productivity Archives

Tips for Updating Your Office Space

Your office space isn’t just a place to work. It’s a productivity hub, a meeting ground for ideas, and a reflection of your company’s culture. With a well-designed office, you can enhance employee satisfaction, streamline workflow, and impress clients. If your workspace is feeling a bit dated or inefficient, it’s time for an upgrade. Below, explore expert tips on updating your office environment to improve efficiency, aesthetics, and comfort.

Revamping Your Office Layout for Enhanced Productivity

Creating an effective office layout involves balancing collaboration and focus. Transitioning from closed cubicles to an open floor plan can foster teamwork, but quiet zones are essential for individual tasks. Efficient space planning reduces wasted time. Strategic placement of amenities minimizes walking distances, enhancing productivity.

Maximizing natural light improves mood and energy, benefiting overall well-being and work performance. Placing workstations strategically optimizes exposure to natural light. Flexibility is key for modern offices. Modular furniture and movable partitions enable adaptability, saving resources in the long run.

Choosing the Right Color Scheme for Workplace Energy

Incorporating Plant Life to Boost Office Environment

Incorporating plants into the workplace offers numerous benefits, including improved air quality, reduced stress, and increased productivity. Selecting low-maintenance indoor plants is crucial to avoid adding stress to office routines. Plants can also serve as natural dividers in open-plan offices, creating informal breakout areas or delineating paths without the need for walls or partitions.

Beyond their functional benefits, plants add visual interest and vitality to the office environment, enhancing overall aesthetics. Different sizes of planters and pots contribute to creating a dynamic workspace landscape. Caring for office plants can foster teamwork and a sense of community among employees. However, it’s important to consider lighting needs and growth patterns when selecting plants for the office environment. Consulting with experts or visiting local nurseries can help in making informed choices.

Investing in Ergonomic Furniture for Employee Well-being

Investing in ergonomic furniture boosts both the health and productivity of your workforce. Chairs and desks that encourage good posture and movement significantly reduce the risk of strain injuries and enhance comfort, fostering focus and efficiency. Consider adjustable and sit-stand desks to accommodate various working styles and body types. These desks promote posture changes throughout the day, combating fatigue and boosting circulation. Pair them with ergonomic office seating featuring lumbar support and adjustability for optimal employee wellness.

Include ergonomic accessories like monitor stands, keyboard trays, and mouse pads to further improve staff well-being. Prioritizing ergonomics shows a commitment to employee health and satisfaction. Education is key. Providing training on how to use and adjust ergonomic equipment maximizes its benefits, empowering employees to prevent discomfort and workplace injuries.

Implementing Smart Technology for a Modern Office Update

Modernizing your office goes beyond aesthetics, focusing on leveraging technology for efficiency and enhanced productivity. Smart office solutions like automated lighting and temperature controls not only save energy but also create adaptable work environments. Equipping conference rooms with high-quality video conferencing systems facilitates seamless communication with remote teams and clients, reducing travel needs. Implementing advanced scheduling systems prevents room conflicts and optimizes resource usage.

Embracing mobile and cloud technologies offers employees greater flexibility in work arrangements. Robust wireless connectivity and secure networks are essential for supporting diverse devices and ensuring data security. Consider partnering with professional consultants like Frank’s Air Conditioning to seamlessly integrate efficient climate control solutions into your modern office.

Altogether, a well-planned office update can reinvigorate your workspace, boost employee morale, and reflect your company’s commitment to innovation and efficiency. By mindfully choosing layouts, colors, plants, furniture, and technology that foster a healthy and productive work environment, you can set your team and business up for continued success.

How To Make The Work Commute More Comfortable, Enjoyable, And Productive

The dreaded work commute. Some of us like it, some of us hate it, and some of us are indifferent. Whatever opinion you have, if you have to take the car or public transport to and from the office, the journey can be one to dread, rather than enjoy.

While of course, most of us don’t smile at the idea of a long work commute, there are things you can do during your journey which can set you up for a great day ahead. Whether you’re a 10-minute drive away from work or an hour-long train ride, here are some ways on how to make your work commute more comfortable and enjoyable.

Listen to Calming Music

If you have to take public transport to get to work, especially during rush hour, you’ll know only too well how cramped and stuffy it can be. Even if you’re lucky to grab a seat, that’s not to say you won’t have dozens of people standing upright by you. Understandably, this can be quite an unpleasant atmosphere to be in. Therefore, doing anything you can to make the trip more comfortable and enjoyable is key. One of which being listening to calming music. If you stick your headphones in and put something soothing on, you can shut your eyes and take yourself off to another place.

Listening to calming music can instantly reduce stress and help set you up for a productive day at work. Whether you’ve only got a chance to listen to a song or two, or you can enjoy a whole playlist, having some relaxing music playing in your ears will definitely make a difference.

