Check out these seven different ways you can free up time and make your life a bit less stressful. No Distractions TV, internet and video games are always a click away. But by cutting out these distractions, you’ll be better able to focus on your desired tasks. There are a number of things you can do to eliminate distractions. From turning off notifications on your phone to avoiding texts until you actually have a break, you’ll be able to get loads done without your most significant time-waster....

Engine, Y Combinator, and Techstars have organized a collection of 800 startups, innovators, investors, and entrepreneurial support organizations from all 50 states to take a stand against those thinking about dismantling net neutrality and the laws that protect it. The letter, which includes the names of the 800 organizations involved, is addressed to the FCC. The letter goes on to detail the importance of net neutrality to the entrepreneurial process, particularly the fact that an open internet would open the doors to a wide range of problematic business behaviors....

How can a company that has pockets so deep, offer so little to its most vulnerable workers? “The union has called for strikes in six German fulfilment centers,” Carter continued. “The majority of our associates do not participate and we see no impact on customer orders. The fact that more than 8,000 of our over 13,000 permanent associates in Germany have been with us for more than 5 years proves that we are a fair employer....

The reasoning behind the loans reminds me of the old aphorism that “a rising tide raises all boats.” Except that in this case, it’s more like the biggest boat is rising the tide by itself. Here’s the explanation Nahar offered, in Reuters’ words: What It Means for Small Businesses

While the remote work boom has seen a wide range of benefits for businesses and employees alike in recent years, there have been some downfalls that need to be addressed. The security of remote work is one thing but being constantly available to your team could actually be having a negative impact on your productivity. To get a better understanding of how instant messaging might be getting in the way of working on your own schedule, we talked with Noa Elan, the head of marketing for Bubbles — a business communication platform that employs videos and screenshots to encourage collaboration on a more manageable timeline — about the importance of working on your own schedule, the value of truly ‘async’ business tools, and the current state of remote work....

Thank goodness, my burnout only lasted for a day – I can’t even imagine the kind of burnout that entrepreneurs experience. But the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington can. In her new book Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, she describes how the culture of “work ‘til you drop” is making us unhappy and literally killing us. In her eyes, we’ve pursued money and power for too long, and we need a “third metric” to help us define a successful life....

Here are some of the things that you should definitely not expect from Big Data: Your fantasy data scientist does not exist. If you are looking for a data miner and analyst with a background in computer science, business, and statistics all at a graduate level, you are going to be incredibly disappointed. The best that you can do is to find people with specialties in each of these disciplines and hire a leader or manager in order to synchronize the efforts of these people....

First and foremost in keeping the culture fit preserved while managing a distributed team, he says, is adopting the same policy as many other successful distributed startups regarding their headquarters: There is no headquarters. Even if there are five people gathered in the San Francisco office, he says, they have their conversation on Hipchat, the company communication tool. This way, these conversations are not locked away in the minds of those team members, but rather shared with the entire company....

Maybe I eat it all by myself, of maybe I cook a meal for my friends – it really doesn’t matter. My tradition goes as follows: put the Food Network on (it could be any show), turn the volume up loud, and get cooking. The key is to do your shopping on Thursday night so you can hit the kitchen whenever you get the inspiration over the weekend (also helps avoid pesky traffic)....

Today’s gamification craze started with Foursquare’s rainbow-colored badges, coveted mayorships, and competitive leader board. Since then, startups and corporations alike have scrambled to add game elements to their products to make them more fun and engaging. With Nike+ FuelBands on their wrists, people walk around collecting NikeFuel to beat their friends. Khan Academy students move forward in their learning with the help of points and badges. NBC holds sweepstakes where viewers have to find hidden messages in their television shows....

In 2021, every company needs a website. Whether it be a simple “what we do” page or a fully functional hub for your entire business, having an online presence is vital in the modern era. After all, 80% of consumers head to the web before making a purchase – so, you need to be sure you’ve got something to show them. Fortunately, Microsoft is making it easy with a new feature to its Digital Marketing Center that won’t cost your business a dime to get online....

The announcement of this funding comes at a time when the company is experiencing a remarkable growth of over 50 per cent in all its markets and has authentic listings of over 300,000 vehicles for its users globally. Launched in October 2013, Carmudi is now available in Asia (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) and Latin America (Mexico). As the internet penetration is likely to reach 44 per cent by 2018 in in Asia Pacific region alone (excluding China and India), Carmudi’s strategic timing could not have been better....

One tool, Email Security DNS Wizard, lets users create DNS records to better identify and manage potential threats, while the other, Email Routing, helps website owners easily create and manage new email addresses located at their domain. Both tools are free and built on top of major email providers including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. Together, they offer a simple solution to help small businesses avoid phishing attacks and spoofing scams — a growing concern for internet users....

Apollo took on the controlling interest of Iron Yard with a 62 percent stake in 2015, but just this February they were acquired by a private equity group for $1.1 billion to take the company private again. Iron Yard’s announcement is relatively vague, but they credit the closure to the current education environment for coding schools like their own: In a statement provided by Iron Yard Partner and CMO Eric Dodds, he mirrored the sentiment of the earlier blog post announcing their plans to shutter the business....

We got a taste of the spirit of the event at the end of 2014 when Rebecca Cooper, anchor of Washington Business Report, moderated a lively discussion during a preview event. The conversation focused on the potential benefits of data transparency. Referencing a recent McKinsey & Company report, Open Data: Unlocking Innovation and Performance with Liquid Information, Cooper explained that at least $3 trillion per year in value could be added with more data transparency....

The theme of the night was about DC’s continued transition from a government workforce to a technological focused one, and how each part of the government plays a role. From shared resources to drawing in experienced professionals, the tech focused private sector is growing as a result of government investments and partnerships. This is not to say they are the single point of advancement, but a contributory factor. Much of that growth is the result of tech startups in the area....

Anne Austin, publications manager at Zenith, spoke on the move: Of course, that’s not all we learned from the report (and a second one, Magna Global’s updated Global Advertising Revenue Forecast, also out within the last seven days). Here’s a few more advertising and marketing trends to expect in the upcoming year. Mobile Ads Will Beat Out Desktop Ads In 2016, mobile ads constitute 15 percent of ad spend, while desktop ads are 18....

Today, Digital Future announced the launch of their new program, Tech Excellence, to assist early-stage startups in developing their products and scaling them globally. With this program, the goal is to bring out new startups’ full growth potential and provide them with solutions for reaching customers and getting technical assistance with software development, which can be both costly and difficult to learn for early-stage startups. By lessening the burden of technical support and providing other resources, new startups are given a tremendous opportunity to focus solely on their products and customer outreach....

Online security has been a hot topic for a few years now, with instances of ransomware, security breaches, and dozens of other forms of cybersecurity breakdowns becoming part of everyday online life. Unfortunately, all this awareness isn’t making things better, as the largest ransomware attack in the history of the world was propagated last week, and it’s going to cost a pretty penny to get all that data back. Since then, the attack has spread like wildfire....