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5 Quick Tips to Avoid a Sales Slump During the Holidays
Collaboration 7 min read

5 Quick Tips to Avoid a Sales Slump During the Holidays

Some businesses almost make an audible sound of relief as they ring in the New Year. Truth be told, not all businesses fare well during holiday shopping madness. For retailers, year-end is often the busiest time of year for sales. For service providers, however, a slow season from Thanksgiving to New Years is almost expected… But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are five tips you can implement right away to avoid the dreaded holiday sales slump. As luck would have it, these tips can also be implemented any other time you’re experiencing a major sales nosedive. 1. Use Seasonal Content Marketing to Your Benefit People crave content, especially related to things going on in the here and now, like holidays and current events. Christmas and New Years (or any other holiday or major event) can provide major opportunities to cash in on content people are already searching for. A recent study from Outbrain indicates that people not only spend more money during the holidays, but also consume more digital content. So much content, in fact, that the demand is greater than the supply. Think about two basic things: what your customers need and what they’re already searching for online. For example, a couple good content ideas for the new year if you’re a business service provider might be: “5 Business Resolutions for the New Year That Will Transform Your Business” or “5 Quick Ways to Avoid a Sales Slump During the Holidays”. (See what I did there!?) 2. Master Your Upsell Upselling and cross-promoting are good sales practices any time of the year, but they can be especially useful for bringing in cold hard cash when you’re going through a slump. It’s much easier to sell an existing customer an additional product than it is to drum up an entirely new customer. If you’re new at upselling, it’s best to keep your upsale options limited. More is not always better, and can confuse the customer. Offering one or two upgrades or add-ons is more effective than offering a bevy of options. Business experts also suggest bundling your products or services to make the upsell. The likelihood that a customer will purchase multiple services increases if they can do it in one purchase, as opposed to multiple purchases. For example, if you can offer a package that includes social media, email marketing, and SEO, you’re more likely to make the sale than if you try to sell them separately. 3. Ramp Up Your Referral Discounts The holiday season is an opportunity for demonstrating your gratitude to your clients, customers, and business contacts. When you’re experiencing a sales slump, it’s a good time to make a list of your valued clientele and business providers. In addition to sending your valued clients a tasteful holiday greeting, you can also ramp up your referral discounts to drum up a bit of extra business. If your business contacts feel appreciated, they’re a lot more likely to send people your way. Freeman Lewin, CEO of corporate gift company Gimmee Jimmy’s Cookies, talked about the effectiveness of referral discounts by saying, “The one thing that makes successful companies stand out from the rest is how they treat their customers and peers. Never underestimate the power of referral discounts and appreciation.”  4. The Power of PR & Self-Promotion The one good thing about going through a sales slump is that it gives you extra time to focus on your PR and branding. Too often business spend every waking hour pleasing their customers (which is a good business practice, no doubt), but much to the detriment of their own marketing. There’s no time like a sales slump to revamp your marketing and PR campaigns. Never be afraid to toot your own horn. If you have positive customer testimonials, share them. If you’ve recently won an award or been featured in a business magazine, flaunt it. Perception is reality and how customers perceive your brand can make or break a buying decision. Shameless self-promotion doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. 5. Refine Your Sales Process When was the last time you really performed an audit on your sales process? Is the way you’re drumming up business really that effective? Take the time you’re in a sales slump to measure the return on investment for your key sales activities and make changes where necessary. You just might find that you can eliminate those cold calls after all, and get higher conversion rates with warm marketing. Refining your sales process to include only the activities that generate a high return can not only get you out of the holiday slump, but also increase your profit the rest of the year. Bonus Tip: Followup, Followup, Followup Followup should be a standard sales practice all year round, but it’s one that most people miss. There’s no time like the end of the year to reach out to contacts you’ve talked to throughout the year and find out if the timing is right for collaboration. Leading with something of value, such as a related case study or trending news story, is always the best followup option, rather than just calling and asking for business. Think Outside the Box While your business is idling, chances are there are others looking around for opportunities to expand. The holiday season is the best time to reach out to new and existing contacts and see what opportunities you can bring to each other. Be flexible. There’s no time like the present to explore new avenues for sales and examine new ideas. Think outside the box.           About the Author: Blair Nicole is a PR & Media Relations guru by profession and a writer by choice. She’s a contributor at Elite Daily, Social Media Today, Examiner, and Inquisitr, among others. She’s a full time traveling nomad and sits on the Board of Directors for 3 non-profits. Her motto is ‘kick ass, don’t kiss it.’ www.Blair-Nicole.com

