Tag Archives: Corporate Business Solutions

Organization 101: 5 Tips for Daily Planning

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How do you start your day? Do you hit the snooze button multiple times before rushing to get ready? Maybe you get upright when you’re alarm goes off and jump right in the shower before enjoying your morning coffee. Whatever it may be, it’s worth considering adding daily planning to your routine.

Daily planning can help you with many aspects of your life, not just with the organization. You’ll be more prepared for upcoming obstacles and deadlines, reduce your stress, knowing you have a plan, and will help hold you accountable for the task at hand.

If you’re ready to take a few extra minutes each morning for daily planning, the following five tips from CBS-CBS.com will help.

Physically Write Out Your Daily Plan

Daily planning doesn’t mean you take a few moments to think about everything you need to accomplish today. Chances are, you will forget lots of it halfway through. To be successful at the daily plan, you need to physically write it out. Having a calendar with space to write out each day will help.

Set a Time for Planning

Why should you plan your day at the same time, whether it be the night before or while having your morning coffee? It will help you create a habit. Once-daily planning becomes a habit, your chances of forgetting to do it will significantly decrease.

Have an Ongoing Task List

If you struggle to think of all the things you need to accomplish in a day, create an ongoing task list. Whether you make it a weekly or monthly list that you have on hand, you can refer back to it while you’re planning your day. That way, you always know what tasks are coming up.

Not only that but having that list will help you prioritize what’s most essential and what can wait for another day. Prioritizing is an excellent organizational trick that will keep you on track of everything you need to do.

Give Yourself More Time Than You Think

A trick you’ll quickly start to realize is that tasks often take longer than you expect. Distractions occur at any given moment that can throw you off schedule. If you give yourself some flexibility in your daily plan, you’re less likely to fall behind and get stressed and more likely to achieve everything on your list.

Reflect on Your Day and Carry Over Tasks

You’ll have days when you don’t accomplish everything in your plan, and that’s okay. Try not to stress over what you couldn’t get done. Instead, reflect on your day and carry over any tasks to the next day.

Taking a moment to reflect on your day can help you in a few ways. First, you can see if you overscheduled yourself or if you had too many distractions that took away your attention. Reflecting can also boost your confidence when you see everything you did achieve in the day.

Incorporate daily planning into your morning or nighttime routine. It will help you stay organized, prioritize what is most important right now, and will likely help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed with what to do.

Ready to Boost Security? 5 Cybersecurity Tips to Keep Your Business Safe

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Cybersecurity is crucial for all businesses, and small companies are no exception. In fact, a 2018 report (The 2018 State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium Size Businesses) found that almost 70 percent of businesses in the study had fallen victim to a cyber attack. Unfortunately, nearly half of the respondents didn’t know how to protect their organization against threats.

Don’t let your business be another statistic of cybersecurity threats against a small business. Take action today to protect yourself tomorrow. Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions has five cybersecurity tips to keep your business safe.

Always Create Backups

Backups are your best friend if you save a lot of important information on a computer. Not doing so leaves all of that critical data vulnerable. If you have all your personal belongings stored in one garage that has minimal protection and it catches fire, you’ll lose everything.

Get in the habit of doing daily backups of your main devices. Most computers, tablets and even phones connected to cloud service or external hard drive allow you to set a backup schedule, so you don’t have to remember each day.

Use Strong Passwords

A password is your first line of defense for your device and any accounts you have access to. Slacking on creating a password puts everything at risk. A strong password is something not easily guessed and includes numbers and special characters.

For devices and accounts that hold critical information (think of customer info that could expose banking information), you may want to add extra authentication steps. Multi-factor authentication is when you need to input a number code sent to you via email, text or having to scan a thumbprint or your face to gain access.

Train Your Employees

If you’re a small business with a few employees, then cybersecurity is vital to everyone, not just you as the owner. That is why you should spend time investing in training for everyone related to your business.

Ensure that all your staff know how to create strong passwords for all devices, red flags of phishing scams or websites that look suspicious, and even how to protect their devices when they take them home for the day.

