Weekly Round-Up #269: Christmas Hacks, Emails Affecting The Climate & Online Privacy
In this round-up we take a look at some great Christmas hacks that will make your life simpler this festive season, how that email you send can have a massive impact on the climate and what information Google knows about you and what you can do about it.
Welcome to this week’s round-up, I hope you’ve had a fun and productive week.
This week we take a look at 25 hacks for a stress-free Christmas – yes, I know my American reader’s haven’t had Thanksgiving yet but with 2020 going the way it is, I think we all need a little festive cheer and these hacks will up your Christmas game for sure!
We also take a look at why you should really think about that email before you send it. Not because your email might be annoying but because pointless emails are having a huge impact on the environment and are adding to the speed that climate change is increasing – and I bet you thought sending that “did you get my email?” email didn’t have much impact on the world.
Finally, how much does Google know about you? We look at a viral Twitter thread that may alarm you – I certainly went into my Google account, changed a lot of settings (hah! you don’t know where I am now, do you Google?) and deleted a lot of data after reading it. While it was fun to see where I was three years ago, it was also quite disconcerting to realise that Google had been tracking my location and search history for years without me even knowing – and I’ve had an Android phone since 2008 so they had a lot of data on me.
And with that in mind, make sure you check out the article about privacy browsers – after seeing how much data Google is storing about you, I think you’ll understand the importance of installing Duck Duck go on Chrome, or moving to Firefox or Tor.
Do you use a Privacy Browser? Let us know in the comments which one you have found to be the best.
25 Clever Home Hacks For A Stress Free Christmas – Express Doors Direct
Christmas is a magical time, filled with wonder. But as a homeowner, you can often be the one in charge of creating that magical atmosphere. Such a task is not easy and it certainly isn’t stress-free. So how do you calm the chaos and feel in control over the festive season? By taking any shortcuts you can!
Pointless Emails: They’re Not Just Irritating – They Have A Massive Carbon Footprint – The Guardian
A new study commissioned by energy company OVO reckons Brits send more than 64m unnecessary emails every day, and that if every adult in the UK sent one fewer “thank you” email a day we would save more than 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year – equivalent to 81,152 flights to Madrid or taking 3,334 diesel cars off the road. Not only that – imagine how much more time we’d have!
Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2020: How to Set Your Store up for Success – Website Builder Expert
2020 has been a transformative year for ecommerce – 62% of US consumers shop online more now than before the pandemic, and one UK survey even found that 74% of respondents across all age groups now feel comfortable buying products online because of the coronavirus outbreak. It’s more vital than ever for ecommerce businesses to be fully optimized, operational and opportunistic for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 and this guide gives you 9 actionable items to ensure you make the most of the business period in the ecommerce shopping calendar.
How To Use Google Assistant Routines To Automate Your Entire Day – MakeUseOf
Routines are among the most useful features of Google Assistant. They enable you to string together multiple tasks you do every day—from checking the weather to adjusting your thermostat—and activate them all with a single voice command. There are several pre-configured Google Assistant routines available. These cover your daily habits and chores, with the added option to make your own routines to go with your lifestyle. MakeUseOF takes a look at how to set up Google Assistant Routines and how they can automate your daily life.
The Colourful Way South Korean Workers Cope With Long Hours – BBC
Working in the country with the world’s longest office hours, a growing number of South Koreans are keen on decorating their desks with zeal to bring a little colour to their days. Although the South Korean government cut maximum working hours from 68 hours to 52 hours per week in 2018, with the expectation of boosting productivity and encouraging work-life balance, many young South Koreans still often find themselves at their desks. Deskterior is a movement to make office spaces feel like home in a country with the longest working hours of any developed nation.
What Leads You To Burnout, According To Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type – Well+Good
Different personalities enjoy and thrive in entirely different circumstances and environments. While ISFJs love routine and stability, ENTPs need room to explore the outskirts of each project and role they adopt. On the other side of tye coin, what depletes you is also thoroughly unique. Some can’t stand detail-oriented tasks, while others have no patience for teamwork or theory. If you’ve ever found yourself burnt out and can’t understand why (or don’t know how to turn things around), your Myers-Briggs personality type can help you understand.