New Year's Resolutions are Worthless Without These 4 Things
Productivity 5 min read

New Year's Resolutions are Worthless Without These 4 Things

Most of us make work-related New Year's resolutions knowing we'll probably fail within the first four weeks. But we do it anyway. Because the beginning of a year is always an optimistic time, and working toward a promotion, or a salary raise, or inbox zero, or improving communication is a noble aim. But the numbers are against you. According to a survey of over 3,000 people conducted by British psychologist Richard Wiseman, 88% of all resolutions end in failure. So those New Year's resolutions you posted on Facebook and bragged about at the office holiday party? They're likely to fail — unless, by sheer force of will, you're able to do the following: 1. Cure yourself from your need for (or addiction to) instant gratification Kelly McGonigal, Stanford University health psychologist and author of The Willpower Instinct, posits that people who are having a tough time sticking to their resolutions aren't experiencing difficulty because their goals are flawed. Merely that it takes a lot of willpower to stick to long-term goals. This is particularly tough when we (and our entire culture) value the gratification of short-term desires. It's always a struggle between giving in to the "future self" versus the "immediate self." TIP: Keep your "future self" in mind. Remember the kids put to the marshmallow test? If you can decide against instant gratification and tolerate temporary discomfort, you will be more fully able to stick to resolutions that have long-term benefits.   2. Remove yourself from situations of temptation And speaking of the marshmallow test...  original researcher Walter Mischel figured out that the children who were successfully able to delay gratification weren't wired any differently from the unsuccessful kids. They simply adopted a better strategy, something Mischel dubbed the “strategic allocation of attention.” The kids stayed under the table, or covered their eyes, or tied and retied shoelaces — any activity to get their minds off the marshmallow or to obscure it from their view. TIP: To resist the temptation of your own personal "marshmallow," you have to remove yourself from its presence, or from situations which trigger you wanting it.  3. Stick with it for at least 66 days Roy Baumeister's book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength suggests concentrating on only one goal at a time. Baumeister explains that willpower is like a muscle that we can exhaust, so you have to concentrate on one goal at a time for success. But alongside this, every resolution boils down to reprogramming your mind to adopt a new habit. And researchers say that new habits require an average of 66 days (or a little over two months) to fully form. In fact if the behavior is particularly complex, it may take up to eight months! TIP: Don't throw in the towel after just a week. Give your new habit an actual chance to make a change in your life. Learn more from our Slideshare about productive habits: 4. Limit the amount of stuff you're memorizing In an experiment led by Baba Shiv at Stanford University, two groups were tasked with memorizing a number. One group was given two digits, and a second group was given seven digits. Then they had to decide between eating a slice of chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit salad. The students who had to memorize the seven-digit number were nearly twice as likely to choose the cake as students given two digits. It's a concept called cognitive load —  the idea that the total amount of mental effort (the need to memorize extra numbers, for example) saps our ability to do other things, such as resist high calorie desserts or stick to resolutions. TIP: Instead of keeping stuff in your brain, unload your ideas and to-do items into a trusted organizational system that you can refer to anytime you need. It's a fundamental principle of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity method. What makes your New Year's resolutions worthwhile? What advice do you have for sticking to your resolutions? Hit the comments and help us out by letting us know what keeps you in line after the new year!

Wrike's Favorite Christmas Songs (A YouTube Playlist)
Productivity 5 min read

Wrike's Favorite Christmas Songs (A YouTube Playlist)

We thought it would be great fun to assemble a Christmas video playlist of a few of our favorite songs for the Holiday Season. So here are our top 14 Christmas tracks.

4 Tips to Improve Your Time Management this Holiday Season
Productivity 5 min read

4 Tips to Improve Your Time Management this Holiday Season

The holidays are stressful. Here are four ways you can step up your productivity and organization in time for the season... and the year to come.

