Tag: #productivity

How artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve your productivity?

Every year, the horizon for improving Artificial Intelligence’s abilities grows incredibly. We can see how Chat-gpt and other assistants are exceptional in their skills and becoming indispensable to our lives. They have become accessible, teachable, and usable. What can they do for people when it comes to productivity? In general, AI and ML help us every day in various spheres, such as:

  •       Automating processes.
  •       Management and extensive tasks.
  •       Education.
  •       Healthcare.

Let’s talk about it precisely.

Automating processes – making routine tasks more manageable.

Automating routine tasks using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies is a way to reduce human error rates and facilitate the execution of repetitive tasks – saving time and resources that can then be spent on other individual tasks.

One good example is classifying emails in email accounts and filtering out spam. Customers who work from special features such as Google’s Smart Reply can automatically sort and filter emails, classifying them according to content and importance. This reduces the time spent inboxing and sorting emails. In addition, these clients can offer short answers tailored to the context, which speeds up and automates your responses.

Another area where artificial intelligence and ML have played an important role in automating routine tasks is in scheduling and managing your calendar. You can use various services to control your time and increase productivity quickly. For example, Bordio can synchronize your regular Google calendar with important dates and help you make to-do lists for the day and long-term plans. The calendar will notify you of your to-do’s, and you can easily manage your planning.

Management and extensive tasks.

And so in addition to personal usefulness and accessibility, essential things can also be mentioned, such as use in businesses and companies. Various services that automate the collection and analysis of information are of great help at the production scale. For example, artificial intelligence and ML can improve decision-making in the business world. These technologies can analyze extensive market research data, customer feedback, and past sales reports to identify trends and patterns. This helps companies understand consumer behavior, anticipate changes in the market and adapt their market behavior accordingly and have good timing to promote their new product. It can also help identify profitable opportunities and risky propositions, making investment decisions more informed and less complicated.

Another strategy is to use artificial intelligence and ML for scenario analysis and modeling. You can understand potential outcomes and make contingency plans by inputting different scenarios into a machine-learning model. This is especially valuable in situations involving significant uncertainty or risk.

It is also helpful to integrate artificial intelligence into your everyday decision-making processes. For example, in customer service and feedback, we can use artificial intelligence to analyze customer interactions with goods on platforms and feedback, leading to more informed decisions about improving service. Automated responses can also improve the customer communication process. That is why one of the most visible consequences of artificial intelligence growth in communication is the advent of chatbots. Companies are increasingly using AI-powered chatbots to handle customer queries and provide instant responses. This provides faster resolution of questions and frees up time for customer service representatives to deal with more personalized issues. Chatbots can learn from each interaction, improving their understanding and response and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Education.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning have become a leap forward in the field of knowledge, especially self-learning – popular these days. These technologies have made learning more effective, engaging, and promising by personalizing learning, providing intelligent recommendations based on customer analysis, and identifying future skill requirements.

Personalized learning is perhaps the most critical way artificial intelligence and ML promote skill development. Learning platforms driven by artificial intelligence can adapt to individual learning styles, speeds, and preferences. They can offer personalized learning pathways, offer resources based on learners’ interests and needs, and provide real-time feedback. This level of personalization helps learners stay engaged, understand concepts more deeply and learn at their own pace, leading to better outcomes.

Artificial intelligence and ML can identify skill gaps and recommend appropriate learning resources. For example, by analyzing a person’s work or academic performance, the artificial intelligence system can suggest areas for improvement and recommend courses or materials to close those gaps. It can predict which skills may become more valuable, helping students stay one step ahead.

Moreover, artificial intelligence and ML can facilitate experiential learning. Students can immerse in virtual reality and experience something that is only possible to learn with practice. For example, to do complex operations for medical students or simulation of some situations for the rescue workers.

However, when learning these technologies, it is essential to remember that they are tools to enhance human capabilities, not replace mentors and teachers. They still play a vital role in inspiring learners, developing creativity, and providing emotional support. Thus, the most effective learning environments combine artificial intelligence and ML technologies with human guidance and mentoring.

