Weekly Round-Up #143: Productivity Hacks, Improve Empathy And A Top Procrastination Tool
This week we look at 5 simple ways you can improve your productivity (although it seems one needs a bit of practice!), Why empathy is so important in the workplace and how you can improve your understanding of those around you, and grab a coffee and procrastinate away with a ton of meme on procrastination (just don’t blame me if your report is late!).
Hello, and welcome to this week’s round-up. This week we look at 5 simple ways you can improve your productivity (although it seems one needs a bit of practice!), Why empathy is so important in the workplace and how you can improve your understanding of those around you, and grab a coffee and procrastinate away with a ton of meme on procrastination (just don’t blame me if your report is late!).
5 Time-Saving Productivity Hacks, Reviewed – The Simple Dollar
This post from The Simple Dollar takes a look at 5 simple to introduce productivity techniques that you can implement with minimal fuss. The interesting take is that they’ve take a bench-mark on activities and then applied the productivity techniques to see how much time is saved.
The results on “Time Blocking” surprised me (I won’t go into the actual figures here so please check out the article) – I think perhaps the author needed to look at the Pomodoro Technique in a bit more detail.
What Is Britain’s Ideal Office? – Cezanne
I know us Brits can be a bit of a strange bunch, but I think these office desires will apply to almost anywhere around the world – although I am really surprised that tea only came third on the list of favourite workplace drinks (although it is difficult to find a teapot in an office to make the perfect cup of tea!)
20 Ways To Improve Empathy And Build Better Relationships At Work – GetCRM
If you want to get on with your colleagues you need to understand what they want and need, and how that relates to your goals. Whilst Stephen Covey’s fourth habit of Highly effective people – Think Win/Win] – covers some of the need for empathy, this Infographic gives you a great breakdown of the benefits and uses in the workplace allowing you to understand it’s importance in a more relevant setting.
11 Simple But Effective Ways To Teach Mindfulness To Kids – Best For The Kids
As adults, we may moan about “The Youth Of Today” and their lack of awareness of others but perhaps that stems from a lack of exposure to certain thoughts and techniques as a child. Best For The Kids gives you 11 simple ways that you can introduce your children to mindfullness (without ramming it down their necks) which will allow them to lay good foundations for adulthood.
Update: 27-06-2024 – Link removed as resource is no longer available
How To Stop Cravings – Infographic – Positive Health Wellness
They say that when you crave something, your body is trying to tell you that it need some fuel to keep it running. If you’re on the go or don’t have a lot in the fridge then this infographic from Postive Health Wellness will give you a few ideas on healthy substitutes. If you have a bit more time and access to food then this thourough list will give you loads of alternitives to the unhealthy food you’re craving.
How To Spend The First 30 Minutes Of Your Day To Maximize Productivity – Entrepreneur
This article is all about a routine you put in place when you get up – it’s not a specific morning routine that seems to be all the rage. This is great as some of us don’t operate on the usual timings that the majority of you seem to work on – and some of you may work a night shift so a morning routine would be pretty useless in that case! This article covers 4 simple tasks you should perform within 30 minutes of getting up to set your day up right. I’d add a fifth: drink plenty of water then have a nice coffee or cup of tea – there’s no better way to get your day off on the right foot than being well hydrated and having a nice tasty beverage!
How One Tweak To Your Room Could Guarantee You A Good Night’s Sleep If You Struggle To Nod Off –
I used to be terrible at falling asleep – and it could actually be down to the feng shui in my room rather than insomnia! Apparently there’s one common item in rooms that you won’t even think about that could be throwing all of the sleep energy off and keeping you up at night. If you don’t fancy a remodel than you could always try a relaxing eye mask which helps me nod off really quickly*.
Gmail’s Latest Update Is Super Basic But You’Ve Been Waiting For It – Mashable
Gmail has finally added address and phone linking to their Gmail app. A load of third party apps already do this, so if it’s something you rely on you may be able to switch back to the official Gmail App. I’m still waiting for them to implement a “Send to groups” feature – it’s annoying that I’ve spent ages setting groups up on my desktop but can’t send to them at all using their mobile app (Bonus Workaround: Use Group Share for Gmail (Free) which acts as a keyboard on your device and allows you to copy groups email addresses into GMail – it’s a bit of a faff though!)