Santa's Secrets to Christmas Productivity
Productivity 3 min read

Santa's Secrets to Christmas Productivity

It's been a question for centuries: How does Santa Claus get all the gifts ready and fly around the world to deliver every present on Christmas Eve? While you're sitting around roasting chestnuts on an open fire, Santa and his friendly helpers are busy counting down the days left until Christmas. We have the inside scoop on how he gets it all done in time — straight from ol' Saint Nick himself! A few decades ago, Santa was struggling with accountability and lost information. He had no way to assign work to his elves, and The List was missing some important notes. He almost ALWAYS had to check it twice. Ever since Santa switched to Wrike to manage Christmas, his crew has been able to dole out assignments, manage work leading up to their biggest milestone (Christmas Eve), and accurately track the lists of naughty and nice children. Here are his top 3 Wrike secrets to getting everything done before Christmas: 1. Build a Timeline to Help With Pre-Christmas Planning At the beginning of each year, Santa and his helpers map out their plans for the next 12 months on a Gantt chart. They schedule when The List needs to be finalized, as well as when gifts need to be completed leading up to their big delivery date on Christmas Eve. Santa turns to this feature when he needs a high-level view of the toy-making tasks to make sure nothing is falling through the cracks. Since Christmas Eve is set as a milestone, Santa can move around the order in which work is being done without accidentally pushing production past the Big Day. 2. Create a Folder and Identify Who's Been Naughty or Nice Santa creates The List right in Wrike. He creates a Wrike folder titled "The List" and each individual on The List is has their own task. The Christmas wishes of individuals are included in their task description. Santa also leaves comments on each task to record good behavior he's noticed throughout the year. When people on The List volunteer, help someone need, or maybe make peace with the in-laws, he'll write down their good deeds for future reference. His uses his Custom Statuses "Naughty" and "Nice" to mark The List accordingly — so be good for goodness sake! 3. Assign Workers to Build the Gifts Once The List is finished and Christmas is nigh, Santa begins assigning his helpers to their tasks. He creates a folder called "The Gifts" and makes tasks for presents requested on The List by people marked as "Nice". Each task is tagged with the name of the individual requesting it, and assigned to the elf that will build it for them. So there you have it! Santa's secrets are out and that time of the year is upon us. We hope these tips made you chuckle and delight, and help make your holidays a little more merry and bright. We only gave away a few of Santa's tricks in this post. What other Wrike features do you think he uses to manage Christmas? Share your creative ideas in the comments!

Ho-Ho-How Santa's Workshop Manages Christmas
Project Management 5 min read

Ho-Ho-How Santa's Workshop Manages Christmas

Santa Claus: one of the most well-known, eagerly anticipated, and incredibly successful entrepreneurs in history. Each year he oversees the production and distribution of toys to every single child on his Nice List — and with over 1.9 billion children on Earth, that's a lot of toys! He hasn't missed a year yet, but that's not to say it's all sunshine and snow angels. I met Mr. Claus for a cup of hot cocoa and he shared a few tips about how he runs the most successful toy workshop out of the North Pole. Not surprisingly, the big man has taken some project management training courses.  From the jolly good fellow himself, here's how Santa's workshop manages to pull off Christmas: Plan and evaluate every day leading up to the Big Give. We always start our new year of toy production by outlining the requirements and scope for pulling off a successful Christmas. That means outlining all 365 days leading up to the finale, not just the 12 days that everyone sings about. It's a long process, but it sets the workshop up for another successful year. Our planning meetings are supplemented by many glasses of milk and platters of cookies to get all the elves excited. We review "The List" from years past to see how many gifts we gave, and predict how many children will make the Nice list this year.  We do some market research to guess what toys will be high in demand this year. Yes, even Santa goes online! We set up benchmarks to hit throughout the year. How many dolls will we make by February, March, April, etc.? We also calculate the projected workload compared to how many elves we have employed this year, and then see if we need to hire additional help to meet our goals. Santa's Crumb of Wisdom: Take time to plan out every step of your project, and make sure you have the resources necessary to fulfill your goals. Consider every voice, big or small. I get letters from children all over the world 365 days a year. Billy wants a puppy; Jane wants a Princess Elsa doll. Since they take the time to send me their wishes, I read what they have to say and take their letters into consideration. If we're already making Princess Elsa dolls, I will certainly give one to Jane — why not please her when it's easily within my power? Billy is difficult though, since we typically let parents give out the new pets. Sometimes I have to upset a few children by deciding to say no, but I always make sure to listen first before rejecting their ideas.  Santa's Crumb of Wisdom: Hear and actually consider what everyone — especially every customer — has to say, and THEN make your decision. Prepare for changes to The List. The real challenge at my workshop is managing fluctuations of "The List." Wishy-washy children have a tendency to change what they want ("I don't like Princess Elsa anymore, I want Olaf!"), or jump back and forth between Naughty and Nice, and the number of toys we need to produce changes accordingly. Every year we further refine our Nice-to-Naughty List algorithm, but it is still impossible to control these outside influencers! Our solution has been to insert some padding into our toy production timeline so that we don't miss our benchmarks even when the children are unpredictable. Santa's Crumb of Wisdom: Analyze your project risks and plan how you will deal with them ahead of time. Clearly communicate processes — from who's in charge to how to wrap a gift. My Head Elf manages the whole project, from start until Christmas Day. She's responsible for closely tracking our project progress. Accordingly, she dictates what's on the production lines each day. If we need more bricks or dolls, the elves in those departments hear it from her, no one else.  Personally, I check in with her weekly to get a progress update, and I let her know if there are any changes to The List via our project management tool so she can properly adjust the toy production plan. Santa's Crumb of Wisdom: Set up communication guidelines in advance so everyone knows whom to go to with questions or problems. Schedule snow days. I think it's important to reward my elves with well-deserved breaks. It builds loyalty to the workshop so that they'll come back again next year. Cookie breaks: We frequently take cookie breaks together for a mid-day sugar rush of productive energy and some bonding time — which is important when you spend so much time together. Celebrating achievements: When we hit our half-way benchmark last year, the elves celebrated with a huge snowball fight that lasted over 4 hours! I did not win — those elves are nimble! Holiday breaks: After we've finished our delivery, December 26th until January 1st is always a company-wide holiday as a thanks for 360 days of hard work. Every elf is encouraged to relax, spend time with their families, and go reindeer-back riding. Santa's Crumb of Wisdom: If you want to keep your team happy, make sure they know you appreciate them! Actions speak louder than words; group outings make for fun bonding time. Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Don't want to rely on Santa to bring everyone gifts this year? Read this next: 34 Holiday Buys for Productivity Junkies (Gift Guide)