Keep All Devices Updated

Regular updates are a crucial step to security. Ever wonder what happens when your device does it’s the tenth update of the month? The chances are that quick update contains valuable coding that is filling gaps in its security.

Hackers and threats are continually evolving, so that means your device’s security abilities also need to evolve. Each time your device updates, it’s likely providing a solution to a potential security exposure due to the latest threat evolution.

Download Security Software

You’re not alone when it comes to cybersecurity. Many companies provide top-notch cybersecurity software for individual and personal use. If you’re new to security or not overly interested in it, downloading one of these programs is necessary.

Browse through the available security programs to find one that best suits your needs. Look for ones that include firewall protection and password management. They’ll all come in handy.

Small businesses don’t need to take drastic steps to protect their company from cyber threats. Even small actions, like updating your device and regularly changing your passwords, can provide valuable protection to all of your important data.

6 Tips For Setting and Maintaining Your New Year’s Resolution

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Do you set New Year’s resolutions? Chances are you have at some point, only to break it shortly after. Don’t worry. You’re not alone. A 2018 survey found that only four percent of those who made New Year’s resolutions actually kept them. If you’re not one for making a resolution, you’re amongst 54 percent who didn’t that year either.

Why are only a handful of people actually achieving their resolution? It often starts at the beginning – people set unrealistic resolutions that are nearly impossible to achieve.

Whether you’re making resolutions for yourself or your business, CBS-CBS.com has six tips to help you set and maintain your New Year’s resolutions.

Don’t Go Overboard With the Number

First, make only a few resolutions, or even simply one. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and ultimately abandon your resolutions when you have too many. You’re more likely to stick to your list of goals when you have only a few at a time. Remember, you can’t change everything all at once.

Set Realistic Resolutions

One of the top reasons someone will likely fall short of their resolution is that they set something unrealistic. If you set yourself an unattainable goal, how do you expect ever to achieve it? For example, if you love sweets but want to cut back, saying you won’t touch sweets for the whole year will be extremely challenging.

Setting something realistic for you provides you with a better chance to succeed right from the start. So, that sweets resolution? Instead of saying you’ll never eat them again, set a resolution that you’ll start to cut back.

Have a Plan

New Year’s resolutions are goals with a different name. What’s the best way to achieve your goal? By creating a plan to get you there.

Continuing with our sweets goal, create a more specific plan for cutting back. You could start by saying you want to reduce how much money you spend in January on candy. That can give you a better idea of how you move forward in February. The point is, create a roadmap for your success.

Set a Meaningful Resolution

A resolution that has value to you is something you’re more likely to stick with. A common goal is to become healthier in the new year. If that isn’t a top priority for you at this moment, you likely won’t make it a priority moving forward.

There isn’t a right or wrong resolution to make, as long as it has meaning for you.

Track Your Progress

It may seem like extra work, but tracking your progress is another excellent tactic to stay on task with your resolution. When you see progress, you create momentum and motivation for yourself to continue with your plan.

Be Okay With Setbacks

Resolutions aren’t an all in or fail idea. You will likely have setbacks with your journey, and you may even abandon your resolution entirely, and that’s okay. Don’t get too hard on yourself if you don’t see much progress, or if you find a few months in that the resolution just isn’t working for you.

 

New Year’s resolutions can be a fun way to create new habits in your life. However, they can also cause a lot of stress too. Avoid them turning stressful by using the tips above to set and maintain a positive resolution.

5 Goals Every Entrepreneur Should Strive For

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Goals are an excellent tactic to keep you on track. They help you achieve something bigger you’ve been working on for a while. Everyone can benefit from goals, especially if you’re an entrepreneur.

Sometimes, though, it can be challenging to determine what kind of goal to make. Maybe right now, your goal is to create a good plan for the future. Try not to stress over this part. Your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have five goals that every entrepreneur should strive for.

Personal Development Goals

Entrepreneurial goals shouldn’t be limited to strictly about your business. You need to have some personal development plans mixed in as well. As you progress forward personally, you’ll learn new tricks and methods to help you improve all aspects of your life.

