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The benefits of a 4-day work week

The benefits of a 4-day work week

A relatively new concept, the 4-day work week has been implemented among a small percentage of businesses, particularly across Europe.

It has claimed to increase productivity and morale amongst employees whilst still maintaining the same pay.

The concept of a 4-day work week started when studies found that employees were only productive for a quarter of an 8 hour working day, and that different days of the week had different productivity levels. The beginning of the week on Monday had the highest productivity, which would gradually decrease as the working week came to an end. The time during the day would also influence productivity, with employees being most productive around 11am, before gradually decreasing towards the late afternoon, then completely plummeting after 4pm.

Here are some benefits of a 4-day work week.

Increased productivity

This is what you’re here for right?

In-depth studies by reputable sources have suggested that the 4-day work week maintains the productivity levels in employees whilst also increasing their job satisfaction, morale, work/life balance and teamwork.

There was also a reported decrease in stress levels.

The factors above help to contribute to a number of positives in a business, such as a lower turnover rate, less conflict and smoother operation.

Increased employee engagement

A 4-day work week can result in more committed employees and overall happier workers. They are less likely to be stressed, which leads to reduced sick days as they have more than enough time to recover. Furthermore, they return to work much more refreshed and ready to take on the challenges that the day presents to them.

These all contribute to an increase in employee engagement, which results in a better running business and happier employees.

These are some of the ways that a 4-day work week can benefit your business, and with the results coming from reputable sources and other businesses adopting the strategy, maybe your business should too.

The benefits and limitations of a SWOT analysis for your business

The benefits and limitations of a SWOT analysis for your business

You’ve probably heard the term SWOT analysis thrown around before in business or within a corporate environment. This is because it is a common strategy to utilize in both environments, and can be especially beneficial to both business owners and those working in corporate to do with business.

A SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

The format comes as a drawn up box, in which strengths of the business are listed, weaknesses are listed, business opportunities are listed and threats to the business are listed.

This can help to visualise these factors relating to the business and help to make strategies out of them.

A SWOT analysis can help you to understand your business better as it is all visualised, and help others who read it too.

By listing opportunities, you are able to create strategies to capitalize on them which can be profitable for the business.

By listing the businesses strengths, you are able to take advantage of them and further develop them in order to create success.

By listing the businesses weaknesses, you can address them in front of employees, resulting in strategies which could minimize or eliminate these weaknesses, ultimately being beneficial to the business as a whole.

A SWOT analysis could be limiting as it lists the issues with the business, but does not prioritise them which could lead to strategies being created for lesser issues but no addressing more serious issues first.

It also doesn’t list solutions to the issues, that is up to the business to develop separately.

A SWOT analysis can be very beneficial for a business; however it has its limitations. It is still recommended to utilize a SWOT analysis at some point in your business operation, as it can provide many benefits in contrast to not doing it at all and not seeing any benefits.

Some reasons why bad movies get made

Some reasons why bad movies get made

Throughout the years, we have seen many bad movies get made, and sometimes we wonder why they were even made in the first place.

Not only in Hollywood, but in the global movie industries such as Bollywood, there are bad movies constantly in production.

Some movies are just so bad, we often think “why would they even bother making this?”.

Here are some reasons why bad movies get made.

Producers are not film makers, but business people

Producers of many movies are not necessarily that knowledgeable in the art of film making, and will generally produce a movie if it seems like it can make a profit.

Even if a movie seems hilariously bad, if it has some commercial elements that can make it universally appealing, it can make money. Because of this, many movies which would be deemed terrible by most, will still be watched by many which generates a profit for the producers, and that’s all they really care about.

Good movie scripts ending up in the wrong hands

There are many movie scripts out there which are actually very good and would make amazing movies, in the hands of the right director. A studio or production house will buy a certain amount of scripts every year, where they are screened and moved onto a director. However, sometimes great scripts end up in the hands of the wrong director for that movie, which can turn a great script into a terrible movie. As a result, many terrible movies are made out of great scripts due to the wrong director being given the movie.

There are many good movies out there, but also many bad ones.

The reason for this is primarily due to producers looking to make a quick buck, or scripts ending up in the hands of the wrong director for the movie.

Ongoing process of self-improvement in your personal and work life is something that is beneficial

Ongoing process of self-improvement in your personal and work life is something that is beneficial

Personal development is important for everybody, and there are many reasons for this. Throughout life you are guaranteed to face some obstacles and problems that can make it all seem hard. Personal development can help you to deal with these problems and grow from them. The ongoing process of self-improvement in your personal and work life is something that is beneficial to anybody looking to improve.