Practice Deep Breathing

You’ll have a hard time finding anyone that enjoys the rush hour commute. If you’ve got a long-distance ahead and want to zone out from what’s going on around you, practicing deep breathing techniques can be a big help. The good thing about these techniques is you can do them just about anywhere, even if you’re stood up.

Some of the best deep breathing methods for stress relief include equal breathing, pursed-lip breathing, and breath focus. If there’s lots of noise on the bus or train and you’re finding it difficult to concentrate on your deep breathing, you may benefit from putting on some noise-canceling headphones.

Play Games

If you can nab a seat on public transport, why not take out your smartphone and play on some games during your commute? Not only will doing so make the time pass by quicker, but you may also learn a thing or two along the way. If you opt for a brain teaser game, this can get your mind ready and raring to go for another day at the office.

Alternatively, you may enjoy playing online casino titles. If this is the case, Online Casinos can help you find the best one in the UK. When you check out their reviews, you can sign up for a platform that has excellent graphics, visuals, and jackpot prizes. Just make sure you don’t get too caught up in your game as you may miss your stop and arrive late for work!

Have a Snack

You’ll be forgiven if you hit the snooze button over and over before climbing out of bed for work. If this sounds like you, finding time for breakfast may be impossible. However, if you’ve got some time to kill during your commute, why not bring along a few morning snacks for the ride? Eating healthy snacks can fuel your mind and body for the day ahead and help you be more productive and efficient.

If you’re heading on a train journey, there may be a coffee shop you can head to before climbing on board. You can grab a cup of coffee and a snack which you can enjoy as you travel to work. Having some coffee can boost metabolism, support brain function, and increase energy and work performance.

Take In the Scenery

With so many of us on the go and never having a chance to sit still, when you’re on your work commute, use this time to your advantage. If you’re not behind the steering wheel and on public transport instead, something as simple as looking out the window and watching the world go by can be a brilliant way to keep calm and relaxed throughout the journey.

Whether it’s beating down with rain or the sun is shining, there are lots of wonderful sights to feast your eyes on as you travel to work. Sure, you may go off into a daydream, but if it takes your mind off your commute and helps you stay relaxed, it can only be a good thing.

Stick a Podcast On

Podcasts are rising in popularity, and understandably so. There are many reasons for this. Podcasts can help cut down on screen time, keep storytelling alive, and enable you to learn unique topics from experts directly.

There are even meditation podcasts that cause the release of dopamine that will soothe you. Whatever tickles your fancy, sticking on a podcast can be a wonderful way to make the time go quicker and give you something to concentrate on. Make sure you put your headphones in, though. The last thing any other commuter needs is someone blaring a podcast full blast in the carriage! Simply head onto platforms like Spotify who have an extensive collection of podcasts to pick from.

When you arrive at the office, you’ll want to sit at your desk full of productivity and ready to get stuck in, rather than stressed and anxious about what awaits. The morning commute is never fun, but there are certain things you can do that can make the experience more enjoyable and comfortable.

Whether you put some tunes on, take in the scenery, or play online games to keep you entertained, try and see the commute as a chance for some ‘me’ time rather than the dreaded journey to a long day at work.

6 Online Meeting Tools to Level-up Your Next Meeting

Although online meeting tools have existed for a long time, they became increasingly popular due to the advent of COVID-19. As most companies have taken their business activities online —adapting to the new normal—there is a need to optimize online meeting tools that effectively maximize their productivity.

These tools are used for video conferences and video calls. They have many functions worth exploring to help your company leverage its virtual meetings. There are several essential items to consider when choosing these tools: ease of use, functionality, pricing, reliability, and many more.

This article will discuss the best online meeting tools available to level up your meetings for higher productivity and efficiency.

Online Meeting Tools for Your Remote Meetings

Several virtual meeting tools can help you level up your next meeting. They include:

Zoom

This is a real-time online video conferencing tool. It is a widely used tool that allows up to 50 HD video streams to run simultaneously. Many companies and university systems use Zoom for their virtual meetings because it is user-friendly and reliable. Its features include video, audio, screen sharing, and group instant messaging. It is compatible with mobile devices, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Properly exploring this tool will give you and your team the best user experience.

Google Meet

It is a video conferencing tool created by Google. No installation is required to use this tool, as you can open it on your browser and connect instantly. It is straightforward to use, and you can join meetings using your mobile device or dialing in. No Google account is needed to join any meeting; you only need one when creating your meeting. Similarly, it contains all features needed to conduct a successful online meeting. This software is enabled to record your meeting at will and save it on your Google Drive. You can host up to 250 participants in a call.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is another valuable tool to engage with your remote team for a productive business. Similarly, it has critical features: screen sharing, instant messaging, meeting recordings, and note-taking. It offers chats organized into channels and direct messages. And its free plan gives access to unlimited users. Additionally, their file storage per user is 2GB. Hence, you can reach your long-time conversions anytime. You can as well host up to 100 participants in a single call.

