Author: knjohn

18% of Remote Workers Only Spend 1 Hour a Day on Core Job Functions | Small Business Trends

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18% of remote workers spend just one hour a day working on core job tasks. 83% of people working from home spend 1 – 3 hours a day fixing errors, while 81% spend less than three hours a day on creative work.

These statistics involving the daily work function habits of remote employees were unveiled in a survey by Zapier, providers of automation for small businesses.

Core Function Jobs are Being Neglected

Determined to find out how remote workers are spending their time, Zapier surveyed 1,000 knowledge workers from small businesses across the United States.

With remote working having become the ‘new norm’ for many businesses and their employees, it’s important that employers have an understanding as to how remote teams are spending their time.

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Standing Desks Lack Designs for Comfort and Convenience | Digital Trends

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One of the new additions that became a critical part of my home office during the pandemic was a standing desk. You’ve probably read all about the wonders and joys they have to offer, but after using one for several months, I realized that the majority of them lack designs that prioritize comfort and convenience. Just look at the available crop out there, most of which are simple tabletops fastened to an adjustable base that goes up and down. But that all changed after switching to a different standing desk.

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FreshBooks reveals common invoicing mistakes of the self-employed during the COVID-19 pandemic | The Startup Magazine

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The COVID-19 pandemic has left many self-employed individuals struggling to keep on top of all areas of their business, from new health and safety procedures to completing basic admin tasks. With these additional burdens, it’s no surprise that occasional invoicing mistakes can start to creep into invoicing documents.

Twyla Verhelst, Head of FreshBooks Accountant Channel at leading online accounting software provider, FreshBooks, reveals the most common invoicing mistakes the self-employed have made since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your Invoices Do Not Include Payment Due Dates

Without specific payment dates on invoices, many of those who are self-employed may unintentionally send out “open invoices”. If there’s not a definitive payment timeframe, invoices are at risk of being ignored or forgotten about. Add in the use of vague language or jargon and this can potentially lead to confusion over the specified payment date.

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Afghanistan: US orders civilian jets to join evacuation | BBC News

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Commercial planes will be used to help with the evacuation of people from Afghanistan, the US says.

Eighteen aircraft will transfer people to third countries from safe sites outside Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

Many thousands of Afghans are crowded outside Kabul airport, desperate to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power on 15 August.

President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the US had evacuated nearly 28,000 people in the past week.

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How 2 College Friends Grew the No. 1 Fastest-Growing Private Company in America to $50 Million in 4 Years | Inc.com

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In the early 1990s at UC Davis, students Ranil Piyaratna and Geetesh Goyal became friends–and then proceeded, for years, to not go into business together.

Goyal attended dental school before finding he was more interested in filling positions than in filling teeth. He and Piyaratna reunited to solve workforce problems for life-science companies. They founded Atomic Staffing, which became, in 2010, Neozene. Then CEO Goyal and CFO Piyaratna saw opportunity: If they built high-quality pipelines, they could deliver “human capital” to a broader range of businesses. “We could have delivered on 10 times the business we had,” Goyal says. “And I was pretty confident my recruiting methodologies could transfer across industries. If a client has a critical need, it doesn’t matter if it’s in software, hardware, agriculture, shipping, or logistics. It was like, ‘We can solve it!’ So we cast a wider net.”

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Ample raises $160M to scale its battery swapping service | TechCrunch

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San Francisco-based Ample has raised a $160 million Series C to scale its battery swapping service, the largest round yet for the 8-year-old startup that wants to completely rethink how we use electric vehicles.

Ample’s approach is relatively straightforward: Cars equipped with the company’s modular battery pack can drive into one of Ample’s automated charging pod locations and swap out their depleted batteries for ones that are fully charged. The swapped-out batteries are then recharged in the pod and ready to be reinserted into another vehicle.

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The T-Mobile Data Breach Is One You Can’t Ignore | WIRED

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NOT ALL DATA breaches are created equal. None of them are good, but they do come in varying degrees of bad. And given how regularly they happen, it’s understandable that you may have become inured to the news. Still, a T-Mobile breach that hackers claim involved the data of 100 million people deserves your attention, especially if you’re a customer of the “un-carrier.”

As first reported by Motherboard on Sunday, someone on the dark web claims to have obtained the data of 100 million from T-Mobile’s servers and is selling a portion of it on an underground forum for 6 bitcoin, about $280,000. The trove includes not only names, phone numbers, and physical addresses but also more sensitive data like social security numbers, driver’s license information, and IMEI numbers, unique identifiers tied to each mobile device. Motherboard confirmed that samples of the data “contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.”

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9 Simple Ways to Transform Your Morning Routine and Boost Productivity | Entrepreneur

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Tim Ferriss makes his bed, meditates, does push-ups, writes in his journal and drinks water.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s morning ritual takes three hours to complete.

The way you start your morning often dictates how the rest of your day goes. Smart entrepreneurs know they need to take advantage of this important period of time to maximize their energy levels, maintain focus, increase their productivity and prime themselves for a busy day.

Consider adopting any or all of the following nine morning ritual strategies for a more productive day.

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Minka Solar Pods provide versatile off-grid work or chat hubs | Inhabitat

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The worlds of business and leisure are changing at an exponential rate, and keeping up with the times means making space for slowing down. London-based design studio Duffy London understands the need for comfortable and functional gathering spots with off-grid functionality as an alternative to the local coffee shop or boardroom for small get-togethers.

Building on the prior success of its indoor Japanese-inspired Minka Pods and Retro Pods, the company has released the outdoor-only Minka Solar Pods, which are designed to break up open spaces with cozy seating for up to four people.

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