UK consumer inflation fell in April to 3 per cent, according to official figures.

Meanwhile the Retail Prices Index fell to 3.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent in the previous month. [BBC]

Welsh landlords will have to get a licence under new plans announced this week.

According to a new white paper landlords would only be able to let their properties once they had been personally accredited. [Guardian]

Small business owners should be alert to trading fraud according to a new report.

The value of suspected trading fraud this year is already higher than the total noted during 2011, according to figures from Euler Hermes. [Telegraph]

Olympic authorities are being unreasonable in their enforcement of branding rules.

This is according to the Federation of Small Businesses, which said today that “small firms should feel the London Olympics are an opportunity, rather than a threat.” [Independent]

The UK could be heading for ‘stagflation’ according to economists.

There is growing concern that a combination of rising living costs and flat growth could see a return to the economic conditions of the mid 1970s. [ThisIsMoney]

A controversial new report on regulation is likely to gain support from the prime minister.

The Beecroft report is expected to call for measures including a reduction in the redundancy consultation period from 90 to 30 days. [BBC]

Private rents rose again in April according to new figures from LSL.

Average rents saw an increase of 0.5 per cent during the month, taking them to £709. [BBC]

The government’s claim to have cut red tape have been cast into doubt following news that regulation has actually increased.

Companies have spent an extra £18.5 million complying with regulations since the beginning of 2011, according to Whitehall figures. [Telegraph]

The eurozone has plunged further into crisis, with markets falling around the world.

The ECB is now reportedly drawing up plans to be enacted in the event that Greece leaves the euro. [Guardian]

Some apprenticeship schemes are of “no real benefit” according to a panel of MPs.

The Committee of Public Accounts criticised schemes of less than six months, but welcomed the overall increase in apprenticeships. [BBC]

Wansbeck in Northumberland is the bankruptcy capital of the UK according to the Insolvency Service.

Insolvency rates in the area are running at 57 per 10,000 adults, compared with a national average of 27.1 [Guardian]

The UK is facing a “burgeoning housing crisis” according to a new report.

The National Housing Federation, Shelter, and the Chartered Institute of Housing pointed to overcrowding, cost, and supply as key issues facing the housing market. [BBC]

Small firms are owed some £35 billion in late payments.

This is according to research from Bacs, which found that large businesses are the worst culprits for overdue invoices. [Telegraph]

UK manufacturers want more government support according to BDO.

Research from the business advisors found that just 26 per cent of manufacturers believe the government is pursuing the right policies. [BBC]

Markets were again in turmoil yesterday as a potential Greek euro exit draws closer.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said: “The spillover effects, the chain of consequences, are very difficult to assess. We can certainly assume that it would be quite messy.” [ThisIsMoney]

Banks are unlawfully trying to change the terms of loans according to a law firm.

Commercial solicitors Miscon de Reyau claim that SMEs are being put under “unacceptable” pressure by banks, following research that a quarter have had their bank try to change their lending conditions. [Telegraph]

Petrol prices look set to fall as supermarkets enter a new price war.

Morrisons is expected to make a 2 pence cut tomorrow, with other retailers set to follow. [Telegraph]

Markets plunged yesterday following further signs that Greece could exit the eurozone.

The country has been told that it will not receive further EU payments unless it implements swingeing cuts. [Guardian]

HMRC guidance on IR35 has been criticised by freelance and business groups.

The FSB and Professional Contractors Group said the new guidance on the controversial rules was “counter productive.” [Telegraph]

Reductions in workplace sickness must be maintained according to employers group EEF.

The group noted a downward trend over the past five years, but suggested that sickness rates had not changed since 2010. [BBC]

Interest rates will remain unchanged until 2013 according to economists.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee is expected to keep base rates at 0.5 per cent following its monthly meeting on Wednesday. [Telegraph]

The Bank of England will resist further quantitative easing according to economists.

Threadneedle Street is expected to hold off after rises in inflation. [Telegraph]

The Queen’s Speech has been criticised for offering few measures to boost growth.

Amongst the most controversial measures is a new Bill designed to make it easier for businesses to fire employees. [Independent]

HSBC will offer customers contactless cards as their current cards expire.

The cards will allow users to spend up to £15 using contactless technology. [Guardian]

MPs and peers are preparing to hear the Queen’s Speech, in which the government sets out its plans for the Parliamentary session.

Normally held in November, this year’s Speech has been brought forward after no Speech occurred last year. [BBC]

Large firms are paying suppliers more than a month late according to a new report.

Figures from Experian suggest that large businesses settle invoices on average 31.5 days late. [Telegraph]

Wet weather hit retail sales in April according to the British Retail Consortium.

The group found like-for-like sales fell by 3.3 per cent when compared with the previous month. [BBC]

UK firms have remained optimistic despite news that the country has returned to recession.

This is according to a new report from the CBI, which suggest that small manufacturers became more confident during the second quarter, for the first time since the middle of 2011. [BBC]

Unemployment will continue to rise until 2016 according to new figures.

The latest forecast from the CEBR said that rises in joblessness would be noted everywhere but London, the South East, and the East of England. [ThisIsMoney]

Business insolvencies rose by 4.3 per cent during the first quarter of the year.

But figures from the Insolvency Service suggest that personal insolvencies fell by 4.7 per cent during the same period. [Telegraph]

The notoriously unpredictable British weather has caught many by surprise, with Simply Business noting a massive 280 per cent increase in weather-related insurance claims amongst businesses.

But the wet weather also presents significant potential problems for landlords. Rain is no friend to landlords, and it is important that you take precautions to protect your property. We have compiled some top tips to help you survive the downpour.

Properties in certain parts of the country are particularly at risk from flooding. It is important that you know if your property is in one of these areas, in order that you can take the necessary steps to mitigate the risk.

The Environment Agency has an interactive map which will help you identify whether or not your property is at risk. Their website also contains guidance on flood protection.

Pipes are a hotspot for accidents. Burst or overflowing pipes are a common cause of flooding, and this risk is significantly exacerbated in cases where those pipes are already weak. Take some time to check your piping, paying particular attention to joints and intersections.

Existing leaks pose a significant risk the event of heavy rain. At the same time as checking your pipes, make sure that you identify and fix any leaks. It may be possible to fix small fissures yourself using adhesive available from your local DIY store, but larger problems are likely to require professional assistance.

Many properties have fuse boxes or other electrical units outside. If this is the case in your property, make sure that the structure housing the electrics is secure. Check for leaks or flimsy hinges in order to minimise the risk of water getting in.

There is a sense that DIY is always best, particularly when cash is tight. But it is important to understand that there are situations in which trying to complete the work yourself may be a false economy. If you are concerned that you won’t be able to do the job properly, hire a professional to do it for you.

It is always important that your insurance is up to date and suitable for your needs, but the wet weather has made this necessity even more acute. Take some time to revisit your insurance policy, and ensure that it still fulfils your requirements. If your circumstances have changed, or if you are concerned that your policy is no longer right for you, you should contact your insurer.

Finally, remember that your tenants are your first line of defence against property problems. By ensuring that they are properly equipped, you can help to mitigate the risk of water damage. Consider leaving an information pack for all new tenants providing information like the location of fuse boxes and stopcocks, and basic guidance on property maintenance.

