NOT JUST FOR HOSPITALS

Antimicrobial resins have been developed to meet the needs of hospitals and medical device manufacturers that want to reduce infection rates. Acquiring a bacterial infection in a hospital, or during a surgical procedure, can be deadly and also drives up health-care costs. Infections can be reduced or sometimes eliminated if the medical device, or the surfaces that patients commonly touch in the hospital setting, are embedded with antibacterial agents that make those surfaces deadly to bacteria—yet safe for human contact.

As a result, the medical industry is eager to develop products made from “smart” polymers that can improve patient outcomes and counter the increase in hospital-acquired infections, these can be called medical plastics.

Applications for antimicrobial plastics in the health-care field are many: a short list includes implantable medical devices, joint replacements, catheters, surgical instruments, trays, food carts, bed rails, etc.

There are also plenty of opportunities outside health care—other examples are clean rooms for sensitive electronics testing and assembly, water-treatment systems, food packaging, plumbing and HVAC,  sterile packaging, conveyors, public transportation, medical/diagnostic equipment, dental implants, personal care products—even office equipment.

Antimicrobial resins can be formulated for all standard injection molded plastics. Part of the challenge in engineering antimicrobial resins is finding the right “carrier” for the antimicrobial agent that integrates homogenously into the resin without altering its physical or thermal properties; chemical concentrations must also be carefully calculated to provide a steady release of ions at a pre-determined rate.

This is where material science really comes into play—the chemical interaction between the carrier, the antimicrobial agent, and the polymer must be precisely understood in order to achieve the correct release rate. If the release is too slow, bacteria may not be killed off; if the release is too fast, a metallic complex may develop within the polymer that might hinder performance or longevity. (Source: Scientific Molding by Kaysun)

Silver is most popular antimicrobial—long known to kill over 99.99% of bacteria within 24 hours of contact, it is safe for human tissue. Antimicrobial resins have been developed than can kill the most deadly infections, including MRSA.

You may want to consider antimicrobial resins for your injection-molded products if surface bacterial growth is a problem and inhibits performance. Aesthetics matter, too—bacterial discoloration or bioslime can be huge turn-offs, depending on the use of the product. Chances are if the production environment has moisture, heat, and organic material, bacteria will be lurking there too, which could be problematic for operations. If bacteria could be a problem, contact Kaysun and we’ll help answer your questions about antimicrobial plastics and connect you with qualified suppliers.

PLASTICS CAN BE TOUGHER THAN METAL (AND LOWER COST)

It’s hard to break old habits—like using metal parts and metal products. However, there are three good reasons for changing from metal to plastic:

•     Lower manufacturing cost

•     Lighter weight

•     Zero corrosion

What many manufacturers don’t know is that—when done properly—plastic parts can be injection-molded with the same tight tolerances and perform just as well (or even better) than their metal counterparts.

Careful design and planning, selection of appropriate materials, and use of scientific injection molding principles will control the main factors that affect precision, accuracy, and tight tolerances—these include material preparation, melt flow index, machine processing parameters, and most importantly, using sophisticated sensor technology to track what is happening inside the mold in real time. Making these kinds of high-performance plastic parts therefore also requires a robust quality system that can monitor every step of the injection-molding process.

When injection-molding vendors fail to meet tolerances consistently with plastic parts, this creates additional machining costs, quality costs to sort or even re-call parts, and possibly even litigation. (Source: Plastic Overmolding by Kaysun)

It only takes one bad experience with plastic parts to drive a company back to metal. But, with an experienced metal-to-plastic-conversion injection molder, there are some big advantages in going with plastic, such as:

Lower cost to produce
No secondary process to prevent oxidation
May be able to eliminate some assembly
Plastic is generally less expensive than metal
May be able to eliminate costly machining operations
Lighter weight means lower shipping charges
No painting needed, molded in color/graphics
Lighter weight
Less fatigue on a person if it is carried
Might make a product go faster

The key is to successful metal-to-plastic conversion is understanding the limitations of the process, materials, and tools are before committing to the project. Every part or product is not necessarily a good fit for metal-to-plastic conversion: important factors that must be carefully considered are the expected tolerances, materials, specific part design/configuration, and initial mold flow/analysis.

GETTING VALUABLE INSIGHTS FROM MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE

Facilities maintenance software may not be the most glamorous software on the block, but it can be quite revealing. For example, maintenance software can provide you with valuable insights into operations and show you areas that you can immediately improve. As a result, you may be able to reduce downtime, slash costs, and gain that elusive competitive edge. How can getting down to the nitty-gritty of facilities maintenance do so much? It all comes down to information and analytics.

Maintenance software is useful in tracking your facility’s overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE. In a perfect world, OEE would live up to its promise and your organization would achieve its goal of perfection (100 percent value-added work, 100 percent speed/capacity, and 100 percent perfect quality). Unfortunately, few companies can lay claim to 100 percent OEE. However, if you can improve your existing OEE rate, wouldn’t it be worth doing?

Facilities maintenance software can address an important component of OEE: equipment downtime. By computerizing equipment maintenance tasks, work, scheduled maintenance, and processes, you can equip your maintenance team with the information it needs to anticipate issues, perform preventative maintenance, schedule repairs, and reduce downtime. This information can also improve productivity and streamline processes, resulting in lower labor costs and less reliance on outside contractors.

Analytical tools in maintenance software can also provide you with the insight you need to make better decisions. For example, visual dashboards could make trends more readily apparent than a stack of work orders detailing unexpected equipment failures. Using this information, you can have your team proactively inspect similar equipment for signs of a looming failure. Analytical tools can also help you decide when it’s time to retire and replace older or obsolete equipment instead of repairing it.

Facilities maintenance software and the insights it reveals can play an important role in improving OEE and reducing downtime.

A CAREER IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY

Starting a janitorial business is something that can really be successful in today’s economic environment. Even though a lot of the types of businesses have seen a decline because of the economy, the service industry is still booming. After all, many of the jobs that are done by a janitorial company are things that are not going to be done by homeowners and those that work in the office. That is why you will also be able to start one of these businesses and see a certain level of success very quickly if you blanket the area with your service early in your business.

One of the things that you are going to need to think about when running a janitorial business is the type of janitorial equipment that you are going to need (Source: Janitorial Equipment by Janitorial Supplies Company). Some of the things that you are going to need to purchase regularly include garbage can liners, cleaning chemicals and towels to put in the paper towel dispenser where you are working. At times, you are going to need to purchase specialty items that are specific to the type of products that are used within the building. This is often true of paper towel dispensers but it is also true of trash can liners, as you may have a special type of can that is used in the office. That is why it is important for you to consider the janitorial supply company that you are using and to form a relationship so that they will be quick to provide you with what you need.

NEGOCIOS BEM GERENCIADOS GERAM SUCESSO

No mundo dos negócios é imprescindível para qualquer empresa ou projeto que haja gestão organizacional em todas  suas atividades. A  gestão de negócios visa tornar viável uma determinada tarefa pressupondo que sua otimização ocorra de forma segura, transparente e objetiva. Num mundo extremamente competitivo onde a concorrência bate à porta das empresas, é preciso ter cuidado para não ser sufocado por ela. Muitas vezes,  os negócios não têm êxito devido a falta de gestão empresarial, ao despreparo profissional. Dessa forma, todas as ações dirigidas à boa gestão organizacional devem desfragilizar-se  e seus  dirigentes precisam assumir uma postura altamente profissional.

