Whether you are working remotely or in an office, there are always times when productivity is low. Be it because the tasks in front of you are boring or because your energy is low and you just don’t have the inspiration you need.

Taking good care of your data is vital, especially personal data about individuals. Personal data belonging to individuals and held by organisations in the European Union (EU) are currently protected by the Data Protection (DPA) laws, which regulate what people can and cannot do with that data. That all changes on 25th May 2018.

Sometimes, it’s easy to know when it’s time to look for a new job. It doesn’t have to be something criminal or earth-shattering… you can just tell. A few years ago, I was leaving the office and heading to a birthday party that some friends were throwing for me. As I drove, I asked myself, “Hey, what do I want for my birthday?” I wasn’t actually serious – it was more of a ‘what-if’ kind of question, but the answer surprised me.

We all know the feeling of having too much to do, with too little time to do it. A looming deadline, where if work had been planned and executed perfectly, it would be no problem. But those of us who are prone to procrastination know that this rarely happens. Instead of spending 3 weeks finishing a task, we instead spend 3 nights (the last ones!) doing the same work.

In the world of economics, there are few subjects as sensitive and controversial as the gender pay gap. Part of the controversy stems from the fact that people are confused by terminology. For example, not everyone is aware of the fact that the gender pay gap is not the same thing as equal pay.

It’s easy to find articles about the employer/employee relationship. With a few keystrokes and a couple of clicks, you can quickly find information about dealing with difficult employees, encouraging exceptional employees, rewarding hard-working employees, and the best ways to get rid of the worst employees.

Do you have a ‘to-do’ list? Most of us do. We have a long list of tasks we need to do. Many of us need to delegate tasks to other people too. Back in the day, your whole team would be sitting just outside your office, ready to answer questions about what tasks they were doing and how far they had progressed.

There’s something about the term ‘startup’. It has a touch of drama, of romance. It’s something like the ‘bad boy’ of the corporate world. If you say ‘Oh, I’m working at a startup’, there’s a certain vibe there. The term suggests boldness, innovation, creativity, and – perhaps most importantly – risk.

This quote from Dave Barry is several years old, but is just as relevant today as when he wrote it: ‘If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be meetings’.

In our previous piece on recognising the online collaboration software you need, we discussed the importance of its intuitiveness and the ability to customise it to suit your team to ensure total adoption throughout the team. We also looked at who might be using it and the need to be able to create and assign permissions for different types of user whether staff, partners or clients.