All humans get the same amount of hours each day i.e 24 hours. Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. – they also had 24 hours each day, just like all of us. So what’s the difference between these extraordinary individuals and us? What separates them from the average man? Their … Continue reading The Latest Trend in Time Tracking Apps for Educational Institutes
All humans get the same amount of hours each day i.e 24 hours. Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. – they also had 24 hours each day, just like all of us.
So what’s the difference between these extraordinary individuals and us? What separates them from the average man? Their secret is simple. They efficiently managed their time.
In this modern age, pens and sheets have been left behind. People are now starting to use time tracking apps to manage their daily routines, schedule, and tasks. Educational institutes are no different.
Time tracking apps keep evolving as preferences keep changing. In this article, we’re going to look at some of the latest trends in time tracking software for educational institutes.
Before we start discussing the latest trends, lets first establish what time tracking app actually does. After that, we’ll go over some of its common features.
What is a time tracking app?
As the name suggests, a time tracking app helps users effectively track their time.
Effective time management can help people make deadlines, avoid getting stressed, improve their productivity & efficiency, and above all else, make extra time for themselves. They will also be able to maintain a work-life balance by keeping track of their time.
To perfect time management in educational institutes, employers should be able to easily track an employee’s work hours. This will help them observe an employee’s daily progression and accurately judge their performance.
Time tracking apps can provide all of this. They allow users to create to-do lists and prioritize tasks, set alerts & reminders, organize the files & tasks, and even streamline communication between team members.
Common features found in time tracking apps
We know what time tracking apps can do. Now let’s look at some common features of time management apps.
Time tracking
This is a core functionality of time tracking apps. It captures worked hours and keeps a record of them on a timesheet.
Project management
Some time tracking apps have lightweight management tools while others focus entirely on project management. They allow you to group tasks or set deadlines and priorities. You can also track daily, weekly, and monthly work hours.
Alerts
Notifications can be used in different ways. You can set timers and get alerts when time is about to end. Alerts can also be used as reminders about urgent and pending tasks.
Reporting and analytics
Reports can be generated by analyzing a large amount of data relating to tasks. These reports can be used by employers to gauge their employees’ overall progress.
Latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes
Today’s employees are mostly Millenials and Generation Z, or Gen Z for short. The challenges and difficulties that they face are completely different from the previous generations. For example, Boomers didn’t have to worry about wasting their time on the internet.
This is why time tracking apps have evolved. The latest trends and features include:
Password manager
There are countless websites on the internet that require you to make an account. At one point, it becomes hard to keep track of all the usernames and passwords. Now apps featuring password managers are starting to pop up.
Meeting manager
Employees and staff members of educational institutes are notoriously busy. Their workload is huge and strenuous. Trying to arrange an important meeting can take a lot of effort as well. Now there are apps that can leverage the power of AI to give smart suggestions for when, where and how meetings can take place.
Note-taking manager
A vast amount of information is available on the internet, this is especially true regarding educational content. Note-taking managers can help teachers clip and save sections of websites, annotate them, and quickly access them via searches, notes, and tags.
Bookmarking manager. We can’t always be online. Bookmark managers let users save articles, videos and more from any website, app or publication. This way, they can access saved content offline and on any device.
These are just some of the latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes. As time goes on and priorities change, new trends will start emerging. However, don’t worry about missing out. We’ll keep you posted.
To run a business efficiently, sheer productivity is required and there are many ways to asses it. Calculating your company’s revenue would be the most basic indicator of productivity. But when it comes to measuring the productivity of a single employee, owners need to resort to some specific ways. Besides Stafftimer, there are few employee time tracking apps that provide keystroke counts.
But, if an employer wants to honestly judge how productive an employee is, only calculating keyboard and mouse activity will not give the whole picture. With Stafftimer, business owners get a statistical view of keystrokes combined with mouse activity, total progress, and idle time percentages. An employee engagement activity graph is also available.
Difference between keylogger and keystroke counter
Both keylogger and keystroke counter is based on the same working mechanism. But the main purpose of both tools is very different. The basic reason for developing these tools was to study human-computer interaction.
This software is legal but some people use it for malicious activities such as to steal passwords and confidential information.
For the sole purpose of employee engagement activities, this tool was tweaked and been made more secure. Now it only counts the number of keystrokes along with mouseclicks without recording any text or work information.
