Whether you’re a hardback-loving technophobe or a hardcore tablet twitcher, here are six of the best books and apps on the market
Apps
Mimicker Alarm: If you’re not a morning person, the incessant beep of your phone’s alarm could lead to confusion, rage and, on a bad day, perhaps a broken handset. But there’s a new app to help banish the temptations of the snooze button and get you to the office refreshed. Mimicker Alarm, released for Android by the Microsoft Garage project, encourages users to play games once they’ve emerged from the land of nod. In order to get the grey matter going, users can take a selfie to match an emotion picked by the app, or find an object of a certain colour, or recite a tricky tongue-twisting phrase. It only takes one completed challenge to turn off the alarm, but getting your brain active might just prove to be the wake-up call you need.
Basecamp 3: Trying to sieve through a long, rambling work email chain to find an important directive or essential document can be a gruelling task. Enter Basecamp, a long-running project organisation tool, now on its third reincarnation, which bills itself as “a calmer, more peaceful way to work”. The system is the equivalent of an online meeting room, complete with an inbuilt filing cabinet and wall calendar. Project members can easily track messages, chat in real-time, see and comment on to-do lists, access key documents or files and view a centralised schedule – all within a single space. Logical and easy to navigate, it’s a pleasingly simple tool to use. As a bonus, your first account is free, but aficionados wanting more options can choose from a range of monthly paid-for packages.
SignEasy: With more than 3.5m downloads and users across 150 countries, SignEasy is a must-have app for business, especially those operating in markets where electronic signatures are legally binding, such as the US, Australia and the EU. Handy for on-the-go executives or those coordinating long-distance deals, the cloud-based app allows users to sign documents on a smartphone, tablet or computer, cutting out the need for paper. The app can operate across a variety of document formats and an iOS extension means that records can also be signed within Dropbox and Evernote. With unlimited use costing as little as $3.33 a month, and a variety of security measures also available, it could prove a valuable time-saver for small business owners.
Books
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg: In Charles Duhigg’s previous book, The Power of Habit, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the New York Times sought to find out why we do what we do. It was a bestseller, and Duhigg has returned with the same curiosity and engaged storytelling to find out how we can improve our efforts. Smarter Faster Better focuses on eight key concepts, ranging from motivation to goal setting, and draws rich parallels from the world of psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics to explain that the world’s most successful people don’t just act differently, they see the world in profoundly different ways. A thought-provoking opus, which manages to balance captivating anecdotes with the right amount of academia, it is certain to teach you a thing or two.
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp: In an impatient world, a work like Sprint is sure to get a few synapses firing. Jake Knapp was one of three designers at Google who pioneered a method for solving tough developmental problems, such as where to focus your efforts, how to begin an initiative and predicting how a concept will play out in real life. His answer was the ‘sprint’, a five-day, step-by-step process for managing such quandaries. It was first used at Google Search and Google X, before Knapp joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky at Google Ventures, where the trio helped hundreds of companies to get ahead. Now, with his methodology in print, any business from the Fortune 100 to a small startup can employ the methods and test if real change is possible within five days.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth: Never let it be said that skill trumps passion. At least, don’t say it around Angela Duckworth, a pioneering psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, whose newly-published work Grit takes the reader on a journey of persistence, beginning with her own life as the daughter of a scientist who was always criticised as a child for her lack of ‘smarts’. Steely determination led her to where she is now. Carving a path in neuroscience and psychology, as well as drawing from real-life experiences of businesspeople, teachers and politicians – from J.P. Morgan’s CEO to the cartoon editor of the New Yorker – Duckworth shows that when you’re against the ropes, it’s grit (not luck or talent) that makes all the difference.