André Meyer

Author: André Meyer (page 3 of 6)

1. March 2017

Why there is no “I don’t have time for that”

We all have this in common: We live in a busy world. And we all have got the same 24 hours to spend. While (at least in theory) we can choose what to spend our time on, most of us are always in a hurry. And we often excuse ourselves with: “I don’t have time for that.” But that’s not entirely true…

I was regularly thinking or saying “I don’t have time for that.”. Was. Until I saw a Ted talk by Laura Vanderkam, a time management expert, who studies how busy people spend their lives. She discovered that extremely busy people, such as a woman with multiple kids, a houshold to take care of and a very successful career, still had time to go for a hike on a Wednesday – a weekday!

29. January 2017

Cope with Stress and Control your Performace in any Environment

In my strive to make people more productive, less stressed and generally happier at work, I’ve found an interesting article on Business Insider who interviewed Eric Potterat, a former head psychologist for the US Navy SEALs. He mentions that one similarity of “elite people”, whether they are athletes or military members, is how they cope with stress. He describes that people who control stress can control their performance in any environment, and that anyone can learn it and turn it into a habit.

21. January 2017

How you can become more Productive at Work with Walk Meetings

Are you often feeling stressed during your work days? Do you never really find the time to do sports and train your body? You are not alone, but there are many easy things to be more active and healthy at work.

Walk-Meetings

Meetings don’t have to be held in a dark and boring meeting room. Get your meeting partner(s) up and go out to take a walk. I usually take paper and pen with me (yes, they still exist! 🙂 ) to take notes.

8. January 2017

Multitasking is Bad for your Productivity and could be Damaging your Brain

Are you a multi-tasker? Maybe it’s time to reconsider your work habits.

I personally know many who are proud to be able towork on several tasks at the same time, as they “get more stuff done than others”. However, research has found out that multi-tasking is actually less productive than doing just one thing at a time. Here is why:

3. January 2017

Kevin Kelly: Humans are good at inefficiency, Productivity is for Robots

I’ve just watched an incredibly interesting TED Talk by Kevin Kelly, who explains why technological progress is inevitable and why robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will not kill all our jobs.

Much like our strive to make things faster, easier and more convenient couldn’t prevent the phone or internet to be ‘invented’, broad use of AI systems are inevitable. That’s why Kelly suggests us to “embrace AI to steer it”.

3. January 2017

How to Easily Secure Your Online Accounts!

I am a frequent reader of Paul Thurrot’s Microsoft Insider blog and think this one about securing your internet identity/accounts is very worth to share, and probably a good intention to do (soon) in 2017!

In the blog post, he talks about how important and easy (!) it is to secure your online accounts on Facebook, Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, and so on with the Two-Factor-Authentication and why you should use a separate password for each online service you are using! As probably nobody can remember all the passwords used anyway, he recommends to use a password manager, such as LastPass or KeePass.

You can find the article on thurrot.com. Start now, and secure your online identity!

2. January 2017

Work Hard, Play Hard: How to find the perfect work life balance?

tl;dr: I don’t know. But YOU should achieve it!

Some swear on only working a few hours each day, but have maximum focus and productivity in that time. Others would never work on weekends, to get time off for friends, family, sports and leisure. On the other hand, there are many successful people who are working 90 hours a week. There is a famous quote that Bill Gates never took a day off until he was 31.

1. January 2017

5 Ideas to Reflect about 2016.

A warm welcome to 2017!

I’ve recently backed BetterBack, a fantastic gadget for a better posture and back pain relief and I am looking forward to receive the BetterBack in April 2017. Katherine, the creator of BetterBack cited Amber Rae who suggested five ideas to reflect about 2016 that help plan a better 2017:

24. December 2016

Merry Christmas and an Exciting New Year!

Dear Followers and Readers,

I wish you a merry christmas, some quality time for family, friends and yourself and all the best for the new year! May 2017 be as exciting and challenging (in a positive way) as this year was, and also a happy, fulfilling and healthy one!

Best,
André

19. December 2016

Be productive like a boss with ambient background noise

Are you working in an open-space office with a lot of background noise? Can you just focus better if you hear your background mumble, like in a coffee shop? Or are you more relaxed when you hear birds sing or the sound of water?

Then, Noisli is for you! Noisli is a free and very simple service that lets you enable/disable different sounds to listen in the background. You can choose from birds, forest, wind, sea, fire, train waggons, coffee shop, and so on.

I’ve been using Noisli for the past 1-2 years and I’ve found it extremely helpful in times where I have a hard time to focus on my task. Also I cannot listen to music for a whole day when I am in the office, but I can listen to birds much longer.

I recommend everyone to try it out 🙂

18. December 2016

WSJ: How Satya Nadella makes Microsoft the “only pre-internet tech giant to escape the decline of its legacy product”

Why is Microsoft suddenly back as a leader in the mobile and cloud computing space? Jay Greene from the Wall Street Journal has asked the question to many Microsoft top executives and learnt of how the company shifted strategies under Satya Nadella. This includes acknowledging not getting everything right, buying talent (i.e. startups), and making people responsible for products even if they don’t have a 10-year-long history at Microsoft.

The lengthy, very worth-to-read article can be found here.

17. December 2016

How liking stuff on social networks makes algorithms understand you better than your own friends

A few years ago, Psychologist Michal Kosinki developed a method to analyze humans, their attitude, politial and religious views, and so on, based on what they like on Facebook, Twitter & co. and use the data to predict their behavior.

When he realized the consequences of his discovery, he warned – too late, as compannies, such as Cambridge Analytica have already adapted it for their customers, such as getting people to vote for Brexit and Trump.

Read more about Kosinki’s discovery, an unethical offer and what happend on dasmagazin.ch (German).

16. December 2016

How wedding planners can increase sales, save time and make weddings more memorable with Picturex!

Are you a wedding planner (or organizing your friends’ wedding) and are you looking for a way to collect the best photos from the big day without breaking a sweat? – Search no more!

Picturex makes it incredibly easy to collect all photos, the guests and even the professional photographer take at the wedding in a single, shared space! With Picturex, the best wedding memories are easily shared with newly-weds and guests and even printed – no complex organization or set-up required!

Learn here how you can use Picturex for your wedding company and how you can gain a unique marketing opportunity and help the newly-weds get the best memories of their big day!

15. December 2016

How Stress is affecting your Decision-Making

The World Economic interviewed Guideon Nave, researcher at Warthon, on the impact of stress on how fast and how good we make decisions.

Find the transcript on the WEF website and learn why you should not go to the supermarket when you are stressed and what a baseball bat math quiz helps to analyze reactions of stress.

15. December 2016

Office Delve Analytics to learn how to manage your time effectively

Where does my time go? How much time do I ‘waste’ with emails or ineffective meetings?

Delve Analytics is an interesting free feature for Office 365 users that helps you analyze how much time you spend in meetings, with emails and with whom you communicate how often. This helps you gain insights on how well your activities align with your top priorities and helps you to self-monitor your behavior at work.

More information can be found in this infographic.

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André N. Meyer