There exists another type of keylogger called hardware keylogger. It is a small device used as a connector between computer and keyboard. Its design resembles an ordinary PS/2 connector or USB adapter. Making it easier for someone to monitor activities and stay unseen at the same time.
How Stafftimer use keystroke counter
To best get an idea of employee engagement activities, Stafftimer integrates idle time, mouse clicks, and keystroke counts. It combines all peripheral uses and calculates an employee’s progress based on previous keystroke number over idle time. It does all this while still maintaining the transparent relation between an employer and an employee.
In addition, Stafftimer allows even an employee to see his or her own progress and keystroke counts so that they may increase their productivity in the future.
To have some statistical view, both employer and employee have a bar chart on their dashboard. This chart shows an employee’s history regarding active and inactive time, based on the use of keystrokes and mouse clicks. Employers can also view the progress of their employees on a daily and hourly bases.
Other obscure uses of keyloggers
Both small and large companies ethically use keyloggers. Most companies have a system that can detect some particular keywords.
Nowadays, there is a conspiracy floating around that suggests that Facebook is eavesdropping its users through their microphones. But that doesn’t seem likely. Facebook’s official statement reads, “Facebook does not use your phone’s microphones to inform ads or to change what you see in your newsfeed.”
But, why does it feel like Facebook and its advertisers are in the same room with you?
This is because they are so good at tracking you online and offline that it feels like they have access to your conversations. With a legal and ethical use of keystroke logging and AI algorithms, Facebook can track your interests and show you advertisements that might catch your attention. This article on the Wallstreet journal goes into the gritty details.
There is a term called Corporate keylogging. It refers to tracking and recording the computer activities of employees and contractors for three purposes.
Real-time monitoring and alerting
This is especially used for IT and security personal. Why? So that they can immediately notify any suspicious or dangerous behaviors and/or activity.
After fact investigation
To help administrators investigate system failures and data breaches. Also used to look into malicious activity during root cause analysis.
Compliance auditing
To help auditors determine how well the company is complying with laws and regulations. It also helps identify violators.
A corporate keylogger is not used manually. It is used to search for keywords and get real-time alerts.
Like any other tool, keyloggers can be used for legal and illegal purposes. Many parents use it on their children’s smartphones for surveillance. Stafftimer also provides daily work videos. When an employee’s keystroke counter combines with video recordings, video quality dramatically increases.
One of the most lucrative and prestigious professions besides medicine is the practice of law. However, with increasing pressures and numerous changes in the legal world, the workload is rising at an unprecedented rate.
The most important part of an attorney’s professional life is time. There is severe competition to meet the required number of billable hours. Usually, an attorney needs to complete 12 billable hours on average for every working day.
Many attorneys lose track of time. This slowly becomes detrimental to their productivity levels. If they keep track of their time, their attention will divert. This is bad because their whole focus needs to be on their clients.
Let’s first understand some key responsibilities of an attorney. These include:
Advising and representing clients in courts or government agencies.
Researching and analyzing legal matters.
Assisting and communicating with clients.
Drafting legal documents for lawsuits, deeds, contracts, etc.
Preparing to defend clients in courts.
The above-mentioned responsibilities may not encompass the entire set of duties attorneys perform. But, the important point to takeaway is that with these excruciating pressures it becomes hard to track time.
How time tracking app can streamline processes for attorneys?
When an automated system like Stafftimer app is monitoring time for attorneys, they can spend more hours dealing with their clients without the hassle of manually filling timesheets. In the end, every minute matters when you are practicing law.
Time monitoring is not left in workspace
Yes, you can use Stafftimer even in a court or some meeting with a client. Its screenshot feature is optional. This means that you don’t need to worry about accidentally capturing case proceedings. Attorneys just need to enter a task, and get liberated from the stress of calculating time. The tracker shall keep counting it for them.
Daily work reports
An attorney will not need manually filled timesheets since Stafftimer provides them with daily work reports. These reports can serve as verified proof of their billable hours.
Accurate invoicing
Staftimers calculate work hours in an immaculate manner. No need to worry about getting inaccurate invoices and wasting your hard labor. The app provides effective solutions for these situations.
Clients can receive bills with the proof attached. Don’t worry about bothersome tasks like payroll and making calculations for invoices. An attorney’s every minute counts and Stafftimer takes great care of it.