Jared is the founder of AwayFind, an email management system that sends mobile notifications for priority messages. Productivity, entrepreneurship and the tech community are his passions; you can find him online via his blog Technotheory or connect via Twitter or LinkedIn.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

While there are reasons for meetings, my biggest gripe is when people choose to hold the wrong kind of meeting for their purpose. A couple of examples:

• Having everyone face-to-face on a daily basis ("daily stand up") can take too much effort and limit our schedules before and after. Instead, consider having that same meeting over chat, where there's a chance to quickly paste what everyone is working on, one at a time, provide feedback, and have a record of it for anyone who missed the meeting.
   
• Having a conference call with no visual feedback is a good excuse for a nap. Consider mandating video for all attendees, which adds energy, nuance, and focus to the whole experience. I use Skype video for most 1-on-1 calls, GotoMeeting video for high res screen sharing and multiple person video, and Google Hangouts for team discussions.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

The main two concepts for me are minimising interruptions and carefully structuring my day:

• To minimize interruptions, I try to avoid my inbox the first few hours of each day. I rely heavily on Google Tasks and the iOS app GeeTasksPro to stay on track. I also rely on my own product AwayFind, to let me know if I receive an email that demands my immediate attention.
   
• To get the most and best out of me, I try to avoid meetings before 11am. I have more focus, and it's early enough in the day that if something comes, I can address it in the rest of the day. During the mornings I work on the most meaningful, intensive tasks—usually some form of writing, brainstorming, or strategy.
   

How do you keep track of what your team are working on?

We use a combination of Trac, Trello, and Google Apps spreadsheets. I also hired a Product Manager (hi, Dan!) in January, which has meant way less time tracking and prioritising my colleagues' tasks.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

We use Trac for software development and Google Docs/spreadsheets for most other collaborative projects. We also use Highrise for marketing/press and Salesforce for sales/BD.

There's generally a weekly review and reprioritisation that's partly based on our weekly team meeting (over Google Hangout) every Friday.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

The answer to this question is my raison d'être at AwayFind! I try to avoid my inbox as late into the day as possible. While I'll skim through it before I go to work, once I get to the office I rely exclusively on my task list and AwayFind for the first few hours.

There's a lot more to my system, and my best summary of it is in my Guide to NOT Checking Email, which is free in AwayFind. A 2008 compilation of the tools and techniques I used is archived here: http://www.technotheory.com/productivity-talk/

I take elements from GTD, Four Hour Workweek, and other methods. I was a productivity trainer for 8 years, so I take this stuff seriously!

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

Much more on this: http://www.technotheory.com/how-to-work-remotely/

The main thing I'll suggest is to ensure that you're 100% mobile with your tools. Some of my newer additions: I use Postbox since I love its offline mail sync, I store everything on Dropbox so all my computers are in sync and there's no chance of data loss, I use GeeTasksPro so that my tasks are available offline, and I have a really good battery life on my very light Lenovo laptop.

I also LOVE this Plantronics headset and take all my calls with it, at the office or on the road. The Bose QC15 also helps a lot for focusing. I can fit both headsets in the same (included) Bose travel case.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?

Kill your interruptions. Structure your day so that you have time to focus on one task for an extended period.

People think the problem is they have too much to do. The bigger problem is that they check email an average of 36 times per hour (see most recent Gloria Mark study and plenty of her references for details on this). Constant interruptions and task switching kills both the quantity and quality of our output. Sure, you may have too much going on in your life, but you have some say over the order in which you live those things.

Make it possible to do one thing at a time and you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to accomplish more and feel sane. Yes, you need a task list for this. Yes, AwayFind helps a lot with it (which is why I built it). But you need to close your inbox and focus on the highest impact activity for an extended period every day.

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

To be clear, the needs of your colleagues are probably very different than your own. In other words, the small business owner who gets 75 emails a day from outside her company has very different demands on her time than the engineer who gets 10 emails a day, and all of them are internal.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that a productivity solution for one will work for all in a company.

I mention this because my "productivity tip" and much of my advice above is for people more like me who have to report to different audiences or, for whatever reason, have lots of demands on their time.

With my team on the other hand, our efforts have focused on collaboration and clarity. We want to make it easy for us all to be on the same page and to ensure that every time we reply to a task that it adds value for anyone who might later start working on that project. As such Trac is very helpful for us in our engineering work and Trello for a high-level view of responsibilities.

In terms of the metrics that we monitor company-wide, given that we're a product-focused company, we are constantly implementing processes to prevent us from duplicating the same task or making the same mistake that we made before. We also automate a lot of things. And the protocols we've adopted for our communications tools have made it easier to collaborate without confusion.

Every entrepreneur has a different arsenal of tools and skills to help maximise their productivity. But it can take a long process of trial and error before you find the techniques that work for you.

At Simply Business we want to help you make the most of your time – so we have compiled a series of tips, guides, and interactive graphics to help boost your productivity.

We have compiled a series of interactive infographics, each of which contains a series of tools and tips to help maximise your productivity.

Distraction is a problem for every small business owner – particularly those who work at home. We’ve compiled 10 top tips to help you keep you head down.

Environment is key to productivity. Check out our tips to help you design your office more efficiently.

Working from home? Take some time to ensure your workspace is designed for maximum productivity.

Motivation can be a problem for everyone, particularly during the long winter months. Read some tips to help get you get up and go.

Windows is the world’s most popular operating system. Make sure you’re using it as efficiently as you can.

Android looks set to continue changing the way people use mobile devices. Read our roundup of the top productivity apps for this increasingly popular operating system.

iPhone user? We haven’t forgotten you! Check out our list of productivity apps for Apple’s handset.

Throughout the capital and beyond, businesses are being warned to expect employees to be unable to get to work. For many firms, particularly in the East End, the disruption will be severe.

If your business is likely to be affected by the Olympics, you need to start thinking about the realities of remote working. We have compiled a quick-start guide to help you prepare for the Olympian challenge of running a business through the Games.

In the first instance, it is worth remembering that remote working is not suitable or practical for every business. Furthermore, within businesses remote working may be suitable for some employees and not for others. If you are running a shop, for example, your cashiers clearly can’t be working from home.

You should take steps to identify which of your workers is ‘at risk’ of travel disruption and, of those, which can reasonably work from home. In cases in which remote working is not practical, you should consider other ways in which you can mitigate the potential impacts of the Olympics. Read more about Olympic preparations for your business.

If remote working is possible, you may well need to provide your employees with some equipment. For example, you may need a number of laptops. Although you might well expect your employees to have computers of their own, it is almost always best to provide them with dedicated work machines – not least for security reasons, as explained below. Remember that remote workers may also need miscellaneous pieces of equipment like printers, scanners, and shredders.

There are also practical considerations when it comes to billing. If your employees need to make phone calls, you should consider providing them with a dedicated phone in order to ensure that there is no confusion between personal and business use. This principle might also extend to facilities like internet connections.

Security is a vital concern when it comes to remote working. You will need to take extra steps to ensure that your business and your employees remain safe while they are out of the office.

Data security is one of the most important factors to consider. At the very least it is vital that sufficiently robust antivirus and firewall software is installed on the computers your employees will be using. It is always recommended that you provide employees with devices specifically for work, in order to ensure that this software is properly installed, and that there are no existing infections.

Depending on the nature of your business you may also need to provide a means by which your employees can connect to your business network from home. You might, for example, have to install a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to ensure that remote workers can connect securely. VPNs allow users to connect to your network over a conventional internet connection, and are therefore a more cost-effective solution than the old leased line system.

You should also remember physical security. If your employees are storing documents or equipment in their homes, make sure that you highlight the importance of ensuring that the building remains secure.