A emissão de ordens de serviço, por exemplo, pode garantir o fluxo dos negócios. Ao mesmo tempo que emitem comunicados internos da empresa sobre um trabalho específico, também registram detalhes importantes, propiciando, assim,  a execução dos negócios em tempo hábil. Outro aspecto da boa gestão de negócios que proporciona a confiabilidade na capacidade de uma planta empresarial  é a implantação de um plano de manutenção, pois  esta garante  o funcionamento regular das instalações, bem como o seu estado de conservação. Para evitar a ocorrência da manutenção corretiva, pois ela sempre implica na parada de equipamentos e gastos maiores, é imprescindível a implantação da preventiva, uma vez que esta verifica periodicamente o funcionamento de equipamentos, antecipando eventuais problemas. Porém, tão importante quanto a preventiva é a adoção de um programa de manutenção preditiva, pois com este método  as tarefas específicas de manutenção só são realizadas se realmente forem necessárias. Por meio de um monitoramento regular dos equipamentos,  o intervalo entre os reparos aumenta e o número de falhas inesperadas  diminui.

A manutenção preditiva é que fornece dados para a manutenção preventiva. Primeiramente, monitora-se o equipamento durante certo período. Depois, se avalia o comportamento deste  até que sua operação se afaste do ponto ótimo de desempenho.  Conforme a necessidade de cada equipamento e sua importância dentro da planta, define-se o período de intervenção preventiva. Nesta análise, o modelamento estatístico é fundamental. Por isso, podemos afirmar que a manutenção preditiva fornece uma ferramenta de programação mais confiável para as próprias tarefas rotineiras de manutenção preventiva. Certamente, empresas que implementarem com sucesso métodos de manutenção preditiva apresentarão melhorias substanciais na contabilidade, disponibilidade e custos operacionais.

Enfim,  um conjunto de ações e medidas bem planejadas conduzem o processo de gestão de negócios ao sucesso absoluto.

KEEPING MAINTENANCE STAFF RUNNING

Most people that do not manage a maintenance staff do not really consider everything that is necessary to do to keep it up and running at any given time. Not only do you need to keep up the morale of the maintenance staff so that they are more productive, you also need to make sure that everything is run according to schedule. That is why most companies that have a larger maintenance staff will use some type of CMMS program (Computerized Maintenance Management System) that will allow them to set the tickets in motion and track them throughout the entire process. This type of software may also be incorporated in with an equipment tracking software or within enterprise asset management system that will help to give you a more complete control over the entire project.

It is not only important to ensure that everything is running smoothly through one of those facilities, it is also important to keep ahead of any potential problems that may occur. Preventative maintenance is, in many ways, more important than the maintenance which is done when something actually breaks down. Not only is it going to help you to save money by allowing you to avoid those more expensive maintenance tickets, it is also going to help you to save time and keep your facility up and running smoothly. Regardless of whether you are doing maintenance in a large-scale apartment community or if you are taking care of a local factory, keeping these things in mind will help things to be maintained properly. (Source: CMMS Program from eMaint)

System Maintenance For Your Business

There are many things that need to be considered when you operate a business. One thing that certainly needs to be considered, however, is the maintenance that is necessary to keep your business up and running at any given time. For that to occur in many operations, a full-time maintenance staff needs to be hired. They will be able to take care of everything, from running individual tickets, all the way to the system maintenance that is needed for your project. What are some of the things that you can do to keep your maintenance staff happy and working continually?

One thing that you can do is to employ the use of enterprise asset management software effectively. When you do so, you will be able to see the entire operation at a glance. It will allow you to keep track of any tickets that need to be run, and the asset management software will also allow you to keep up with any stock that needs to be rotated. When you employ this type of software, it will allow your maintenance crew to continue to operate effectively and it will even have outside benefits that you made on considered. For example, it can give you a list of any type of preventative maintenance that is necessary to ensure that major problems do not occur if at all possible. By taking care of the preventative maintenance in advance, you will be able to keep your operation running as smoothly as possible and be able to avoid any costly downtime because of machinery problems.

The Evolution Of Mortgage Lending

While credit ratings are important for assessing the creditworthiness for both banks and individuals, they are often not enough to minimize the risk inherent in lending. Credit risk management has evolved to a point where it’s now possible for a sophisticated software program to assess the risk of taking on debt, investing in businesses, and carrying long-term debts for investment purposes. This type of analysis is especially useful for banks since banks rely on investment income from loan activity.

Lending software, and loan portfolio management after the loan has been issued, can analyze all of the interest rates in the market place, assess the risk of default in a loan portfolio, and help banks and other financial institutions make intelligent decisions about long-term portfolio allocation.

It’s not enough to shake hands with clients and trust that their business is viable. Loans are often sold, resold, and packaged with other investments to form complex investment products. These derivatives sometimes require constant monitoring so that financial institutions don’t expose themselves to undue risks. The unfortunate truth is that lax credit standards for borrowers and counterparties is still the biggest hurdle for many institutions. While the primary issue for banks is credit default, banks (and other financial institutions) also face risks associated with trading. So, even if a bank isn’t making loans directly to the marketplace, it still faces potential credit risk from investments in other banks’ loan activity.

One reason that software is becoming more important in managing credit risk is the sheer size of the market. The global credit market is incredibly complex. Financial institutions are forced to pay attention to many different economies, markets, and foreign as well as domestic regulations. While credit risk management software won’t solve every problem, it will help mitigate the risk of portfolio turnover (i.e. defaults) while providing key information and metrics necessary for financial institutions to better diversify their holdings.

There are essentially two steps that financial institutions need to take to shore up their portfolio:

1) Assess their current exposure to high risk loans and;
2) Hire a company that can provide comprehensive analysis and software package to better manage credit risks.

While it’s possible for a bank to build an in-house custom solution, it’s unnecessary. Entire firms already exist to assess and manage credit risks. An outside firm can provide the needed objectivity, stress-testing, and in-depth data analysis that a bank needs. Like a good friend who’s willing to tell someone “inconvenient truths,” an independent firm can keep a bank honest and improve long-term portfolio performance.

ADVANCING YOUR BUSINESS

When you operate a business, you want to make sure that you are not only profitable but that your business is running as smoothly as possible. In many cases, this is going to make the difference as to whether you are able to move your business into the future or if you are going to remain frozen in the past. Of course, there are going to be a variety of different options that are open to a business owner, but one of the more popular is to use an enhanced SAP software solution that will allow many areas of your business to work together seamlessly. This is especially important, as you would want to improve the SAP workflow that exists within the business and to take care of any of the big data that you are accumulating.

As far as the data within your business is concerned, it can really work for you or against you. You would want to ensure that everything was as safe as possible by employing some form of SAP data encryption. This will allow you to archive your data without making it available to any outside resource that may happen to get into your system. You should also consider incorporating the use of SAP HANA to make the most use of your big data. After all, taking a close look at the data that is available is not only going to assist you in making any changes that are necessary within your business, it will also let you know when it is appropriate for you to do so.

