Apps to Let You Achieve More

There is a slew of mobile applications and web applications out there that claim to increase your effectiveness and productivity. I have found a round up for entrepreneurs that might actually work. Two of the virtual assistant apps are Feedly and IFTTT. Content marketing becomes automated so you do not lose any sleep. If you need to send a message to a group of people, Google lets you send it to the email addresses that are in Docs quickly and easily. Upwork allows you to outsource well-defined tasks such as data entry, research, design, and content. If you also do a lot of business over the phone, you should try CallRail which will record and track your calls. It will also tell you which web search or page the person is calling from so that you can get insights into how you can get the most calls. You should also consider having Xero which is an accounting software for your small business. It will save you time and even project to see if you can afford to hire someone new or get that instrument.

Happiness: A Matter of Choice

The web has so many different opinions about how to be happy. There are some pretty good ones and plenty of dumb ones. When you looking for happiness, there are several things to remember. First of all, it is not a one size fits all deal. You have to find your own happiness and it might be different from someone else's. Have you ever been doing something with such intensity that you forget yourself and time? Playing gaming applications do not count in this category. You can crush candies some other time. This is the space and state where happiness can be found. If we keep challenging ourselves, we will always be able to get to this space. To get to happiness, we also need to be grateful and always remind ourselves of the little gifts in life that we have. It sounds too simple to be true, but research actually shows that if you smile, you'll have better health, a better marriage and other relationships, and increased life expectancy.

The Apple Watch: What to Do With It

So critics have been saying that it won't be that big of a deal but here we are and it is sold out. So far the mobile applications have been extensions of existing iPhone applications and no completely new ones. IFTTTs spin off, the Do Button, lets you automate certain tasks that you do every day that can be automated. Think of things like your thermostat or other services. To be totally secure, you should have a different password for each service you use, and they should be hard to remember. That's where a service like 1Password can make a difference: It keeps all of your codes in one place (securely) and, on Apple Watch, will let you quickly pull them up, should you ever forget them. Now if you have time to be wasting, you can download an Apple version of the digipet. Do you even remember those? Try Sidekicks: Dragor, which puts on your wrist an adorable virtual pet that demands food, play, water and sleep. As if you did not have enough to worry about when it came to taking care of the people around. Doesn't everyone wish to have a pet dragon?

Building Resilience

Whether you are a business professional or a software development expert, it is important to be able to be resilient. Heck, it is just an awesome life skill to have. One of the first things that you should do is remain realistic. You need to be able to understand the reality of the situation in order to solve any problems that arise. If you are not, you can slip into denial and the problem will just spiral out of control since you are not equipped to fix it. Problems and mistakes can be perfect learning tools. You need to be able to walk away from a problem that is solved with experience. You cannot be asking yourself what have you lost. So next time, you know to do it better. You also need to be able to be resourceful. When faced with a tough problem, the solution might not always been given to you or be very obvious. Lastly resilience requires facing down the competition, improvising solutions and creating something meaningful out of work.

Stressed Out: There is a Way to Fight it

Life can be stressful, inside and out. Sometimes it can even feed on itself if you do not find a way to control it. One of the best ways to let go of stress when it gets to be too overwhelming is to pick up a book. Like an actual book that is printed on paper. It will enable you to get away from everything that requires being connected such as internet phones, cloud services, and email which can sometimes be the cause of all this stress. Another great way to fight stress is to meditate. It does not have to be for long and the smallest amount can have positive effects on your overall wellbeing. You can even focus on your breath and really pay attention to what it is like and make sure to redirect it to be more deep and full. Other times, it might help to take a step back from the situation and see it in a different light and realize that there are only so many things that you can control. Find that inner zen.

Take Time to Slow Down

I think that happiness is achieved when there is a balance between our work and our lives. There are some great meditation techniques that do not even require any mobile applications. When you are struggling with obstacles, you need to step back and ask if the issues have nothing to do with anything external. Once you have identified where they are coming from, you then have the tools to deal with them. When you are afraid, remember that it is alright to feel that way and people have overcome greater fears. Use their stories as inspiration and example. When you are stuck on a problem and the answer is not coming to you, you need to ask if you are asking the right questions. Major day-to-day demands keep many of us multitasking and maybe not managing as well as we want. Meditate on putting down the bricks of demands without guilt and anxiety, and separating the blocks that give you energy from those that drain your energy. Keep the ones that are helpful and energizing and leave the rest behind. You are well on your way to a much calmer day.

A Round Phone

The phone has always been a rectangle. What if it was round though? Display technologies have a long and rectangular history. Before smartphones there were movie screens, TVs, and computers, not to mention paintings and pages of print. And then of course there are windows—in some ways the original glass rectangles. From an engineering point of view, it is a design that is easy to make and leaves very little waste. The bottom line here is that frames matter. After all, a round screen is not great for browsing a twitter feed. We have become so entranced by our mobile applications and devices that we are extremely good at finding distractions. This phone from Runcible still has a long way to go before it makes it to the market. Besides, it is definitely easier said than done. People will not so easily give up their rectangles. A circular device would sever the link to the printed page, the TV and the computer, and invite software developers to look in other places for inspiration. Rectangles will endure. They're easy, they're efficient. Circles are zen. Just something to think about.