You also need to take steps to ensure that remote workers are properly managed. You need to strike a balance between too much contact and not enough; you need to trust that they will complete their work, while ensuring that they don’t feel entirely cut off from the rest of the organisation.

Again, technology can help you to achieve this. Rather than sending endless emails, consider alternatives like instant messengers or Skype. These allow you to keep in contact in a simple, effective manner – and, just as importantly, they are free. Read more about managing remote workers.

Everett Sizemore is Director of SEO Strategy with seOverflow, a strategic SEO outsourcing partner for marketing agencies and in-house marketing departments. His background is in eCommerce SEO and technical site auditing. Everett speaks at industry conferences like SMX and has guest lectured at the University of Denver. He has been working remotely for over three years. You can find Everett on twitter - @balibones, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

I agree with Will Critchlow that 1-on-1 meetings tend to be the most productive type. However, sometimes you can't avoid a group meeting and I've found that the following strategies help me get the most out of them.

First of all, I generally don't do meetings during the first half of my day Tuesday through Thursday. I take Mondays off, but will discuss that later. If a team member or client is only available during those times I always make an exception, but that time is blocked off of my calendar every week as an ongoing event so most of the time nobody sends a meeting request for those slots. This creates at least twelve hours of every week in which I can focus 100% on tasks that require analytical and creative thinking.

This came about because I do a lot of highly technical site auditing in which I am buried in data from multiple sources (Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, Webmaster Tools, log files, SERPs...) and have several large spreadsheets, a notepad and dozens of windows open all at once. A single phone call or meeting would interrupt my flow, which often took about an hour to get back - and by that time I was often due for another meeting or call. Things just weren't getting done. The constant shifting of gears between unrelated tasks, and the constant multitasking was affecting my productivity and raising my stress levels. This affected every aspect of my life, including the level of service I was able to provide for clients, my relationships with team members and, most importantly, my relationships with friends and family.

Since implementing the change, which was really only a matter of blocking the time out on my calendar, I have been able to dive deeper into the data and provide better results for clients than ever before. Nobody is going to do this for you. Block off the time yourself. Ask for forgiveness later, but chances are you won't have to. Better results will do all of the talking.

Another meeting strategy I often use is to sum up deliverables at the end. I don't speak out everyone else's list, but I always reiterate what it is that I am taking away as a responsibility. I have found that other people in the meeting generally follow-suit and before long it becomes the norm. Something is wrong if you regularly have meetings from which nobody leaves with a clearly defined to-do list.

I used to enjoy the downtime in meetings and thought there was a team-building aspect to it. People would go around the table and talk about their weekends, and slowly things would move on to the topic at hand. It's funny how your views change as your career progresses. These days I don't like meetings for the sake of meetings. The weekly ones are the worst because you tend to have them whether anyone has something to share or not. Some of them are important, however, and they can keep things running smoothly. The trick is to know which is which. I was scheduled to be in the weekly link building team's meeting, but have slowly bowed out of it because I found that the link building team was doing just fine without my input. When you find yourself sitting silent for most of the meeting, or doing other things like checking email or viewing analytics that are unrelated to the topic it is a sure sign that you don't belong in that meeting. On the other hand, we have a weekly meeting to go over the on-page optimization projects and I find that extremely useful. It always has my complete attention. Know when you provide value and when you don't.

I work remotely so I'm online in every meeting. A lot of the time other people won't have their computers with them so I am the one who does a lot of impromptu data-mining, searches, quick website overviews, etcetera. When you can answer a question in a meeting rather than putting it on your to-do list for later it saves time for everyone and keeps the conversation on track. So, while multitasking on unrelated things is rude and a sign that you shouldn't be in the meeting, I find having a laptop/smartphone/tablet in front of me to be very beneficial when used appropriately.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

Doing what you love will make you more productive. I try to cut out the stuff that that I hate doing (as much as possible). I really don't like spending much time in places like Freshbooks and Central Desktop, although I see the value of these tools.
I don't like spending time matching up six different schedules to generate a successful meeting request with clients or vendors either. That type of stuff simply isn't what I enjoy, nor is it what I'm good at. Managing your personal workload starts with knowing what is, and what is not, a good use of your time. That is the easy part.

The tricky part is getting buy-in from management or the executive team. You need to phrase it in economic terms. For instance, if you make about $50 an hour on salary and spend half your time doing project management tasks, niche directory submissions, running reports... the company is losing $25 an hour because these are all things that can be handled just as well by someone who makes half of your salary.
When I started working with seOverflow there was no project manager. I stressed myself out for a few weeks before realising that it was a simple matter of economics. Now we have a fantastic project manager who has a graduate degree in that field and a decade of experience managing projects and client relationships. He is doing what he is excels at and enjoys, and so am I. We are able to handle more clients and give more attention to existing clients, which more than covers the additional human resource.

How do you keep track of what your team are working on?

We have project status boards in Google Docs that are open to the entire company. This wonderful idea was implemented long before I joined the team, and allows me to see at a glance what everyone is working on and where every project is at any given moment. There doesn't seem to be much trouble with buy-in / adoption because everyone seems to find it useful to keep their project status boards updated. Our new project manager, Tommy Bailey, also helps out a great deal if the status boards fall even a little behind. I don't need to call anyone or schedule a meeting to know what someone is working on, which saves a lot of time.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

I think something like DropBox is an absolute necessity if you have people working remotely. We also use Google Docs, Central Desktop, Skype, GoTo Meeting (not my favourite these days) and Google Hangouts from time to time.

The Google Docs feature that sends document notes back and forth is very useful when collaborating on a new document, such as a new procedure or product offering. We all use Gmail so Google Chat is a frequently used tool for quick questions back and forth.

EchoSign makes sending human resource documents, proposals and contracts back and forth a breeze. I've tried tons of different tools, having worked remotely for the last few years, and can say that Gmail, Skype and Dropbox are the ones I couldn't live without. That probably isn't a huge tip for anyone since most people use them these days. I think there's a reason for that.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

I check email dozens of times a day, but not when I am involved in a project unless it is related to the task. My system usually involves a quick glance in the morning to see if there is anything urgent. If not, I try to get something related to a project or writing content done before I dive into the other emails. If you start your day by answering emails that aren't urgent it tends to derail productivity for the rest of the day. Unless it is urgent it can wait a few hours. Get something "done" instead and the rest of your day will be more productive. Being on East coast time and working with a team on Mountain Central time certainly helps with this.

I try to use email filtering as much as possible to make sure things that can skip the inbox don't take my attention away from more important emails. For instance, I filter Google Alerts and automated reports to their own folders. Anything that has to do with the office (e.g. Pizza party today! or Chocolate cake in the break room...) just gets filtered into the trash. You may need to get the person responsible for sending those emails to use a standard in the subject like "Office Talk: Subject..." so you don't have to filter ALL of their emails.

I use Rapportive almost every day, and I'm going to start Task Force thanks to your wonderful infographic. I don't get much use out of Boomerang at the moment, but I can see how it would be extremely valuable for people doing sales, outreach, PR or link building.

Once a month I set aside a day to go through and clean out the inbox completely. Few things feel as empowering as a clean inbox, and it's amazing to see how many things you forgot about that seemed really important at the time.

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

I'm always "away from the office" so this is something I have a lot of experience with. It really depends on the person, but I'm going to assume that anyone reading this interview would be the type of individual who is self-motivated, hard-working, passionate... and would do well working remotely.

