April 13, 2018: Friday News Roundup
Here’s hoping your Friday the 13th hasn’t brought you any bad luck. As always, we’re here to keep you informed and entertained.
Why Email Is So Stressful, Even Though It’s Not Actually That Time-Consuming
It’s debatable whether email consumes lots of time or not, but what this article focuses on is the psychological toll it takes, regardless of hours spent wading through your inbox. First lesson learned: saying “yes” in an email leads to a flood of follow-up messages, so you need to exercise firm judgment and push back as appropriate.
Desktop Zero Is The New Inbox Zero
Moving away from email, take a look at your computer’s desktop. Is it littered with countless disorganized files? (Yes.) Do you rely on search in the absence of any logical order or system? (Sometimes.) You may want to set the goal of achieving “desktop zero.”
A City Is Shutting Down Employees’ Computers To Stop Them From Working Late
We don’t think it’s a spoiler to say the city in question is NOT in the U.S. To discourage working overtime, this Asian city’s government is taking drastic measures. For now, the shutdown happens at 8pm Friday, but the plan is to move it up to 7pm eventually. Is this really the only way to find work-life balance?
New Research Shows Successful Founders Are Far Older Than The Valley Stereotype
According to a group of economists, the average age of a startup founder is actually 41.9 years old, and “among the top 0.1 percent of highest-growth startups, that average age moves up to 45 years old.” They also found that younger founders are less successful, yet venture capitalists still believe in the mythology of the young, ambitious nerd à la Mark Zuckerberg.
How to Stop Sabotaging Your Career
Here’s some great advice on self-awareness and recovering after a career derailment, inspired by an author’s first-hand experience going from being “Captain Fantastic” to getting booted out of a work group because he was difficult to work with and didn’t follow direction. Lots of good stuff in here about not becoming complacent about your knowledge, developing adaptability, and why companies need to invest in employee training.