Every day is different on Woot

November 28, 2007 · Filed Under Slacking Off at Work 

Woot.com is one of my favorite sites on the web. I visit it at least once a day and sometimes multiple times per day.

Why do I love it?

Every day is different. But… (here is the clincher) it is predictably different.  After all, I go to the site at 10:00pm my time and there is a new deal for the day. If it is something I want, I can buy it and be assured a consistent buying experience (fixed shipping costs, expected customer service, etc…). If not, a new deal will be up in 24 hours. I never know what that new deal will be but I know enough factors to keep me enchanted at odd hours of the night (yeah, 10pm is getting late for me).

I am relating this back to work because I think everyone likes to have variety at work. I think the key there is to create an environment where there is unpredictability within a controlled environment. So, you may not know what the top priority for the day is until 8am but every day at 8am, the priority is revealed to you. You can count on that and you can trust and even when things do change out of that structure, it goes back to it as soon as possible instead of abandoning it.

I love that feeling.  That uncertainty within the structure makes me feel like I am not fulfilling the same ten requests every day.

And really, I just wanted to plug one of my favorite websites.

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