The first thing I want to say is: Try it! My productivity working remotely is much higher than it ever was in the office environment. Nobody passes my office and decides they want to invite me into a last-minute, impromptu meeting. I never go to the break room to join in the cutting of a birthday cake or to see the cute puppy someone just got. I never have to be one of the dozens of people who quit working for ten minutes because a visitor came into the office. I don't lose an hour or more of every day sitting in traffic. This could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.

With that said, there are some issues unique to working remotely that can really screw up your day and waste a lot of your time. If you work from home it is absolutely vital that there is a clear separation of work and non-work times. Otherwise you run the risk of always being "on-call". Though it may sound good in theory to be able to move seamlessly between work and non-work, you'll actually spend more time working and will have less to show for it. Ask any nurse or doctor who is on-call if they can truly enjoy that time at home. They can't because work is always in the back of their minds.

Never give clients or team members your personal / home phone number unless they are also friends outside of work.

Have a separate space for work. It might sound like dream-come-true to work on the couch with a laptop and a hot cup of coffee, but outside of doing this every now and then, I've found it to be invasive of my personal space. I like to "leave" work at the end of the day, which means much more than turning off the computer. This may not apply to someone working remotely once or twice a week or less, but if you do it every day there needs to be a physical location change.

I have a home office, which helps, but I also rent a small office. It is about a ten minute drive away in a quiet country town, and is a place where I can focus 100% on work without distractions. My wife can handle things like calling the plumber, soothing a screaming child, and signing for a package when I'm not around - but for some reason she needs my help when I'm working from home.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?

For individuals, it would be to stop thinking of multitasking as a positive thing.

Multitasking isn't a trait to be admired and cultivated. It is a disease that keeps us from giving any single thing our best effort. Most of the white-collar work force these days has a really bad case of ADD. Just focus on one thing at a time. Stop checking email, analytics, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ every ten minutes. Go to work to work.

Get it done and get out so you can go home and enjoy quality time with family and friends. It will make you more productive and happier. If you can't help yourself it is a sign that you are working too many hours doing things that you aren't passionate about. Make a change.

For businesses, I'd say let your top performing employees go to a four-day work week. Set some kind of bar similar to what you would set up for a bonus structure and those who hit it get an extra day off.

Make sure the bar is high, yet attainable, and don't keep raising it. If someone hits it month after month, good for them. I only work four days a week and get more accomplished in those four days than I ever did working a five-day week. And I don't do 12 hours every day to make up for it either.

I did take a huge pay cut by leaving an in-house position with an enterprise ecommerce business, but the back-to-back daily meetings and corporate culture was not conducive to the lifestyle and work environment I wanted to build for myself.

The SEO I hired to replace me there is leaving now too. I wish I could just explain to that company that throwing money at someone is only going to buy their passion for a little while. I've never been "unhappy" at a job because I wanted a raise. Burnout and unhappiness at work happen for reasons usually unrelated to salary. You need to change the culture of your organization if you want to keep smart, impassioned people around.

I feel that we’re all a little obsessed with work for work's sake.

We left the simple life, moved off the farms, got embedded into the industrial machinery and invented miraculous technological breakthroughs all for the promise of living a happy life free from drudgery and the day-to-day struggle for existence. And it hasn't worked.

We are humans. We are blessed with highly analytical and creative brains capable of extraordinary things, yet we lock ourselves in cubicles of our own making and don't give our beautiful minds enough time for rest and reflection.

The result is that we stifle creativity and try to make up for it by working even longer hours. We have to buy things we don't need to save time we don't have because we have to work so much to buy the things we don't need.

Case in point: At one time I was working 60-hour weeks.

I'd pay $30 a month for a gym membership and had to pay someone else to mow my lawn because I didn't have "time" to do it myself. I was paying for someone else to work out in the sun while also paying for myself to work out under florescent lamps. Right around this time I realised that things had been turned upside down. I've been busy turning my life the right way around ever since.

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

Since going to a four-day work week and blocking out chunks of my schedule for project work I have been zooming through projects faster than ever. We've had record months, and the clients I work with have benefited greatly from the depth at which I can now give to their projects.
These days I look forward to coming into work every morning, and every week has a three-day weekend. Yet somehow I still manage to produce more and better results than ever before. It is about time we started looking at results instead of hours because hours-worked has become a meaningless metric.

Last but not least, here is a great video...
http://www.ted.com/talks/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html

The court ruled in favour of a City law firm that had forced an employee to retire just after his 65th birthday.

Leslie Seldon, a partner in the firm, was told that he must go – despite the fact that he wanted to continue working. Mr Seldon claimed that his treatment amounted to age discrimination, but the Supreme Court ruled that the firm acted within its rights.

The court signalled that employers are entitled to enact mandatory retirement for reasons including succession planning, and for ensuring fair access to higher positions for younger workers. But it also chose to send the case back to an employment tribunal to determine whether or not 65 was the right age for Mr Sheldon to be forced to retire.

At first glance the Supreme Court’s decision seems to be entirely at odds with recent legislative changes. Until last year business owners were legally entitled to force employees to retire at 65. But, in a much-heralded move, the so-called Default Retirement Age was finally scrapped in September.

Despite this scrapping, the Supreme Court’s decision seems to indicate that there remain limited circumstances in which forced retirement may still be possible. In particular, businesses may be able to justify mandatory retirement if it is necessary for workforce planning, or if it will help to ensure fairness between generations of employees.

It is important to understand that despite the Supreme Court’s judgement, the range of circumstances in which forced retirement can be justified remains very limited. This is a very complicated area of the law, and errors by business owners can prove cripplingly costly.

You should remember that the Supreme Court has not ruled that 65 is necessarily an acceptable age for forced retirement; indeed, current legislation specifically outlaws this. Rather, the judgement suggests that mandatory retirement may be permitted on a case-by-case basis. It is therefore vital that you seek specialist legal advice before taking any action in this field.

Rand is the CEO of SEO software company; SEOmoz. He co-authored the Art of SEO from O'Reilly Media and co-founded Inbound.org. Rand is an addict of all things social, you can find him on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare and Pinterest.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

We haven't done a ton of work to systemically improve meetings yet. Thus far, they haven't been a big thorn in our side, and are generally productive, enjoyable and not overly burdensome; particularly for product planning, reviewing, specs, wireframes, etc. Deeper meetings are also a good chance to collaborate and share opinions.

I would say that we've done well with ad hoc meetings to establish quick goals, give action items and get everyone on their way; but for formal meetings, it's really important that people feel heard, communication is shared, and folks don't feel like they're "out of the picture." I suspect we've been lucky so far and will have to work harder in the future to prevent meetings from becoming unproductive or a distraction.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

I keep my life very minimal - basically just work and Geraldine (my wife).
My Google calendar runs all my appointments and obligations and everything I do or need to do runs through email. If it isn't in email as a task or on the calendar as an appointment, it never gets done.
I also keep other life stuff very simple - don't own any property, don't own a car, don't buy much, don't have kids, don't take on many outside obligations that aren't directly tied to Moz. My work life and obligations are so extensive that I wouldn't feel confident that I could effectively manage much else, so I try to keep it very simple. I also have an executive admin who helps with scheduling, expense reports, documents and lots of other tasks that help keep me focused and productive.

How do you keep track of what your team are working on?

In terms of others at Moz - we have an executive lunch every Monday where I hear about the plans for each part of the organization (operations, product, engineering and marketing). I've then got semi-regular one-on-ones with team members and e-team folks to get a sense of what's challenging them and where I can be helpful. Finally, each team has monthly status updates that show their goals and progress to the rest of the organization (sent on an all-staff mailing list).