7 Ways to Bring the Holiday Spirit to Your Office
Productivity 3 min read

7 Ways to Bring the Holiday Spirit to Your Office

With the holidays quickly approaching, it's becoming more and more difficult to stay focused in the office. Instead of avoiding the holiday distraction and enforcing maximum productivity across your team, it's important to come to terms with the fact that the holidays are a busy time, and the month of December will probably not be the most productive month. *gasp*

How to Plan a Virtual Christmas Party for Remote Employees
Remote Working 10 min read

How to Plan a Virtual Christmas Party for Remote Employees

As 2021 draws to a close, many employees are still working remotely across the world. With this in mind, businesses are looking at how they can involve everyone within their organizations in a fun and memorable virtual Christmas party. In this guide, we’ll provide practical insight into the planning and hosting of virtual Christmas parties. Keep reading to discover the tips, tricks, and tools you need to create a successful digital event your team will actually enjoy.  How to get everyone involved in a virtual Christmas party Engaging an audience of remote workers seems challenging at first. They’re already used to virtual events but not necessarily the fun kind. In order to make your virtual Christmas party exciting, you’ll need to follow some best practices for planning virtual events. The three hallmarks of improving engagement at any virtual event are the inclusion of a physical component, an interactive process, and being able to see other attendees.  A physical component of a virtual event can include something sent to an attendee’s address ahead of time that they can use on the day. For a virtual Christmas party, this may be a funny themed hat or a present.  Most companies choose to do virtual gift cards as their Christmas party presents for employees. Instead, make the day more exciting by sending a physical gift to every attendee. Creating a gift box or basket that people can actually open will make your virtual Christmas party that much more memorable.  An interactive process requires audience participation before, during, and after the event. For example, you can spark engagement from the moment you first invite guests by using a virtual registration process that gets them excited about the event.  For large groups or events, registration should be done at least two weeks in advance. And just like at an in-person event, your virtual Christmas party team leads should interact with the confirmed attendees ahead of time through fun event reminders and announcements.  Pro tip: Having a virtual event registration process helps differentiate your virtual Christmas party from other digital office gatherings. It shows that this is more than just a calendar invite for a training session or regular meeting. E-cards such as the festive holiday cocktail party ones from Paperless Post are great for this.  Finally, host your virtual Christmas party on a video call platform and not just on a one-way livestream or audio-only app. Require cameras to be on throughout the event. Create opportunities for guests to use every feature of the event platform.  For example, you can play part games and designate teams by having Team A use the raised hand emoji and Team B use the heart emoji on Zoom. You can also use breakout rooms to create smaller groups for team building activities and Christmas-themed challenges.  Top tips for planning a virtual Christmas party Planning a virtual Christmas party can feel and look a lot like planning a virtual work meeting. Here are some ways to make these two events different yet well organized:  Designate a charismatic host who can keep track of the event timeline and keep everyone engaged.  Use a team collaboration software like Wrike to project manage your virtual Christmas party.  Ask your team what they’d like to see happen at the virtual Christmas party so they can feel involved in the planning process too.  Include team building activities and icebreaker games to kick off the social part of the evening.  Double-check that your host WiFi is strong and guests can hear and see you clearly.  Your party should be scheduled for a Friday night instead of a Saturday afternoon if you want to maximize attendance. If you decide to go all out, make sure to provide alcohol-free transportation or driver services. If you organize a virtual Christmas party during work hours, make certain that your team is prepared to handle the additional workload. Go all out with your background decorations to make the event feel truly special. This can be a physical background filled with a Christmas tree and gifts or a customized virtual background everyone can use that has a festive design.  Virtual Christmas party ideas and games your team won't hate Host a sommelier-led wine or hot cocoa tasting complete with nuts, candies, and cheese.  Participate in a remote escape room experience. The winning team gets a Secret Santa gift.  Have a Christmas cookie decorating competition with management as the judges. This requires some prep ahead of time but will be a visual feast for all attendees.  