Does Your Car Insurance Cover the Problems?

A question comes to me every time I watch news program especially if there is news about natural disaster such as flood and even tsunami. I see a lot of cars become broken because of the disaster so that the cars must be specially fixed because the damages are not the normal or the common damages. The costs to fix the damages must be very high so that the car owners may not be able to solve the problems. As a result, the cars become junks and no longer useful for the owners. Related to the question, can car insurance help the owners with the problems?

Well, my best guess for the question above is that the car insurance is potentially helpful enough to solve the problems above. The most important one to get approved for the claim is that the car insurance being held can cover the problems. How to know the coverage? Well, you can find out by comparing car insurance quotes to find the information about which one is the best to cover your problems. In this case, you can do the comparison by visiting the linked website as my recommendation. Well, buy your car insurance now!

Life Insurance is One of Biggest Plans You Have

A big question that always remains on my mind is about the time when I will leave the life and the beloved ones around me. Do you have the same question? Even though you do not have such question, you understand that the answer for the question is still dark until now. Well, actually it is not a big thing to think about. The most important one is that you are ready to face the fact that one day you have to leave your children and your family. One of the biggest plans you should make is buying life insurance.

Basically, you buy life insurance to show that you are unselfish one. Why is it so? Well, when you by life insurance you may understand that the one who will get the most benefit is your family because they are able to avoid getting financial problem, for example for your funeral, because there has been someone who will handle everything. However, it is important to understand that there are more that one types of life insurance available for you. The best way to understand each as well as to know how much you have to pay for the best life insurance is by comparing the life insurance quotes. You can directly do that by following the links available here.

Important Online Payday Loan

When you get a problem, your life seems to be hard to live especially if the problem is the one that can bring you into frustration. However, your problem is actually an important part of your life that you cannot avoid at all. Remember this, your problem brings you one level up so that you will be a stronger person. Besides, it is impossible that you cannot solve the problem because you still have a lot of people around you who are ready to help you solving the problem. One of them is payday loan lender who will help you solving your need especially for the instant one.

Here, i just want to tell you that payday loan is the easiest and fastest, and even the smartest, way to get money help especially if you need the money immediately. To get the cash, it is enough for you to get connected to the internet and visit the lender’s website. However, you should also make sure that you visit the best online payday loans lender in order to get the money as soon as you want. As you may guess, the links available for you are the links of the recommended website. Just go there and get the cash you need.

How Do You Finish Your Day Strong?

You discovered your productivity trigger. You are more productive in that all-important first hour of your day. You set boundaries around technology intrusion on your productivity.

You are well on your way to doing more in one hour than most business professionals do in a month. But there is one more question to answer for greater productivity as you start the final quarter of 2012:

How do you finish your day strong?

The concluding actions of yesterday ring loudly as you greet tomorrow-becoming-today.

Here are three strategies for you to finish your day strong:

Complete a Task

Yes, you're far more productive now than you were a month ago. Yet you still face interruptions. You put out fires.

These chronic productivity hiccups prompt you to experience incompleteness. You rarely complete a task and that's an emotional drain.

Find a task, even a small one, to complete before you leave for home. Arrange your desk. File papers or documents. Make tomorrow's to-do list. Anything.

Completing one task at the end of your day creates a positive sense of satisfaction that greets you the next morning. It's refreshing to walk in and re-experience yesterday's success. It launches your confidence for completion in a new day.

Commit to fun with family and friends

You read a lot about work/life balance which looks great from 30,000 feet. Yet from where your feet hit the ground, it's a tough act to balance.

Just do this: commit to fun with your family and friends. Define fun with them. Playing "Pretty, Pretty Princess" with your daughter. Tossing football with your son. A romantic meal you cook at home for your honey. Shooting hoops with the guys. A spa trip with the sisterhood. It's all fun!

Commit to fun. Schedule it. Budget it. Do it.

Increase your productivity with it.

Cut off the TV

If you go to sleep immediately following the evening news or an episode of The Walking Dead, guess what your subconscious works on overnight? Fixing the national deficit. Catching a murderer. Running from zombies.

Instead, cut the TV off at least 10 minutes before you go to sleep. Write in your Work Positive Gratitude Diary. Give your mind something positive to process. Wake up more refreshed.

Finish your day strong. Do more in an hour than most business professionals do in a month so you can leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love as you Work Positive in a negative world.

How Can I Manage My E-Mail Storm? Issue 1

During a recent conversation about business processes, a thinking participant asked the question which I have used as my title.

Who does not understand this urgent call for assistance? It is a universal cry for help which is uttered by all who use e-mail in their business. Whenever it is voiced, there is always an outpouring of advice, most based on personal experience and some based on deep thought.

The options offered on this occasion fell into a number of broad categories:

• Multiple e-mail addresses/silos

• A comprehensive filing system to get e-mails into the client/customer file

• Hosted e-mail services which allow recipients to handle e-mail wherever they might be

• Improve spam management

• Automatic deletion of e-mail after a certain period, which demands anything requiring to be kept being filed elsewhere

• Do it, delegate it, deliberate over it or dump it

• Replace e-mail where practical, but what with?

1. Multiple E-mail Addresses or Silos

For a user with a slight overload situation, breaking down your e-mail traffic into a number of different repositories may make things feel better.

This can be done by creating subject folders (silos) in Outlook. You can drag e-mails from your Inbox into a subject folder which you reserve for that sort of material. At least it makes your Inbox look a lot better.

But you must do better than that. The e-mail should be dealt with, I mean completed, before being moved from the Inbox to the subject folder, otherwise you will probably forget what it was about or what was required of you and so let your correspondent down.

Alternatively, you could give your friends, contacts, business associates, clients and customers different e-mail addresses for contacting you. This would obviate the process of dragging e-mails into the subject folders in the single e-mail address process mentioned above. The failing is that you must go looking for new e-mail in a number of accounts to ensure you stay on top of the e-mail storm.

Outlook can be configured to display a number of Inboxes at a time, but there is a limit imposed by the screen real estate.

My guess is that you would then begin to create subject folders in each of your main Inboxes "to make finding e-mails easier".

Multiple silos are a real personal management challenge. I would recommend avoiding them like the plague.

In between these two extremes, I can see a role for having two e-mail addresses.

The primary address is for your most lucrative correspondents. People who send e-mail to this address require your urgent personal attention. This Inbox should be perused regularly during the day and all incoming e-mail read and dealt with before you leave your desk at the end of the day.

The secondary address would be directed to your administrative assistant, PA or secretary. This person would be responsible for actioning the contents of e-mails coming in to this address. If an incoming e-mail fitted the category for your primary address, it would be forwarded for action. Spam would be deleted, client e-mails filed in your document management system, brochures of interest forwarded to the appropriate person within the business and the rest left for your review.

This secondary address would be the recipient of magazine subscriptions, newsletters, marketing brochures, in fact anything that does not directly assist you in achieving what you are at work to achieve. At a prearranged time during the day, your PA would tell you what is in the secondary Inbox that has not been actioned and then action the content as you determine. So long as you are at work, this secondary Inbox should be empty at the end of every day.

