below are a few quick ways to boost fast-thinking/working under pressure, creativity/innovation skills, and the good old ‘trial and error’ that can parallel risk taking.

• Suduko- I prefer the cheap kinds you can get at supermarket. Works best when you can curl up with the book, bend the pages in frustration and even secretly tear out ones that frustrate you when nobody’s looking.
• “Words in a word” games are always great fun. Sometimes I even challenge others to play on a napkin while waiting for food to come at a restaurant. We’ll make the waitress say a random word, and set our phone timer to one minute.
  I see what ones are in my name too:  http://www.wordplays.com/fcgi-bin/jumble.pl
• Crosswords –typical crosswords, but cubed. As if they couldn’t get harder, right? This is especially addicting because you want to see the final punch line once cube is complete.
• I’m in like with You: Fun puzzles you do with others, without worrying up losing pieces. Or did that just happen to me? Ooh, and pictionary as well. Epitome of laziness, you might say? I prefer to think of it as the “eco-friendly” way of having fun. Think of all the trees you save!
• What do you get when you combine Beatles song titles, an ambiguous running man, and wheel of fortune on an orange background? http://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/top_scores.pl?game=storyman No hangmen were harmed during this game.
• Define time
• Flood it!: One of my all-time favorites. I want to pick up one of those lab pixies and carry them around with me in my purse. I thank them for this awesome colorful strategy game.

Try a few of these a week, whether you are a fabulous “fun chaser” or your idea of fun involves a night alone with nail clippers and wheat thins. (In which case, I won’t judge you). Make time for yourself between all the “face booking”/twittering, phone calling/texting and emailing and see if you notice a difference in your work attitude/reflexes. At the very least, you won’t feel quite AS bad missing the gym yesterday.

What about you guys? What are your favorite little brain exercises? And do you find you are a tad more “quick to the buzzer” in the workplace because of them?

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