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

We've found email and Google docs to serve 90% of our needs. Inside specific teams, they'll be other individual cases for bug tracking or customer service tickets or product planning, etc but organisation-wide, email, Gcal, and Gdocs have done the trick.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

Constantly - literally every 10-20 minutes, with only a few rare breaks (long meeting, sleep, plane flights without wifi, dinner with friends, etc). Email's my primary application for 80%+ of my work (notable exclusions being writing and creating presentations). I use a modified version of inbox zero, attempting to answer/solve everything in my inbox and then archiving so as to reach a point where there's nothing active on my plate.

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

Get through all the email I can starting in priority order (meaning from Mozzers, first, then important external contacts, then all the other stuff). I do a lot of delegating, too, but try to limit what's on anyone's plate internally if possible. I want to be the grease of Moz's engine and help it run more smoothly, make everyone's job easier, not the cog that's constantly churning out more work for people, increasing complexity or heaping external concerns on team members.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?

Determine your primary focus and value-add; then outsource, hire for or simplify/remove everything you don't do well. Also, try to keep all your tasks and communication in a single source (email's been fantastic for that for me, and enables dramatically more productivity, IMO, than when I see folks who have lots of different ways to-do items in their personal/professional life can come in).

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

Simplification and focus have helped a lot. I think a lot of Mozzers in the early days got very stressed concentrating on so many diverse tools and products. As we've grown the teams, we've actually shrunk the diversity of our offerings and functionality, so that we can concentrate on doing a better job with the 5-10 features that matter most to customers.

According to the latest figures from the Insolvency Service, the number of business insolvencies registered during the first quarter of 2012 was 4.3 higher than during the same quarter in the previous year.

With news that the country has returned to technical recession, there is concern that this figure could rise further.

If your business is in financial difficulty and struggling to meet its debt obligations, it is important that you tackle the problem head on. All too frequently business owners try to ignore the debt, hoping that they will be able to deal with it at a later date. In reality, by ignoring the problem you will only exacerbate it.

Your first step should be to determine exactly how much you owe, and to whom you owe it. Make a list of all your outstanding obligations, and work out exactly how much you can afford to pay each month.

You should then approach you creditors directly, and try to negotiate a new repayment plan. This might involve paying less each month over a longer period, enabling you to get a tighter hold on your finances. Don’t presume that your creditors will necessarily turn you down. Lenders will often be happy to negotiate – particularly if the alternative is likely to be a write-off of part or all part of the loan.

It is also important to consider ways in which you can ease your cashflow situation. Small businesses are often remarkably lax when it comes to raising and chasing invoices, and this can have a disastrous impact on your ability to pay your debt obligations. It is imperative that you invoice promptly, and that you chase late payment. Good credit management practices should be built into the day-to-day life of your business. You should also consider credit checking your customers and clients before extending credit.

If your firm remains unable to meet its obligations, you should seek advice from your accountant as a matter of urgency. They will be able outline the options for your business. You may, for example, be able to draw up a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), under which you come to a formal agreement with your creditors on a new timetable for repayment. CVAs can only be drawn up with the assistance of a registered insolvency practitioner.

If you cannot come to an agreement with your creditors, liquidation is likely to be the next step. Liquidation can be proposed by either the business or its creditors. It is vital that you seek independent advice if you are considering liquidation, or if you have received an order for your company to be wound up.

The sooner you seek advice, the more effectively you will be able to deal with your debt problems. Your accountant should be your first port of call. They will be able to help you understand your options.

There is also a range of independent organisations that may be able to advise you. Of these Business Debtline is amongst the most popular, providing debt advice to self-employed people living in England, Wales, and Scotland. You can also find more information on Business Link. Finally, you should also consider approaching your local Citizens Advice Bureau for free help.

Following a consultation in which the majority of responses opposed criminalisation, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced that a new amendment to the law would make the squatting of residential buildings a criminal offence.

The new law has now gained royal assent, and has clear implications for landlords.

Squatting is the occupation of an empty property without the permission of the owner.

There is a long tradition of squatting in the UK, and the practice remains widespread. In 2011, the government estimated that there were some 20,000 squatters across the country.

Historically, squatting was not a criminal offence. Occupation of another person’s property was not, in most cases, a crime – although crimes sometimes occurred during the process of gaining entry.

In 2011 the coalition began to publicly consider the options for criminalising squatting. In July it launched a consultation and, despite 90 per cent of the responses urging no change to the law, an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill was made, effectively criminalising the practice in residential properties.

From September, an offence is committed if a person is in or enters a residential building “as a trespasser” with the intention of living in it. Offences are punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

It is vital to understand that this amendment specifically does not apply to cases in which a tenant has remained in a property after the end of a tenancy.

Although the new law has gained royal assent, squatting in a residential property will reportedly not be a criminal offence until September. As the situation currently stands, this remains a civil matter.

If you simply want to regain possession of your property, you can apply for an interim possession order (IPO). These orders were designed to provide a quick way for landlords and occupiers to regain possession, following criticism of the previously lengthy court process. Squatters must leave within 24 hours of being served with an IPO. If they fail to do so, it becomes a criminal matter.

More information on applying for an IPO is available on the Ministry of Justice website. You can also read more about removing squatters here.

Rochelle Dancel is Head of Digital at beautiful world, a fundraising, marketing and communications agency in London. She is also a web producer for a Toronto based production company and runs her own digital marketing consultancy.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

I work in a number of different team structures, and all of them have different dynamics and working styles for what works productively. For example, at the agency, the core team is small and based in the same space, so our meetings are short but frequent; in fact, sometimes our best work is done in an impromptu, informal meeting.

When I work with virtual teams, the meetings are scheduled, usually with agendas and lots of planning behind them; this is often necessity, because it's very difficult to get a group of people to meet virtually at the same time, especially across time zones. The key thing I've found to move things along is to set expectations about what you want to accomplish and be clear about what you need before the meeting so that you can be focused on getting it in the meeting. Making sure that there are next steps means you can move forward, and the meeting time isn't a write-off.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

My combined personal workload is a constant juggling act. However, I find that setting expectations and flagging any potential problems or issues as early as possible usually pre-empts any major disasters. I also have a UK based virtual assistant who takes care of my freelance back office tasks, such as invoicing, and I use the US based virtual assistant service, Fancy Hands, for all manner of internet research e.g. travel arrangements, booking office space when I'm away, finding specific lists of contacts etc. This allows me to focus on actual project work. 

At the agency, we schedule everything and we cover it off in our Monday morning meeting so that we all know what we're doing. However, more often than not, a spanner is thrown into the works, and schedules have to be shifted and our project tasks have to be re-prioritised. It's often just a simple case of sitting down together, hammering it out and ticking things off.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

Everyone I work with uses a Google Apps integration of their choosing. The one I use most frequently is Google Calendar, with different calendars shared across different teams. In terms of project management tools, I'm trialling Asana with one of my teams at the moment, and so far, apart from being free, I quite like it because it's stripped down and doesn't have anything that's superfluous to requirements.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

I have two inboxes to juggle in the day - my agency inbox and my freelance inbox.

I check my freelance inbox at home first thing in the morning. I deal with project emails from my team first that require me to do something so that they can progress. I then acknowledge all essential emails, delegate admin emails to my virtual assistant, and leave the rest for the evening.

