Author Archives: kate

Jul15

How to be a Problem Solver at Work

Posted on July 15, 2019 by kate

If you ask any employer for a list of critical skills that could make a job applicant significantly more hirable than anyone else, they would say that being a problem solver is right at the top of that list. Problem-solving is at the core of any service-centric business operation. How well its people solve problems dictate how far the company advances.

Problem-solving takes practice and it is a very learnable skill. You can be a real asset to the business if you have what it takes to be a problem solver. To practice this skill, get into the habit of asking yourself these questions:

Is it your problem to solve?
Before you ask yourself what is the problem, make sure it is your problem to solve. It’s generally bad form to stick your nose into someone else’s business, so if you know you can’t do anything about it or if it’s beyond your scope or knowledge, don’t. Problems will arise, but are you in authority to address it? Do you have the skillset to solve it? You have to be discerning and choose the problems you want to be stuck with. Make sure you are the appropriate person to solve it. If not, this would best be served by having someone who has more knowledge on how to solve take care of that.

What is the problem?
People tend to be reactive instead of proactive – this is why we feel we’re always putting out fires instead of getting to the root of the issue. So if you come across a problem – ask yourself: why is this occurring and how do I know that THIS is the problem?

Who will be affected?
Check to see if you can assess the scope of the problem and see who will be affected if it doesn’t get solved. More often than not, unaddressed problems spread throughout the company and can affect all stakeholders.

What are the possible solutions?
Here’s where help from others come in handy. Brainstorm with others for possible solutions and try to get relevant input. Ask subject matter experts or those who are directly affected and let your boss know that you are taking steps towards solving the problem.

What is the best course of action?
Gather a few ideas and select a course of action. It won’t always be the right solution but you will learn from the experience if it doesn’t go your way. If it all goes right, then well done!

Implementation – executing the action plan is the hardest part. You might need to get creative with implementing your solution. Make sure that everyone affected is onboard with the action plan and they know what steps are being taken.
Monitoring – make sure that the problem stays resolved. Share what you learned in the problem-solving process and make sure you don’t go back to the old habits that caused the problems in the first place.

What are your problem-solving tips? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Jul10

Never Write Vague Emails Again: 3 Email Writing Tips from the Military

Posted on July 10, 2019 by kate

Never Write Vague Emails Again: 3 Email Writing Tips from the Military

In the early years of the internet, I was extremely guilty of writing poorly formatted emails in ridiculous fonts. They would start with some sort of apology like “sorry for the long email” or a meek request like “can I bother you for a minute” then proceed to write a long drawn out email. These emails would turn out to be a short story.

Thankfully my email writing skills have vastly improved over the years. Also, hurray to no longer using comic sans!

We all have to admit that there’s always room for improvement. In honing my email writing skills, I take stock from the military. I learned how to format emails from an article I read: “How to Write Email with Military Precision”. This has greatly helped me in writing concise messages, be it email, copy, or SMS messages. Surprisingly, the way the military write emails isn’t like the curt, one-word email messages Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, is notorious for. Here’s how they do it:

Perfectly worded subject line:
They start where it matters, at the beginning. Right off the bat, they already have the purpose of the email on the subject line. This makes perfect sense, the recipient will know straight away what the email is for so nobody has to waste time weeding through words to find out what the purpose of the email is. This strategy also does away with writing a pointless “hello” in the subject line. Here are some examples of the keywords they use in the subject line:
● ACTION – Compulsory for the recipient to take some action
● SIGN – Requires the signature of the recipient
● INFO – For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required
● DECISION – Requires a decision by the recipient
● REQUEST – Seeks permission or approval by the recipient
● COORD – Coordination by or with the recipient is needed

This cute little acronym called BLUF:
BLUF stands for Bottom Line Up Front which means the leading line (first few lines of your message) states the purpose of the email and the action required. Yesss! This saves everyone sooo much time. Imagine if everyone wrote emails this way.