Intelligent reporting and real-time monitoring
As an employer or a partner in a law firm, your resources are not getting wasted. Why? Because Stafftimer is taking care of them. The app provides employers with daily reports. These reports can tell how much time an associate lawyer was spending on each task or window.
With real-time monitoring, employers know how much time an attorney is taking on each case as it live-shares their screens. This way, employers always know who has the chance to progress further and who is struggling.
Cost-effective solution
When an employer knows who is productive and who is a dead fish, they can save their resources by eliminating unproductive employees. Legal practice needs aggressive competition between equally capable persons. It can’t afford to carry someone around.
Team members’ hours can be tracked to plan budget costs. This data can then be used to accurately bill clients.
Offline tracking
If attorneys are out of the workspace and lose connection to the internet, Stafftimer will keep on working. It will update from the back-office once the connection is restored.
Female lawyers
Ambitious lawyers who are also mothers will find it difficult to split their time. Either they can spend quality time with their kids or focus most of their attention on their practice. Seeing this complicated predicament for their female lawyers, some major law firms are offering flexible work options.
This means that they can choose to work from home on certain weekdays. However, the real challenge is how to ensure that they are actually working? And how many hours they are spending on work? Stafftimer solves this problem by keeping track of time. This way, everyone gets paid according to the number of hours they’ve put into work.
Conclusion
Employee monitoring software is a crucial need for the legal world. Their work, routine, and progress all revolve around billable hours. Therefore, it’s necessary for them to use a time tracking software that can monitor their time. This lets them pursue their commitments without any worries.
There is no denying that the freelance market is appealing to many professionals all over the world. According to a 2019 study on a US-based independent workforce, the freelance market generates nearly $1 trillion in income. That’s almost 5% of the US GDP.
A 2018 Entrepreneur article reports that there are over 57 million Americans working as freelance professionals as of 2017. Considering the numerous advantages freelance employment brings to the table. That number will definitely rise in the future.
However, even the most hardworking and diligent freelance workers are not immune to procrastination and distractions. Poor productivity is a constant issue for many business organizations that employ freelance workers, mostly remote teams from all over the world. Missed deadlines and late submissions from your freelance workforce can set you back and even cost your business its precious clients and projects.
The good news is that productivity issues are easy to fix. With the following productivity strategies, you can expect your freelance workforce to deliver high-quality output at a productive rate.
Use Time Trackers
Time Tracking Software and apps are not new. However, they are still highly effective tools to keep productivity up in the workplace. The same can be said for professional freelancers and remote teams.
Many companies require their independent workers to install a time tracker on their devices. Many solutions provide a customizable freelance time tracking template that managers can configure so it tracks or records specific information such as hours worked, time spent on breaks, and averages.
Workers log in before their designated work schedule or project-related tasks. They then log out after their shift or once their tasks are accomplished.
Many time trackers are built to document not just hours but record the time spent on work down to the last second or minute. This is an effective productivity strategy especially if your organization bill your workers by the hour.
Activate Random Screen Capture
You can’t monitor your freelance worker’s progress all the time. Yet you want to make sure he or she is spending working hours on actual work. That’s understandable. Your company doesn’t want to pay for unproductive hours.
One way of ensuring your freelance employees are indeed working during their supposed working hours is to capture images of their screens at random times. It helps identify who is working and who is spending their hours doing something else. Such a feature empowers your workers to devote all their billable time to work, driving productivity up.
You may settle for a free time tracking software for freelancers. However, if you want this feature, you may have to invest in premium productivity and time tracking suite.
Give Your Best Tasks and Projects to Top Performing Freelancers
You can create and cultivate a productive environment for your independent workers if you include a gamification element to your approach. Instead of just assigning tasks and projects to the next available worker, you can send your most critical and high-paying jobs to your best freelancers.
Publishing their names as well as their earnings on a leaderboard will definitely entice your freelance employees to perform better and turn in great results to rise up the ladder. Aside from boosting their performance and productivity, your freelance workers become more engaged and dynamic.
By adding an element of competition, you can empower your freelance workforce to prove their worth, which then translates to better results and improved productivity.
Limit or Block Access to Certain Sites and Social Media
There are numerous productivity apps for PC and mobile devices that can track time and capture screenshots at random moments. On top of that, you also want your productivity apps to limit or block your freelance workers’ access to specific websites and social media sites that cause distraction and fuel procrastination.