Here are some reasons why personal development is important.

It forces you out of your comfort zone

Personal development can take you to some very real places, and this includes making you face certain things that you may not feel comfortable doing. These experiences can be difficult for you to experience, however they will ultimately help you to grow and become a better person.

Your strengths will develop

Personal development will help you to know your strengths and focus on them in your life. This will help them to develop, and as a result you will feel better about yourself. You also become more self-aware, as you identify your strengths.

Your confidence is boosted

By know your strengths and developing them, you can become much more confident. Personal development allows you to be much more confident in yourself through this identification and development of strengths, which is good for mental health. Being more confident will transfer over to all aspects of life, and change how you approach things for the better.

Self-awareness is improved

Personal development is about introspection, and this introspection increases the self-awareness of the individual. By increasing self-awareness, the individual can easily identify strengths and weaknesses and develop them. This results in a better overall person.

These are some reasons why personal development is important, and overall personal development is beneficial to all who undertake its journey.

The path to success and happiness comes through self-development

happiness comes through self-development

Through life’s experiences, you learn a lot of things. What you take away from these things is what makes you who you are, and is the basis for self-development. There are different ‘senses’ in self-development, each of which pertain to the individual and the changes they can make on their self-development journey.

Here are some of the senses of self-development.

Sense of self

Self-development helps you become much more aware of yourself.

Part of the self-development journey is to go out of your comfort zone, in order to face certain things about yourself. This creates an increased awareness of yourself, and allows you to identify your strengths and weaknesses better. As you gain a more well-rounded sense of who you are, you are able to start creating and pursuing goals and a vision.

Sense of curiosity

Sense of curiosity

Self-development increases your sense of curiosity as you are always looking for new opportunities to pursue in your life. By pursuing the path of self-development, more opportunities also will present themselves to you, and you will naturally become curious as to where they could lead. This curiosity creates a longing to do more and more in your life, increasing business and your need for adventure. A sense of curiosity is inherently required in order to grow as a person and explore new opportunities.

Sense of direction

Self-development allows you to create goals, objectives and a vision to strive towards. My finding out more about yourself and trying new opportunities and experiences, you are able to create a clear vision of what you want and create subsequent stepping stones and goals to get there.

Self-development involves various different ‘senses’ which all naturally occur on the path for success and happiness. All need to be embraced in order to grow as a person.

Bashar Ibrahim: The researcher and astrophysicist who discovered a new planet

Bashar Ibrahim

Bashar Ibrahim is a worldwide known name, and a living legend among the space and astrophysicist community. Widely recognised for spearheading the search for MX-337, the newly discovered planet within the Solar System, he discovered it almost by chance on a late Sunday night.

His story is one of luck, hard work and dedication and a rise to glory within the ranks of the space community.

The story of Bashar Ibrahim starts in 1968, born into a family of middle class hard working immigrants in Texas. In school he excelled in mathematics, later excelling in physics, biology, mathematics and chemistry in high school.

His interest in space started early, with him often looking up at the night sky at the stars for hours on end as a child. He would build his first telescope at the age of 14 in order to participate in astrophotography, undertaking painstakingly long sessions of photography and editing in the right weather conditions in order to capture beautiful photos of the Milky Way and various planets within the Solar System.

Bashar Ibrahim successful

Bashar Ibrahim would also mix chemicals in the school chemistry lab for fun, experimenting with different compounds. This would often lead him into trouble, as he created huge messes within the lab. His teachers marvelled at his intellect and noted his fascination for science, but more so within physics and astrophysics.

Bashar Ibrahim graduated top of his class with significantly high SAT scores, his application to Harvard University being successful. In Harvard he studied a degree in physics. His classmates found him passionate but sometimes odd, noting that he would lock himself into his dorm room for days at a time in order to study about space. He would come out having not showered and eaten very little, wash himself and then return to his classes.

Bashar Ibrahim very rarely attended parties, but was part of a few fraternities in his schooling time which granted him connections to other like-minded science students.

He graduated top of his class and obtaining his degree, and was granted funding for his PhD project, choosing to study the radiation of stars.

He worked hard during his PhD studies and made acquaintances with other researchers and professors in the university. This gained him a name amongst the space related student community as someone who was exceedingly passionate at what they were doing but also a little strange.