Short and Sweet:
Time is a valuable resource and no one understands this better than the military. We can all agree that concise emails are better than long ones, so as much as possible, the military tries to fit all texts into one pane so that the reader won’t have to scroll or read through a lot of hullabaloos.
● Pro tip: they consistently use the active voice when sending emails.
○ Passive: A background brief of the project was submitted by the marketing team yesterday
○ Active: The marketing team submitted a project brief yesterday
■ The active voice sounds better and more concise, right?

How about you? What are your favorite email writing hacks for sending better emails? Share your tips with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Jul2

The Internet of Things: Modernizing Your Home Office Using Smart Technology

Posted on July 2, 2019 by kate

The Internet of Things: Modernizing Your Home Office Using Smart Technology

Last week, we talked about “How to Set Up a Home Office without Breaking the Bank”. For people who spend a few days here and there working from home – a small but functional home office will do. However, professionals who work completely from home are more invested in their home offices than those who use their office for ad hoc work or side hustles.

A dedicated home office can provide at home workers the professional environment they get from traditional offices in work buildings but with a few more perks. First off, home offices can give you the freedom to do away with the dreaded commute and terrible traffic. You also have more control over your immediate work environment – if it’s too cold, turn the AC down and if it’s too warm turn it up. You can also customize your own home office according to your requirements but still keep it professional.

The top concerns of creating your own home office space is how to reduce unwanted distractions and how to keep clutter from taking over the work space. The Internet of Things (IoT) devices can help you.

What do you mean by The Internet of Things?
Wikipedia describes The Internet of things (IoT) as the extension of Internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, Internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware (such as sensors), these devices can communicate and interact with others over the Internet, and they can be remotely monitored and controlled. Some examples of which are the smart home gadgets that control light, heat, ventilation, and AC.

Got money to burn?
The market is filled with fun things that can help you reduce unwanted distractions so that you can focus on work. Some are extremely useful, while some are…well, kind of pointless. To make it easier for you to sift through the market offerings, here are some of the fun and useful things:

A smart speaker
Gone are the days when a speaker just plays music and boosts sound. Nowadays, a smart speaker can act as your personal assistant, an extension of your phone, and a central control hub to control all of your other smart devices. This is something you can boss around and will always be “happy to help”
● Google Home with Google Assistant
● Amazon Echo with Echo Show
● HomePod with Siri

A smart plug
Have you ever left the house and second guess yourself if you unplugged the curling iron? Well, with a smart plug, you can control any appliance that’s plugged into it and turn it on and off remotely. For environment control, you can control heaters, a/c, and lamps from anywhere with just a few taps on your smartphone.
● iHome smart plugs
● D-Link smart plug
● Tp-link smart plug

A smart coffee machine
This is a “nice-to-have” item that’s on every remote worker’s wishlist. It’s surprisingly affordable and will provide you with work fuel on an uninterrupted schedule.
● Nespresso Expert Espresso Machine
● Brew Genie
● Smarter Coffee

What’s your favorite smart gadget? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Jun24

How to Set Up a Home Office without Breaking the Bank

Posted on June 24, 2019 by kate

How to Set Up a Home Office without Breaking the Bank

Most of today’s companies offer their employees the ability to telecommute or work from home for a few days a week. This has been a recent trend in multinational companies and is offered as one of the perks depending on your position in the company. Companies like Oracle, Deloitte, IBM, CBS Interactive, and Viacom are some of the companies that have flexible work from home policies.

This is why more and more people are carving out spaces in their homes to serve as their mini home offices. It’s no fun and it’s not very professional to work off of the dining table or on a laptop on your bed. So a lot of work from home professionals have opted to create a dedicated space at home for a mini office.

You don’t have to completely renovate your house to include a home office. You don’t even have to add another room. You can work with what you have to create a great space for working from home without having to spend a lot of money. Here are a few tips on how to set up a home office without breaking the bank.

Look for unused space
Do you have a guest room? Is there a walk-in closet roomy enough to fit a chair? Is the space underneath the stairs usable? What about the huge landing between the first and second floor, can you use that?