Such capability is quite useful, especially when social media sites have proven to take much from a worker’s productivity. That said, not all social media is bad for work. Some employees spend their break watching funny cat videos. Others use social media and other sites for research, communication, and collaboration purposes.
Companies should establish guidelines on social media usage by their freelance workers. Many of today’s work processes are built on online connectivity and access to the Internet. That means the complete banning of social media is not a viable option. While social media can be detrimental to a worker’s efficiency and productivity, it can also be a huge asset when utilized properly.
Automation, Collaboration, and Communication are Key
If you want to have a highly effective and productive team of freelancers, you need to put them in an environment that fosters effortless and painless automation, communication, and collaboration.
Your freelance employees don’t want to spend time typing their credentials whenever they open devices and log in to their respective accounts. Many productivity apps automate the logging in of multiple systems and different credentials.
Communication between and among your freelance employees should be instant and smooth. Instead of relying on lengthy email threads, replace them with real-time communication tools and task management platforms for faster and more effective communication, instruction, and deployment.
By centralizing tasks, information, contacts, and more, you can maximize your freelancers’ capabilities and talents, optimize processes, and deliver desired results.
With the rise of tech trends, limitations and challenges associated with 9 to 5 jobs, and a shortage of required skills have triggered the growth of remote work opportunities.
However as soon as the demand is growing, competition is growing as well. Coupled with competition, there are certain challenges and handicaps associated with the future of freelancing work.
Human resources are finding it hard to hire an appropriate workforce
No doubt there is an abundance of workforce available in the market but that doesn’t imply they are worthy of getting hired. There is a constant and rapid technological growth that demands a variety of skills that might not be readily available. Therefore finding a remote workforce remains as an only option.
But the challenge is…
This increasing requirement for a technically advanced workforce has made life hard for basic tech users available for freelancing. Things are not rosy for them anymore. Simple content writing with no SEO knowledge is not worth it.
More and more graphic designers, software developers, web developers/designers, photoshop editors, and similar skills are in demand. So basic tech skills are failing to take their place or get entertained.
Regardless of that freelance is in vogue
According to the Harvard business review report, 96 companies were surveyed with 18,000 employees but at least 70% were working freelance once in a week. The reasons are obvious. More and more time spent at the workplace and demands of the corporate sector has affected the work/life balance of employees.
Nobody wants to miss the event at their child’s school, or not being able to spend quality time with family. Before there was a misconception that its only women who feel under pressure of full-time jobs. Even though men feel similarly trapped. More and more companies according to the report of upwork offering flex options. This clearly indicates that the future belongs to freelance.
What other limitations, does full-time work impose?
Other than lack of work/life balance, long hours in commute and pressures of meeting deadlines have added to the misery. Some people feel put off from politics at the workplace, lack of appreciation or unrealistic expectations. Freelance offers an escape from all of these.
Remote work put one in control of their own work pace. And lack of control is one of the biggest grievances a worker. Freelancing comes with liberation. An Earth trotter who feels restricted in one place can now travel and still work.
But nothing gives you an entire universe
Everything, every pleasure comes with its own drawbacks and challenges. Life is a struggle be it personal or professional. And humans don’t feel gratitude for whatever the blessing they have. First, they seek freedom of work then they crave for social life. One of the biggest complaints freelancers make is loneliness.
They are at home and with family but still perplexed. Now the concern is, ‘’we miss having lunches with coworkers’’, ‘’we miss getting feedback from seniors’’. And the list is endless. This has cultivated a feeling of severe loneliness that can potentially lead to depression. And depression, as we all know, can hinder our activity in the worst form.
How to cure the sense of alienation that comes with remote work
There is an emerging trend of coworking spaces where freelancers can come and work together. However, this option is mostly available in developed cities in progressive countries.
A freelancer in some remote rural area of a third world country won’t have access to it. An option is to work in public space that can be available in form of small coffee shops even in villages. Other than that there is a solution to get connected with the rest of the team members across the globe.
Even though most viable solution can be to keep a job with flex option of few weekdays. That can provide both a fulfilling work life and quality time to spend with friends and family.
Data security at the disposal of freelancers
One sensitive issue is companies are putting security of their data in peril by letting their remote employees access it from unsecured networks. A private internet connection at home is secure, but freelancers connecting through public wifi are adding to risk.
Therefore only responsible remote workers should be hired with better reviews. Even though those reviews are work related not indicating how that person maintained privacy. But it definitely demonstrates responsibility and a dutiful employee shall keep the trust of their employer/client intact.