Some reasonable personal development goals to consider include starting a journal, read a new book (self-help, business learning, finances), take a new course, or learning to manage your work and life balance. These goals are there to make life a bit easier for you.

Relationship Goals

As an entrepreneur, you likely have many relationships on the go, and we’re talking more than your significant other relationship. Maintaining healthy relationships is crucial for everyone, and an entrepreneur is no exception.

Set goals that help develop your current relationships and branch out to create new ones. It could be something as simple as phoning a friend once a week, to something bigger like attending a conference in person. Networking is a significant portion of operating a business.

Health Goals

It’s essential that entrepreneurs take care of their health, both physical and mental. If you’re running on fumes each day, it’s only a matter of time before you burn out. Setting health goals allows you to focus on essential things that improve your overall well-being. When you’re in top health, you perform at your best.

There are many health goals you can set. A few examples would be eating more fruits and vegetables each day, getting in a short walk in the morning, meditating to help ease stress, or going for regular checkup appointments.

Business Goals

Of course, every entrepreneur needs to set themselves business goals (if you haven’t done so already). Business goals are what help drive your company forward towards success. You have many options available for setting business goals. Just ensure you’re selecting realistic ones for your company.

Need a few ideas? Your business goal could include rebranding your company, setting up a social media plan, developing partnerships with other local businesses, or launching a new product or service.

Financial Goals

Lastly, it’s a good idea to set financial goals. It could be either personal or business-related or maybe both. Financial goals are an excellent way to stay on top of your money to ensure you bring in more than you spend.

Keep financial goals small, measurable and attainable. If you’re a newer company, setting a financial goal like earning a million dollars in revenue may not be realistic. However, changing the timeline to five years with small milestones each year could keep you on the path to earning a million dollars.

Ready to set goals? Use the above five goal categories to get you started. Each category serves a purpose in your life that deserves some attention.

Setting Up for Success: 5 Tips to Prepare Your Business for the New Year

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Welcome to December – where every business owner has experienced the overwhelming feeling that comes from year-end. There is the extra pressure to finish any lingering tasks before the year wraps up. Because of everything racing through your mind to finish in the remaining weeks of the year, many entrepreneurs miss an excellent opportunity to prepare their business for the upcoming year.

During your year-end wrap-up, you can do a few things to help prepare your business for a prosperous new year. Add the following five tips to your year-end to-do list from Corporate Business Solutions to help you prep for success.

Analyze the Past 12 Months

The best way to prepare for the upcoming year is to analyze what happened in the last 12 months. All of the data you collect from January through December provides valuable information on where your business is at and where it’s heading.

If you’re a goal setter, drag out the goals you set last January. Did you achieve them? What step did you take to reach your goal? Don’t just focus on the goals you achieved and forget about the rest. For any goals you set that you and your business didn’t hit, what happened?

Perform a KPI Analysis

Have you ever done a KPI (key performance indicator) before? If not, now is a good time to do one. KPIs help you measure your company’s success. You may want to focus on your business’s finances or choose to analyze other aspects like customer and employee retention.

Set Goals for the New Year

You want to start with data analysis first so you can set realistic goals for your business. Before the new year, write out a list of short-term and long-term goals. They could be anything from increasing your revenue by a certain percentage by quarter two or that you’ll implement a new routine for employees to help with efficiency.

When making goals, make SMART ones – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Many people end up setting themselves up for failure right at the start, which is discouraging. By following the SMART goal method, you can set a goal you’ll achieve.

Clean Up Your Mailbox

How often do you open your business email to have a mini freak out because your inbox is almost full? Don’t bring that unnecessary stress into the new year. Block off a few hours to go through and organize your email. You’ll be thankful you did when you start work again in the new year with a clean inbox.

Have a Year-End Meeting With Employees

What better way to get a pulse on how your business operates than to ask those who help keep the doors open? Schedule a year-end meeting with all of your employees. Ask them questions like how they felt the past year went, what didn’t work, any ideas they have for the new year, and what could you do differently as a boss? Just make sure to give them advance notice so they can all come prepared.

Simple tasks that have the most significant impact are the way to go when wrapping up the year. Start the new year off with a bang by preparing ahead of time.