When I get into the office, I open my agency inbox and read any emails pertaining to current projects first, starting with the most urgent. I do this for no more than an hour when I first get in, otherwise I'd spend all morning responding to emails. I block out time in the day for project work and meetings, so I check my email periodically around those times.

I check my freelance email on my phone for no more than about 15 minutes at lunchtime, and will pick up the phone to clients or partners if required. When I get home, I respond to the remainder of my freelance emails, alongisde any freelance work. I also do a quick check of my agency inbox later in the evening in case my team has emailed me with prep for the following day.

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

I would say have all the tools and files you need to get your work done. In the office I have a desktop and a laptop, and the same again in my home office, plus my ipad and netbook, so the one app I cannot live without is Dropbox. Before Dropbox, I would have to email files to myself, and version control was always a challenge, so I have the biggest Dropbox account possible to hold everything.

I used to try and have native versions of all services and software; however, as I have multiple machines, and I travel a lot, it's just more convenient to pay a little bit more for premium cloud services.

I think you have to be quite honest with yourself and more aware of your own working style. For example, I know when I'm away from the office my attention span is usually a lot shorter, so I try and work somewhere that doesn't have a lot of distraction. I also tend to be more methodical, breaking down tasks and working in shorter bursts.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?

I would say be realistic about what you can accomplish with the time that you have, especially if you are growing your business around an existing day job or other commitments. It is much better to give yourself time to focus on doing fewer things really well than to rush and try to do many things barely adequately.

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

I think that good planning and scheduling always sets people up to move forward with certainty, which enables them to be more productive because there is a path to follow, and this is always good for team confidence as a whole. We also keep tabs on the number of hours that people work and actively encourage them to take their time off in lieu, to prevent the pressure of being productive from burning people out.

Personally speaking, increased productivity for me directly correlates with efficiency. And if I can be more efficient, tasks are completed faster, and I have more free time. Applied across the board, we always evaluate which processes were the most successful, and we build these into future planning and projects.

Greg is the VP of Sales at Zemanta. He oversees revenue and partnerships. Proudly born in Midwest, he now calls Brooklyn home. You can follow his tweets at @GregMG.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

I try to approach meetings with a specific goal in mind. "This is what we want to accomplish."

Be respectful of everyone's time. Make sure there is a hard stop and stick to it. If you get caught in the minutiae and details, a good phrase that I will use often is "I want to be mindful of everyone's time" and move on. People will respect that. I always end the meeting with take aways and action points, so things that were covered are not lost moving forward.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

I think part of it is knowing yourself. Knowing when you are most and least productive and taking advantage of those times. My brain works great in the morning and less so in the late afternoon. I try to power through as much work as possible in the mornings.

The other piece of advice is to learn to say "no" to things. Whether they are requests from colleagues or industry requests, sometimes you just need to decline. Ask yourself, will attending this event/doing this task/meeting this person help move the company forward? If the answer is no, then don't do it.
 

How do you keep track of what your team are working on?

This is tricky, because you want to know what is happening but you don't want to smother your team. Once a week meetings to catch up on the week works for me. If progress is not being made, then I’ll ask for more frequent updates.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

Yes! Trello is great for project management. We use it heavily at Zemanta. Specifically between sales and production. I highly recommend it. We also use Google Docs for day to day sharing of files and Dropbox for large file sharing.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

I am constantly checking email... I have been trying to embrace the "inbox zero" policy without much luck. I could be better at email efficiency.

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

• Make sure everything you need can be accessed from your laptop/mobile device.
• Reply to emails offline and send when you are back online.
• If you don't have wi-fi, turn off your wi-fi search and save battery life so you can work longer.
• Set your out of office, if you will not be reachable. Give contacts of employees who can help while you are away - so you are not loaded up with tasks when you return.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?
Let go and have faith in the people you hired to get things done. You can't do it all yourself and if you try you will burn out. I wrote about this recently http://greggortz.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/letting-go-delegating-responsibility-as-your-startup-scales/

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

From a development standpoint, we embraced Sprint planning and have seen our progress increase significantly. Some background information on Sprint planning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development).

Communication between sales and development team jumped after applying Trello as a project management tool. We are faster at implementing and trouble-shooting campaigns.

The country has experienced two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, meaning that we have ‘double-dipped’.

The news has increased pressure on the government, which is still facing criticism over its most recent Budget announcement. But why has the UK double-dipped, and what does it mean for your business?

The UK was pushed back into recession by falls in construction and manufacturing output, both of which performed particularly poorly in the last quarter. But, while the double dip was precipitated by these sector-specific contractions, the return to recession illustrates more general weaknesses in the economy.

Opposition politicians suggest that the country has been forced back into recession in part because of the government’s austerity measures. They suggest that huge spending cuts have exacerbated the problem – and that, with some 80 per cent of the cuts still to come, the issue will only get worse. They insist that the way out of recession is to boost effective demand in the economy by investing in jobs.

There is no universally agreed definition, but economists generally consider a depression to be an extended and dramatic period of contraction. One popular definition is a recession lasting for more than two years – and by that measure we certainly are in a depression.

It is clear that we are in a very serious economic position; perhaps even that Europe is at a true crossroads. While the government has been keen to talk up the prospect of green shoots, the most significant issues remain: demand is very weak, businesses are unwilling to invest, and credit availability is severely impaired.

The problems have been compounded by the banking and sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Continental Europe remains the UK’s most important trading partner, and the significant weaknesses in key European economies are having serious knock-on effects for the UK.

In some senses, the news that the UK has returned to technical recession will have little impact. For most business owners it is simply clarification of what they already knew: times are tough.

The news should refocus the minds of entrepreneurs across the country. Innovative, well-run firms can continue to survive and thrive even in this difficult climate – but this requires an agile approach to business management. Take the opportunity to review your finances. Wherever possible, try to identify ways in which you might be able to drive down costs. Consider contacting your suppliers with a view to renegotiating contracts. You should also do all you can to smooth your cashflow. If possible, try to negotiate more advantageous credit terms with your suppliers. Meanwhile, make sure that you chase invoices fastidiously and, where appropriate, consider running credit checks on potential customers.

You might also think about paying down your debts more quickly before interest rates rise. Recent figures from the Bank of England suggest that business owners and consumers are paying off debt at a record rate – but, while this might be sensible for some entrepreneurs, it is not necessarily the right course of action for everyone. Read more about paying down debt here.

This is clearly a very contentious question. For business owners and consumers, interest rates are amongst the key issues. The economic contraction has meant that analysts do not expect the base rate to rise until at least the beginning of 2014 – but, as mortgage borrowers have found out, this has not prevented increases in the rates charged by the banks.

There is now also a real possibility that the Bank of England could extend its programme of quantitative easing. Some commentators remain concerned that this could exert significant upward pressure on inflation.

More broadly, though, it seems that the permacrisis of 2011 may be set to return. Business owners need to expect the unexpected – but, above all, they need to remain calm. Despite the gloomy outlook, there remains space for innovative firms to thrive. Provided that you keep a close eye on costs and you are willing to remain flexible, there is no reason why your business can’t weather the storm.

Will co-founded Distilled in 2005 with Duncan Morris. Distilled provides natural SEO and paid search services from offices in London, New York and Seattle; and hosts regular industry conferences. You can follow his tweets at @WillCritchlow.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

I try to avoid large meetings. I don't really count 1-1s as meetings and generally find them to be some of the best uses of my time.

