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Don’t trust ‘productivity’ tools

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In a progressively digital world the number of tools and apps on the market, which are designed to make our jobs easier, is somewhat staggering.

With start-ups regularly coming onto the scene purporting to offer the latest and greatest productivity tool, it’s easy to get caught up in the ability these technological advances can have. However, is it possible these new tools are actually hindering our productivity?

Therefore, it is time business leaders and managers take a step back and review their productivity tools and whether they should trust them. To help you recognise whether your tools are helping your productivity, Medium shared a list of three top tips to track this.

Evaluate your needs

A good staring point Medium suggests is to list areas which you wish to be more efficient with and then sort them into categories. Then identify the key thing you need the most help with in each category. For example, from this if you realise you need a more effective way of taking notes during meetings, conduct some research into tools to help with this to benefit you and your tasks.

Keep track

As the adage saying goes, ‘less is more’. This is particularly true when it comes to your choice of productivity tools. To keep on top of things it’s vital that you keep track of the many tools you are using, for example you may discover you are using too many for one task. If this is the case, start eliminating the one you do not use. Streamlining your tools on a regular basis like this will stop you from using more tools that aren’t necessary.

Use only what you need

Lastly, Medium warns business leaders and managers shouldn’t get caught up in the false need to use what’s new and hot on the market. Remember each tool that you use should be making life easier at work, while also improving your productivity. However, if they are making things more complicated it may be worth ditching them altogether.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

Avoid discussing THESE topics at work

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In the current age of political, economic and social tension, when the actions that are constantly splashed all over the tabloid front pages, it’s hard to compartmentalise what subjects are and aren’t acceptable or ‘safe’ to talk about in the office.

In theory, good intellectual conversation should never, really, be off of the table – yet as most workers would confirm from personal experience, debate can very quickly become personal, and can cause widespread bad feeling when ill-informed perspectives are aired – or divisive views are shared.

As a result, it’s best to simply steer the conversation away from hot-button topics which may cause unintended offence or division within a team. The below topics are some of the most universal examples of these.

Money 

It’s a universal fact that all workers believe that they should be on a higher wage. As a result, there’s a vast culture of discretion within the UK professional sector when it comes to compensation. Regardless of whether you’re sharing because you think it’s low, or because you’re satisfied with a new raise, just keep quiet about your income. You have essentially no idea how your pay stacks up against others, and a surprising reveal may well cause significant dissension from your co-workers.

Politics

Regardless of your political leanings, keeping up to date with the constant controversies of the UK parliament can be an exhausting and infuriating prospect. However, just because the issue is on your mind, that doesn’t mean that you should be debating the events with others. You may well find that it sparks a debate from which the team’s co-working spirit does not recover.

Religion

Religion may well play a massive part in your life and telling co-workers about a christening or another big event you’re attending isn’t a faux pas, yet as with politics, actively encouraging a philosophical debate about the existence of God isn’t going to lead anywhere productive. Camps will just divide, and it may well soon descend into bitter arguments.

Relationships

There is never an appropriate situation within the workplace to discuss one-night-stands or the like. As a rule, it’s best to simply steer away from talking about your love life, as the lines between what is acceptable and what could get you disciplined by HR are very much blurred. Play it safe, keep it to yourself.

Hot button news 

There’s always a divisive issue being debated furiously on the news. Whether it’s the collapse of a retail empire, the capture of a terrorist or, as with the current cycle, much debate around environmental activism, such issues rarely elicit meek reactions from the public. Remember, the news is designed in its very nature to provoke strong feelings from viewers; discussing these issues in the workplace will only serve to bring back these feelings, which will be directed at anyone who doesn’t agree.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

5 motivational hacks that will change your life

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With the best of intentions, all professionals need help with motivation sometimes.

Between the bustling workday, a slew of hard deadlines and the sheer effort of maintaining personal life outside of the office, it’s unsurprising that many Brits have a serious problem with finding the motivation to upkeep their home and work lives. Things slip, and once they start to slip, it’s far harder to prevent a full-blown disaster. Miss that one deadline, and all others are pushed back as you struggle to catch up. Lose concentration whilst completing a task and the day’s work may be rendered pointless. Miss laundry day one week and you’re wearing that ill-fitting shirt you took out of rotation for the day.