Dress to a theme and host a contest for the best ugly sweaters, Santas, and other Christmas character outfits.  Bring in classic board games such as bingo, charades, and virtual Apples to Apples. Look for versions with a holiday or Christmas twist.  Invite guest performers to do stand-up comedy, play live music, or even do magic while dressed as Santa.  If children are in attendance, screen a Christmas movie like “A Muppet Christmas Carol”. If it’s adults only, watch something like “Die Hard”.  Host a creative workshop such as cocktail making, scarf knitting, or ornament crafting.  Invite a local school, church, or community group to sing Christmas carols during the event.  Start a Christmas-themed trivia game for prizes.  How do you make a virtual Christmas party inclusive? Although there are various holiday celebrations and festivities that happen throughout the year, they seldom get the same attention that they deserve. An inclusive approach encourages employees to recognize that they come from a variety of faiths, traditions, and cultures. To make your virtual Christmas party more inclusive, leaders should make their employees feel valued by turning it into a virtual office holiday party instead.  Or, if hosting a true Christmas celebration is important to the majority of your team, make sure you’re upfront about it.  Sometimes an employer will announce a regular holiday event that ends up feeling, looking, and sounding a lot like a Christmas party. But according to the experts at the Society for Human Resource Management, it’s much better to be upfront about which holiday or holidays will be represented at your party than mislabeling it for the sake of inclusion.  If you do host a virtual Christmas party, make sure to also acknowledge and give the appropriate time off for other winter holiday celebrations for employees who celebrate those instead.  How to plan a virtual Christmas party with Wrike Wrike is an online task management system that manages to-do lists and multi-department projects, including events like virtual Christmas parties. Its advanced features allow it to efficiently organize groups of people.  To start, it's important that the virtual Christmas party planning team has a centralized folder for each major portion of the event running at the same time. This way, they can easily identify which parts of the plan are complete and which ones are still in progress. Next, each team has its own subfolders, which can be organized into areas of responsibility and major initiatives. This system also keeps all of the important details organized, allowing each team to set its own deadlines and work seamlessly with the other event crew. For virtual Christmas parties, this means keeping track of everything from mailing invitations and gifts to arranging live performers.  After, Wrike users can add a registration folder to their virtual Christmas party project. The registration folder contains all the necessary information related to attendee registration. From there, tasks can be broken down into specific sub-tasks with more detail. For example, if your task is to host a cookie baking contest, your sub-task list may include the item “draft contest rules by December 15”.  In addition to adding dates to tasks and sub-tasks, members of the event management team can add custom tags to each item. This will make tasks easier to find, sort, and assign to the appropriate team members.  Each team can customize their tag options in Wrike to fit their own guidelines for breaking down tasks into action items. For example, teams can designate certain tasks as “Administrative” to automatically sort logistics-based tasks into one skimmable list.  Once you've created a list of tasks, you can start scheduling them in Wrike. Doing so in the timeline view will help organize them nicely and ensure that your announcements, invitations, RSVPs, and party shopping all get done on time.  There are lots of ways to view tasks once you have them created and assigned. Drag-and-drop tasks can be organized in a timeline view. You can also group them into predefined hierarchies.  And if one task is dependent on another (such as waiting for RSVPs to come in before putting together the gift baskets), Wrike allows users to connect tasks and send automated notifications and reminders to the appropriate people when it’s time to move on to the next steps.  Having task dependencies makes it easier to identify which tasks are dependent on which part of your virtual Christmas party plan. Also, it saves you time when you need to update the status of a specific task since Wrike will trigger these reminders for you.  And after your virtual Christmas party is over, you can simply just drag and drop the entire folder into a "Past Events" folder for next year.  Create a templated version of your planning process to streamline future event planning and organizing. Or simply keep a record of the fun everyone had and how you brought it to life.  No matter how you use the information, it’s handy to have on file within your project management system for future reference.  Ready to get your virtual Christmas party organized and on track to be a big hit? Get started today with Wrike’s two-week free trial to take advantage of our detailed task management capabilities. 

