When You Lead, Embrace the Yogi

Mindfulness is beginning to permeate all areas and subjects. Before, yoga was only popular with the people that had too much time on their hand and now people are making time to practice yoga, meditation, and just being mindful of their surroundings. I bet you are wondering about the benefits and why in the world so many people are doing it. Meditation lets you have a relaxed state of mind where you will be able to start the day off positively and continue it that way, even if there are many video conferences or pile and piles of emails. You will continue to have a positive outlook. With that great outlook you will also be able to be more confident and ignore the negative voices in your head trying to bring you down. Since at this point you are confident and positive, you can also reduce stress and make way for creativity because you will be able to look at things from more than just one perspective.

Self Driving Cars

For now, we are doing most of the work involved in driving a car such as steering and pushing the pedals. There are already driverless cars on the road that are totally legal but the popularity is only beginning to grow. One of the main technologies will be the communication services between the vehicles which will leave the driving almost up to the car. Google even has a prototype that eliminates the driver from the equation completely because there is no steering wheel. I do not think that we are at the part yet where the control can be handed over the car so technology that require the driver to be present and take over the controls if need be. There is technology that lets the driver give the control to the car during long stretches of road or in traffic jams. By giving so much control to the cars, we are stimulating our brains less and less and that might prove to be hazardous. What are your thoughts about not driving anymore?

Protect Yourself

Software for inputting millions of username and passwords combos make cracking effortless for a good hacker and the right target, for instance. Hackers don’t even always have to break your security measures — using “social engineering,” web-raiders can use Facebook, Twitter, many different mobile applications and even the phone book to find all the information they need to score your password. It is important to be creative with passwords and not be such predictable and lazy humans that we try not to be but often fail and fall back on the one password that we use for 10 plus sites. If you are going to get hacked, this is the way that it is going to happen, I guarantee it. There are many different password programs that help with creating and remembering passwords. Think about it now, not when your account gets opened and exploited, especially when money is involved.

Better Conversations

We all want to be better communicators in life and at work, there is no doubt about it and there are some things that a communication service cannot do for us. One of the first things you should do when talking with someone is to show a real interest and give them your full attention. This means that you should probably not be pulling out your phone all the time. Also ask questions so that they elaborate. There are two words that are like magic when it comes to conversations, "tell me". It is important to avoid asking simple yes or no questions. You can even ask what the other person thinks after you have explained a point. When someone speaks to you, listen with your whole body. Nod, make eye contact, and be fully engaged in what they have to say. Always permit the other person enough time to finish their thought before you respond. Your patience and thoughtfulness will be appreciated.

Work Life Balance

It seems like it would be an unachievable feat. Utterly out of our reach. If we are of that mindset than we already made a mountain out of a hill and made the climb that much harder. We need to have that balance to be able to succeed in work and life, and be productive and efficient no matter how many mobile applications you use. There are several tricks and tips to consider when it comes to finding that beautiful middle. Employees need to have an open dialogue with their managers and managers need to understand what works and what is possible. Different jobs require different approaches, but everyone can benefit from having an open and honest conversation about what balance means. There is always another email to reply to or a problem to work, but you need to personally respect your own boundaries. If you don’t then you can't expect others to respect them. Lastly, embrace the off button. Don’t bring your cellphone to the dinner table. When you are on vacation, be on vacation. Don’t bring your tablet to the beach.

The Techy Grim Reaper

You are one day going to die. This should not come as a shock...unless you are a vampire. In that case, why would vampires concern themselves with such tiny blogs as this? Possible entertainment? Anywho, there are a lot of mobile applications and website applications that can give us reminders that we are mortal. Some of us need it more than others. A Chrome extension called Mori gives you a graphic representation of the weeks you have left, if you live to be 80 years. At Deathtimer.com, for instance, you can enter some basic personal data and receive the site’s prediction of the day you’ll die (based on life expectancy stats). What’s driving all this morbid innovation? In part, it’s merely the latest extension of a long-standing human fascination with mortality. But adding a veneer of data-driven precision to the familiar “make the most of the time you have” message indirectly links these tools to the more optimistic world of body-monitoring fitness trackers and life-quantifying productivity software.

Internet Connection

When the internet just came onto the scene, the majority of the traffic came from laptops and desktops. It is estimated that by 2018, only about half of the traffic is going to come from laptops and desktops while the other half is from smartphones, tablets, and other connected things. Part of that is due to the rise of the mobile revolution and usage of mobile applications as well as internet phones. The number of smartphones that are shipped and owned by people have already surpassed the number of simple cell phones. With the increase in the number of devices with more computing power and features we see that there is a real momentum towards increased use of internet time on portable and other non-PC devices in general, away from PCs. Not to mention that there are more things online that you would not expect such as appliances and cars. As for me, the laptop is not going anymore because nothing compares to be able to type on a regular keyboard. Even the hybrids between laptops and tablets are not really cutting it.