Office Culture

These are the people that you spend a third of your day with, if not more. It is important to create an office culture that will promote growth and enable your employees to be their absolute best. You could start by organizing fun office challenges. It can range from a cook-off to a foosball tournament to ping pong. They are fun and bring the much needed break from the daily grind. It is also possible to foster teamwork and improve fitness at the same time by exercising in the office together and doing a certain challenge. You could also have walking meetings although it might be harder if you usually use internet phones for that. Another way that you can create a great office culture and atmosphere is by celebrating special occasions in unique ways, for example, birthdays or holidays. Do you remember back in grade school when you would get so excited to go on a field trip? Have those feelings again by have the whole office take half a day and go on a field trip. You could spend time volunteering or having a picnic. Any other ideas or suggestions?

Sitting: It May Be Killing You

I am sure that you heard about all those studies that support the claim that sitting will eventually kill you prematurely. It is true that we have a whole culture around sitting. Even back in grade school you were told to sit down and keep your mouth shut. Now when we drive, we sit and when we are working on software development, we sit and so on. This has spurred the whole movement of standing desks, but is it enough? There are new studies coming out that say that sitting is damaging even if we exercise regularly. It has to do with the stretch of time that we sit. To mitigate the effects, try setting a timer or use a mobile application to remind you to get up for a couple minutes every half hours. Go for that standing desk, even if your co-workers look at you funny. You health should be more important. In fact, the standing desk can improve your concentration, stamina, and energy. If you must watch TV, get up during the commercials.

Digital Economy

Consumers are buying less of the physical media at an increasing rate. Instead they are leaning more toward renting. If you're not paying for a service with cash, the company is using your data as a currency. This trend will continue, forcing us to learn how to trade data the way we trade other currencies. The economy is also trending toward the "I want it now" landscape. On-demand is nothing new but with the expanding technology and cloud services, it is easier than ever to get things that you want right that second. On-demand video and audio are very commonplace but on-demand car services and hotel rooms are also emerging and it is creating some uproar. These are the trends and they are not going to slow down any time soon. The internet of things as well as the hardware are getting closer to replacing workers and certain jobs. It will happen, just look at how far we have come now from the past decade.

Getting More Sleep

This should definitely be at the top of everyone's new year's resolution list. Bedrooms serve as the backdrop for efforts to arrive at quality sleep, and factors such as light, temperature, noise and distractions can have a big impact. Start the year off right by organizing and decluttering the room. Avoid disrupting light by limiting electronics and phone services and using blackout shades or an eye mask. Another thing that you should watch out for are stimulants. Hot spices, sugar, and caffeine should be avoided before bedtime. You should also try to go to bed and get up at the same times even on the weekends. Keeping a routine will help with your biological clock and getting better sleep. If you are one of those people that is able to take a nap, make sure that it is around lunch time and limit the nap to 30 minutes. Lastly, keep checking on your progress because a lifelong great sleeping habit will have a lot of benefits.

Traits for Happiness

No mobile application can really help with these traits. This is something that you have to find and embrace on your own. Fear will steal happiness. It can just sneak up on it and destroy resolve and commitment. Courage needs to be cultivated in order to keep fear in the margins. Courage enables us to approach life and problems and lets us find solutions which will lead to greater satisfaction in life. Challenges are inevitable in life so courage will definitely come in handy. Right next to courage sits forgiveness. If you do not forgive, your wounds will just keep being open and fester causing even more pain. Another trait that is utterly important is patience. Learning to allow and accept, to move with the flow and somewhat relax is crucial to living a life of happiness. There are parts of life that we cannot control so it will only frustrate you more to attempt to do so. The way to get those problems not seem too overwhelming is to have gratitude. When we are grateful, our problems do not disappear, they just occupy less space in our lives, minds, and hearts.

Things Holding You Back

As you are trying to keep up with those new years resolutions and it is not working so well? What if the reason that it is so hard to move forward is because there are still many things holding you back? First of all, it is really important to let go of laziness and the excuse you have been making. Outrageously successful people take care of themselves, help others, and engage in practices that create and maintain a healthy mindset. Secondly, stop thinking that there is not enough time. Time does not discriminate and everyone in the world has the same amount of hours in the day. Unless of course you figured out a way to time travel. Just do not mess up the space time continuum in the mean time. If you often get caught up in menial chores or allow yourself to get sidetracked, there's a deeper issue going on. Get help to understand what it is and stop applying bandages to it with productivity mobile applications that don't work for you. You are very welcome for that little dose of reality. Everyone needs it every once in a while.