These hacks will make your workday flow

You walk into the office at 8 a.m. determined to complete the day’s tasks focused and undeterred. And then all of a sudden it’s 3 p.m. and the only thing you’ve accomplished is sitting through a two-hour staff meeting and checking your email.

Sound familiar? Yeah, us too. Our work days are full of distractions. But with a little structure and help from the gods of technology, you can achieve better workflow.

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Are you reaching your annual goals? Here’s how to follow-up

The beginning of every year is often filled with optimism about what is to come — we create resolutions and set goals to ensure we’re successful in every facet of life and business.

In the workplace, those goals are most effective when backed by strategy, creating a plan of action, a roadmap if you will, that will get you to your destination. Creating a well-balanced vision of where you want your business to be at the end of the year is key to success. But if you don’t assess how you’re performing throughout the year, the likelihood you will detour from your plan and fall short of your goals increases.

Here are a few ways you can make sure you are on the right path:

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Don’t let your desk job kill you: Stretch to stay healthy

If you’re reading this while sitting behind your desk at work, there’s a good chance some not-so-great things are happening to your body right at this moment.

You + 85% of America’s workforce.

Desk work is a necessary evil for millions of Americans, but sitting doesn’t have to kill you — though experts say doing it for 8 hours a day most certainly can. Increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels, not to mention the strains you put on your neck, shoulder and back muscles, are all byproducts of working for a living behind a desk.

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At work on the Fourth of July? Move the party from the backyard to the break room

The Fourth of July is on a Wednesday this year and for you, that may mean being stuck at work. Wahh, wahh. Not everyone gets to celebrate our nation’s independence with a day off (24% of employees across the nation, in fact, do not) — especially when it falls right in the middle of the work week.

But that’s OK. Think positive! You can still celebrate. Move the party from the backyard to the break room (or the parking lot) and spread some cheer for your fellow employees so their morale stays high and they know you care about the things that matter to them.

Here are four ways to light up the workplace with Independence Day cheer:

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6 must-adds to a teacher’s summer break

The countdown is on, teacher friends. That last-day-of-school mark on your wall calendar gets closer and closer with each crossed out day. We know you love your job (and that you’re darn good at it), so we will not be judging when you do a little happy dance after all your kids walk out the door for summer break.

via GIPHY

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Strategies for achieving work-life balance that’s best for you

With the constant presence of technology in our lives — smartphones, computers and tablets that deliver notifications at any time of the day — it’s easy to remain attached to your job well beyond closing time.

And it can happen with the best of intentions. At first, you decide to respond to just one e-mail. Shouldn’t take too long, right? But then that e-mail turns into an hour of responding to e-mail. Then you get lost in a spreadsheet a coworker, who’s also burning the midnight oil, has questions about. Before you know it, your family has long been asleep and you’ve allowed yourself to be virtually on-call 24 hours a day.

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Introducing a new world to students: Meet School Lunch Hero Allison Sobieck

Make sure to order shirts to celebrate School Lunch Heroes by April 12! School Lunch Hero Day (May 4) showcases the difference school nutrition professionals make for every child who comes through the cafeteria. It’s a great time to say thank you to those hard-working professionals who provide food education and experiences in your school.

When she left her hometown of Somerset, Kentucky, in 1998 to get her degree, School Lunch Hero Allison Sobieck always thought she would have a job offering five-star dining experiences.

After earning an associate’s in culinary arts and a bachelor’s in business with an emphasis on hospitality management from Sullivan University, Allison and her husband, Chuck, returned to Somerset to bring everything they learned to their community. They started construction on the Doolin House Inn bed and breakfast in 2003 and launched 2Chefs Catering, plating beautiful meals and introducing new food culture to downtown Somerset. (Photo above by KSD: Chuck and Allison Sobieck in their kitchen at the Doolin House Inn in Somerset, where they also operated 2Chefs Catering.)

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Putting it off? How to overcome procrastination

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

This advice from founding father Ben Franklin seems pretty straightforward. Just do the work. Get it done. No problem, right?

Except for millions of people, procrastination IS a real problem in their daily lives. Research shows one in five people are chronic procrastinators — consistently putting off tasks in multiple areas of life, threatening their productivity and confidence.

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