Author Archives: Krista Krumina

Employee Health, Guest Post By Krista Krumina on March 4, 2019.

How bad sleep affects productivity

Most people are able to recognize the signs of a poor night’s sleep in themselves. A short-temper, stress, headaches and fatigue are all common side effects. Fewer might be able to see the signs that bad sleep is also affecting their work performance.

If you’re not getting a healthy amount of sleep every night, you can experience serious disruptions to both your workflow and productivity. It’s crucial to make sure you’re getting the sleep necessary to remain an effective and efficient employee.

The complete guide to productivity during the holiday season

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the office is so delightful. And since you have so much to do… Get it done! Get it done! Get it done!

While Christmas is the time of the year to be humble, peaceful and with your loved ones, it’s also the time of the year all hell breaks loose and the work-life balance just disappears.

Enter stress, anxiety, fussy co-workers, sleepless nights and frantic holiday shopping.

You’re expected to finish up all your work projects and meet last-minute deadlines, plan your family’s holiday party and buy gifts – all whilst staying a functional human being.

How is that even possible?

The only way you can manage to do all of this is by being productive. And the main areas you’ll be interested to tackle this holiday season are:
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News, Original Study By Krista Krumina on November 28, 2018.

Employees spend 2.3x more time ”workshopping” on Cyber Monday than on regular workdays

People can’t resist Cyber Monday deals – that’s a fact.

Cyber Monday 2018 hit $7.9 billion in sales, becoming the biggest online shopping day in US history. And if you’re wondering when do people find the time to spend such amounts of money, the answer is – during working hours.

A new study by DeskTime found that on Cyber Monday 2018, office workers spent 2.3x more time ”workshopping” – shopping while on the clock – than on a regular working day.

5 business reasons to offer remote and flexible work options

Digital technologies continue to reshape the world and how we live in it. As a result, it should be no surprise that they are completely redefining how we understand work.

Specifically, the traditional 9-5, Monday-Friday job is beginning to slip away. More and more people are working remotely, and with the growth of the gig economy, we can only expect this to be a trend to continue.

As a result, to remain competitive in the labor market, more employers than ever are offering their employees the chance to work remotely.

By giving people the chance to integrate this perk into their life is about more than just recruiting and employee retention. It just makes good business sense.

Here’s why you should hire remote workers:

Time tracking integrations – what DeskTime integrates with and how to use that

Fully automatic, hassle-free time tracking is great.

But you know what’s even better?

The ability to connect your time tracking with other tools you use on a daily basis to effectively plan your workday, manage your team and projects.

For project managers, it’s important to see who is working on what, what time each employee has dedicated to specific tasks, how much time the team spends in meetings, etc.

DeskTime integrations are made to let managers see the whole picture – in one place, without manually copying and pasting the information from one software to another.

As a DeskTime user, here’s what’s available to you:

Project management integrations (Asana, Basecamp, Jira, Zapier, Trello, GitLab)
Calendar integrations (Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar)

I used to spend hundreds of my working hours on Facebook, so here’s what I did

I never saw Facebook as a harm to my productivity. Until one month, after checking my time tracking data I realized that I had spent 13 hours and 21 minutes of my working hours on Facebook.

That’s more than 40 minutes every working day spent browsing the newsfeed, checking random profiles and giving thumbs up to every new status update that came up.

That was also the month I spent every second day working overtime and feeling burned-out. After my discovery, I blamed Facebook. So I did what everyone would’ve done in my place: I blocked the newsfeed.

How to keep employees motivated at work (and how playing fun games helps)

Bosses have tough jobs.

You’re responsible for employee productivity. But breathe down their necks constantly, and they’ll loathe you. Leave them be, and your next quarterly earnings report may not look very impressive.

The thing is, if you want your employees to do a good job, you have to make sure they’re self-motivated.

The great list of 25+ productivity tools to try in 2018

If you’re looking for the best productivity tools in one place, you’ve just hit the jackpot.

We did the research, so you don’t have to. Here are 25+ of the best productivity apps to use in 2018 that will help you optimize your time and get more things done whilst staying balanced, happy, and, you know… sane.

Without further ado – here they are:

The rules of effective lunch breaks that boost your productivity

Are you sometimes so busy that a lunch break seems like an extra you can’t afford? Does your lunch often mean eating a sandwich at the desk? If you’re facing a deadline, do you sacrifice a part of your lunch break to catch up with your tasks?

If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, you’re doing it wrong.

The dirty truth about your office desk [Infographic]

Chances are you’re sitting at your work desk reading this article. If so, brace yourself for what I’m about to say.

The average workplace desk can be 100x less hygienic than your kitchen table, and 400x filthier than the average toilet seat! Gross, huh?