tricks, shortcuts, skills, methods that increase wellness, productivity & efficiency

Business Hacks | win-win biz, helping the environment and humans in need

Flowers at weddings are beautiful—but their beauty doesn’t have to end there. People donate to Repeat Roses, who picks up the flowers, re-purposes them, and drops them off at hospices, hospitals and nursing homes, where they conjure needed smiles on patients’ faces.

Business Hacks - win-win business, helping humans in need and the environment TAnd then Repeat Roses takes it one step further–a week later, they pick up the flowers and compost them, saving them from the garbage.

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY.

Spread smiles to those in need. On your behalf, we deliver beautifully refreshed flower bouquets and arrangements to residents and patients in hospitals, cancer treatment centers, nursing homes, hospice care and shelter facilities.

Together, we can bring kindness and make a positive impact in communities across the country. From our headquarters in New York City to Los Angeles, California and all points in between. (more…)

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Life Hacks | the little-known everyday habit of highly successful people

Working late into the night can make you more productive–and more successful–than you ever imagined.

Life-Hacks- little-known-everyday-habit-of-highly-successful-peopleThe Little-Known Everyday Habit of Highly Successful People

by Peter Economy

What’s that more successful person doing right now? Chances are, they are going to go to bed long after you’ve reached the happy land of dreams.

Although site after site encourages you to rest and take care of yourself–usually advocating tons of sleep to make sure your brain isn’t overworked–training yourself to fight exhaustion is a very powerful statement. The beauty of staying up late is that you have uninterrupted time to focus on yourself–and your work. (more…)

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Business Hacks | being happier at work

Emma Seppälä, author of The Happiness Track, explains the proven benefits of a positive outlook; simple ways to increase your sense of well-being; and why it’s not about being ecstatic or excited all the time. Audio IdeaCast available too.

Jumping business executive man and woman in photo shot by corporate Los Angeles photographerSARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Sarah Green Carmichael. Today, I’m talking with Emma Seppala, science director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. She’s the author of the brand new book, The Happiness Track, How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. Emma, thank you so much for talking with us today.

EMMA SEPPALA: Oh, you’re more than welcome. I’m happy to be here.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So I thought we should just start by talking about how you define success in the purposes of the book because you started, I thought was really interesting, with a quote from late poet Maya Angelou, who actually was one of my all-time favorite interviews that we’ve done on the IdeaCast. That was a few years ago. But she stuck out in my mind.

Jumping business executive man and woman in photo shot by corporate Los Angeles photographer
© photo by Gregory Mancuso – Jumping business executive man and woman in photo shot by corporate Los Angeles photographer

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Business Hacks | what is disruptive innovation now?

The theory of disruptive innovation has proved to be a powerful way of thinking about innovation-driven growth. Here’s an excellent article and video about how it’s evolving.

What-Is-Disruptive-Innovation-evolving toBy Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, Rory McDonald

The theory of disruptive innovation, introduced in these pages in 1995, has proved to be a powerful way of thinking about innovation-driven growth. Many leaders of small, entrepreneurial companies praise it as their guiding star; so do many executives at large, well-established organizations, including Intel, Southern New Hampshire University, and Salesforce.com.

Unfortunately, disruption theory is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. Despite broad dissemination, the theory’s core concepts have been widely misunderstood and its basic tenets frequently misapplied. Furthermore, essential refinements in the theory over the past 20 years appear to have been overshadowed by the popularity of the initial formulation. As a result, the theory is sometimes criticized for shortcomings that have already been addressed. (more…)

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Life Hacks | you’re already more persuasive than you think

Life-Hacks--top-10-tips-to-show-you’re-already-more-persuasive-than-you-think TIt’s amazing the opportunities we miss because we often doubt our own powers of persuasion.

You’re Already More Persuasive than You Think

by Vanessa K. Bohns

Our bosses make shortsighted decisions, but we don’t suggest an alternative, figuring they wouldn’t listen anyway. Or we have an idea that would require a group effort, but we don’t try to sell our peers on it, figuring it would be too much of an uphill battle. Even when we need a personal favor, such as coverage for an absence, we avoid asking our colleagues out of fear of rejection. (more…)

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Business Hacks | the new science of customer emotions

When companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge.

Business Hacks-The New Science of Customer Emotions - best tips to increase sales
© photo by Gregory Mancuso

The New Science of Customer Emotions

By Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, Daniel Leemon

When companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge. Consider these examples: After a major bank introduced a credit card for Millennials that was designed to inspire emotional connection, use among the segment increased by 70% and new account growth rose by 40%.