Hive

This is an all-in-one project management software. With this tool, you can hold a successful and productive meeting. Hive allows you to schedule meetings via a built-in email integration, upload agenda documents, use forms to collect meeting topics from team members, and even meet with face-to-face video interaction. It has a Notes feature that ensures everyone on your team remains aligned before, after, and during the meeting.

GoTo Meeting

Long before the advent of Zoom and Google Meet, this tool has been in existence. Like the GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting is the conferencing tool used by different companies to host webinars. The only difference here is that GoToMeeting is relatively cheaper than the GoToWebinar tool. This is why users most prefer the former. It can also host up to 150 participants in a call.

Video Remote Interpretation Tools

As awesome as the above-listed tools are, they weren’t built significantly to bridge language gaps. This is why the video remote interpretation tool such as InterpretCloud is significant for every video conferencing tool. It helps translate the spoken language in a meeting to someone else’s languages or sign language for people who are deaf via video conferencing. The interpreter uses a headset to listen to whatever is being said by the one who speaks and signs all that has been said back to the web camera. Likewise, if signed to the interpreter, they voice the interpretation. Video remote interpretation use cases include medical settings, business meetings, government agencies, emergency purposes, and video conferencing.

Conclusion

Online meeting tools are a great way to optimize your business productivity effectively. As listed, there are different virtual meeting tools for video conferencing. And you need to diligently select the correct meeting tool that will work for you and your team. Similarly, include video remote interpretation tools like InterpretCloud to bridge the language gap in your meetings.

About The Author

Freya is a Math teacher, Yoga enthusiast, and a beloved mother of three lovely daughters. She is always looking for ways to grow and help others around her thrive through self-learning, meditation, and physical fitness. When she is not teaching or spending time with her family, Freya regularly writes on topics related to self-improvement and women empowerment.

Do You Need a Business Intelligence Dashboard?

The advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning has advanced the capabilities of contemporary business intelligence (BI) tools considerably. With that said, the insights returned are inly as useful as the user’s ability to interpret them.

BI dashboard software has made this easier to accomplish by providing operational insight with data visualization, reporting, analysis, and more.

So, in that regard, the answer to the central question here — do you need a business intelligence dashboard — is yes, with a caveat.

Read on.

What is a BI Dashboard?

This tool puts the results of even the most in-depth analytics in the hands of those who need the information most. Moreover, the dashboard does so in a manner that makes it easy to both understand and apply to the situation at hand. Embeddable dashboard tools enable automated data visualization, which can deliver key takeaways in a way that can be readily digested.

Even better, this makes it easy for anyone on your team, who is authorized to do so, to make requests, access the results and use them to effect decision-making. Moreover, flexibility is a core aspect of the best business intelligence dashboards, as they can be tailored specifically to the individual needs of a multitude of end users.

The Caveat

Sudheesh Nair, CEO of ThoughtSpot, one of the industry’s leading data analytics firms, says the dashboard has an inherent limitation users need to keep in mind. The issue drawing his concern is predicated upon the way data has traditionally been used to enable companies to serve customers in an informed manner.

To understand his perspective, one must look back at 2020 and all of the disruptions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses were suddenly forced to cope with conditions they’d never seen before, let alone anticipated. Nair says relying upon historical aggregated data going forward, given the past year’s disruptions have rendered it less relevant, is problematic. Therefore, a business intelligence dashboard relying upon the traditional analytics model is likely to be inaccurate.

The Solution

Meanwhile, ThoughtSpot has positioned itself as something of a “Google” for data. Its platform works in a similar fashion to that of the venerable search engine, in that users can ask specific questions based upon the data provided and get answers to the question they asked. However, with ThoughtSpot, they also get alternative questions and answers that have some bearing on the query.

As an example, Nair cites a scenario in which a financial institution is looking to get existing customers to use more of its products. In this case, the lender is trying to get holders of its car loans to take advantage of its mortgages too. So it runs a query to see which car loan customers might be considering buying a home.

The results come back and customers identified by the algorithm get a mailer touting the benefits of the home loan. However, there is a group of car loan customers out there holding a bit of ill will against the lender for late charges imposed on payments that arrived one day after the due date. Irritated with the creditor, these borrowers ignore the offer altogether.

Had the company used a platform that leveraged AI the way ThoughtSpot does, those customers would have been flagged, giving the lender the option of not sending them the offer, or better still — sending the offer with an apology and a refund of the late fee.