What Happens If I Use Two-Factor Authentication And Lose My Phone? – Lifehacker
Two-factor authentication is an essential security measure that uses your phone to help prevent unauthorized access to your account. It makes it harder to access your account if you lose your phone, but that’s also sort of the point. Thankfully, you aren’t without options if you can’t find the one device you use to verify that you are actually you.
5 Ways To Reset Your Body Clock For Better Sleep – Under Armour
If the clock on the wall is telling you it’s time for bed, but you still feel wide awake, you might need to reset your circadian rhythm. You might not be able to ditch the night shift or want to give up international travel but there are ways to reset your circadian rhythm to improve your sleep (and your health) when necessary. This article from MyFitnessPal gives you 5 actionable tips to get your body clock back to some sembalance of normaility.
Free Youtube Intro Maker – The Hoth
In this video, The HOTH shares the best FREE YouTube intro makers that you can use to spice up your YouTube videos. These YouTube intro maker tools require no credit card, no free trials and have no watermarks!
Selling On Amazon Marketplace – Luca Tagliaferro
In the current climate it may be difficult, if not impossible, for you to keep a physical presence for your business. With various lockdowns and restrictions in place thanks to the COVID-19 Pandmic, more people are unwilling to head out to the store and are moving to online shopping.
Setting up an online business can be a confusing job, and also expensive if you need to put warehousing and fulfilment in place as well. While we may be trying to support small businesses at the moment, many are turning to the infrastructure of existing marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay and Amazon. In this aricle, Luca Tagliaferro takes an in-depth look at Amazon marketplace, how to determine if it’s the right platform for your business and how to make the most of the biggest selling platform in the world.
What Is A Webinar (And How To Do It Right) – RingCentral
Hosting a webinar is a little different from hosting an in-person event. Derived from the word “seminar”, the meaning of the word is pretty self-explanatory: it’s an online seminar. 95% of organisations say that webinars represent a key part of their marketing efforts. They have become rapidly popular in universities, workplaces, and networking events – and because of the current pandemic, they’ve become an essential part of everyday working life. In this article, Ring Central looks at what a webinar is, how you can use them to grow your business and what makes a great webinar.
It’s Time To Switch To A Privacy Browser – WIRED
There’s a new battleground in the browser wars: user privacy. Firefox just made its Enhanced Tracking Protection a default feature, Apple continues to pile privacy-focused features into its Safari browser, and people are more aware than ever before of the sort of information they can reveal every time they set a digital footprint on the web.
If you want to push back against online tracking, you’ve got several options to pick from when choosing a default browser. These are the browsers that put user privacy high on the list of their priorities.
Casual Dress Is Now The Norm At Half Of Us Companies, Indeed Says – Quartz
In a workforce where working from home and wearing athleisure to the office are no longer uncommon, formal dress codes are starting to feel like an artifact from a bygone era—for some of us.
A new study by Indeed found that the share of US companies that allow casual dress throughout the workweek has increased from 32% to 50% in just the last five years. While it’s a big jump, it means another 50% of companies still haven’t caught up to a trend that now dates back decades.
15 Types Of Difficult Clients And How To Handle Them Effectively – Digital Synopsis
Every agency has that one client from hell. The one who monopolizes your time, frustrates the entire staff, and makes unreasonable demands. If you’ve got more than one, you probably spend three out of four weekends in office. If we apply the Pareto principle (or 80:20 rule) to the agency-client relationship, 80% of an agency’s resources are utilized in managing 20% of its clients.
This Thread Went Viral Because It Really Did Freak People Out – The Poke
A chap called Dylan Curran went to the trouble of offering a layman’s guide to how much data the likes of Google and Facebook keep on us, helpfully providing a few examples along the way.
He said it would freak you out, and it really, really will.
At the risk of getting too technical for a moment, this is just completely nuts.
Have A Great Week
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 time, Stay Productive!
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