Whichever multi silo option you consider for your e-mails, you need to assess the risk, productivity impacts and convenience of using Outlook as your primary store. Over time, the subject folders will grow in number and it will be the devil's own job to find a specific e-mail. Outlook search is so slow. It may be easier to simply ask your sender to resend. How embarrassing that the sender can find the e-mail and you cannot!

I find it very hard to recommend this approach. A corrupted Exchange PST or OST file is a serious challenge and often not recoverable. Many Exchange users are lax about backups and ignore backing up Exchange! Its worth checking.

Much information received into a business via e-mail needs to be placed in a matter or job folder. While it is in Outlook, it generally cannot be shared or made available to others in your project workgroup. Think seriously of moving this information into an environment which makes the information available to those who need it.

Once in that space, DELETE it from Outlook. This approach will make your Inbox really better, not just look better.

My next article will deal with the making of a truly comprehensive electronic file (eFile) which will contain not just e-mails, but all files relating to a job, contract or matter.

I have over 40 years experience in Office Technology, Information Technology and process re-engineering behind me. I work for business to help it make the very best use it can of its IT and OT infrastructure.

My business works with its clients to identify what they are doing now, to document where they want to be and develop a path to get from where they are to their nirvana. We assist with the development of an IT and OT plan, provide input toward the budget and supply process management and support to achieve the planned results.

How to Implement New Business Processes Without Affecting Productivity Levels

A business process is basically a collection of related tasks aimed at product or service delivery. It comprises a set of activities with specific goals and objectives targeted at value-addition in an organization. I believe you sometimes implement new business processes in your entity so as to produce more, cheaper, better, quicker and generally offer more service, don't you? At the same time, you desire to implement these new processes without retarding productivity. Isn't it so? Sometimes these two appear to be conflicting. What must you do to reconcile the two? How do you implement new business processes without affecting productivity level? Let's consider some options.

- As a starting point, good people management approaches are vital. You should understand that implementing new business processes is part of change and hence change management guidelines should be considered. Don't you think so? For example, you should ensure that there is effective communication of the new processes and various implementation aspects. Psychological readiness and buy-in by the people are important. Additionally you need to empower, involve, engage and motivate your people.

- Training your people in advance is another powerful approach to implement new business processes without adversely affecting workplace productivity. Do you appreciate the value of this approach? Without advance training and orientation you will have an uphill task. But when your people learn the new approaches before their implementation, your chance of success is very high. Won't you be glad to achieve this?

- It is said that practice makes perfect. In fact perfect practice makes perfect. Practical learning methods such as work simulation, test runs, parallel runs etc help prepare people and the organization at large. Following such methods will ensure that productivity will not lag behind once you start implementing the new business processes.

- Project management approaches such as the critical path approach can additionally guide you in focusing on the critical aspects of implementing the new processes. This approach enables you to identify and place emphasis on the critical areas of change. If these critical areas are adequately handled, your process implementation most likely will not adversely affect productivity.

- The gradual and incremental approach to new processes implementation also avoids negative impact on productivity. Don't you think so? While speedy execution is desired in organizational change processes, the gradual alternative has its advantages also. Surely you don't desire speed to totally disrupt productivity and hence business continuity while implementing change. Now, why not try a slower approach?

- What about the aspect of leadership? You need strong leaders to ensure sustenance of organizational productivity while implementing change. You need capable and good leadership to monitor the change process so that productivity does not drop. Don't you agree with me on this? Just try effecting change in an organization without competent leadership, then you will appreciate the point I'm making here. Can your leaders and managers reconcile change management and high productivity?

In conclusion, productivity is extremely vital in your organization. It affects your strategic and tactical plans, staff motivation, pricing, investment analysis etc. While implementing change in your entity, you need not forget productivity. Of course your organization will keep on changing over time. The smart approach is this - you should change for the better and without destroying the good in the past. Why not consider this in your next change assignment? You can certainly improve your business processes without reducing productivity, can't you?

What Are the Benefits of Remote Deposit Capture for Businesses?

Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) is a process that uses bank check scanners to create digital images of checks, which are used in place of paper checks. By eliminating manual check processing and the physical transportation of checks between financial institutions and their customers, RDC offers businesses the following benefits, among others.

Faster Clearing Time

RDC allows businesses to capture check deposits in the branch location without transporting checks to the branch. By eliminating the need to transport the documents to the branch location, RDC allows businesses to process more checks in a given period. Ultimately, the ability to process a higher volume of checks is representative of a faster clearing time.

Improved availability of funds

A faster clearing time results in improved availability of funds. Instead of waiting days for funds to appear in accounts, businesses often see the funds on the same or the next business day. For example, research shows that image processing results in a ninety-five percent next-day availability in "transit" items (items that are beyond the Federal Reserve District), which is especially valuable in the case of high-value checks.

Improved cash flow

Using remote deposit capture to achieve a faster clearing time and improved availability of funds results in improved cash flow. The financial benefit of improved cash flow can be calculated by using a business' Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), which is the return the business gets on every dollar it invests. Improved cash flow often results in an annual financial benefit of thousands of dollars.

Lower transportation costs

Using bank check scanners reduces the need for businesses to have employees leave the office or use couriers to transport financial documents to the branch. Although some financial documents must still be presented to financial institutions in paper form, research shows that implementing an image processing system can reduce the cost of transporting financial documents by as much as eighty percent.

Lower processing costs

Just as image processing lowers transportation costs by reducing the need to transport documents to financial institutions, it lowers processing costs by eliminating the need to balance deposits. Furthermore, RDC allows businesses to converge remittance processing and financial transaction processing into a single platform-an arrangement that is made possible by Check 21 legislation.

Improved Data Storage

By creating digital images of financial documents, RDC allows businesses to store check data in digital form instead of as canceled paper checks. This makes it easy to store data offsite with a provider of disaster recovery services, which protects the data from destruction in the event of a disaster. Storing the data offsite also allows businesses to reduce operating expenses and increase workspace by decreasing onsite data silos.

Conclusion

Remote deposit capturere lies on bank check scanners to create the digital images of checks. After the images are created, they take the place of the original documents to expedite item processing and eliminate the need for documents to be transported from one party to another. These accomplishments offer businesses the benefits listed above, and give financial institutions a competitive advantage at the branch level.

What Steps Does a Bank Take to Implement Image Exchange?

Image exchange is a process in which financial institutions create the digital images of checks and transmit them in place of the original documents. At a time when transaction speed, data processing, and data storage are some of the top banking concerns at the branch level, image capture for banks is a competitive technology that allows banks to offer important benefits to business customers, such as:

    Faster clearings
    Improved availability of funds
    Improved cash flow
    Reduced return risk

Below are steps a financial institution commonly takes to implement a system for processing and transmitting the images of checks.

Form an initiative

Implementing a document scanning system should be preceded by forming an initiative that establishes what the system means financially to the institution. The institution should ask whether the system supports corporate objectives, how it will help the institution save costs and generate revenue, and how business would be affected if the system were not implemented.