Looking Forward as Well as Backward

Having this capability gives ThoughtSpot the ability to take a use case driven approach. This is going to be key in coming years because the COVID-19 disruption is going to skew results based upon the traditional aggregation models. While companies will still need the ability to ask “what”, they also need to be able to ask “what if” and “what’s next”.

So, do you need a business intelligence dashboard? It is still useful, however, you really need to rethink the way it’s informed if you want the best actionable results going forward.

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9 Gadgets and Apps for Knocking Out Your Undesirable Habits

Need some gadgets and apps to overcome a bad habit? Because it takes more than will power. And we can see how people addicted to smoking and drinking have a hard time quitting, irrespective of having good knowledge of these vices. Because any habit, good or bad, when practiced for a long time, gets deep-rooted in our unconscious mind.

You can never eliminate a bad habit, but can only replace it with a good one. When you stop a habit, there is a void created in its place. This void when not filled with a new habit, can induce stress and anxiety in you, leading you to a relapse. Hence, it is essential to find good substitutes to beat the habits you don’t like.

Thanks to the ever-rising technology, we now have around us several gadgets and smartphone apps that can play a pivotal role in beating our addictions.

1) ReMind

ReMind is a gadget that is significantly helpful in overcoming the habit of procrastination. This device was fabricated by Industrial Designers at Folkwang University of the Arts, Germany. and colleagues at It is a large rotating wooden wheel that is numbered every day for a month. The users can write down a task they want to complete on the magnetic disk that is attached on the wheel. When the day of the task arrives, the disk drops onto the floor confronting the users about their work.

2) Stay Focused

Speaking of gadgets and apps, it is a Google Chrome extension that restricts your time on websites that are often unproductive to you. Stay focused helps you to nominate the number of hours and minutes you are allowed to be on a specific website. Once the allotted time is over, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible to you for the rest of the day.

3) Momentum

Momentum is another Google Chrome Extension that is ideal for goal setters. With the help of Momentum, you can change the theme of your webpage tabs. The theme can be to-do lists, inspirational quotes or images that motivate you to do your goals.

4) Build Confidence

Build Confidence is a smartphone app that offers relaxing guided meditation for clearing your mind and build your self-confidence. It is also an effective tool for those who have a hard time sleeping at night. The music creates hypnosis effects that help you to doze-off within no time.

5) Clocky Rolling Alarm Clock

Most of us just love that snooze button! Even though we set the alarm for waking up early in the morning, we tend to extend our sleep by pressing the snooze button. This is a habit that makes people late for their schools, colleges or work. Clocky is a type of alarm clock that runs away when it goes off. This is by virtue of the two wheels attached to the sides of it. By the time you chase and switch off this alarm clock, you will be fully awake. This characteristic makes Clocky, a perfect device to beat the habit of oversleeping.

6) E-Cigarettes

Smoking is perhaps the most difficult habit to get rid of. Almost everybody who smokes is also aware of the ill-effects of it. Tobacco being the main constituent of the cigarette, uses a chemical known as Nicotine, which is highly addictive.

Here comes its’ one of the alternatives, e-cigarette which is a hand-held battery-operated vaporizer that mimics smoking without necessarily using nicotine. E-cigarettes mostly incorporate e-liquids which comprises of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine and other added flavors.

There are various kinds of vape available in the market with unique style and flavors. E-Cigarettes also have various modes which will allow you to tweak your vaping experience.

7) Oculus Rift + Virtuax Omni (Virtual Reality)

The 9-hour desk job, coupled with little to no exercise, is wreaking havoc on the health of millions of people across the globe. Majority of them also don’t hit the gym due to the time constraints. A unique combination of Oculus Rift- a virtual reality headset and Virtuax Omni- a treadmill simulator work wonders in improving the overall fitness of people.. The former provides you with various virtual environments and the latter helps you to walk, run and jump, thus making you absolutely active. This combo is also used by many people for gaming. So be sure to get a good gaming monitor. This device will surely help you move if nothing outside is exciting you.

8) Smart Bracelets

Smart Bracelets are devices that help in eliminating unwanted repetitive behaviors. They have motion sensors that monitor the wearer’s activities. It works by interrupting you with a vibration which deters you from repeating the same activity again. Before you start using this kit, you need to perform a small calibration test for allowing this device to record your motion. After this process, the bracelet would alert you whenever it senses a repetitive motion. This is indeed a perfect tool for those who want to get rid of compulsive behaviors.

9) Misfit Flash Fitness

This is another wristband that measures both your activity and inactivity. It monitors sleep cycles, tracks steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, and number of floors climbed. This makes it an optimal device for people who want to get rid of excess weight. It is waterproof as well for letting you track your activity details under the water.

Beating our compulsive behavior and addiction is no longer a hurdle, thanks to the ever-advancing technology. With the proper use of these gadgets and apps, one can be productive at work while also being super healthy.