Healthcare.

The digital revolution is increasingly used to improve quality and accuracy in healthcare. These technologies, by automating complicated activities and analyzing massive volumes of data, can reduce errors and enhance consistency and overall quality.

Artificial intelligence and AI have considerably enhanced the quality and accuracy of diagnosis and treatment in the healthcare sector. For example, artificial intelligence systems can assess medical pictures like X-rays and MRIs with greater precision than humans, lowering the likelihood of undiagnosed disorders. Based on vital indicators, artificial intelligence may also predict a patient’s deteriorating state, allowing for early intervention and potentially saving lives.

Conclusion about AI and ML helping us in productivity.

AI-powered learning systems can tailor materials and teaching methods for each learner, considering their individual needs and learning speed. Also, the many virtual assistants and algorithms that you use every day and probably never think about the fact that the algorithm that calculates your height and weight to match your diet and workout, as well as the services that match your advertising and commercials to your preferences, are also the result of the digital revolution. The level of customer service, Healthcare processes, and education has increased rapidly.

In the end, we can say that we have the best circumstance for productive work and study – while AI and ML help us to save time and energy.

 

Fleet Management: Best Practices To Save Time And Increase Productivity

As a fleet manager, you likely have a range of responsibilities and as a result, it can be challenging to find the right balance every day. You may even feel like there are not enough hours in the day. This means that it might be a good idea to think about how you can save some time during the day and increase employee productivity. This will help you focus on other more important business tasks and reduce stress. Although this might look like a tall order, there are some great solutions that you can implement. Take a look at our suggestions below and consider how you can incorporate them within your organisation.

Choose The Right Vehicles

First of all, vehicle reliability should be your top priority when it comes to saving time in the long run. If you choose vehicles, which don’t meet your operational needs, this can result in a number of problems. There are certain considerations that you will need to make to ensure that everything will go smoothly. For instance, you may need to look into the most affordable vehicle replacement cycles, as well as any maintenance requirements that you will need to adhere to. When looking for the right vehicles, always think about the correct size, style, and carrying capacity that you need.

Get Real-Time Data

Getting real-time data will allow you to make decisions more quickly and address any compliance issues, that might arise. With remote tachograph download from FleetGO, all files from your vehicles will be downloaded automatically, regardless of where your vehicles and drivers are at the moment. There are many benefits of using remote tachograph download, as you will have access to all of your data in one cloud solution. This will lead to huge time-savings and increased productivity. As a result, you will always be on top of your tachograph archive and you will get a clear overview of driver infringements.

Establish A Good Daily Routine

Many fleet managers prefer to dive straight into their tasks the moment they start work. However, it might be beneficial to allocate some time each morning to determine your priorities for the day. For example, you may want to create a to-do list or simply jot down a few things that you want to focus on. This will ensure that you won’t get distracted later on, as you will have a plan for the rest of the day. If possible, you may want to spend some time separating the different issues that you need to deal with into categories.

Focus On Recruitment

Another key area that can be easy to overlook is recruitment, which can play a key role in the success of your fleet. It’s crucial to take your time when it comes to selecting the right drivers by checking their credentials and ensuring they fit all other requirements. Make a list of the skills and qualifications that you expect drivers to have. This will help you make the right decisions when conducting interviews and reading through job applications. It’s also crucial to conduct a detailed background screening and check that candidates have plenty of experience with fleet driving.

Manage Your Finances 

Managing your business finances is crucial, if you want to avoid unnecessary stress. You will need to ensure that you can make the best use of the capital available to you. There are various things that you will need to take into account, including financing rates, prices, taxes, and incentives. Also, it doesn’t matter whether you want to rent, lease, or purchase vehicles and equipment, as you will still need to make the same considerations. Moreover, it’s advisable to think about your future business and operational needs.

