January News Briefs
If you work at a standing desk, (like Justin Lipscomb, seen in the picture to the left) you’ll love this. Ergonomic experts agree that “your best position is your next position.” In other words, your body is meant to move. And constant motion reduces fatigue as well as back and joint pain. Enter the Wurf Board, an inflatable platform for working at a standing desk. As you stand on it, your body constantly adjusts, keeping you in a subtle state of constant motion. Benefits include greater energy, focus and calorie burn. While anti-fatigue mats make standing comfortable for an hour or so, the Wurf Board lets you stand easily for hours at a time. Priced at $199-$269 and available in three sizes, it lets you work out while you work. TheBalance.com, 15.12.31
Here’s an easy way to start 2017 with a clean e-mail in-box. Ever wonder how in the world you ended up on so many e-mail lists? They just pile up until you can’t even keep up with unsubscribing from the new ones. Unroll.me lets you manage your subscriptions by unsubscribing and bundling the ones you want to keep into a single daily “rollup.” It makes unsubscribing easy and painless. It simply lists all your subscriptions for you. You just click an X next to the ones you want to unsubscribe from and Unroll.me takes care of the rest. It’s a great way to organize your in-box while keeping all the subscriptions you love. Lifewire.com, 10.17.16
Imagine your team, smarter and faster in 2017. Unlike project collaboration platforms, Asana is an app that specializes in workflow management. While it doesn’t give you Gantt charts and billing information, it’s one of the best tools you’ll find to keep track of the daily to-do’s of your business, while giving employees a more productive workspace than e-mails to track job progress. It’s web-based and sports a free mobile app for iPhone and Android. And it also lets you work offline. Asana works best when one person envisions how it will work and then sets it up that way. This takes trial and error, but once up to speed, your customized version can be a powerful work tool. PCmag.com, 09.26.16
Progress doesn’t have to grind to a halt during an Internet outage. First, realize how a loss of Internet access messes with people’s heads. When you can’t connect with people online, your primal brain feels isolated because it sees inclusion as key to survival. Then there’s that little endorphin rush you start missing when you can’t check a task as complete. Add to all that a fear of missing out (FOMO) when you lose touch with friends on Twitter, Facebook or e-mail, and you have a formula for widespread panic among the troops. Instead, keep your cool and carry on with these four activities: 1) Call a meeting, or do training. 2) Complete your “later” list. 3) Compose drafts. 4) Hit the streets and do some face-to-face marketing. Inc.com, 10.25.16