5 Ways to Make it Look like You're Working at Work

+ Because we all know everyone goofs off at work

We've all had one of those days at work where every minute feels like a hour...When it is a endless struggle to keep your eyelids open...And when you look over your shoulder every second to make sure no one is watching you hang out on one of your favorite websites. That is why I've compiled this list of some tricks and methods to make it look like you're "working at work." The methods below either make it look like you are working, provide time wasting activities, or create a quick way to escape out of you're goofing off escipades. Enjoy!


5. Take a long, lengthy bathroom break

This can be quite the time buster if you have lunch ready to exit, or if you've drank a good amount of coffee before-hand. Bring a nice magazine with you, a newspaper, or better yet your iPhone to browse the net or check Facebook. The bathroom break always works, because no one can question why you are in there, or why you were in there for so long. However, you cannot abuse it. Most likely no one will notice that you went to the bathroom, but if your boss sees you taking multiple long bathroom breaks, you may raise his eyebrows. Another downside is that the environment isn't the best. Let's be honest, we know you love just sitting on your toilet at home, but it is definitely not as comforting or "sanitary" (questionable) at work.

4. Create a phony Microsoft Word document

This method is a great option to make it seem as if you have been typing a grand, large, and intricate document. However, this will only work if the nearby co-worker / boss is from a distance further than 5 feet away. Basically, go into a Microsoft Word document, and type in "=rand()" without the quotes. This will fill your page up with random garbage, and you can repeate this multiple times to create to what it looks to be 10 pages of hard work by you. Just pray that someone does not ask to proof-read it :P.


The next two methods are great for "alt-tabbing", meaning quick ways to change what you are doing, quickly. For example, looking like you are doing work when you are really playing Farmville (JK) in the background.

3. Create a keyboard shortcut to a Google search or website

This is a quick way to jump to an internet browser and go to a pre-defined website. My favorite thing to do is to jump to Google with a revelant search term, or go to the Wikipedia page of something applicable to my job. To do this, simply right click your desktop (on Windows), right click and hit create new shortcut. When it asks for the location, this is where you can get creative.
-To jump to a google search, type in "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=YOUR SEARCH TERM HERE" and fill in a search term. An example can look like this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=centrifugal+force
-To jump to a wikipedia page, type in "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=SEARCH TERM HERE"

Next, to quickly activate the shortcut, you can map it to a keyboard combination. Where it says shortcut key (reference image above), type in a letter or number, or any combo you would like. If you only type one letter/number, the key combination will be CTRL+ALT+key. So in the image above, CTRL+ALT+N will jump to the google search.

2. Launch a fake Blue Screen of Death

Let's face it.. If you are having computer troubles, you can't do work right? At least that is what your co-workers will think..So basically, if someone quickly swoops into your office, you hit a keystroke and launch a fake blue screen of death (BSOD). Like #3 on this list, this method also will utilize a keyboard shortcut. To create a fake blue screen of death, we will actually be making a screensaver.
To begin, download your favorite BSOD image off Google or you can use the following one below (click to enlarge):

Next, right click your desktop, and click properties on Windows XP or personalize in Vista/7, and create a screensaver from "My photos". Make sure to choose a directory that only has your blue screen of death image. This will ensure that only that image is used for the screensaver.
After you've created your screensaver, locate it on your hard drive either using the search and filtering *.scr filetype, or easier just go to c:/windows/system32 (or any drive windows is installed on), and your screensaver should be called PhotoScreensaver.scr or something like that. In any case, screensaver files will be a .scr filetype.
Lastly, just like you did on the method previous to this, create a shortcut. Right click the screensaver file, and hit "Send to desktop (create shortcut)". Then you may create a keyboard shortcut, and launch a fake BSOD on command!! Just make sure not to move the mouse (unless you lock the screen).

1. Record / Playback a loop of you actually working

This quite an ambitious task, and involves recording your screen while actually working, and then using this sample work for a playback loop any times you are not working. There are plenty of screen capture programs, but one that is readily available is Fraps, which is mainly used to show FPS in games or record game sessions. In any case, you can use it to record everything you do on your computer, and then use the captured file when you need to spoof some work. Any onlooker will glance at your screen, watch the video of you doing tasks, and assume you are working hard. Just a warning though, screen captures take up a lot of hard drive space, so make sure you have enough!!

Hope you can use some of these tricks while you try to work at work!