Monitor Your Progress

Monitoring progress throughout this process is a must so that you can determine whether you have achieved your business goals or not. Make sure you establish a set of objectives, that you can work towards with your team. If you want to save time, consider the tasks that might be preventing you from achieving this goal. Once you implement new solutions and ideas, remember to return to your objectives to see how far you have come. However, you may also encounter various strategies, that might not be the best for your business, so you may need to adjust your strategy.

Ensure Safety

Last but not least, safety is one of the most important things that you will need to think about in your role as a fleet manager. You will need to introduce the right safety measures, which will prevent your company from having to deal with expensive insurance claims. Moreover, ensuring safety will be a great way to cut down on the amount of time you need to spend filling in reports, when an incident occurs. As a result, you will be able to focus on other operational improvements, that you can implement.

Office Factors That Can Negatively Impact Work Productivity & How To Eliminate Them

Office productivity is measured by determining a worker’s effort that they put into their everyday work. For workers who submit their reports late, or are often absent from work, in most cases there are a range of contributing factors within the office hindering their productivity. The importance of office productivity and output from workers is huge for businesses, therefore ensuring workers have high office productivity rates will create a better working environment for all.

Factors that hinder work productivity

How using just one monitor can be time consuming

As many office workers use computers for their everyday tasks, whether this be sending emails or writing reports, the performance of these tasks is often based on how many monitors a worker uses. Although one monitor can achieve all of the tasks a worker wishes to pursue, the effectiveness of the tasks are extensively slowed down. With spending time switching from one software to the next, this can make a simple 10 minute task an unnecessarily longer experience, subsequently having major effects on productivity rates of workers. 

Noisy office space becoming a distraction in the office

As offices are getting larger, so are the number of workers in the spaces provided. With more staff members surrounding, the noisiness of offices are bound to be louder, which can become a huge distraction on workers trying to proceed with their working tasks. From workers gossiping, to the loud clicks of keyboards and mouses and workers playing sounds from their monitors, these noises can quickly add up to create a very loud office space. As loud noises are such a distraction, this can hinder workers away from their desks and result in way less work getting done.

The effects of poor office furniture posture

With sitting down at work all day, it is very easy for office workers to adopt poor postures. The types of office furniture workers use can result in major back and body injuries with the strain of sitting there all day. For instance, some workers find themselves sitting on a chair so low that they are beneath their work desk. Due to the discomfort from the poor posture, some workers later develop back pains and are forced to take a sick leave, which only has negative effects on the productivity of their workload, therefore ensuring you sit at your desk correctly is vital for the wellness of your body.

Poor desk lighting becoming a burden in the office

Making sure workers have the most suitable lighting to be able to see their screens and get work done effectively is vital in contributing to the amount of work they get done. As some offices don’t have strong blinds or curtains, in the sunnier months it can be a huge restriction with not being able to see the screen to its fullest potential. On the flip side, some companies have curtains that darken a worker’s office space. If the weather is dull, or darker mornings and nights are on their way, the lack of light bulbs in an office may create too dark of a setting for workers to complete their work efficiently.

Very high or low temperatures having drastic effects on productivity 

As workers thrive at their best in an optimal temperature, as soon as this is changed, so do the rates of their productivity. Finding a balance of temperature that satisfies all workers is an important job to ensure work gets done. An article from Open highlighted that 29% of office workers spend up to half an hour each day not working due to an uncomfortable office temperature. Whether the offices are too hot or too cold, this can have huge effects on how much workers can get work done everyday, which can only result in negative impacts on the business itself. 

Solutions to the factors affecting productivity

Introducing dual monitor desks 

Using more than one monitor can double your chances of productivity. By having two monitors, this gives workers the chance to perform different tasks simultaneously across two screens, resulting in more work getting done at faster rates. When switching to dual monitors for your office work, this means needing more space on your desk to hold all of your important documents and equipment. Many office furniture companies such as Southern Office Furniture offer a range of high-quality dual monitor desks to accommodate both your monitors for increased productivity in offices.