6 Reasons Home Alone's Kevin McAllister is a Project Management Genius
Project Management 5 min read

6 Reasons Home Alone's Kevin McAllister is a Project Management Genius

It’s the time of the year: everyone’s humming carols, organizing cookie swaps, and re-watching their favorite classic Christmas movies. During a screening of Home Alone here at Wrike HQ, we couldn’t help but notice the young protagonist's stellar project management skills, and started taking notes.

15 Under $15: Business Books to Gift to Your Colleagues This Holiday Season
Leadership 7 min read

15 Under $15: Business Books to Gift to Your Colleagues This Holiday Season

It's that time of year again. When you're so busy scrambling around at  the last minute trying to buy gifts for your family that you completely forget about your colleagues! The biggest challenge in colleague gifting is finding something that is both useful and inexpensive.  Our solution? A business book! A book that inspires leadership, entrepreneurship, passion, and creativity can help propel their career, and possibly benefit your team as a whole. Here's a curated list of 15 great business books under $15 to give as 2015 holiday gifts: 1. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal What turns products into habits? And how do you make those habits long-lasting? Author and entrepreneur Nir Eyal unlocks the secret to building habit-forming products with his four-step process called the Hook Model. We were even lucky enough to interview Eyal about his book and how the Hook Model helps you better understand your customers.   2. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini  An oldie but goodie: Dr. Robert B. Cialdini reveals the psychology behind why people say "yes" and how to put the art of persuasion into practice. This book explores the six universal principles of persuasion, and teaches you how to use them as well as how to combat them.  3. Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential by John Neffinger & Matthew Kohut As required reading at both Harvard and Columbia Business School, this book has a lot to offer. Everyone wishes they could be as influential as Oprah Winfrey or Taylor Swift. However, since most of us do not fall under the international celebrity category, what qualities make us influential? Neffinger and Kohut discuss how the balance of strength (root of respect) and warmth (root of affection) is the key to becoming charismatic and influential, and they reveal ways to apply that balance in your daily life. 4. So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport Have you ever heard the phrase "follow your passion?" Well, Newport says stop. He claims that pre-existing passions usually have nothing to do with why people end up loving their jobs and can be a source of anxiety and stress. In this book, Newport explores the welcoming world of people who love their jobs. He shares their strategies and experiences, as well as the obstacles they've faced and lessons they've learned along the way. 5. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam M. Grant Praised by Amazon, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2013, this book really brings home the spirit of the holidays. Grant shows how the secret to success is not necessarily talent or passion, but how we interact with others. He reveals how giving without receiving anything in return can positively impact success and transform organizations.  6. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi In Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's account of psychological contentment, he describes "flow" as being a state of consciousness that makes our experiences easier to manage and more enjoyable. During flow, a person may experience joy, creativity, and feel completely engaged with whatever they're doing. In this book, he explains in-depth about how to reach this state, and even control it, on a regular basis.  7. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Today, innovation is more important than ever. With more and more technologies readily available at our fingertips, the battle between the young startups and the tech giants continues to grow. Ries uncovers why some startups fail and others don't, and why it's important to have an even balance of efficiency and uncertainty in your startup mix. His scientific approach helps growing teams maximize their strengths, recognize their weaknesses, and embrace agility.  8. Purple Cow by Seth Godin Cow are pretty much everywhere. And once you've seen one cow, you've seen them all. Unless you see a Purple Cow; you'd probably remember where and when you saw it. In this book, Godin talks about the qualities that make companies like Starbucks, Netflix, and Apple into Purple Cows. He urges you to put the Purple Cow into everything you create, dream, and think. 9. Drive by Daniel H. Pink This book argues against the idea that people are motivated by material items such as money. Instead, Pink suggests that people are motivated by improving themselves, expanding their own knowledge and experiences, and directing their own lives. Pink's techniques for changing perspective help people transform how they think, work, behave, and live.  10. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman  Written by world-renowned author and Nobel Prize Winner, Daniel Kahneman, this book takes you on an astounding journey through the way we think and looks at the psychology of what motivates us. One side of the brain is known as fast, impulsive, and intuitive, while the other side is slower, cautious, and logical. He provides insight into our decision-making process and how we can avoid the mistakes that often lead to trouble.  11. Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull What's the recipe to magic?  Written by co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, Catmull dives into what it's like to work at and be a leader in one of the most successful film and animation studios in the world. Also featured on our top books every manager should read list, this book really takes you behind the scenes and explores how to be a great leader at an exceptional company.  12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho One of my personal favorites, this one is hard to put down. In this book, you join a young boy named Santiago on his quest to Egypt after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there. The story's theme revolves around finding one's destiny, and Coelho recognizes it as more of a self-help book rather than literature. On Santiago's journey, the author hopes readers find the truth in following their dreams and encouraging others to do the same.  13. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters They say imitation is the finest form of flattery. But if you're the imitator, what does that make you? This book teaches you how to build on a whole new idea of your own making, and transform it from "zero to one."  14. The 4-hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss We all know the newest from of currency is time, not money. This ultimate life productivity guide provides worksheets, templates, and shortcuts for getting more done during the week without sacrificing quality or income. It shares real-life examples of how people have doubled their income while shortening their workweek.  15. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek Another feature on our top books for managers list, this one exposes the sacrifice involved in  being a good leader. Through actual examples and experiences, Sinek proves that individuals only perform well when they feel safe within their group — confirming that the most successful teams value trust and cooperation above all else.  Any favorites that aren't on this list? Add them in the comments!