Enable check image processing

The next step is to decide whether the system will be located in-house or if scanning needs will be outsourced. If the former option is chosen, the institution must calculate the cost for purchasing, installing, and maintaining the equipment for the system.

Start a cross-functional project team

The project team for implementing the system should be cross-functional. Ideally, it should include a manager who is familiar with image capture for banks and the image exchange process, the manager for item processing, and an IT expert who understands the connectivity and configuration issues associated with the software that supports the system.

Alter workflow operation to accommodate the system

Implementing the system will change the workflow procedure for item processing. Changes that may need to occur include implementing a duplicate image detection program, installing fraud filters to review images, and implementing an image statement program.

Establish a single exchange connection

A single connection that receives image transmittal from multiple capture sites should be established. In addition to simplifying the system, establishing a single connection-in contrast to establishing a separate connection with each partner in the system-allows the system to be implemented faster.

Define processing procedures

Partners in the system must establish the rules and procedures for exchanging information, especially concerning what type of transmission will be supported, where the Electronic Check Presentment (ECP) data and images will be received, and how present sending times and sending volumes will be affected.

Conduct staff training

Staff should be trained for the switchover from a paper processing environment to an image processing environment. Training involves familiarizing staff members with new workflows and training them to use new equipment.

Run tests

Testing the system at least twice over a two-week period is usually sufficient to reveal issues that must be addressed before the partners in the system agree to go forward with the implementation.

Conclusion

Image capture for banks offers several advantages to banks and their customers. To learn more about using image exchange to simplify check processing, consult with a provider of imaged-based financial solutions today.

How Do You Limit Technology's Intrusion on Your Productivity?

You discovered your productivity trigger and transformed your first hour to be more productive. The third question to answer as you increase sales and achieve greater productivity so you leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love is this:

How do I limit technology's intrusion on my productivity?

Marilyn vos Savant says,"Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant."

Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of our productivity; seizing the starring role. Greater productivity is essential to your Work Positive lifestyle which means you daily recognize the creep and create boundaries that limit it.

You're in a team meeting. Your desk phone rings. Do you read the Caller ID and decide about answering?

You're working on your computer on an important project. Is your e-mail open? Is it set on automatic?

What if you're with a customer and your smartphone buzzes with a call? Do you take it?

Multi-tasking is a productivity buster. The myth is you do more. The reality is you do less and what you do get done is less well.

Here are three actions to take today to increase your productivity and limit technology's intrusion:

Establish Technology Schedule

Set up specific times when you employ various technology. Answer email on a schedule-a certain block and time yourself. Turn off the automatic updating feature on your computer and smartphone's email. Forward requests best answered by a team member. Listen to voicemails and return calls on a schedule.

Engage Selectively

Your phone may be smart, but you're not when selecting how to engage. Social media is a marvelous relationship-building tool. Use it. Monetize it.

But do you really need a notification when someone wants to connect on LinkedIn? Or, updates their status on Facebook? Or, tweets a rant about an airline?

Engage selectively with those in your primary sphere of influence. Clients, team members, and family members are top drawer. The rest are also-ran's for your attention.

Your productivity is at stake. Want to increase sales and get out of the office earlier? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.

Execute with the "OFF" Button

You pay for technology services. They are to serve you, not vice versa. Turn them totally off at designated times to innovate and create. A buzz, bing, or bleep dams up your flow for broadening outcomes and developing a new mindset. Avoid drying up your creative stream by pressing the "off" button.
You discovered your productivity trigger and transformed your first hour to be more productive. The third question to answer as you increase sales and achieve greater productivity so you leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love is this:

How do I limit technology's intrusion on my productivity?

Marilyn vos Savant says,"Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant."

Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of our productivity; seizing the starring role. Greater productivity is essential to your Work Positive lifestyle which means you daily recognize the creep and create boundaries that limit it.

You're in a team meeting. Your desk phone rings. Do you read the Caller ID and decide about answering?

You're working on your computer on an important project. Is your e-mail open? Is it set on automatic?

What if you're with a customer and your smartphone buzzes with a call? Do you take it?

Multi-tasking is a productivity buster. The myth is you do more. The reality is you do less and what you do get done is less well.

Here are three actions to take today to increase your productivity and limit technology's intrusion:

Establish Technology Schedule

Set up specific times when you employ various technology. Answer email on a schedule-a certain block and time yourself. Turn off the automatic updating feature on your computer and smartphone's email. Forward requests best answered by a team member. Listen to voicemails and return calls on a schedule.

Engage Selectively

Your phone may be smart, but you're not when selecting how to engage. Social media is a marvelous relationship-building tool. Use it. Monetize it.

But do you really need a notification when someone wants to connect on LinkedIn? Or, updates their status on Facebook? Or, tweets a rant about an airline?

Engage selectively with those in your primary sphere of influence. Clients, team members, and family members are top drawer. The rest are also-ran's for your attention.

Your productivity is at stake. Want to increase sales and get out of the office earlier? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.

Execute with the "OFF" Button

You pay for technology services. They are to serve you, not vice versa. Turn them totally off at designated times to innovate and create. A buzz, bing, or bleep dams up your flow for broadening outcomes and developing a new mindset. Avoid drying up your creative stream by pressing the "off" button.

Business Productivity - Does Having Friends at Work Help or Hinder Your Work Performance?

I know you have friends and possibly lots of them, haven't you? These could be at your workplace, in your neighborhood, in clubs and associations etc. A person without friends may not be a balanced person. It's good to be sociable. Don't you think so? Now, what is the importance of friendship in the workplace? How can friendship affect your work performance? Does having friends at work help or hinder your work performance? Let us consider some perspectives.

    First of all, your work performance depends on several factors and these operate in a combination. Your personality, discipline, lifestyle, attitude, focus, time management, prioritization, skills and competencies etc affect your performance. Leadership and friendship aspects including the people you work with are also vital. The resources at your disposal and several other workplace aspects also influence productivity. You need a good balance of these factors to optimize your performance. Friendship is just one factor among the many mentioned above.

    Under normal circumstances, having friends at work should not hinder your performance. Friendship is normal and exists among people in any community. The workplace is not an exception. As a balanced individual you should have friends at work, in your neighborhood, in associations etc. What is vital is how you manage that friendship. I believe you agree with me on this principle, don't you?

    Friends can add a lot of value to your performance in the workplace. When you work in harmony with people you enjoy a good work atmosphere. A sense of belonging results and this boosts your confidence and improves performance. Friendship also enables easy sharing of knowledge, information and advice. Friends also provide emotional support that helps when you are going through difficult times. What about fun at work? You need friends to have fun with.

    There are however situations where friendship can negatively affect your performance. This basically arises due to mismanagement of relationships. Sometimes waste of time and distraction result. Bad friends can also influence you to do bad things. As an example, your attitude may negatively change to your detriment. Occasionally workplace affairs between opposite sexes are triggered by friendship. All these can have very negative impact on your performance. You need to wisely manage workplace friendship to avoid running into trouble.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons of this element in a work environment. Whether you benefit or not from it largely depends on how you handle it. It is an aspect of choice and personal discipline. What is good can turn to be bad depending on applicable circumstances. Haven't you greatly benefited from workplace friendship before? At the same time, haven't you seen colleagues destroyed by the same? The choice is yours, isn't it?