Providing designated rooms for loud spaces

As keeping workers from talking to each other is an unreasonable ask for workers, the rooms you work in are important to consider for working effectively. To reduce noise around your work space, incorporating office cubicles into your office is the perfect way to eliminate noise for concentrated and dedicated workers. There are many benefits to office cubicles, including the extra personal space and fewer distractions. These are a great way to ensure workers are in their own bubble when working without the limitations of noise affecting their work. 

Buying ergonomic office furniture to support workers

Buying furniture that will be comfortable for workers to be in all day is one of the main aspects to consider to ensure the contentment of workers. For instance, you wouldn’t purchase a high chair for a short person or buy a low desk for a tall person. Affecting workers’ postures will tire them out and provide them with multiple body aches, therefore slowing their productivity. So purchasing office furniture that is right for you is the key to comfort while working at the office. Excess furniture can always be disposed of with end to end waste management services.

Evernote Launches New Features and New Plans for Personal and Professional Productivity

Evernote, the productivity app that helps you remember everything and accomplish anything, today unveiled a line-up of new features and repackaged subscription plans that make it easier than ever for users to effectively manage their workflows and organise their lives. The introduction of Tasks, Google Calendar in Evernote and new Home widgets to the app’s core note-taking capabilities acts as a force-multiplier, creating context for whatever needs to get done. Notes become more actionable, deadlines and to-dos become easier to track, and important information is surfaced in a neat, organised view.

Since rebuilding the platform in September 2020, Evernote has delivered a steady succession of new features and product improvements, from the launch of Home in January to Tasks in Early Access in June. Today’s official release of Tasks, Google Calendar integration and expanded Home capabilities as part of the company’s repackaged plans makes it easy for anyone to create the right Evernote for them – no matter what they need to get done.

“While today is another significant step forward in delivering on our mission, together, these new features and plans represent a bigger shift: an expanded definition of Evernote’s fundamental value,” said Ian Small, CEO of Evernote. “To fulfil our original promise to become your external brain, we’re moving forward in a way that helps you make valuable connections between information you want, when you want it and what you need to do with it. We will continue to partner in your process, amplifying the way you like to work and helping you focus on what’s needed to achieve your unique goals.”

Tasks in Evernote

By allowing users to create actionable tasks directly inside their notes, and also to manage them all from a unified view, Evernote bridges the gap between what users need to do and the information they need to do it. As part of today’s launch, Tasks can now be assigned to other Evernote users and soon to anyone with an email address – whether they use Evernote or not. Initially rolled out as an Early Access release in June, Tasks is now available as a general release across all devices.

Google Calendar in Evernote

Users can now connect Evernote to their Google Calendar accounts, making it seamless to create, link, and find notes for meetings and other events. With Google Calendar in Evernote, notes linked to events paint a more complete picture of what happened, when, and why. Ideas, decisions, and action items stay connected to the people, places, and activities that sparked them, without any extra effort. And, the customisable calendar widget in Home helps users stay in the zone without leaving Evernote, while making it easy to create and access relevant notes.

Home in Evernote

Introduced in January, Home is a one-stop dashboard that puts the information users need front and centre so they can stay on top of their day without feeling overwhelmed. Today, new customisation options for Home offer users a refreshed Evernote experience from the minute they open the app. This includes new widgets for Tasks and Google Calendar, as well as the ability to add multiple pinned notes and scratch pads (and change their pads’ colour and title), so Home can be optimised to fit the ways individuals work and think.