Can Your Business Handle a Crisis? 4 Tips to Manage Difficult Times

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Prior to 2020, your business may have been immune to challenges. It could be that you’re a young company just starting to grow or you’ve been lucky so far. Fast forward to today, Covid-19 hit the majority of businesses around the globe with hardships like nonother.

From rolling shutdowns to closing doors and letting employees go, businesses of every size have battled tough terrain to keep persevering through one of the most challenging years to date. Luckily for you, it’s never too late to plan for a crisis.

Using 2020 as a learning experience, your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have four tips to help your business manage difficult times.

Don’t Turn Away Help

During a crisis, now is not the time to be a hero and tackle everything on your own. Although it’s difficult to swallow your pride and admit when you need help, it’s important you take advantage of the help when provided.

The goal is for your business to not only stay afloat during a crisis, but you want it to thrive as well. Help could come in the forms of government subsidies and grants, asking your social media following to share your business profile, or having your staff take on a few additional tasks for the time being.

Remember Your Entire Business Is Affected

As the owner, it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one affected by a crisis with your business. You wear most of the hats for running the company, so you feel the biggest impact. However, it’s important to remember that your business runs thanks to your staff and team, not just you.

Be prepared to offer support to your team. The more you can keep the company morale high, the more your staff will be prepared to stick it out with you during a crisis.

Use the Time to Brainstorm New Strategies

For many businesses, 2020 was a time to reinvent their business model. Take the fitness industry as a perfect example. As gyms and fitness studios worldwide shut down, they were forced to make adjustments to their business model to keep operating. Many personal trainers and group instructors turned to online classes.

Use a crisis as a way to reflect on what works and what you could implement that allows your business to persevere through difficult times. Grab your team and have an afternoon of brainstorming new strategies. You may find that what you come up with will grow your business even when the challenging times pass.

Stay Positive

As the owner, it’s essential that you remain as positive as you possibly can. If your staff and customers see how stressed you are or that you’re losing faith in your company, it’s only a matter of time before those feelings pass to them too.

Although there’s isn’t anything wrong with showing all sides of your business, even during challenging times. You must keep a strong face with a positive attitude and show your clients that you are determined to keep moving forward with the changes.

Trying to manage through challenging times isn’t easy as a business owner. However, if you take the task head-on and stay focused on a goal, you’ll be able to maneuver through any crisis thrown at you and even thrive more than ever.

Virtual Meetings: 5 Tips to Keep Your Zoom Meeting Productive

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If you asked the business world that one day we would spend more time working remotely and conducting virtual meetings more than anything in-person, many would likely shrug that off. Except, here we are today, and that is precisely the case.

We’ve talked before about how 2020 changed the business world (and the world as a whole, really). The Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to shift virtually for the majority of their duties. To keep their team connected, Zoom meetings grew exponentially in popularity. As many found out, however, there are more challenges to maintaining a virtual meeting productive.

At Corporate Business Solutions, we know it’s essential to keep your team connected when working remotely. We have five tips to help you keep your Zoom meetings productive.

Invite Those Necessary

Have you ever attended a meeting where you left thinking that was a waste of time? Well, you likely didn’t need to be there. Keep that in mind, when inviting members to a virtual meeting. The more attendees you have, the more challenging it becomes to keep everyone engaged, and the meeting productive. So, invite-only the essentials that will benefit and contribute to the meeting.

Lay Out Ground Rules Before the Meeting

Before you even begin, lay out ground rules for the meeting. Having ground rules can help prevent the meeting from going off-topic, attendees talking over one another, and frustration for you as the leader.

Some ground rules to consider include muting those who aren’t talking, use the “hand up” feature when someone wants to speak, ensure all attendees keep their video on so you know they are paying attention, and that everyone will have an opportunity to speak when called upon. These rules help keep the meeting running smoothly.

Send the Meeting Agenda Beforehand

Those who attend a meeting want to know that it is worth their valuable time, helping keep their focus. One way of doing that is to send an agenda before the meeting begins. Not only does it ensure the attendee that it’s essential for them to attend, but it will also help everyone stay on task.