How to Throw a Killer Office Holiday Party Your Team Will Love
Collaboration 5 min read

How to Throw a Killer Office Holiday Party Your Team Will Love

Holding an office holiday party? You don’t need a huge budget or lavish event to make your team feel special! All you need are a few creative ideas. Here are our tips for throwing a holiday bash your team will rave about all year long.

Can't We All Just Get Along? How to Collaborate with Relatives on Thanksgiving
Collaboration 3 min read

Can't We All Just Get Along? How to Collaborate with Relatives on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is that time when families come together to give thanks for all the good things that happened throughout the year. There's turkey, conversations, overflowing food, and, boy, can there be drama. For many of us, it seems like the minute you need to collaborate with your relatives on a project as major as Thanksgiving dinner, friction appears. So how do you deal with this? How do we all just GET ALONG?     We previously posted about how to project manage Thanksgiving dinner, so check that out first for some solid tips on making sure the dinner is successful and pleases all stakeholders.  What we want to underscore however, is that there are concrete ways to ensure smooth collaboration, even among the prickliest of in-laws. Our tried-and-tested tips:   1. Over Communicate Details and Expectations. Communicate the important dates and times: which days and what times people are arriving, what time you're serving the food on the day itself, etc. Include your expectations for the type of menu you want to serve. But remember, make sure you communicate that this is a suggestion only. Because if you want to avoid friction you need to pay attention to tip #2.  2. Don't Micromanage!  Collaboration is about each person bringing in their ideas and contributing to a whole. This means: allow your collaborators to chime in with their ideas for food, decor, music, whatever else you need. Don't dictate what they bring. Allow it to come from them. Even if it doesn't fit with your idyllic vision (e.g. someone just volunteered to bring chicken curry for a themed Italian dinner), don't shut them down. If they're dead set on bringing it, you'll only create ill will by blocking them. Simply remind them about the suggested theme, but in the end, let them bring what they want. Hold on. Are you frothing at the mouth already because your vision for a perfectly themed dinner won't be fully realized?  Then you need #3. 3. Accept the Chaos Gracefully.  Thanksgiving dinners will always generate a small percentage of havoc. It's part and parcel of the family experience, of people living far apart coming together. People might bring weird desserts. In-laws may make comments about your shabby decor. Or about one another's inferior cooking techniques. Or about Aunt Emma's affair. Smile! Be gracious! And if needed, there's a bottle of Chardonnay in the back of the cabinet that you can use to soothe your nerves.    4.  Look at the Silver Lining. In the end, it all boils down to how you choose to perceive the final product. You have a home full of loving (though maybe sometimes exasperating) people gathered about you, and a feast that would feed several starving nations twice over. Even if it doesn't go according to the plans in your head, you've come up with a product (the dinner, the experience) that still somehow pleases its intended audience (your family, loved ones, in-laws, out-laws). And THAT, my dear friends and blog readers, is what it's all about.  Cheers, and happy Thanksgiving!  IMAGE CREDITS: Kenny Louie on Flickr. Some rights reserved. 

