Lighthouse Technology Solutions Blog

Today’s workplace productivity has reached a peak, but thanks to this enhanced amount of work, the office environment can often feel hectic and stressful. This usually leads to workers skipping breaks just so that they don’t fall behind. While this maintains the semblance of productivity, it can often lead to a significant decrease in creativity and physical health.

Can you imagine how much easier it would be to manage your IT problems if you had a dedicated support team who you could always count on to receive calls and answer any questions your team has? This would technically qualify as an internal help desk, and they could potentially save you a ton of money and time in the long run. Why? Because your team wouldn’t have to waste time digging through complicated systems to find answers to their dilemmas.

“Do you think this is a game?” In the past, a boss may have used this line to criticize an employee for not taking their job seriously. However, in today’s more creative work environments, many companies are using game mechanics to achieve their goals. This business strategy is called gamification, and it’s the most fun way to get work done.

Everybody loves a vacation from work, but nobody enjoys the stress of catching up when returning from said vacation. It doesn’t have to be this way. By taking a few precautions, you can avoid ever again having to say, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

There seem to be thousands of different ways a user can customize their desktop experience. Almost every nook and cranny of a system can be adjusted, even right down to the icons on your desktop. For this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to adjust the size of your desktop icons.

The key to a productive workday may be the tomato. Not in the sense that eating more tomatoes will make you smarter; instead, we’re talking about the classic tomato-shaped cooking timer that counts down from 25 minutes. It turns out that 25-minute-tomato increments could be the most effective way to accomplish your work.

Every business owner knows what’s expected of them when it comes time to onboard a new hire. When the training videos are all watched and the new employee is lined up to kick butt and take names, is that when your job as overseer ends, or is there more that you can do to get more productivity out of your staff?

When it comes to the workplace, people want more than they used to. It used to be all about the salary and decent working conditions, but that has significantly changed in the past decade. In order to attract the best talent and stay ahead of the competition, you want to provide optimal working conditions when possible. Thankfully, by providing your team with a few accommodations, it doesn’t have to be difficult for everyone to enjoy their workday.

Since the dawn of the Internet, email has been that thing you love to hate. Email was meant to be a dynamic tool capable of replacing the odd fax machine and postal mail. Today, some workers dread even opening their inbox due to how much time they have to invest in it. Some might even wonder if there’s a better way to go about their work day.

The majority of employees love the idea of working from home. Its benefits are well-known; saving on commuting expenses, freeing up office space, improving employee satisfaction, the list goes on. Yet, many employers are hesitant to allow their staff to work from home. Why is this?

Black Friday is widely regarded as the most competitive day for American retailers, and for consumers standing in line to take advantage of rock-bottom prices, the general consensus is that all of this competition is great for their wallets. In the same way, your business can benefit from a healthy dose of friendly competition.

There is consistent conversation about the security of your data and the best ways to minimize the risk of losing it. At some point in this conversation the topic of mobile devices comes up. The general consensus is that the more places your staff can access their work, the more they can get done, and how could it not? With smartphones becoming as predominant as coffee mugs, and the nature of mobile devices that have the capability of hopping from one network to the next, how can you ignore that the devices themselves are a data-loss risk?

Everyone is well aware of how mobile technology is changing everything. Therefore, it's a matter of time before we see new tech drastically change the office layout. This is what's happening in forward-thinking offices with a trend called "hoteling." If your business enjoys mobile technology and you want to get the most collaboration out of your staff, then hoteling is right for you.

Automation is an increasingly sought-after convenience in the workplace, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks. Some professionals foresee a world which has fully automated assembly lines, but most are only concerned about what this can do for their assets. Instead of freeing up menial positions for others to take on more meaningful existences, could automation destroy these jobs completely?

As a business leader, you know that you should read more about the latest industry trends and helpful management concepts. How's that going for you? For many business owners, finding time just to run their business is difficult enough, making book reading a luxury. We've found that you can do both by learning how to speed read.

You're on vacation with your family and your smartphone notifies you about a work email entitled "URGENT!" What do you do? Checking the message could mean hours spent putting out a fire at the office. Ignoring it will give you more time with your family, but you'll be distracted and stressed the whole time thinking about the worst-case scenario.

Spell check makes spelling super easy. All you have to do is regurgitate a string of letters that halfway sound like the word you're thinking of and the red squiggly line will take care of the rest. Admittedly, spellcheck has turned most of us into lazy spellers, which is why it's crucial that your spell check settings are adjusted properly when using Microsoft Publisher.

When it comes to productivity, the latest technology can be a huge boon. A proper word processor can increase your productivity drastically if you know how to use it. However, one of today's most ingenious writers - George R. R. Martin - is still stuck in the Stone Age of word processing technology!

In our previous blog article, we introduced you to Chris Dancy, aka "The Most Connected Human on Earth." We told you Chris' story, how the former IT manager lost his job due to corporate downsizing and then turned to quantitative technology to find relevance in an ever-changing work environment. Today, Chris utilizes hundreds of different technologies and systems as part of his "quantitative life existence." In part two of our interview with Chris, he explains how you too can be a connected human.

Known as "The Most Connected Human on Earth," Chris Dancy is famous for utilizing hundreds of technologies and systems that work together to literally track and archive his every move. For Chris, it's not about bragging rights - it's about pioneering "a quantified life existence." What does a quantified life look like? To find out, we got a chance to talk with Chris!