Keep the Morning Short

Long, drawn-out meetings typically aren’t the most productive. They drag on and lose the attention of the attendees. Some research suggests that the human brain becomes bored in only 10 minutes. Now, that may be a bit too short to run your meeting. However, you can use that timeframe to move onto different topics.

Keep in mind, when you’re conducting virtual meetings, attendees are usually at home. That means there are more distractions compared to being in the office. So, that 10 minutes could become shorter. Keep your meetings short and your topics concise.

Follow Up With Attendees

The best way to know how the meeting went is to hear from those who were at it. Follow-ups are an excellent step to take in the meeting process. It gives you a chance to get feedback to help improve the next meeting, and it allows you to further any discussions that got cut short during the session.

Ready to increase productivity and engagement at your next Zoom meeting? Use the five tips above to boost your meetings.

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4 Tips to Help You Run a Successful YouTube Channel

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YouTube – the second largest search engine available (second to Google). It’s a powerful tool that many small businesses forget or think the platform isn’t for them. However, we’re here to tell you that you should utilize YouTube to reach your audience.

We’ve said it before about the benefits of starting a YouTube channel. Today, we’re here to help you be successful. It’s a tricky platform to gain traction on. With dedication and planning, though, you’ll be able to utilize YouTube to promote and grow your company.

Try the following four tips from CBS-CBS.com and running a successful YouTube channel.

Create a Content Calendar

A content calendar is what it sounds like – a calendar you create that keeps track of all your content. YouTube likely isn’t the online social media platform you’re using (nor should it be). With so many avenues to take, it can get confusing and overwhelming.

Create a content calendar that maps out what you will post on social media and videos you plan to upload throughout the month. Have a separate section that breaks down your YouTube videos so you can plan them out ahead of time.

Consistently Upload

One of the worst things you can do for your YouTube channel is to upload periodically. If you want it to be successful, you need to have a consistent upload schedule.

A good idea is to start with weekly videos, if possible. Don’t set an unrealistic schedule for uploading multiple videos each week. Start at a reasonable level and work your way up if you want to.

Add Call to Actions in Your Video

Call to actions (CTAs) are a powerful statement that tells the viewer what you want them to do. You likely add them to your video description, but have you thought about adding them to your video?

Many YouTubers begin and end their videos with an introduction and a CTA to subscribe to their channel. Throughout the video, you can add CTAs to go to your website or social media accounts. YouTube has the option to add cards that allows the viewer to click and direct them to where you want.

Spend Time on the Title and Description

When searching on YouTube, the first thing you see is the video’s title, a few lines with a brief description, and its cover graphic. These are essential elements of uploading a video and are not ones you should quickly whip up.

Your title should include keywords related to your video. Remember, YouTube is a search engine. That means people are searching for specific words like they would on Google. To get your video recognized, include those keywords in the title and description of every video.

The cover graphic of your video should somewhat resemble what it will be about. It doesn’t have to be anything flashy, and sometimes less is more. However, it does need to grab the viewer’s attention and entice them to click on your video.

Have fun as you create and upload videos. YouTube has the potential for your business to reach a wider audience across the world, and eventually increase your revenue.

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Keep Your Health Top Focus: 7 Simple Ways to Be Healthier at Work

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Just because you sit in an office for eight to nine hours a day, that doesn’t mean your life is unhealthy. In fact, with simple, small changes, you can keep your health a top priority while you work.

According to the World Health Organization, a sedentary (physically inactive), life is the leading cause of disease and disability. Lack of physical activity can lead to many issues, including obesity, mental illness, and cardiovascular disease.

Luckily, even the smallest changes in the office can help keep your health in check. Corporate Business Solutions has seven simple ways to be healthier at work.

Pack Your Lunch

It’s your lunch break, and you didn’t bring anything to work. What do you do? Chances are you race over to the nearest fast food joint. Although now and then there is nothing wrong with this, you’re better off to bring your own lunch. That way, you control what you eat, and it will save you money down the road.

Use the Stairs

If you work at a multi-story building, opt for the stairs over the elevator. This simple decision can help you reach the recommended minimum amount of physical activity each week.

