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4 Brilliant Ways to Get More Work Done
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There are some workdays where distractions are abound and you can't even remember what you're supposed to be doing. In trying times like these, you need all the help you can get, just to stay focused and on task. Here are four simple adjustments to your work routine that have been proven to do wonders to increase productivity.
Organize Your Digital Desktop and Files
Everybody knows that a cluttered desk isn't conducive to productivity, but did you know that the same logic applies to your PC's desktop? It turns out that if your digital desktop is cluttered with so many random icons that it becomes difficult to navigate, then this will hinder your focus and distract you from being productive. Thankfully, organizing your digital desktop is easy to do--much easier than cleaning your real desk. The trick is to delete unnecessary files and organize important files into folders. Keep this up until you can actually see your desktop image.
While you're at it, go ahead and change your desktop image to something that's calm and colorful. Surrounding yourself with images like this has been proven to boost memory retention and employee engagement.
The same goes for organizing your email and to-do lists. If you take the time to structure everything in a way that makes sense to you, whether it be by priority or category, you'll spend less time rummaging through messages and tasks.
Make Bad Habits Hard to Do
Do you have the willpower to resist finishing off a box of doughnuts sitting on your desk? Admittedly, most of us here at Emerge consider this an exercise in willpower. But what if the tempting doughnuts were located at the opposite end of your office building? That would make these delicious treats a lot less tempting, and thus, a lot less distracting to your productivity.
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5 Cuts Your Business Should Consider Before Laying Off Staff
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Wouldn't it be nice if you could provide your staff an over-the-top benefits package similar to what Google offers their employees (aka, "Googlers")? For most SMBs, making Glassdoor's annual list of "50 Best Places to Work" (a list routinely dominated by Google) is a fantasy; primarily due to the fact that the average enterprise operates within the confines of a strict budget. As the owner of an SMB, this reality often means making tough decisions and budget cuts.
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New Technology Delivers Staggering Data Retention Options
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As more data systems develop the need for structured data storage, the development of fast and secure solutions have become essential to the viability of storing and
 retrieving data. Scientists have been looking at the field of optoelectronics to develop constructs where an enormous amount of data can be stored for exorbitant amounts of time.
What are Optoelectronics?
Optoelectronics is a sub-field of photonics and can be explained as the study of electronic devices that source, detect, and control light. One of the practical uses of this technology, and one of the first, was in the field of fiber optics. Using this medium, people have been able to improve data transmission substantially. Over more than one-hundred years of studying the medium, advances have ushered in a new digital age that serves to push the limits of available technology.
As it applies to modern-day data transmission, cables that are made of this fiber-optic technology can transfer up to a petabit of data per second. In other words, a cable that is made up of thousands of fiber optic wires have a potential bandwidth of multiple terabytes per second. In other words, that's a lot of data. With this technology on hand and available, scientists have begun searching for ways to use optoelectronics to store information. Theoretically, the technology should produce great results as long as it can be utilized through a planned and structured interface.
"Superman Memory Crystal"
The "Superman memory crystal" is just that interface. It is a five-dimensional storage device made of nanostructured glass that can store around 360 terabytes of information, and sustain that information for a long time, even at temperatures up to 1,000ยบ C. In fact, they project that this material can store data at room temperature for as long as 14 billion years.
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| 66% of Organizations Will Wait for Their Operating Systems to "Expire" Before Upgrading |
When it comes to technology, upgrading is part of the package. Despite this being a well-established fact, some business owners will delay upgrading for as long as possible, while others will upgrade as soon as the latest product is released. What's behind a company's motivation to upgrade or not? We can better understand this by looking at a study on why businesses upgrade their operating systems.
According to a recent study by Spiceworks, companies have different motivations for upgrading their workstation's operating systems.
- 69 percent will only upgrade out of necessity, or "as needed."
- 42 percent upgrade out of wanting to take full advantage of the latest apps supported by a new OS.
- 38 percent will only upgrade because their newly purchased hardware comes pre-installed with the latest operating system.
For additional reasons on why businesses will upgrade to a newer operating system, check out this chart from Spiceworks:
Here at Emerge , we weren't surprised when we saw that one of the top reasons for businesses to upgrade their OS was end-of-life events, coming in at 66 percent. We've seen this scenario play out recently with Microsoft ending support for both Windows XP and Windows 8. Now, for businesses that choose not to upgrade, despite being faced with an ultimatum by Microsoft to do so "or else," we have to really wonder what their motivation is. Essentially, by not upgrading, they're putting their company's valuable data at risk.
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