When I do need to have a larger meeting, I am getting ever stricter at enforcing:

1. A single person in charge who:

a. circulates any prerequisite information well before the meeting so everyone is on the same page at the start and time isn't used for drawn-out status updates
b. has (and sticks to) an agenda - also circulated in advance

2. A note-taker who always asks "who has ownership of that?"

Related: I am a big fan of Merlin Mann on meetings:
http://www.43folders.com/2010/10/06/broken-meetings

How do you manage your own personal workload?

I use:

• Trello for my backlog (and "lists of lists") - I find it lets me keep my to do lists nicely segmented by project / context
• Evernote for capturing random thoughts and also for my "daily" list (more on this below)
• A physical notebook for scribbles and free form ideas
• Google Calendar (and other apps features) for my schedule and interaction with my team

I try to stick to a "getting things done" sweep of my inboxes into my task lists. I don't always manage it.
 

How do you keep track of what your team are working on?

For my team, I use a combination of an internal system (that we call "distilled tools") and toggl for tracking client work and Trello (mentioned above) for planning sprints.

Probably the biggest leap I've made recently for my own personal productivity is separating my backlog (someday / maybe) from my "today" list - into completely separate systems. I try to force myself not to revisit the backlog until I've done the stuff I decided was today's top priority.

For keeping up to date with our growing team's activity, I have one high-tech and one low-tech tip:

High-tech (relatively): use G+ as an internal social network (works well if you're on google apps) - so that you can easily share stories of what you're working on in a safe walled garden

Low-tech: I am a massive fan of the simple weekly round-up email. We are still managing an all-hands round-up with nearly 50 people. I suspect this will fragment soon, but it's a great way of staying in touch.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

My most-used tools for collaboration are:

• Trello (see above)
• Google Docs - particularly for collaborative editing in text documents and presentations
• Gchat (part of Google Apps) for adhoc conversations
• Google Plus Hangouts (or Skype video chat)
• Dropbox Team

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

I have recently found myself less efficient at turning email off completely. I dip in more than I'd like just to "see what's there". However, I am reasonably diligent about not worrying about the inbox most of the time and processing my email in sprints. I try to manage a daily sprint to inbox zero. I love gmail priority inbox and only really use three labels for categorisation:

• Inbox = unprocessed
• Archive = done / replied to
• Starred = to do

I can't imagine using any tool other than gmail these days and once again, I turn to Merlin Mann on inbox zero:
http://inboxzero.com/
 

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

All of my tools work anywhere I have a decent internet connection. I notice very little difference in (tool-related) productivity regardless of where I am.

For productivity on the move, I generally rely on my (Android) phone along with tethering my (tiny) Macbook Air.

One slight email tweak I've found useful is to have an email label entitled "office" which is for anything I can't action on the move (like printing / scanning). That helps clear my headspace nicely when I know I'm going to be travelling for more than a day.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?

Get a culture of inbox zero across the organisation. Add a culture of ownership (i.e. that when you ask someone to do something they will definitely either handle it or flag it up for discussion early) and you're 75% of the way there.

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

Honestly? I've made no attempt to measure it quantitatively or qualitatively. My biggest qualitative metric is that *failing* to push hard on this stuff makes everyone get very upset with each other.

A key part of the challenge is the sheer amount of information on productivity there is out there - blog posts, books, videos, tools and apps – who has the time to evaluate this stuff?

We’ve put together a series of tools and resources to help you to increase productivity:

For each area we’ve collated tools, articles, and resources to help address the most common productivity challenges.

1. Click here to start with the 'collaboration' guide
    

2. Select the area you are interested in
3. Move through each of the questions – if you see an issue you can relate to move to the outer circles which contain links to resources. Simply click on whatever takes your fancy and the resource will open in a new tab.
4. Want to view another key area? Click on the ‘next’ button at the bottom of the graphic

Nick Narodny is the Cofounder of Grovo.com, the leading online Internet education and training platform. Nick is an expert when it comes to helping brands implement web solutions and social media strategy to increase brand awareness, convert customers and boost productivity. Nick has contributed thought leadership and how-to articles to a variety of media outlets, including CommPRO, Intuit, AllFacebook, InformationWeek and MediaPost.

Meetings are often cited as being unproductive – whether that’s because they run on too long, are unfocused, fail to result in action (the list is endless!). Please share your experiences and your tips for keeping meetings productive.

We have found that the best way to make meetings productive is to make sure that the meeting leader is prepared with a detailed agenda. When scheduling a meeting we try to ask, "Must this person be included?" so that we don't use up unnecessary bandwidth. Likewise, if a team member only needs to be present for the beginning of a meeting to check in or provide an update, that person is free to leave and focus on other things when their update is complete. At the end of the meeting the leader rounds up next steps. If those steps are complicated, he or she sends out an email to the entire team.

How do you manage your own personal workload?

I do all of my work in Evernote and Google Docs. I have my Grovo life divided up into different notebooks in Evernote and every time I start a new project I create a different note.

These notes are then with me and editable wherever I go. On the plane, in a meeting or at my desk. When a project is ready to be viewed by others I then "commit" it to Google Docs and share it with the team.

At first I did everything in Google Docs but I found it much more difficult to manage the documents there and virtually impossible to manage them from my iPhone.

For things that I am working on today, I write them down on a sticky note and add them to a to do iPhone app named Clear. There is still something satisfying about crossing out items on a physical to do list.

How do you manage collaboration between your employees? Are there any tools or apps you’d recommend?

The best tool for collaboration is Google Docs. Everything we do is in Google Docs and a solid collection organisation allows us to ensure that everyone has access to the documents they need.

Boomerang, the Gmail plugin, has been helpful for collaboration because it allows managers to connect two team members and then forget about the connection and set Boomerang to remind them in a few days if no one has taken the lead.

How often do you check email a day? Do you have a system for managing your inbox?

The first step in me managing my workload is to manage my inbox. I separate my Gmail inbox between starred and un-starred emails. Longer-term high level projects or emails waiting for responses get stars. Things I want to get done today don't. This way my goal for every day is to focus my brainpower on the longer-term projects while completing the "tasks" that exist in the un-starred portion of my inbox when I don't have as much mental focus.

I also use Boomerang for Gmail, which can be a lifesaver when working with clients. It allows me to set follow ups if I don't receive responses in a certain amount of days and it lets me schedule emails to be sent in the future.

What are your tips for working efficiently when you’re away from the office?

We don't work remotely that often as we find that our best work gets done when we are all sitting together at a big table. But the best way to set up remote working is to ensure that you have as much of your data in the cloud as possible. Because we work so much in Google Docs if someone is sick or traveling, they can use virtually any computer and be plugged in as if they are sitting at their own desk.

If you had to give one tip to small companies looking to grow and improve their output, what would it be?
Focus. It is very easy to get distracted in a small company and one of the hardest things for me to do was to avoid being to excitable and impulsive. No productivity app can save a company from being unfocused.

What ROI have you seen on your efforts to improve productivity within your company?

In terms of hard ROI metrics we strive to improve a number of internal metrics every month and our month over month growth has been consistently up and to the right. One of the best parts about improving productivity is that it often happens because the team is happier and more confident in their work.

We have seen the largest increases when we have empowered team members and allowed them to focus on what they are good at.

Many have complained that the elections have become little more than a personal popularity contest - a fight between two larger than life political figures.

London deserves better. We need clear leadership and bright ideas at such a pivotal point for the capital and the country.

In an effort to refocus the debate on policies rather than personalities, we have trawled through the five main candidates’ manifestos and plucked out the best bits of each. We have compiled them into our own manifesto for London business, highlighting some of the major differences and the many similarities between Johnson, Livingstone, Paddick, Jones, and Benita.