Conclusion
Regardless of all the limitations and challenges, freelancing shall take over future markets with the majority of the workforce employed remotely in the coming decades. Besides, technology has made things easier that is adding towards the demands of flex work.
Employers or clients can now monitor their remote workers though staff time tracking software, thus knowing their productivity levels. Also ensuring if the decided number of hours was utilized or project took the mentioned time to be completed. Therefore employers don’t need to worry about the lack of micromanagement of their employees.
Workplace and professional life carry many challenges, one of those is simply getting distracted. The reasons are not limited to any particular kind. Some of the most common and troubling ones are addressed here.
Some colleagues are factories of noise pollution
While some healthy chit chat or even cracking a joke once in a while is healthy with coworkers. But some inherently seek overdose. They just can’t stay focused on their work or let others do the same. Even their sitting postures can cause vibration across the whole table.
They will constantly try to nudge you or drag you into their useless chattering. As a result, by the end of the day, you will be rushing like headless chickens to meet deadlines.
How to fix them?
Various forms of treatment can be applied to them. If they repeatedly address you, start wearing headphones so they know you aren’t available to chat. But some fellas are hell stubborn to disturb others. Create a distance! Moving away from your current location can be an escape while you are trying to concentrate.
Choose a peaceful corner in your office. Only a creep will come after you there. Try to communicate your concerns to them in a polite manner but if they still happen to ignore, then talking to seniors remains an alternative.
Even a work environment can be a nuisance
Sometimes you are working on an important task for a period longer than your colleagues were required to. They are a bit relaxed, and done with the heavier work of the day. They may want to have some fun time but you are getting disturbed.
It’s not on purpose vendetta against you so don’t hesitate in making it known. Do tell them that you need a space. Also, keep your surroundings clean, otherwise seeing clutter around can make you feel irritated and then distracted obviously.
Keep the social media temptations away!
How many likes my latest pic received? Well if you posted a recent pic of yours to flaunt away your latest branded dress or lunch in a posh cafe. You are going to have a constant urge to checking your social media account to see how many likes or comments you got?
If your phone remains right in front of you. No matter how hard you resist, you gonna break your resolve after some time.
So basically switch off your phone and place it at some remote albeit secured area. So the idea of it being away from reach can deter your motivation for wasting time.
Emails aren’t the most important business
Some people start wasting their peak productive hours in time consuming and least valuable task of responding to the emails. Try to answer them in between important assignments. Even then see which emails are worthy of reply and which ones are to mark spam.
Sleep recharges your physical energy
A good amount of sleep and consistent sleeping pattern are necessary to remain active at work. Otherwise, you will feel drowsy and listless so a healthy lifestyle is a key to focus. Never forget to add a nutritious diet.
Some soul searching is necessary
Sometimes the fountain of distraction is located inside you. Explore and fix it. Any form of stress or long-standing depression can contribute towards it. If you are facing some struggle in your personal life you will naturally feel diverted at work. Talk to your seniors or mentors.
Discuss to find a way out. Maybe a flexible work routine or readjustment of workload schedule. Or if you need more time you can utilize your reserved holidays to fix the issue and return to work with revitalized energy.
Its a bigger issue for freelancers!
When you are working from home, you can have a long list of distractions. It can be your attention-seeking pet or a child. It can be a sibling listening to loud music or the sound of the washing machine. All you need is a peaceful corner at home or maybe at a nearby coffee house.
Choose a space that comforts you the most. Wear headphones to block distracting noise. Turn off the phone. And indulge kids or pets with some activity.
But still, there is a chance you end up wasting time. Then a foolproof answer is using a staff time monitoring tool.Yes, your client can confirm that you worked for the decided number of hours and won’t create trouble while paying you.
But it will help you to stay organized as well. When you know you are being monitored with time tracking software.A little reason is there to let distractions overcome you.
Not only for freelancers employee monitoring softwarecan help any employee to stay safe from distractions. When one knows they have to complete a particular task or tasks in that given time. They will try their best to remain focused and deliver as much as they can.
Quality of life is a distinct concept from the standard of life. It’s your monetary capabilities that define your standard of life. But the quality of life lies in the contentment of heart.
It’s the small things in life that lay foundations of long term happiness and more importantly peace of heart. Some forms of happiness that are heavily relied upon as a benchmark of success and accomplishment only bring in temporary charms.