During this period, Bashar Ibrahim would often neglect his health and choose to keep researching over taking showers, eating full meals and following a proper sleep schedule. As a result of this, he suffered a psychotic break halfway through his research, and was taken to hospital in a state of delirium.

He stayed in the hospital for a month, putting his body back into a normal state and was discharged with a warning to keep his health a priority.

Following this incident, Bashar Ibrahim realised that whilst his work was important, his health was much more important as he could not do any research if he was dead. He would go on to become a physical health advocate, and would start to exercise regularly and eating healthy, full meals.

Whilst he would sometimes have days in which his health was not a priority, more often than not he would be a physically active and healthy eating follower. His hospital incident gained him more notoriety within the space student community as someone willing to work hard enough that he would turn psychotic. Bashar Ibrahim’s passion was marvelled by some, whilst others thought he was foolish.

Bashar Ibrahim would also start playing Soccer with friends, stating that he enjoyed it so much that he wished he had played more sport as a kid.

He would go on to join the Harvard Soccer team, and play the midfield position for years, leading them to glory many times.

After finishing his PhD and thesis, Bashar Ibrahim successfully entered the NASA program as an astrophysicist, and would work with them at a base junior level for a few years. Bashar Ibrahim would recall that he thoroughly enjoyed his time during those first years, as he got to meet many respected members of the astrophysics and space community, and learnt more about the technology behind space travel and research as a result.

For Bashar Ibrahim, these were the years he cherished the most.

Moving on from the junior program, he would be given funding for his own project of discovering another planet within the Solar System, something he was adamant was true. There were many skeptics that opposed his beliefs, and some that were sceptical but willing to support his research.

With his funding granted, he began his long journey to prove wrong his disbelievers.

Bashar Ibrahim would work tirelessly, day in and day out in the telescopes with a team of 5 to continually search and search for any glimpse or hint of his new planet. It would be towards the end of his funding that he would receive this hint.

With funding low, his hope for the new planet was diminishing, until one late Sunday night when a blip on the screen gave a clue. Energized by this, Bashar Ibrahim searched and calculated until, there it was. With the use of the Hubble Telescope, he pointed out where it should be and, there it was.

Dubbing the planet MX-337, Bashar Ibrahim was made something of an icon in the space community, as someone who defied the skeptics and proved them wrong.

Overjoyed with his discovery, Bashar Ibrahim and his co-workers celebrated in what was called “one of the largest parties in NASA history”.

Bashar Ibrahim would go on to receive many awards for his work and dedication to the space community, and he would also open several more projects for the research of MX-337.

Bashar Ibrahim’s story is one of dedication, commitment, adversity, luck and wonder. From a child he was always interested in space, and with his excelling academics and high intellect, Bashar Ibrahim was destined for the path of space research and glory.

Investing in yourself can create effective habits that can make you continually successful in life

Investing in yourself can create effective habits

Personal development is about investing in yourself so that you can create effective habits that can make you continually successful in life. It also allows you take failure and improve from it, rather than letting it derail you. It allows you to set goals, which you may not always achieve, however the journey will teach you more about yourself which will ultimately improve you.

Here are the core benefits of personal development.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness means that you know who you really are, and what your values, principles and beliefs are. If you want to achieve your goals, as well as your happiness, you must base your personal development plan around who you are as a person. Self-awareness is something can be learnt through personal development and can help you in many aspects of your life.

Sense of direction/goals

A sense of directions and set goals is very important for everyone. Without a sense of direction, life would seem very meaningless. Having set goals and a vision will allow you to know what you are working towards every day and keeps you motivated to keep going. Knowing what you want also allows you to plan a path that would get you to that goal as efficiently as possible, creating further success in your life.

Greater resilience

When you know yourself well, you tend to have a greater resilience to life’s challenges. By being strong in your goals and mental health, you know that any failures you come across are just stepping stones and experiences to learn from. Personal development allows you to build this resilience, and make you stronger.

In summary, personal development provides many benefits for you.

These benefits can and will ultimately make you a better person through the changes that occur within you, as well as what it teaches you in experiences.

Reasons why marketing is important for your business

Reasons why marketing is important for your business

A business needs to know what their customers want, whether or not their customers trust their products and whether or not the business is known in their demographics community. All of these things can come from marketing.

Marketing is one of the most important things

Marketing is one of the most important things a business can do in order to increase its business, demand, relevance, competition and its reputation.

