Weekly Round-Up #102: Better Team Building without Physical Exertion, Cheaper Books and iPad v Laptop
In this weeks’ round-up we look at whether and iPad can replace a Laptop, whether “Trust Falls” actually build a team and how to snap cheaper text books if you’re a student.
Hello! This week we look at how you can build morale in teams (without requiring any of the horrible physical rubbish like “Sea Pyramids” or “Trust Falls”), a productivity tools that’s perhaps the “One Ring To Rule Them All” and some other bits and pieces. The most important link I found this week though? The following – have an unhappy friend and this will see every thing made right in a few short minutes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAmZucyzyZM
Direct Textbook – Cheaper Textbooks Online – Direct Textbook
I was contacted by Direct Textbook to see if I thought their service would be useful to you – and I can say that it is! I can’t understand why textbooks for students are so expensive: I still have quite a few of mine stuffed in my loft at home (20 years later) as they were ridiculously priced but almost obsolete by the time I graduated so there was no point trying to sell them on. Simply search for the Author, ISBN or some keywords and you’ll get best price matches from a range of sites.
39 Insanely Fun Team Building Activities For Work (“Trust Falls” Not Included) – Snacknation
Have you ever been on a “team building exercise”? One of the last ones I went on involved someone trying to overturn a speedboat I was in in the middle of the solent (he’d just been told that the boat he was piloting was the same one used by the villain in the James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough”.
He then went on to drive a 4×4 into a tree – fun times! I’m not quite sure how that was team building, I was stuck with 4 people from different parts of the business I didn’t really know, we had a guy with a death wish, a guy with a bad back so we could only drive 10 miles and hour, and all 3 guys had some sort of male egotistical complex that would only allow me to chime in when they messed up – or drive when they crashed. Oh! The wonders of the tech industry, eh? (I’d like to point out that I was the only one of them to drive the 4×4 through the course without incurring any penalties… after they finally let me have a go at it)
Anyway, my point is that you can be all inclusive and not require people to do stupid (and frankly irrelevant tasks) like a trust fall when there are better (and safer) options that they guys at Snacknation have put together.
The Productive Physician
Mark reached out to me after I posted my Top 100+ Productivity Blogs post. Whilst he’s a little new to include in the 100+ post, he’s got some really well written content that will benefit medical professionals and they layman alike.
Check out: “Achieve your Big Hairy Audacious Goals in a 12 Week Year” Which is a great review of the 12 Week Year system so you can figure out if it’s for you.
Happy Melly Podcasts – Happy Melly
I featured “Happy Melly” in my Top 100 post and they replied with a section that I overlooked – a fantastic Podcast category! Sometimes we just don’t have the time (or inclination) to read so why not listen and learn at the same time
Zenkit – Productivity In One Place
This app is still in beta but I’ve watched the promo video and it does look really interesting. Quite often we’re forced to separate productivity styles into disparate systems depending on the style we feel is relevant, what the customer is happy working with – or even what our productivity style is at the time.
Zenkit aims to address that with allowing you to use a variety of organisation types within a single system from mindmaps to Kanban boards!
I replaced my laptop with an iPad Pro for a month. Here’s what happened – Business Fiction
You may know Mark Ellis as being a guest poster on this blog, and he writes for a fair few publications so if anyone knows about ditching a laptop in favour of a tablet, he’s the guy to ask. I’ve tried it a couple of times, but there’s no way I could cope with just the on-screen keyboard – but see his well thought out views. And if you’re looking for a content marketer check his website out too
Short But Sweet This Week
Normally I’d include a few more links but I had decided this year to hand-make (ish) all my Christmas cards. If you’re a reader of my newsletter (and if not, why not?) you’ll know that I’m all out of sorts thanks to a week of I just had when – incidentally I was supposed to be making said cards. Anyway I’m doing them now with 3 days to go – we all work better under pressure right? – so I’ve had to cut this round-up a bit shorter than usual.
As always, if you have any links that you think our productivity family would like please contact me – and wish me luck in my Christmas Card making!
Yes, my site is still young to go in a top 100, but I figured “no harm in asking”! 😀
Thanks for including me in this round-up!