We, at times, mistake excitement for happiness and is short-lived.
Somebody landing an admission offer from Ivy league or a six-figure job might feel over the moon. For the time being, one feels its effect is going to last for eternity. Even though after some days when the excitement fades and the new change becomes a routine of your life you start feeling empty.
At times even worse than before. The reason is the spike in expectations generated as a result of that pleasant change in life. Materialistic accomplishments can inflate the human ego but the satisfaction of heart is just another matter.
So what are the factors that raise our quality of life if not these things?
Let’s discuss how we can improve the quality of life?
Quality of life is a subjective reality. You can’t generalize it. For some it’s maintained through their love for pets, for others it means books or family. An old lady in the neighborhood feels the serenity of heart seeing her garden every morning. So basically everyone defines it in different ways. No single formula exists for all.
1. Nothing can substitute for healthy relationships
No matter if you own a BMW or a luxury mansion in a posh area. If you are lonely in your life or even at heart, it will all look meaningless. Time spent with loved ones and quality of relationships add towards the longevity of life and overall well being.
Lack of quality relations is equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Risks of cardiovascular issues or dementia are drastically decreased too. Successful marriages bring in similar positive effects in contrast to a problematic one.
Some people while running for material growth forget it a big deal whom they are earning for? Spending over time at work or lack of quality time with families can cause feelings of frustration in individuals without realizing the cause. Working 16 hours a day to earn extra bucks but not being able to make it for an event at your child’s school won’t bring you satisfaction.
Instead of becoming a part of the continuous rat race, learn to value your relationships. They boost the sense of security and fulfillment in a person, not commodities. Things are meant for people, not people are meant for things.
2. Modern work habits differ a great deal from good old days!
When we say we are working, it’s not the same when our grandparents used to say they were working. Their work habits didn’t leave space for workouts or exercise. Instead, their work was an exercise in itself. Even in old age like beyond 80, or 90, people of preceding generations were more active than our present ones.
They were not excessively reliant on machines, used to plow fields, execute household chores themselves without any paid help. All of these factors strengthen vital organs, decrease the chances of obesity and keeps one active.
Whereas our generation tends to work for longer hours, but our mode of professional life doesn’t add to our physical well being. To keep the traditional work spirits alive, one can make some modest changes into the routine.
Instead of totally relying upon household help, there should be a distribution of tasks. Where both of you work side by side thus keeping your system running. Since a desk job will tie you up with the seat so enhance your activity at home. Do a walk for at least 20 minutes after every meal.
A workout is a good option but if you have long working hours, or families to look after along with work, it might not be a good option. Spending another 2 or 3 hours outside of home shall start giving you a feeling of being a guest in your own home.
3. Are you a foodie?
If yes, then this question was not to compliment you. Foodie in a contemporary sense has become someone with excessive intake of calories than normal. Processed, or junk food, carbonated drinks, and usual essentials of our daily meals are adding less value and decreasing more.
Eating organic has become a fashionable slogan with little implementation. Again in the old days, organic food was a norm and health issues or chronic diseases like those of today were almost non-existent. Nowadays commercialism has taken place of reasoning ability and many prefer harmful food more because of apparent taste.
4. Health is wealth
One’s emotional and physical well being are connected with their state of health. Our family/social lives, eating habits and work routine are all crucial and essential basis to maintain health and longevity of life. Money isn’t a savior and many affluent ones are suffering from acute depression. So be mindful of your lifestyle preferences.
Abkhazia, a small region under the administrative authority of Georgia has remained a center of attention for international media and global researchers. The reasons are extreme longevity of life and immaculate health of its elderly people. Many hit 150 there and above 100 is a norm.
In fact not only a norm even after hitting century they keep on working in fields and old women knit without glasses. Some men are reported to have kids after the age of 100. And research shows they don’t even suffer from chronic diseases or any significant health issues.
What are the reasons behind it?
The ones we discussed above. They eat organic completely and no concept exists to consume more calories than needed. They live in a form identical to tribal setup. With each family consisting of 50 members. The love and bonding don’t let them get old.
Even a person at 110 looks like 70 years old. Besides, they work at least four hours a day even after hitting the 90s. They don’t seem to retire and remain active in their collective social life for longer. The things we call backward or conservative add value to life. The lifestyle habits we left behind were the ones adding value to it.