Success Not Guaranteed Because You Have Good Tools

Do you ever start strong on a project and then lose momentum as you progress over time and not really understand what happened? Does this sound familiar?

I'll give you a case in point: I remember feeling confident at the beginning of every school year at every age. I felt empowered as a child, as an adolescent, and as a college student, too, when I had my supplies and books in hand with the year straight ahead. It didn't matter how challenging I anticipated the year would be because I knew I had the time, talent and tools to perform.

Usually by the end of Day One I would have a pretty accurate sense of what was ahead, and after attending all my classes at least once I would be very certain about the year. To my chagrin, however, most years my confidence and enthusiasm would be tempered by reality at that point. Somewhat like the maxim "familiarity breeds contempt," after becoming familiar with what I had to do I felt more uncertain about my chances of success.

Having confidence and the right tools were essential to my progress. Figuratively speaking, having a sharp pencil and new Crayons seemed to be enough. Later, the correct calculators and computers and electronic readers and devices were standard equipment, but even when I had the best tools coupled with the finest resources it was not sufficient if I didn't have the proper knowledge to put it to use.

The best tools alone cannot replace knowledge and skill. It wouldn't matter if I had the best equipment running the best software if I didn't know how to effectively use it. I still was required to study and grow and know how to implement the information I had been taught. I didn't fully understand why I was not maintaining my productivity zeal until I realized why it was happening. I didn't understand the recipe.

My emphasis was wrong. I was putting the horse before the cart.

To be successful and "fire on all cylinders" a success driven person must work hard to capitalize. Staying ahead of technology - no, even to keep up with the trends in technology to be able to advance in knowledge to succeed - requires a continual devotion to working diligently over time without becoming permanently discouraged.

Winning in the world today is more difficult than ever before since we all have so many options available to us, and those options include wonderful tools to support our efforts. Our human contribution to the recipe is the subjective part, and using all the available tools makes the recipe effective.

Having the finest tools in the world does not guarantee success if you don't know how to use them. It's crucial to spend sufficient time learning how the technology and tools work if you want to realize the greatest possible benefit. When you follow the recipe of having the proper tools, persistence and positive attitude, you'll enjoy the success you are seeking.

Applying 5s in a Service or Transactional Process

In a Service Process, the customer is often waiting at a counter, on the other end of the phone call, walking your isles, observing your business. In a Transaction process, the customer is often visiting your website, browsing your products and services, and interacting with technology. Services and transactions interact in today's world with growing complexity. A low customer waiting time can be a competitive advantage, increased usability with simple graphical user interfaces can be the difference between browsing and a sale.

5s is a method used in Lean Six Sigma that has been proven to add value time and time again. I will demonstrate each Step of 5s with both a Service and Transaction process.

Sort - Sort an area for what is needed, when it is needed, in just the right amount. In a Service process, we might sort products on a shelf in just the right amount to meet the customer demand for 1 week, 1 day, or less, while others can move to lower demand areas. In a transaction process, we might Sort the highest demanded products to the users main view, without any distractions to lead anywhere else but the checkout line.

Set-in-Order or Straighten is to setup an area with just the right amount of the items needed to perform the tasks in that area. For example, in a Service process, where coffee and donuts are sold, a setup area for creamer, milk, sugar, chocolate, napkins, stirrers, covers, coffee folders, straws, etc... can all be used by a customer. in a Transaction process, where an application or form is completed, fields would be structured in the order that the information would be entered.

Shine or Sweep - Now that the service or transaction area has had all the low demand or low frequency items moved so that only the high demand items are located, then we clean up the area. in a Service process, we might paint, wash the area, add lighting, clean the floors, and fix anything broken. In a Transaction process we might highlight the area the users eyes should focus, offer examples or help references, remove any clutter that can confuse a user in completing the transaction, and reduce the # of steps a transaction can take.

Standardize is to stabilize with process controls. Visual controls work great, but the best approach is Poke-Yoke, also called mistake-proofing, where the opportunity for a defect to occur has been eliminated. In a Service process, we might add labels, add wheels to make moving easier, setup a replenishment signal to restock supplies, establish a daily checklist to ensure area is to standard. In a Transaction process, we might add input masks to fields, use look-up fields for standard entry choices, use color and visual signals to increase usability.

Sustain the gains is about process control so that continuous improvement will progress versus digress in both operational and financial metrics. In a Service process a schedule and checklist is often assigned across the team, sometimes standard operating procedures are used for training, and metrics are often used with simple red, yellow, green performance scores. In a Transaction process metrics are used too, usability testing with checks following maintenance or updates that would impact a change in a transaction, and performance testing.

Safety, Service, and Security are often checked across all 5s phases. 5s in Service and transaction process save time, rework, reduces defects, less waiting, less searching, and increased sales.

The Dangers Of Isolation For Productivity

While isolation may be the favored environment for maximum productivity, it lends itself to misunderstanding and development of potential problems with co-workers and family. When others don't understand why you are secluding yourself, the possibility exists for unintended consequences. I'm going to tell you how I learned this lesson in interpersonal communication.

Generally speaking I'm a pleasant co-worker. I can get along with just about anyone, and I enjoy being around other people. When engaged with others and focused on a task I do my part to foster a pleasant environment for all. In doing so, I tend to talk and interact in the interest of maintaining favorable working relationships, as well as accomplishing the intended outcome.

When I'm in production mode I'm serious about getting my work done; I know when to "zip it" and it's distracting to me when others won't do the same. So to remedy the problem of being distracted I would frequently seclude myself in my office. It was always a very productive time, and when I was finished there was time for conversation. That pattern, however, became the problem.

I didn't realize what I was doing. It was not acceptable for others to interrupt or distract me from my tasks, but I was inflicting the same inconvenience on others whenever I barged in on them once my job was done. When I was made aware of how inconsiderate I was being, it made an impression on me. I certainly didn't want my co-workers to think of me that way.

As a remedy, I became sensitive to the others and their workloads. It was not difficult to stay away and alow them time to complete their work, or at least to get to a stopping point where striking up a conversation would not be a distraction. As you can tell, this entire event made an impression on me, an impression that needed to be made.

Once this oversight had been pointed out, others around me agreed that I was a frequent offender on this charge. When they began to point to specific occasions, sadly of which I was unaware, I realized that my routine was not good. I didn't know I was being selfish. I thought I was just chatting.

I thought it was easy for others to stop what they were doing, shift gears and focus on what I wanted to talk about, not allowing them the courtesy of being uninterrupted with their thoughts. Once I corrected the behavior and started being more considerate of my workmates' need for quiet, as a team we all were more productive and more productive more frequently.

What's Your Productivity Trigger?

My Grandfather told me stories of getting up at 4:30 a.m. to bring in the wood, put it in the cook stove, and light the fire so his mother could prepare breakfast. A sister gathered in the dark eggs laid by the hens. A brother prepared the pig months earlier. The flour ground from their corn was in a sack to make the biscuits with fresh milk from their cows. Sure they had a lot to do every morning, but if they wanted to eat, this is what they did.