New Subscription Plans

As part of today’s announcement, four redesigned subscription plans arrange Evernote’s features and capabilities – both new and old – in easy-to-understand packages:

  • Evernote Personal: The least expensive paid offering for individual power users was crafted with Evernote Premium as the foundation, but includes new ways for users to bring order to their days. With full-featured Tasks, new widgets for Home and the ease that comes from connecting a Google Calendar account, Evernote Personal helps users stay focused on the activities and information they need for themselves, their homes and their family.
  • Evernote Professional: Designed for the higher-end power user, the new Professional plan embraces the “whole person” model of an Evernote user – a busy professional who juggles information overload both at work and home. In addition to everything Evernote Personal has to offer, Evernote Professional adds Assignable Tasks, multiple Google Calendar accounts, deeper Home customization and new, advanced search capabilities that amplify productivity at work and at home and deliver a feature-rich experience.
  • Evernote Teams: Formerly known as Evernote Business, Teams is designed for groups of people at work who need to collaborate and share knowledge in one convenient place. Every new feature being introduced today has been automatically added to Evernote Teams, creating new, immediate value to Evernote Business customers’ existing experiences.
  • Evernote Free: Evernote’s incredibly powerful and highly-valued free option retains the original mission of remember everything by enabling users to collect and manage everything important. Evernote Free will continue to incorporate smart, tailored experiences that help new customers onboard quickly and existing customers do even more.

“Everyone is wired to do things differently, and our recent momentum and evolving mission has provided us the opportunity to address that,” said Michele Don Durbin, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Evernote. “The new plans ensure there’s something for everyone – whether you’d like to feel more organized and keep better track of important information, bring order to the chaos of your day, or ramp up your workplace efficiency, Evernote’s new plans are yet another step towards helping you find your productivity happy place.”

To access new Tasks, Home and Google Calendar capabilities, users need to update to the latest version of Evernote on their devices. Evernote Premium users paying current subscription rates will automatically migrate to the new, more richly featured Evernote Personal offering at the price they are paying today.  Basic and Business customers will remain on their newly renamed plans at the same price they pay today. Plus and legacy-priced Premium customers keep their current existing plans without any price increase.

How To Manage Your Company Better And Improve Your Productivity

When it comes to hierarchies and business structures, it’s the boss who says ‘the buck stops here.’ All managers share part of the responsibility, however, because they are tasked to oversee some of the people and processes. 

One major area of accountability relates to productivity. Companies try to achieve more for less, to remain competitive. If it goes well, the company will grow and increase its market share. If not, the opposite will happen. It may be that you are wondering how to better manage your business and make it more productive. This article has been created to help you achieve this goal. 

Use All The Help You Can Get

Both small and large businesses have their eyes on Asia. This is because they see the huge potential for financial growth and expansion. When entrepreneurs wonder how to go about incorporating a company in Singapore they often use third parties to register them with ACRA. It’s also possible to pay yearly fees for unlimited access to company secretary services. 

By spending less time on their company’s incorporation and paperwork they are freed up to focus on their business. 

Harness The Power Of Technology

It’s now possible to track the activities of your field staff and remote workers, discovering their whereabouts and checking on their productivity. This can be achieved using downloadable smartphone apps that use bespoke software. Besides tracking and time management technology, there’s also communication tech. Whether it’s Slack for messaging individuals and groups or Skype for video conferencing, you can quickly contact colleagues to receive progress updates. 

It’s also worth reading about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software such as Salesforce. Imagine having access to a customized dashboard that shows you the work position at a glance, and that enables you to access instant reports at the press of a button. Whilst such technology will cost you, there could be real benefits for both your company and your customers. 

Remove Distractions  

Although many people thrive in open-plan offices because they can connect with others while they work, it’s unwise to place some people by doors, photocopiers, or drinks’ machines. If someone regularly has time-sensitive (and data-sensitive) reports compiling, it’s better to ensure they can work alone and undisturbed. 

Training can be beneficial in this area, helping create a culture where people learn to stay focused. It’s counterproductive for people to open every email the moment it arrives, or to have their phone on all the time. These days technology doesn’t make it hard for people to be briefly unavailable, whether it’s online or by phone. The ability to multitask is a myth – something will inevitably suffer. It’s better for people to perform successive tasks using one program than to have several on the go and to keep flitting from screen to screen. 