Within a year of launching products and messaging to maximize emotional connection, a leading household cleaner turned market share losses into double-digit growth. And when a nationwide apparel retailer reoriented its merchandising and customer experience to its most emotionally connected customer segments, same-store sales growth accelerated more than threefold. (more…)

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Life Hacks | mindfulness as a productivity tool?

A wisdom tradition associated with personal growth and insight is now being absorbed by our culture as a tool for career development and efficiency.

Life Hacks-mindfulness as a productivity tool for career development and efficiency TIs Something Lost When We Use Mindfulness as a Productivity Tool?

by Charlotte Lieberman

I came to mindfulness as a healing practice after overcoming an addiction to Adderall during my junior year of college. I found myself in this situation because I thought that using Adderall to help me focus was no big deal — an attitude shared by 81% of students nationwide.

Adderall simply seemed like an innocuous shortcut to getting things done – and to do so efficiently yet effortlessly. I still remember the rush I felt my first night on Adderall: I completed every page of assigned Faulkner reading (not easy), started and finished a paper several weeks before the due date (because why not?), Swiffered my room (twice) and answered all of my unread emails (even the irrelevant ones). It’s also probably worth noting that I had forgotten to eat all night, and somehow found myself still awake at 4 a.m., my jaw clenched and my stomach rumbling. Sleep was nowhere in sight.

Life Hacks-mindfulness as a productivity tool for career development and efficiency
© photo by Gregory Mancuso

What I saw initially as shortcut to more focus and productivity ultimately turned out instead to be a long detour toward self-destruction. Rather than thinking of focus as the byproduct of my own power and capability, I looked outside of myself, thinking that a pill would solve my problems.

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Business Hacks | marketing – why some videos go viral

In “Puppyhood,” a video for Purina Puppy Chow produced with BuzzFeed, a guy spontaneously adopts a puppy, they bond in typical roommate fashion…and a marketer’s dream comes true.

This is the best funny youtube video of a man who doesn’t know anything adopting a puppy dogWhy Some Videos Go Viral

A viral video is every marketer’s dream. It’s the surest way to cut through the noise of the internet. And studies show that social viewers—people who watch shared content rather than videos they’ve found by browsing—are far more likely to buy a product and recommend it to others.

Why do some videos catch fire and others just sputter out? Unruly, a marketing technology company, offers an answer. Its analysis of some 430 billion video views and 100,000 consumer data points reveals the two most powerful drivers of viral success: psychological response (how the content makes you feel) and social motivation (why you want to share it).

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Life Hacks | natural, herbal and homeopathic sleep remedies

Insomnia can negatively affect your daily activities. Here are various home remedies for insomnia including natural remedies, herbal treatments and homeopathic medications.

Sleeping photo displays best natural, herbal and homeopathic remedies for insomnia--good life hackInsomnia is a complex condition caused by a wide range of factors. To counter it, these factors need to be addressed. While for some people sleep may come effortlessly, this is not always the case. Some people experience sleeplessness which leads to a sleep deficit.

To regain normal functioning, it is necessary to identify and eliminate the causes of insomnia. Various herbal, Ayurvedic, natural and home remedies for insomnia can help achieve this. They are as discussed below.

Sleeping photo displays best natural, herbal and homeopathic remedies for insomnia--good life hack
photo ©Gregory Mancuso

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Life Hacks | 12 things successful people never reveal at work

You can’t build a strong professional network if you don’t open up to your colleagues; but doing so is tricky, because revealing the wrong things can have a devastating effect on your career.

Photo showing 12 things successful people never reveal about themselves at work-life hacksBy Travis Bradberry

Sharing the right aspects of yourself in the right ways is an art form. Disclosures that feel like relationship builders in the moment can wind up as obvious no-nos with hindsight.

The trick is to catch yourself before you cross that line, because once you share something, there is no going back.

Photo showing 12 things successful people never reveal about themselves at work-life hacks
photo ©Gregory Mancuso

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Life Hacks | how to impress anyone in 30 seconds or less

Few things in life will help you more than knowing how to make an immediate great impression. Make note of these impressive habits.

Executive photo about best ways to impress anyone in 30 seconds for financial success--great life hackBy Lolly Daskal

Some experts estimate that 85 percent of your financial success comes not from your skills or knowledge but from your ability to connect with other people and engender their trust and respect.

Within seconds, everyone you meet forms an impression that largely determines whether they’ll like, trust, and respect you. Whether you’re job-hunting or fundraising or leading an organization, making a good impression is absolutely critical. (No pressure, right?)

Executive photo about best ways to impress anyone in 30 seconds for financial success--great life hack
photo ©Gregory Mancuso

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