5. Leave your comfort zone
It’s not always good not to take risks or embark upon new adventures. Sometimes leaving your monotonous and boring routine and sitting on a roller coaster ride of life brings more taste to life.
Like you eat daily from home or sometimes from a classy restaurant, but eating from a little cart by the street side has its own value. This is just an example. The real thing is to keep trying something new or different. Learning a new language, an art or a skill but keep experiencing life.
6. Become a voice for the voiceless
Do remember that people around the world and in every state suffering from some racial, political, ethnic or religious injustices and crisis. Do become their voice. Work for social change and resistance. When you find yourself capable of bringing even the tiniest change into society, it makes you feel actually accomplished.
7. Travelling brings a real-life exposure
When you’re traveling, ask the traveler for advice / not someone whose lameness keeps him in one place. (Rumi)
Travel brings in light and refreshment to life. Visually and physically experiencing new cultures, rituals, languages, traditions, and landscape creates vitality in life. It also broadens your horizons and adds new dimensions in life.
You will understand how much more you need to learn and explore in life. And it’s not confined to where you were glued before. You will emerge as more experienced and tolerant of views and beliefs contradictory to your own.
8. Read, learn and impart knowledge
Reading social media posts, or a newspaper doesn’t constitute proper reading. Learning anything new be it language, skill or a piece of knowledge acts as a form of mental exercise.
Therefore serving as a protection shield from Alzheimer’s and mental diseases. Also learning and education play an important part in the expansion of life span and keeps one healthy.
Book reading can trigger happiness in the human mind. When you read any literary text, you start imagining yourself in the world of your characters. You visualize the age and places spaced far apart than your own.
Similarly, if you are reading a philosophical text your brain starts racing to unlock the answers to complex questions. It makes you play mental gymnastics. The same applies for any subject. Knowledge comes to revive the emotional spirits of man, thus adds towards a sense of fulfillment.
But mere learning doesn’t suffice. Spread what you learned. Be it through writing, lecturing or just word of mouth. Especially writing helps one vent out their internal frustrations.
9. Money is not a useless thing either
By no means, its implied that earning a substantial amount is something evil and one should drop the idea of pursuing material success. It is important too. Getting short of finances can cause heavy stress in life.
After all no matter how many meaningful elements you have in life. You still need to pay the bills. The real thing is not to make it a purpose of life. Some people consider money as the end goal. Whereas its just a necessity of life. Like you need food to live but you don’t live for food. The same applies here. It’s not a purpose or ultimate goal.
But do strive for a good standard of life. Just remember don’t do it insanely. If you devise a careful strategy and worked hard. Money shall reach you eventually.
10. Learn to live for others
Even an animal cries when feeling pain but a human is one who feels for others as well. If you are blessed with anything try to share it with those who need it. If you have money more than you need than fattening your bank account won’t bring any gratification.
Its helping others, that would. Involving yourself in some charity work shall make you feel more at peace with yourself. Blessings increase with sharing.
No matter what one says or writes. Ultimately you can best decide and find for yourself what brings you real happiness. A man is capable of recognizing himself like none else. So do some soul searching and reach for the best conclusion yourself.
In recent years, freelancing has become a desirable mode of work for skilled workers at an unprecedented level. There are a variety of reasons involved, some are working mothers, some are students struggling with debt and financial challenges. The future of freelance work will provide opportunities for different kinds of workers worldwide.
Not everybody could opt for part-time jobs due to various handicaps in their personal lives. Full-time jobs came with their own limitations and downsides.
Many started to find their desktop jobs as boring and monotonous. Not only that long hours in commute added to the misery. Work/life balance was the primary sacrifice. Remote work gave an outlet out of this restrictive environment. Not only that absence of job security, workplace politics, or lack of appreciation were other factors involved.
Moreover, some skills were short in the market and freelancers with an advanced skill set took complete advantage of their potential and started earning more than full-time workers. Even though this income wasn’t stable and many risk factors were clearly ignored by remote workers.
With a rising trend of flex work. There are certain challenges, and risks associated with it. Here are some of the most pressing concerns occurring for future freelancers.
It’s very natural that every beneficial trend brings in its own disadvantages as well. Best of both worlds isn’t possible to get. Sense of isolation took its toll on the mental health of many freelancers.
However, there are many possible solutions to it. Coworking spaces are on the rise in larger cities of the world. Even though for developing countries it can be difficult to find such spaces. But in any case, it depends upon individuals.