Your biggest morning task is to decide whether to stop by Starbucks or McDonald's for breakfast. That leaves you an abundance of time to do other things on your to-do list that are important, right?

Struggling with your to-do list?

How do you focus on what's most important as you Work Positive?

First, find your productivity trigger.

I found mine as I stood at a family member's open grave. He was young and his death unexpected. As I stood there, my mind flooded with all the times I wished I had called him just to say "Hi!," the birthday cards I didn't send and "just because" notes left unwritten. I cried.

I decided that I wasn't crying for him, but for me. For the lost opportunities-words left unsaid; deeds left undone.

Then a beautiful dragonfly flew over the grave, his iridescent wings glittering in the summer sun. More joined him and I remembered that most dragonflies live only about a month.

As I stood there at that open grave, staring at dragonflies, I asked myself, "If I only had a month to live, what would I do?"

Watching the sandy soil cover his casket, dragonflies flitting about, I decided to do better. I now say all the words, some to people I haven't spoken with in 30 years. I now do for others rather than wait until later. I define success by my clients' metrics.

I pay attention to what is important. I focus on and filter for positive thoughts. I cooperate and complement with other positive people, with no Eeyore Vampires on Team Joey. I trust my birthright to believe and imagine the best in opportunities, while my accountability partners sniff out the trail of my ego and redirect me as necessary. I pay attention to what is important, which leads me to achieve a Work Positive lifestyle. I share my discoveries with you.

Tips On How To Have A Schedule That Works

To have a schedule on a daily basis is like putting the rest of your life in order. Furthermore, it is one of the greatest ways with which you can achieve your goals on time and keep yourself from being unproductive and skipping important things which have to be done.

You might say that scheduling is a very easy task to accomplish. Try to think deeply and you will see that creating an efficient timetable requires appropriate skills. This is the same reason why successful companies and individuals spend weeks in plotting their schedules for the coming year. Browse through the succeeding points which can help you have a schedule that works to your advantage.

List Your Goals For The Day - Your goals here represent all the things you need to achieve on the day itself. Write them down according to priority. However, do not forget to set specific time of the day for standard activities. These are the hours when you have to wake-up, travel to work, cook meals, fetch the children at school and other stuff that are not negotiable. Estimate how much time you ought to spend on each task. For example, finishing a report for your boss in an hour. Ensure though that you are plotting reasonable time frames. An unrealistic schedule can leave you cramming and stressed out.

Use A Calendar - Having a calendar with you all the time is advisable for planning events. Perhaps, a friend suddenly calls up to set a lunch date with you. If you have a calendar at hand, you can say yes or no to the invite right away or have it moved to another date. Make it your personal reminder to attend only one activity for a day. If this is impossible, limit it up to two meetings a day only so that you can still accomplish other important tasks.

Be Open For Adjustments - Cross out the tasks you have accomplished for the day. Doing such will keep you reminded of how much more you have to work on. Be ready to move the unfinished ones to the following day. Be ready, as well, to work fast on the following day - leaving behind no backlogs. If by any chance that you always find yourself not completing your tasks on, reassess you daily schedule or your attitude towards it. This can keep you from making the most out of your time.

Create A Time For Yourself - Ever heard of this: 'All work and no play make a person dull.' You will lose your mind if you have a schedule solely dedicated for work. Include in between your task half an hour to one full hour for yourself. That is besides the time you spend to clean and groom yourself. You can spend this personal time praying, reading a book, sleeping or what have you. On certain occasions, you can choose to spend one full day with your family outdoors or a half day to watch a movie and eat with your co-workers or friends.

Data Management Made Easy - 4 Simple Tips

Regardless of the type business you run or industry you work in, chances are you will be dealing with customers and companies day in day out. Clients, potential customers, suppliers, competitors and partners are just a few examples of the types of folk that come across your radar.

Once your list of contacts starts to accumulate you need to manage this data with a CRM system of some description, at this point it doesn't matter how simple or sophisticated. And as you start to work with your chosen system you need to look at how you can make this data best work for you. There are a large number of steps which can be taken to ensure maximum return from your data and some of these are surprisingly easy to implement.

    Look through your existing system and identify which fields are underused or not used at all. If not why not? Is it because the field is of the wrong type? Maybe you have a free text field where you should have a companies look-up or a pick-list, which would minimise the variations of entries in the system. Instead of having a "St Pauls", "St. Pauls", "Saint Pauls" and "St. Paul's" as four different companies on the system, a pick-list or companies look-up would have created one company record only and thus your data would be far more useful.

    If a field is barely used it may be because it is simply not useful. A data migration or review of your system gives you the chance to rethink your approach, take a step back and look at what has worked for you so far and what has been less useful - too many seemingly useless fields may discourage your users from using the CRM at all if it is deemed unwieldy.

    Are you missing vital information? Perhaps you need to review which fields are made mandatory. You may have too many customers in your system with no contact details, as it is easy to simply save after collecting a new customer name, and hoping to fill in phone and email details later. That later soon dwindles into the back of the mind and the contact record becomes fairly redundant.

    As well as missing vital information due to fields not being used correctly, you may also be missing vital information because there is no field in which to collect it! It is worth inviting your future CRM user-base to contribute ideas to what they would like to see in the new system - something that may be blindingly obvious to those actually using CRM on a daily basis may not be at all evident to other involved in the CRM implementation process.

As well as the obvious factor of getting more useful data into your CRM system, these ideas also help make your new CRM software more end-user centric and this certainly is a determining factor on ensuring a successful user-adoption rate.

Improve Productivity and Increase Profit

There are certain things that can be done in any large business to help improve productivity and increase how much profit you are making. One of the things that you need to consider, however, is the fact that changes must be made on occasion and at times, large changes must be made. It all starts with reviewing your business on a regular basis, perhaps taking a close look at your business every six months or so. It helps to schedule these types of reviews in advance so that they are not let go by the wayside. What are some of the things that you may see which need changed?

Something that may surprise you when doing these reviews is that you are not going to only see problems within the company but you will also see good points that can be used to your benefit. If something is working well, it is likely that you're going to be able to continue to expound on that success. Of course, small changes may be necessary but when you're able to ramp up your success in such a way, it has a very positive impact on your business. This is not only seen in the profits but it is also seen in the productivity that is taking place among your employees and the fact that it helps to raise morale across the board.

You may also need to take a look at the technology that you used in your company to see if changes should be made. For example, you may have grown accustomed to using a certain type of software in parts of your business and it may be difficult to make a change. When the software is synchronized across the business, however, that can really help to boost productivity. Using the right SAP Accounts Receivable software which will integrate into the accounts payable and even into your inventory can allow you to see everything at a glance. Make sure that you use this type of software to your benefit.

Have you considered the information lifecycle management that is utilized by your company? Most businesses tend to look very carefully at the physical storage of any items that are going to be shipped to customers. Information lifecycle management, on the other hand, is directly related to the storage systems as well as the computing devices that you are using. The strategies that you use to store information may need to be updated from time to time as that can make a difference in the effectiveness of the storage devices.

There may even be times when the entire infrastructure of your business is going to need to be changed to the core. Of course, nobody enjoys making major changes such as this but there are times when they will be necessary. Just make sure that you have a well thought out plan that will help you to remain productive during the times that these changes are being implemented. It really can make a difference in your business now and in the future.

