*|MC:SUBJECT|*

I’m realising that each month that I write this, I'm always alluding to how busy things have been. So instead of saying that, let’s just say it was business as usual, highly productive and with lots achieved.

October was of course the month of our first trade show exhibition at Work 2.0. As I wrote in our wrap up, it was a big success for us. We were treating it as a trial to see if it was worth it for us. We’re already very close to securing the first deal that will pay back our investment, so in that sense it’s already well worth it.

Something I realised in the last month was how ‘busy’ you can become when balancing many priorities. To the point where some of my most important tasks, like making sure we get paid (!!) slipped through the cracks. Whilst I feel I have a good system for making sure this doesn’t happen, I feel that this month’s productivity tip below can help out some.

As Capytech approaches being a team of 20, who apart from me are all focused on product delivery, I’m looking at how I can bring on some help to make sure I’m working as effectively as possible. Most business go through this stage I’m sure, so if you have any tips - please do let me know.

Damian Hehir

2 Ways E-Learning Can Help You Get the Most from Exhibiting at a Trade Show

We wrote this in preparation for the show. We feel that e-learning can help you in many different areas and so this time put a slant of a trade show on it.

Capytech's
Work 2.0 Wrap Up

The show was a great success for us, and we learnt so much from it.
Can’t wait to do it again and learn even more.

Personalised E-Learning: What Is It and What Are the Benefits?

Our core business is building custom e-learning solutions, and thus making sure it is personalised. This works on many levels, so read more about its benefits in this article.

Benefits of Personalised E-Learning

Here is another article espousing the benefits of customised e-learning. They take a different angle to us, but also emphasise the benefits of it.

AI and the Netflix Approach to E-Learning

It’s easy to talk about the Uber of X or the Netflix of Y - but I do like the idea of taking this sort of approach to e-learning. I think you can expand it to not just what people want to learn, but how they learn it (but don’t tell anyone as I think it’s a billion-dollar idea :)

Throwing Employees Into the Fire Without Training Will Burn You

It still surprises me how little many companies invest in training their staff. Not even having any form of onboarding is a real shame. Here Training Industry explains why it is so important, and I couldn’t agree more.

Productivity concept of the month - Pomodoro Technique

I discovered the Pomodoro technique some years ago, and I’m proud to say that it still defines how I work every day.

Pomodoro just means tomato in Italian, and it represents the timers used for cooking. The idea is very simple: choose a single task, start a timer for 25 minutes, work without distraction for this time, and then take a 5 minute break. After 4 pomodoros, take a longer break of about 15 minutes.

The idea is to avoid any distractions during the working time, don’t answer the phone (or look at notifications!), tell co-workers you will get back to them when you finish what you’re working on etc. During the breaks, step away from the task and preferably do something unrelated, like take a quick walk. This will re-energise your mind as well.

I start each and every day with a planning pomodoro to prioritise my tasks for the day and then divide the day into 30 minute chunks (25 minutes work, 5 minutes break). Some tasks of course take longer than a Pomodoro, and part of the art of it is estimating with some accuracy how many Pomodoros it will take to complete.

Also feel free to bunch related tasks into a pomodoro. I’ll often do this at the end of the day to wrap things up. I’ll call it ‘wrap-up pomo’ and I’ll look at tomorrow’s schedule, answer any other emails that have come in, and complete any little jobs that have come up during the day. I’ve even read about a strategy to say ‘now my work is complete’ which gives you a clear gap from working to finished.

I sometimes do still fine myself multi-tasking and messing things up, but I’ll try and come back to this strategy to get myself working efficiently again. You will be surprised how much you can achieve in just 25 minutes of focused work!

www.facebook.com/capytech

www.linkedin.com/company/capytech