You will notice that we haven’t set out how we intend to pay for these plans – but, in general, neither have the candidates. There will of course be significant financial constraints facing the next Mayor – but as they apparently haven’t allowed these to affect their thinking, neither have we.

We want to know your thoughts. What do you want to see the candidates talking about? How will you be voting on 3 May? Let us know in the comments.

An effective programme of support for businesses must be at the heart of any successful mayor’s plans. All five candidates seem to recognise this, and each has devoted a significant portion of their respective manifesto to growth and infrastructure projects.

From the five candidates’ manifestos, we would like to see:

• The provision of low-cost credit to London businesses, as promised by both Johnson and Paddick.
• Better access for SMEs to Greater London Authority (GLA) procurement through CompeteFor, as promised by Johnson, Livingstone, Paddick, and Jones.
• A prompt payment guarantee for SMEs fulfilling GLA contracts, as promised by Livingstone.
• Improvements to Business Link, as promised by Paddick.
• Further development of Tech City and lobbying for 4G across London, as promised by Livingstone.
• Business rate relief for small retailers on ‘at-risk’ High Streets, as promised by Paddick.
• Lobbying for local authorities to get stronger powers to protect independent retailers, as promised by Jones.
• Support for fairer ‘ties’ between pub tenants and pubcos, as promised by Livingstone.
• An expansion of London apprenticeship schemes, as promised by all five candidates. Of the three, Livingstone’s pledge to ensure there is an apprenticeship for every 16 to 18 year old who wants to take one seems the strongest.
• Lobbying for the general adoption of the London Living Wage, a pledge made by all three candidates.
• The “targeting” of derelict buildings for rapid redevelopment, as pledged by Siobhan Benita.

Transport remains a key issue for all Londoners. Apart from being a necessity for residents, a properly functioning transport network is a vital prerequisite for sustainable economic growth.

From the five candidates’ manifestos, we would like to see:

• Inflation-only fare rises from 2014, as promised by Livingstone.
• Lobbying to minimise the negative impacts of HS2, as promised by all three candidates.
• The pedestrianisation of spaces in central London, and a New York-style ‘summer streets’ scheme, as pledged by Paddick.
• Extension of tube running hours, as promised by Benita.

There is significant convergence between the five main candidates on housing. Three profess a wish to regulate the private rented sector more effectively, and there are further similarities in the methods by which they would do this.

From the five candidates’ manifestos, we would like to see:

• The establishment of Livingstone’s London Lettings Agency, providing cheap agency services for reputable landlords.
• Compulsory landlord registration, to ensure tenants know they are getting a fair deal.
• General lobbying for better rental regulation – a pledge made by Johnson, Livingstone, Paddick, and Jones.
• A major home-building push and the return of empty properties to the rental market, as pledged by Paddick.

Leo and Brenda have been labelled the UK’s ‘most careless’ business owners according to Simply Business, with research revealing the top male and female names most likely to run into trouble in the workplace.

Analysis from the UK’s largest business insurance provider, based on the claims data of almost a quarter of a million businesses, pitted Leos at the very top of the table, with 7.7 per cent of owners with that name claiming on their business insurance last year – nearly five times the national average (1.6 per cent). Brendas followed closely behind with 6.3 per cent.

Other men’s names featuring in the top five included Giuseppe, Desmond and Perry, while for women June, Gaynor, Naomi and Cheryl also proved among the most accident-prone.

On balance, men emerged as the most careless business owners – comprising 80 per cent of the top ten names most likely to make a claim. The claims themselves ranged from amputations to earthquakes, but theft, injury and accidental damage ranked as the most widespread.

At the other end of the scale, Norman took the title as the most careful name in the country – just ahead of Henry as the least likely to make a claim out of all the UK entrepreneurs studied. Frances was named most careful female business owner, narrowly pipping Hilary to the post.

Amongst small business trades, the mobile phone retail industry made the largest number of claims with 11.8 per cent of phone shops claiming in the last year, compared to an average of 1.6 per cent. Sweet shops, ice cream parlours and laundrettes also made it into the top ten most ‘careless’ trades, while masseur is statistically the ‘safest’ profession, receiving the least claims per business owner out of all the trades covered.

Scotland ranked as the ‘riskiest’ region in the country, with entrepreneurs north of the border claiming more frequently than the rest of the UK. Delving into towns and cities across the country, the findings suggest that businesses in central London are most likely to make a claim followed by Bradford and Kirkaldy in Scotland, implicating these areas as some of riskiest places in the country to start a business.

In comparison, the South West was the most careful region of the UK, with business owners claiming less than any other region in the country.

“We conducted this research to investigate any correlations that might exist between people, places and professions in insurance claims behaviour. While we wouldn’t generalise this to all business owners, the results do seem to suggest that certain names can have less luck than others, even if it’s through no fault of their own. For example injury and accidental damage featured heavily amongst the claims for male names in our top ten, whereas damage to property dominated the female ranks. Amongst our top ten names for men and women we received claims for a fracture from a painter & decorator, laceration from a pub landlord and escape of water from a coffee shop owner. The data was also interesting at trade level, revealing the extent to which certain retail business owners are particularly susceptible to theft.

“On the flipside, we discovered some interesting businesses with exceptionally low claims data, such as masseurs, florists and jewellers, suggesting these businesses are particularly adept at safeguarding themselves. Any of these trades run by people with our ‘safest’ names such as Norman and Frances might well offer the winning formula for the UK’s safest business ventures.”

Simply Business is the UK’s largest business insurance broker.

Launched in 2005, Simply Business provides tailored insurance products and services to landlords and small to medium size businesses. Due to its extensive internal underwriting capability, Simply Business can cover over 1,000 different trade types and currently insures almost 200,000 customers across the UK. A Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company for the past four years and named in the 2011 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA, Simply Business is a profitable company, which has grown revenues from £4.2 million in 2006, to £16.1 million in 2010.

Simply Business' has a team of 150 insurance specialists based in offices in London and Northampton. The company also provides business insurance services to price comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.com and Gocompare.com.
 

But the importance of the event has not yet been reflected in the candidates’ behaviour. You could be forgiven for thinking that we are watching a pantomime rather than an election campaign. The candidates have been out in earnest for some weeks now, but there have been woefully few concrete policy suggestions. In their place we have been subjected to an endless series of set-piece fights between Boris and Ken, such that the race has now been reduced to little more than a very expensive soap opera.

The country cannot afford this Punch and Judy politics. We need maturity and vision if we are to successfully navigate the choppy economic waters.

In an effort to refocus the debate, we have compiled the five main candidates’ most attractive pledges into a single ‘manifesto for business’. We aim to illustrate the convergences and the differences in the candidates’ individual manifestos, and to underscore the fact that the race should be about politics as much as it is about personality.

Crucially, though, politics and personality must learn to co-exist. The next Mayor will find themselves faced with a series of daunting tasks. They will be the face of London as the capital welcomes the world – not only during the Olympics and Paralympics, but throughout their term in office as businesses seek to build important trade links. They must also become a figurehead for a city in flux; a trusted individual who Londoners can be sure will act with integrity, regardless of political affiliation.

We do not seek to remove personality from politics. The Mayor must be a figure around whom Londoners can coalesce, and this requires charisma. But voters deserve more credit than they are being given. We need believable personalities, but not at the expense of coherent policies. Whoever wins on Thursday must be prepared to deliver both.