Store the Lunchroom with Healthy Options

Instead of handy a candy vending machine in the breakroom, provide healthier alternatives for everyone to try. Swap out the bag of chips for a piece of fruit. Provide flavored water instead of cans of pop.

If the only option available is junk food, of course, that’s what people will go for. However, if you provide healthier options, it’s a step in the right direction to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Stretch Every Hour

Sitting for hours on end won’t do you any good. When you sit for too long, it ends up tightening your hip flexors and hamstrings. These tight muscles can cause lower back pain, make it difficult to walk or stand, and make your life very uncomfortable. When you can, take a moment to stand up, move your body for a few moments before getting back to work.

Stay Hydrated

Dehydration wreaks havoc on our bodies and our minds. Lack of water can cause sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, and even headaches. Avoid dehydration by having a water bottle at your desk all the time. Once it’s empty, fill it up, so your water is readily available. You can even download apps that remind you to drink water throughout the day.

Take Five Minutes to Yourself

Yes, you’re at the office, which means you’re supposed to be working. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take a few moments to relax your brain and focus on yourself. Taking five minutes to do a quick meditation session at your desk can help you refocus and recharge your mind. Plus, meditation is an excellent way to center yourself and appreciate your surroundings.

Start an Office Workout

Even a five-minute workout session is better than nothing. Adding in a simple workout routine is an excellent step to increase your overall health. Physical activity is known to improve not just your physical health but your mental health as well.

Implement the above seven tips to help keep you healthy while working all day. Don’t let sitting for hours on end cause you to have a sedentary life. These simple adjustments will go a long way for your health.

6 Tips to Help You Effectively Work From Home

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Working from home is not as easy as many like to think. There’s the image that working from home means you can get up whenever you want, work at your leisure from your pajamas, schedule daytime appointments, and that it’s a luxurious lifestyle. While that may be true for some, it isn’t always the case.

The truth is that working from home can be just as difficult, sometimes more difficult than going to the office.

When you’re at an office for work, you’re less likely to get distracted by your surroundings as you could at home. You have your working hours that are not to be disrupted. For those who work from home, many quickly find the distractions are too much to stay focused. It’s easy to fall out of routine and ultimately fall behind in work.

Your Corporate Business Solutions Consultants understand the challenges of working from home. Since that has become the norm for many individuals, we have six tips to help you effectively work from home.

Keep Your Regular Working Hours

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to keep your regular hours. Don’t fall into the trap of sleeping in and doing work whenever you please. Instead, keep your regular schedule you would typically have if you went to an office.

Plan Out Each Day

Planning becomes more essential to stay focused when you’re at home. Start your morning off with a few minutes of planning what you need to achieve. It’s the perfect thing to do while you’re enjoying your morning coffee.

Have a Separate Workspace

If you think that you’ll be fine working at the kitchen table with everything else around you, there’s a good chance it won’t happen. Although for some, the household distractions don’t bother them, and they have no issue working anywhere in the house. For the majority, though, that separate workspace is significant. It’ll help you stay organized and keep things quiet so you can work efficiently.

Separate Your Work Life and Personal Life

A challenge many people face is the overlapping of work and personal time. When the two start to intertwine, you’ll find yourself working in the evenings and on weekends. You end up feeling like you’re always working and never have time off. So, by keeping your work life and personal life separate, it allows you to turn off your work mode so you can enjoy the other aspects of your life.

Give Yourself Breaks

It doesn’t matter where you work. You need to take breaks. Studies have found that when you take breaks in your day, it actually can boost productivity and creativity. Not only that, but for your mental health, those breaks give you a chance to destress and compose yourself before heading back to the job.

Dress for Success

As tempting as it is to stay in your pajamas while working from home if you want to be the most effective, dress for the day. When you’re wearing sweats and a baggy t-shirt, how do you usually feel? Likely like you want to relax the day away. Instead, when you put on clothes that you normally would for work, it can bring you into the productive mindset you need for the day.

As many people around the world continue to work from home this year, use the above tips to help you stay productive for a successful day of work.