One Productivity Tip You Don't Hear Every Day

We all want to be more productive. We all wish there were more hours in a day to get everything done: wash the dishes, clean the house, go to work, pick up the kids from school, etc. It's no wonder everyone drinks coffee and has no time to take care of themselves.

Conventional productivity wisdom tells us to create checklists, keep track of our time, and maybe wake up one hour earlier and go to bed one hour later.

However, here is an unconventional tip that works for me, and will work for you too.

Watch what you eat.

Huh?

Believe it or not, diet plays a key part not only in your long term health, but also in your productivity. There are tons of diets to choose from, and I am not going to get into which diet you should choose because this article is more about productivity than health. If you must know, I am currently doing the paleo diet.

On this diet, my energy levels and focus have actually improved drastically. I really think that when you nutritious food, you just feel better overall. Feeling better keeps you motivated and focused for a longer time.

I used to come home from work exhausted. I would then either take a nap (ugh oh!), or go to a coffee shop and load up on caffeine. Man, I still love my caramel macchiatos...

Loading up on caffeine works short term, but in the long term in can wreak havoc on your productivity like it has mine. Ever since I switched over to the paleo diet, I just feel happier and fresher. That is why I think you should seriously look at your diet and see if you can make a change, and I almost guarantee you will be more productive. You must take care of your body.

One other thing I noticed, after going paleo, is that if I eat a crappy meal, like a burger or any kind of processed food, my energy levels go down a lot immediately after the meal. I am not a doctor, and this is my opinion not backed up by any scientific evidence, but I think your body uses a lot more energy to digest processed food, and processed food obviously has less nutrients than natural foods like fruits and vegetables. Perhaps this is why it seems that everyone feels so tired after eating lunch or dinner. Just my thought...

So before you worry about checklists and coffee, try to take care of your body by dieting. I urge you to try it for 30 days. Compare how you feel on your new diet and how you feel when you eat regularly. If you're already on a diet and feeling great, keep up the good work!

I will leave you with one quick analogy. Imagine your body as a car fuel tank. Would you fill up your car with junk? No, of course not. In the long run, it will break down and become a lemon. The same should go for your body. You always want to be running on all cylinders. Your family and career will thank you. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.

3 Myths of Multitasking That Are Robbing You of Productivity

Imagine waking up in the morning, getting all of your money making task done in your business without any interruptions or distractions. Not only were you laser focused but you got your important task done in half the time and increased profits in your business. You also completed your tasks by early to midafternoon so you had the rest of the day to relax, hang out with friends, go to the beach and do the things you truly enjoy. Wouldn't that be wonderful to experience on a daily basis?

Most entrepreneurs don't experience that but you can if you didn't believe these 3 myths of multitasking.

Myth#1: I Get More Done When I Multitask.

So you think you are good at multitasking? We live in a world were multitasking is the norm and unfortunately your progress is being slowed down by this. Your ability to make profit and create the lifestyle that you want is being greatly affected by working in an ineffective matter.

A recent Harvard Business Review post says that multitasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity, increased stress, and a 10% drop in IQ.
That is one upon thousands and thousands of studies of how bad multitasking is for you and if you continue to do it you will reach your goals later rather than sooner.

Myth#2: I Focus Better When I Multitask.

You may feel that you focus better when you multitask but that simply is not the truth. According to Russell Poldrack, UCLA associate professor of psychology, "Multi-tasking adversely affects how you focus, Our data supports that distractions force you to pay less attention to what you are doing, you don't focus as well as if you had paid full attention."

The remedy for this is to focus on your money making task in your business in uninterrupted blocks of time from 60-120 minutes. Focusing in chunks of time allow you to get more done in less time while increasing your profits.

Myth#3: By Not Multitasking I Won't Be Able To Get Anything Done.

According to OnlineUniversities.com people are incapable of conducting more than two tasks at once. The jobs become inefficient and inaccurate with additional multitasking. On top of that, it induces stress to the over worked brain.

So you may be asking, "If I shouldn't multitask then what should I do?" The answer is counterintuitive, schedule your interruptions. By scheduling your interruptions, specifically the activities that aren't money making task in your business i.e. running errands, checking email, etc. it will allow you to not scatter your energy and get more done in a shorter period of time.

So schedule a time for example from 12pm-1pm or 12pm-2pm where you do all your multitasking so your energy isn't all over the place when you are doing your money making task.

There you have it - 3 myths of multitasking that are robbing you of productivity. To get the 12 mindsets of productivity go to my website: http://www.PeopleTrainingSystems.com

About the Author: Eric Castaneda is an Author, Speaker, and Productivity Expert. He is also the owner of People Training Systems LLC, which has helped thousands of business professionals, small business owners and entrepreneurs increase their leadership skills, productivity and profitability.

How to Maintain a Productive Atmosphere in the Office

Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, once said that productivity of work was not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager. I know that some people see this matter differently; nevertheless it reflects the importance of the role of management in ensuring a productive atmosphere in the office. Of course the rest of the workers have their role in ensuring productivity but ultimately management is responsible. How do you then maintain a productive atmosphere in the office? Let's consider some salient features.

    The role of leadership is important in maintaining a productive atmosphere in any workplace. I guess you know the different ways in which leaders affect workers, don't you? Leaders hug, engage, motivate, recognize and empower people. These factors ensure productivity, while their absence dampens productivity.

    Work goals and objectives should be agreed upon, documented and communicated to all concerned. Your people need to know what is expected of them. Don't you think so? Without these they are rudderless and hence may not exert themselves as expected.

    Productivity is also determined to a large extent by the resources workers have in the office. This implies that if you want a productive atmosphere you need to avail all resources your workers need. We all know that resources are scarce but this scarcity has to be well-managed otherwise the organization will reel under the weight of low productivity.

    How about the physical things such as safety, office temperatures, mobility and other ergonomic aspects of your workplace? Do these ensure a productive atmosphere? If not then you need to consider modifying them accordingly.

    Your policies and procedures also influence productivity. If you have ever been to organizations where productivity is very negatively affected by policies and procedures then you know what I'm talking about. These sometimes result into frustration and this dampens the productive atmosphere in the office.

    Fun at work is another very powerful approach organizations use to ensure a productive atmosphere. Lack of fun creates dullness. Is fun infused into work in your organization? Is workplace fun normal in your organization? Now, if you think fun is a taboo in your workplace then that is up to you. At least I know that many workplaces with fun have very high productivity.

    Now, ensuring a productive atmosphere sometimes requires wielding the hammer also. You really need to get me right on this one. I don't mean harm - but sometimes you simply need to get out the bad eggs. A couple of bad eggs in your organization can adversely affect productivity. Attitude is contagious. Sometimes it's a tough decision but you just need to proceed with boldness. Don't you think so?

Every organization treasures productivity, no matter the mission and vision. What you and your staffs do in the office determine so many things including the success and future of the entity. If you are a leader or a manager that places little emphasis on productivity then someone is about to replace you. I guess you desire success in whatever you do, don't you? My advice is this - take productivity seriously.