Inversion: The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You – James Clear
We’re tought that visualisation is a key tool in achieving our goals, and that from positive thoughts come positive outcomes. In the Stoic school of thought you’re taught to envisage the worst possible outcome so that you could then make better plans to avoid those scenarios and, I guess, feel better about whatever the result was as it was bound to be better than your uber-negative one!
I guess “Inversion” as James calls it isn’t new: I am a big believer on positive thinking and that negativity attracts negativity but perhaps we need reminding every now and again that we need to alter the way we look at things and it’s not alway a “succeed or fail” outcome that’s possible.
Here Is How I Achieved A State Of No Thought And Peace – Exactly How It Happened (Pure Stillness) – Stoic Leaders
I’ve been doing quite a bit of meditation recently thanks to one of the Yoga classes I’m taking. I must admit I am blessed with allowing my mind to wander and not fixate on any particular task and can “zone out” quite easily but I’m always thinking about something even if it’s not overly in my conciousness. Arda’s managed to take mediation to the next level and managed to close off his inner voice which I think is an amazing (if a little frightening!) feat.
It’s Ok To Stop Doing It All – No Side Bar
Are you the busy Mum that tries to do it all? Kids, work, home life? Are you like me and working Full time on your passion career, holding down a part-time job to bring some money in and help out with a load of activities and charities? As the saying goes You have the same 24 hours as Beyonce so why do we feel the need to be supermen or superwomen? Sometimes we think we have more available time than we have, other times it’s a fear of saying “No” but whatever the reason, it’s okay to delegate or not take that postion on the PTA!
6 Steps To Staying Positive No Matter What Happens – Its All You Boo
Sometimes it seems that we’re filled with a pool of negativity and it’s hard to see the bright side in anything. There are ways that we can get out of this funk though and Grace R Taylor writing for It’s All You Boo has 6 tips and a positive affirmations download to help you on your way to a sunnier outlook.
How To Prevent Sleep Procrastination – And Why You Should – What She Say
Do you put off going to bed? I certainly do! I mean it’s almost 3am as I write this and I could really do with a good night’s sleep but I’ll probably be up for a couple more hours yet. Why’s that? Well it now has a name – Sleep Procrastination! I’m glad I’m not the only one who goes through this (I thought it was just my brain being a bit of an arse) and this article on What She Say has given me some practicle tips to try – although I always seem to struggle with the “regular bedtimes” aspect of any routine!
A Better Focus: How To Achieve It In 3 Easy Ways – Upbeat Impulse
In our current day and age with the amounts of inputs and stimuli we have it’s easy to forget how to focus and more importantly understand what we should be focusing on. This post gives us 3 simple solutions to allow us to focus and allow ourselves to see our goals and desires with more clarity.
Want To Stay Motivated When Reaching Goals? Watch My Video Now – The Productivity Summit
Last week my talk on the Productivity Summit went live. You can still catch it – along with over 50 speakers – with an all access pass. So if you want to learn to set goals, stay motivates, become super-productive and more then check it out now!
Here’S What Your Handwriting Says About You – Business Insider
Are you a heavy printer or a light cursive? Find out what your handwriting says about your personality traits with this illustrated article. It can’t, of course, cover all handwriting styles but I found it quite interesting to see what my major traits were!
10+ Hilarious Posts About Procrastination You Probably Shouldn’T Be Reading Right Now – Bored Panda
I left this article to last – for obvious reasons I hope! The title says 10+ but there are over 30 pages of memes for you to look at so only click on this link if you want to enter the Super Procrastination Zone!
Have A Great Weekend
I hope you have enjoyed this round-up, as always if you have any links you like to share with me and my readers please contact me through the website or send me a tweet.
Until next week, Stay Productive!
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