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a spare room so we have to use our creativity and look for areas in the house where we can fit a desk and an office chair in. It has to be a dedicated workspace though. It’s hard to concentrate on work when you work off the kitchen table and the kids are eating. Carve out space where you don’t have to move your stuff for around, like when baby needs a diaper change and you have to use the same table you work on.

Minimalist requirements
Think about what you need. Do you need a desk? How about a chair? Does it have to be big and bulky? Will a simple chair do or do you need an ergonomic chair? Do you need file cabinets or display cabinets?

Pare down your requirements to just the basics so that you can fit them into the spaces in your home. For example, my setup is just a simple desk with a 2 layer side shelf and an ergonomic chair that isn’t very big and imposing. It is in a small quiet corner of the living room, next to the sliding doors that lead to the garden. It’s a small space that has natural lighting and a great view of plants and pets.

Be a DIY fan
You don’t have to hire a contractor for things you can do yourself. If you want to have an accent wall for a beautiful background during video conference calls you can probably get away with painting the wall yourself. You can also hang a pretty framed photo or some artworks in the background. You can even put decals or wallpaper to define the space as a workspace.

You can also build your own desk. Take 3 side cabinets of the same height and connect them by putting a board across. Be sure to measure your space first so that you know that the desk will fit. You can paint or stain them to be a uniform color and look like 1 desk instead of 3 different furniture pieces.

What about you? What are your DIY home office tips? Share them with us in the comments Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Jun17

5 Nifty Google Chrome Extensions to Make Life Easier

Posted on June 17, 2019 by kate

5 Nifty Google Chrome Extensions to Make Life Easier

My favorite web browser is Google Chrome. It is secure, easy to navigate and compatible with almost all OS and mobile devices. You can sync your preferences and bookmarks across all devices, making it easier to access your accounts on different devices. I especially like the extensions available in the Chrome Web Store. Extensions make my job easier. If you haven’t tried extensions or don’t know where to start, please read on.

Browser extensions are small software modules used to customize the web browser. They do a host of tasks that help people out with productivity, tracking, management, information wrangling, etc. To get them, you go to the Chrome Web Store to see a large selection of browser extensions. Here are 5 of my favorite and most used ones.

Adobe Acrobat – This extension makes it possible for you to convert current web page to an Adobe PDF file (Windows only) and easier to do so because you no longer have to open and load up Adobe Acrobat DC/Adobe Acrobat XI. You can convert web pages to rich, high-quality PDF files that maintain the look and feel of the original content straight from the website. You can find the Adobe Acrobat browser extension here.

Asana – This extension makes it possible for you to quickly add and search for Asana tasks from any webpage. Other features include: putting tasks directly in any project, quickly adding a task description and assign to a teammate, selecting the appropriate assignee from a dropdown menu, inputting custom fields to your new tasks, and adding the current URL as a task, so you can read articles later or share them with teammates. You can find the Asana browser extension here.

Google Docs Offline – This extension makes it possible for you to get things done offline with the Google Docs family of products. Sometimes we have problems with an intermittent internet connection, or sometimes we may have NO internet connection at all. You can still access Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive without connecting to the internet with this extension. You can find the Google Docs Offline browser extension here.

Grammarly – This extension makes it possible for you to make sure your messages, documents, and social media posts are clear, mistake-free, and impactful. It is a contextual spelling checker and grammar checker that detects misspelled words, correctly spelled words used in the wrong context, and fix hundreds of complex grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement, article use, and modifier placement, among others. You can find the Grammarly browser extension here.

Speedtest – This extension makes it possible for you to take a Speedtest directly from our Google Chrome toolbar to quickly test the internet performance without interruption and measure how fast the pages load with Web Speed. You can get ping, download, and upload speeds within seconds through this browser extension. You can find the Speedtest browser extension here.

What are your favorite browser extensions? Share them with us in the comments section. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help