Some want the freedom of freelance work but the perks of a full-time job. And that is not feasible. One can develop a vibrant social life if they have the resources.
Either one can be in control of their work lives or they must compromise with full-time job requirements. Some companies offer both modes of work but they are not in abundance.
Likewise, its a challenge for employers as well to maintain data security with flex workers. This too can be fixed with proper training, precautions taken and careful management. There is no lock that doesn’t have a key, every problem has a solution ultimately.
Time management is a real challenge. There is a lot of information available on the internet to teach us how to manage time. But most of the time the article itself is so much time consuming that it seems to negate the whole purpose of time management itself.
We would like to keep it brief so the attention span of the reader remains constant. Time is to work what oxygen is to the body. Squandering it into unnecessary diversions can act as a productivity killer. Let’s examine a few techniques that we can adopt to keep us on track.
Planning a day in advance keeps you organised
Use a proper planner or something like that to keep you on track to plan a day ahead in a coherent manner. Simple planning in the head won’t suffice. It has to be properly updated and maintained as a task manual for yourself. So you can check your progress.
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
Precisely what it means is to execute your most challenging work assignment as the first thing in the morning. You may find yourself short of energy later in the day to handle it more productively. It can be something that was the most time-consuming task. So having a feeling that you are done with some hefty portion of your day’s assignment can make you feel relieved. Thus, you feel more energetic and productive for the rest of the day.
Also eating the biggest frog of the two can mean that if you are facing the situation to deal with two assignments that will consume most of your time. Then first get done with the biggest or the lengthy one. But frog doesn’t imply that you ought to do the thing you abhor.
It simply alludes towards the fact that we usually don’t hate the task itself but the time and energy consumption associated with it. So devour it first so you can add some sweet delights to your taste buds in the form of lighter tasks for the rest of the day. Especially when you feel least productive.
Time tracking tools: acting as the savior for disorganized people
Yes, you always felt confused about calculating the time mentally that you spent on various tasks. Knowing how much was consumed in each task? Seembothersome right. But it’s no longer the case with the advent of Staff time tracking software.
These time management tools help save a lot of time with automated time tracking rather than old redundant ways of writing manually or taking help of guesswork. You can always know which task consumed most of your time and which one is a light one.
Therefore you can always manage accordingly to deliver more in less time. You will feel deterred from wasting time knowing its being tracked. So subscribe to a good time tracking software and get rid of all the trouble of manual time tracking.
Control your social media habits
It doesn’t mean you stop using social media for life. It merely means keeping it away from your work life. Whether you admit it or not its the biggest ever distraction if we want to do anything productive.
A constant urge to checking your messenger or social media accounts can divert your attention from your work even after you turn off the phone. Because the content of your interaction shall keep hovering inside your head. You may find your work boring or lacking vitality. So turn off the Wifi or better keep the phone at a place like a locker or something. Where you find it bothersome to go and access.
Learn to say no
Warren Buffet once said,
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
Yes, it might happen at the workplace that you encounter colleagues trying to overload you. Know that your one straight no can save you from the hassle of wasting your productive time on uncalled for tasks.
Take breaks to refresh yourself
Use the Pomodoro technique to take a short 5-minute break after every half an hour. And take a longer one after two hours. It can make you fresh in a way you refresh your computer’s screen after every while. Humans inherently seek variety and start feeling bored from the monotony of routine. So a tiny break doesn’t hurt and helps you recollect energy to resume working. It’s better you spend few minutes in a break rather than procrastinating from the boredom of routine.
Eisenhower Matrix serves as a beacon of light to keep the useless stuff away
The first one is about doing the thing on foremost priority which is both urgent and important. Obviously there are things that you need to execute on time to meet deadlines and they are important too. So keep them on the top.
The second quadrant is there for an important task which isn’t urgent than plan for it. Organize structure on how to deliver it and when. But you are in no hurry for doing it now. So timely planning shall help when you actually be doing it. But for now, just defer and focus on what’s urgent and important both.
Third one asks to delegate the task. Well, it’s a kind of work which is urgent but not important. Therefore you can always ask a relevant person to do it if you are busy with something urgent/important.
The fourth and last quadrant is which is neither important nor urgent just delete it. Throw this task away. It serves no good.
Conclusion
Being busy is a lot easier than being productive. And productivity demands smartly crafted time management techniques. Which if followed religiously, they can help one progress significantly in lesser time.
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