 

Be Wise Over Meetings

If you hold a one-hour meeting for seven people, it’s no different from giving one person a day off! Some managers allow standing-room-only for some of their meetings, to help people avoid wasting time. The chair of the meeting needs to be empowered to cut people mid-flow if they are waffling, and to make sure the agenda is achieved within the time allowed. It’s important to limit the people you invite to meetings, rather than including the entire team every single time. 

If an email conversation or phone chat will do it, let it replace a meeting. If you videoconference one person but later need to add another, it is possible to invite them to join.  

Create Boundaries For Work Time

The phrase ‘work smarter not harder’ is true: the objective is not for you to work long hours, but for you to achieve more in less time. People who are expected to work long hours have the same energy as everyone else, so they often merely pace themselves. Alternatively, they burn out and need time off to recuperate. 

Make sure people take their legal breaks. Encourage them to use up their holidays rather than losing or stockpiling them. Research on companies that reduced their working weeks from five to four days showed an increase in productivity and concentration. Whilst you may not choose to do this, you will want your staff to be refreshed each morning and to have a life outside of work. 

We have now seen that you can manage and achieve productivity in a variety of different ways. A company can grow and have happy employees at the same time. Both external companies and modern technology can assist businesses as they seek to make themselves more efficient and productive. 

83% of Northern Irish workers don’t need an office to feel productive anymore. #Jabra #WorkFromHome

Productivity has increased due to the current lockdown situation, according to UK workers. Half (50%) of the workers in Northern Ireland who don’t usually work from home feel more productive than in the office. This is mainly because they experience less office noise distractions (67%) or are less chatting to colleagues (44%). Despite this, many who are currently working from home are looking forward to their workplace reopening and a whooping 78% hope their employer lets them work from home more often in future. These insights are unveiled by research from Jabra among employees who are working from home during the pandemic*.

Flexible working
This pandemic has increased the appetite for flexible working environments. Seven in ten (70%) UK workers who don’t usually work from home say that the current climate has shown that a physical workplace is not necessary to be productive. For Northern Ireland this number is even higher at 83%. For a third of them (33%) not having to commute allows them more time to do work. However, UK employees are demanding clarity on future arrangements as a majority (51%) wish their employer would be clearer about possible working patterns going forward.

Employers should offer better tech

Another challenge for making flexible workplaces a future-proof solution, is technology. Of the people who feel less productive when working from home (25%) almost a quarter (23%) says they are distracted by children, while the same number (23%) blame the lack of equipment. Less than a third of workers (30%) says they’ve been given the right accessories to be productive, but almost half (46%) say they wished their employer offered more tech support.

This is particularly a pain point for Northern Irish employees who are not happy with their employer’s tech support: of those feeling less productive, 38% blames insufficient technology, whereas the majority of home workers (56%) had hoped for more tech support in general. For a third of the nation’s home workers, duals screens and headphones (33% respectively) are essential to their productivity. Other tech considered paramount are a printer (62%) and mobile phones (43%).

Previous Jabra research from 2019 showed that a large proportion of office workers are distracted by the noise of phone calls or colleagues talking. A huge 44% of respondents say they feel more productive at home simply because of the lack of colleague distractions and the lack of office noise in general (67%). But many workers feel less productive because they are not able to easily talk to their teammates, proving the need for the right software and hardware tech for all workers in order to improve collaboration and productivity. Having access to the right collaboration platforms like Teams and Zoom can also help those feeling lonely (5%) to interact with colleagues.

Nigel Dunn, Managing Director EMEA North at Jabra, said: “Being able to both concentrate and collaborate efficiently is key for creating productive working environments, whether in the office or at home. When you have the right equipment, anywhere is an office or meeting room. Whether it is by shutting out noise with Active Noise-Cancellation in headphones or making crystal clear calls, providing the full picture with a 180o camera or omni-directional audio in speakerphones, productivity does not have to be compromised by location.” 

*Research by Opinium, June 2020, amongst 1,000 UK adults who are working from home

For more information about Jabra’s productivity enhancing products, please visit www.jabra.co.uk.