First published on Conference & Incentive Travel as part of the Stress Matters wellbeing supplement in March 2019
Many of us have a difficult relationship with technology. It helps us be more efficient in our jobs, it saves us having to print out reams of documents or rush back to the office after meetings to catch up on missed emails; it can help keep people in the loop on changes in projects and make us feel more connected to loved ones whilst on-site. There’s been huge coverage over the last 10 years about how it can also be bad for us.
According to two recent Wall Street Journal articles, a growing problem that clinical psychologists call smartphone anxiety has been growing in commonality. It’s the unnatural angst caused by not having your smartphone with you or nearby. And real anxiety occurs for many when your battery level drops to 20% or less or when you realise you didn’t bring along your charger cable.
But we believe technology can be good for us if we use it wisely (and if we have a fully charged battery!) We asked #eventprofs what tech/apps they use to help make their lives easier and stay in control.
5. MOMENT Track how much time you spend on your phone. Excellent for a kick up the bum realisation if you’ve been wondering why you don’t have enough hours in the day to get your work done. This will give you your answer (hint: the culprit is probably Instagram James Hitchen, General Manager at Event Marketing Association uses this to ensure he’s on-top of his time management.
4. FOREST Encourages you to ‘Stay focused, Be Present’ and you are rewarded with a forest of trees when you’ve not used your phone for a certain period of time (which you choose). ‘Plant’ a tree each time you start a focused task and tag what you’re spending your time on (work, sport, rest etc). Even better, the more time you’re off your phone the more ‘coins’ you earn which are used to plant real-life trees around the world. At the time of writing, 298,481 trees had been planted! Rachel Capell, Senior Producer at cievents can now focus on reading and not feeling guilty.
3. STICKK – StickK was developed by behavioural economists at Yale University. On signing up, you create a commitment contract with yourself and the app to reach your goals, you can even bet money on yourself. Sarah Yeats, Managing Director at Sledge uses this to make sure she’s building up her running, which in turn also helps her to manage her stress levels.
2. HEADSPACE – For those in the industry that need support switching off and focusing the mind, Headspace is one of the best. Meditation sessions to suit you, the length of time, the style and the frequency you want. Lucy Aitken, Head of Operations at XYZ uses this to create little moments of space in her day.
1. TRELLO – This was our favourite free tool for work, life, and everything else. If your work is project-based, this is an excellent tool to organise yourself and your team members or clients. Easy to create multiple lists, move things between lists, integrate tasks with your emails and calendar and it has a nicely considered design too.
Every client that we have recommended this to has loved it! Jennifer Houlihan, Freelance Project Manager, Cassidy Knowles, Operations Director at Rizer London and Holly Mills, Head of Incentives at penguins all use Trello to stay in control and to work seamlessly with their teams.
Other tools that got a mention included Dropbox, Asana, Strava and Sleep Cycle.
So if you haven’t tried some of the above tools, give them a go and remember everything in moderation (and keep your portable charger with you and charged !)