It’s important, when looking to improve motivation, to consider that many workplace specialists perceive motivation to act like a muscle. If you don’t use a muscle for a while, it starts to get weaker and is unable to perform as it once did. Work on that muscle, and it rebuilds itself stronger and better than before. With that in mind, your motivation needs to be trained with an equally effective regime.

But when pushing your motivation, what works?

Find an ‘accountability partner’

The best way to get motivated is to find someone else who is either already talented at productivity, or someone who also wants to better themselves and use this camaraderie to push yourself to your limits. Friendly competition and the conviction of knowing that someone else is aware if you succeed or fail is a fantastic way of keeping yourself to your own promises.

Organise your brain 

Different kinds of learners will do this in different ways, yet a good way to describe the jumble in your brain is in the form of a metaphorical monolith. This giant, looming monolith of to-do lists, big projects and general tasks requiring effort looks seemingly impossible when viewed in this way, yet simply getting these things down in the form of a structured to-do list replete with action dates and scales of investment will turn that monolith into bite-sized chunks, which you can complete one-by-one.

Start small

The rewarding feeling of crossing off an item on your to-do list is a powerful one. It breeds motivation as you power through your tasks. Start with something small that you’ve been meaning to get done and build to bigger tasks. You’ll be so in the zone by the time that you get to the key projects, you’ll be in the mindset to tackle them head-on.

Be realistic

People generally attempt to dive into productivity and set themselves unrealistic deadlines. If you’re physically unable to complete these deadlines, you’re setting yourself up for guaranteed failure, which is a massive motivation killer.

Give yourself a break

Figuratively and literally, everyone needs time to clear their mind and unpack information. If you try to pile on too much at once, you’ll overload yourself and kill your motivation. Take short, sharp breaks between tasks – but keep these brief and get right back to work afterwards.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

How to disagree with your boss – without getting fired

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Believing that your boss is fundamentally wrong, yet being expected to action their commands, is a horribly conflicting situation to be in for any employee.

Whilst the truth is essential and ensuring that your team isn’t wasting valuable time based on false information is hugely important, disagreeing with the boss can be taken badly, and if it isn’t handled with subtlety and discretion, can result in some pretty grave consequences.

Obviously regardless of your boss’ management style or personality type, the last thing you want to do is embarrass them or appear to be insubordinate, as these are big red flags that may well affect your career going forward; as such, the issue should be approached in a very specific manner. The following five rules should serve as guidelines for manoeuvring the issue without causing concern.

1. Ensure that you’re correct

Nothing will lose your credibility in this situation faster than challenging your boss’ information without checking that you’re correct. Blindly trusting your own intuition without researching the data first smacks of arrogance and single-mindedness. You must ensure that you’re correct if you’re going to attempt to correct your boss.

2. Decide if it’s essential

There are some incorrect statements that we can all simply ignore. The very fact that your boss has stated incorrect data in itself does not require your attention. So, before you decide to do anything about it, you must use your own judgement to assess whether it is necessary at all. No, misquoting Shakespeare or using a malaprop in a speech doesn’t require correcting.

If this is a company-wide meeting, do you really want to be the worker that interrupts your boss in front of all of these people? Is the information worth potentially being forever regarded as a ‘nit-picker’ or a contrarian? Again, if the information is being shared in a senior management meeting or in front of your boss’ boss, this probably isn’t the right time to bring this up. However, if the false information is shared in an informal Q&A session or in a more neutral environment, chances are on the spot is indeed the correct time and place to casually bring it up.

4. Consider your approach

As previously mentioned, if the situation is informal, casually recalling that the information was slightly different is probably the best approach, dependent on your boss’ temperament. If, however, the situation is more formal, it may be a good idea to convey the correct data through an email or a discrete phone call.

5. Language is everything 

Under no circumstances should you use any condescending or confrontational buzzwords. For example, it’s never a good idea to accuse your boss of being ‘wrong’ or having ‘made a mistake’. Almost regardless of temperament, your boss is virtually guaranteed to be angry if you start accusing them. Instead, try to suggest that the data simply may be slightly different. Your goal should be to offer them a way of accepting the correction, without being backed into a corner. Remember, you’re on the same side – they should feel this too.