Without marketing, a business will fail, no matter what.

Here are some reasons why marketing is important for your business.

Marketing is a good way to engage customers

Marketing is a good way to engage customers

It is important for a business to engage its customers to keep its ‘conversation’ going. This allows the business to know what the customers like and what the demand is, and then fill this demand. One of the best ways to do this is social media, which allows you to directly engage with customers on a large online platform.

How to increase your self-confidence

How to increase your self-confidence

Self-confidence is very important to our day to day lives, and affects just about everything we do. In work, it affects our decision making and whether or not we will strive to be the best we can and achieve goals and objectives. In our personal lives it can affect dating; it can affect how we talk to our SO. In mental health, it can affect how we reach out, or if we even reach out at all, and it affects how we view ourselves. Self-confidence is thereby crucial to our lives in general.

Here are some ways to increase your self-confidence.

Give it your all

This applies to any situation in your life, and how you approach it.

There might be situations in your life where you know you will be strong in, and then there are others that you may feel uncomfortable in.

Regardless, you should be giving those situations your best, and you’d be surprised at the results.

Accomplish your goals

Having set goals and objectives is part of the self-development process. It is important to keep striving towards these goals and achieving them, even if they are small goals. This will ultimately increase your self-confidence in the long run, and it is vital you continue to do so. It is also important that you set small, realistic goals that you can achieve which move towards a larger vision, as setting too high a goal will mean that you will not achieve these for some time and may lose motivation and self-confidence as a result. This will ultimately impede your self-development journey.

These have been some ways to improve your self-confidence.

Self-confidence affects everything you do in your life, and it is important to have strong self-confidence, or be working towards building up your self-confidence.

Should you buy engagement rings online?

Should you buy engagement rings online

Considering purchasing engagement rings online but worried about getting ripped by accidentally purchasing something inauthentic, or wasting your money? Or confused by the many options available on the internet?

When shopping for jewellery you might wonder whether you should engagement rings online or in-store. Shopping the web can offer a great experience, in fact buying engagement rings online can often be a far better and more convenient option than shopping on the internet. Here’s why you should consider it.

engagement ringsIs buying engagement rings online safe?

Sometimes people get nervous about shopping on the web but it’s often just as safe if not safer than buying from retail stores. Many sites selling engagement rings online have amazing photography which allows you to see the jewellery up close from many different angles alongside details of the jewellery and diamods such as cut and clarity. Shipping is also highly secure with insurances places on packages and discreet packaging so that you can enjoy peace of mind whilst waiting for your package to arrive.

Can I buy engagement rings online?

Yes you can, in fact it’s one of the best ways to shop with many different cuts such as round cut and solitaires available. You’ll also find some of the most competitive pricing on the internet.

Are they cheaper on the internet?

In many cases buying on the internet will save you substantial sums of money, often up to 40% of the cost of your jewellery. Without the overheads of a retail store, vendors who sell on the internet are able to substantially reduce the cost of their diamonds.

How to buy on the internet

There are a few steps you should follow before buying engagement rings online and a few things you should keep in mind. Here they are below:

Choose a reputable vendor

The first thing you should do is ensure that you find a reliable vendor with a good reputation. With such high value items it’s important to find a vendor that you can trust.

diamond

Verify certification

According to Temple and Grace diamonds should be verified by a lab certificate which will confirm that the diamond you are buying it the one that the seller is selling. Look for GIA or AGS certified diamonds as these are the most reliable labs in the world.

Evaluate the cut of the diamond

Make sure you look carefully at the cut and grading of the diamonds your thinking about buying before going ahead with the order.

Evaluate how clear it is

Zoom in on any photos provided on the internet and see if you can see any sign of blemishes. If you’re able to see blemishes on the web the you’ll definitely be able to see them in person.

Check the colour

If you’re after a white diamond then inspect photos carefully to see if it is nice and bright and white and doesn’t show any signs of discolouration.

Decide on the weight of the carat

The next thing you should think about after selecting a beautifully cut gem and ensuring you find one with no blemishes then you should spend your budget on carat.

Take your time

Take your time

Before buying anything on the web make sure you do thorough research and make careful comparisons. You should also reach out and ask opinions from knowledgeable experts. Spend a lot of time searching through different retailers on the web to find the best deals and diamond options.

If you’re having trouble deciding what kind of cut you like from photos, attend a retail store and try some bands on to get an idea about what you like.