The July Hit List: the Best Business Resources and Buys

The Best Business Podcast to Catch: This Working Life

This ABC Radio National show offers inspiration and a weekly reset for those whose default working position is heads down. Past episodes include a dive into the pluses and perils of starting a business with your spouse (spoiler: it’s not easy) and a challenging panel debate on whether flexibility is any good for companies or careers. One program sees scientists assess whether biohacks like cold showers and blue light blockers can effectively improve work performance.

The Best Productivity App to Try: Toggl

If you often ask, “Where did my day go?”, Toggl is an easy-to-use time-tracking app for iOS and Android. You create tasks by tapping a play button, add tags and folders for those tasks, then start the count on whichever task you want to tackle. And best of all, the Toggl app is free to use. You can also get it as a web application, a desktop app or a browser extension and upgrade to a more advanced version to track a team’s hours or run it as a Pomodoro Technique-style timer with preset breaks.

The Best Tech Gadget to Use: Upright Go 2 Posture Trainer

Assuming your team doesn’t include an elderly relative hired to shout “Sit up straight!” now and then, this little beauty is a tiny, strapless device designed to ace your sitting game. When placed between your shoulders, it emits gentle vibrations whenever you slump. Those who’d like to track and train their posture can pair it with a smartphone or watch.

SEE ALSO: The Tech Gadgets to Buy Before the Financial Year Ends

The Best Online Resource to Try: LinkedIn Learning

According to LinkedIn Learning, managers are spending 105 per cent more time viewing online courses since the global pandemic started. The professional networking site is contributing to all that small-screen schooling with a suite of free-until-September beginner- and intermediate-level courses aimed squarely at small businesses, covering finance, management, sales and marketing and wellbeing. There are advanced courses too among the more than 16,000 courses available to subscribers, so you can drill down into subjects including cloud computing, database management or 3D modelling. Annual subscriptions cost $39.99 a month after a month’s free trial (or get an annual subscription for $24.99 per month).

The Best Business Book to Read: Joy at Work

Anyone familiar with Marie Kondo’s bestselling books and Netflix show will know what’s in store: “We can only truly spark joy in our work life when we have put every aspect of it in order,” writes the tidying expert in Joy at Work: Organising Your Professional Life. That means ejecting everything from work except items that “spark joy” or at least help your business prosper. The guide, co-written with organisational psychologist Scott Sonenshein, was at the printers well before Australia’s COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, but some tips are useful for fans of the KonMari method while working from home, such as chiming a tuning fork to define when work hours start.