6 Ways to Make Sure You Unplug and Recharge During the Holidays
Productivity 3 min read

6 Ways to Make Sure You Unplug and Recharge During the Holidays

Thanksgiving is coming. You'll finally be on vacation. The leftovers from the family feast will be stored in the refrigerator and all your Black Friday presents will be opened, installed, and played with. So what next? I'm betting half of you will check your work email just to see if there are any fires to put out. But hold on; don't give in to the urge right away. The challenge to keep work from interrupting your well-deserved vacation is difficult. According to the Randstad US Employee Engagement Study released just this August 2015, 46% of US employees worry about work while on vacation, and 49% are stressed upon their return. Yikes! You can avoid that extra stress by following these 6 very easy steps to truly enjoy your vacation and recharge: 1. Close Your Open Loops The only real way to enjoy your vacation guilt-free is to tie up loose ends before you get to your holiday destination. This involves informing your team about your travel schedule and ensuring there is a point person who can be contacted while you're away. Traditionally, vacationeers set up out-of-office messages for email and phone so everyone knows you're away. While some entrepreneurs consider this kind of disconnecting losing out on opportunities for future business, going offline is really the only way to vacation stress-free. Just ensure all tasks with deadlines that fall within your time off are delegated to someone else, or else postponed for your return. 2. Do Last Minute Work at the Airport In case you need some last minute work done before you begin relaxing, then make use of your airport time and the downtime you have on the flight. Just make sure you pack all the needed gear. 3. Put the Work Apps Away In general, your vacation will be more enjoyable if you can close down your work apps  and resist checking your work email. Also, turn off your notifications! We won't suggest you lock your phone away in the hotel safe or in the hallway closet — because we know you can't do it (and neither can we). 4. No Devices at Mealtime Designate all mealtimes as periods where devices are put away and face-to-face conversation can be had. That's how our grandparents used to do it! 5. Jot Down Ideas, Old School If an idea comes to you related to work, don't open your computer and get sucked into doing work. Instead, jot down notes using a pen and a small (analog) notebook. Then put them away for later reference. 6. Set a Timer If Needed If work is truly inescapable during your vacation, then set a Pomodoro timer for yourself and stick to a strict 25 minutes of work per day. A lot can be done in 25 minutes if you know that's your only window. If you need more than that, then prepare for some backlash from family and/or friends. How Do You Recharge? Just remember that vacation is your chance to get away from the stress of work and the politics of the workplace. If you invite the stress back in by engaging in work-related tasks, you're wasting a perfect opportunity to recharge the spirit and return to work ready to face all its various challenges. Have a tip for maximizing your vacation? Share it in the comments.

9 Keys to Staying Productive at the Airport
Productivity 3 min read

9 Keys to Staying Productive at the Airport

With Thanksgiving just days away, many of us will be flying back home to enjoy family, feasting, and some much needed rest from the last few grueling weeks of work. Before you cut the cord and proceed to the airport without your work devices, use that boring downtime waiting through plane delays to complete a few last-minute tasks, so you can completely relax during the holiday. Not sure how to focus in such a hectic environment? Read on for our best practices on working while in an airport. I. Your Airport Kit Pack All Your Gear: Your phone charger, your laptop and power cord, all necessary cables and external drives, plus analog stuff. And always bring your own power strip. It makes life easier when battling strangers over the limited number of outlets; it's also a great way to instantly make new friends. Set Your Playlist: Along with the gear, prepare your playlists on your mobile device. Load up the podcasts you want to listen to or the music you'll need as background for working. Don't assume your WiFi connection will be reliable. Bring the Cans: Make sure you bring along a good pair of noise-canceling headphones. This will probably be the only way you can override the noise in airports and on the plane. It's also your best solution to help you get into the flow. II. How to Work While You Wait for Your Flight Arrive Early: The first trick for getting in the right frame of mind for last-minute productivity in the airport is to arrive a little bit earlier and get through the check-in lines before they burst with everyone's pent-up holiday entitlement and (sometimes) rage. Find a Home Base: Once that's done, find a good spot as your home base. You might be familiar enough with the airport to know where to settle down. But if not, use Foursquare to get crowd-sourced recommendations for places to work near electrical outlets. The ideal places are airport restaurants, airport lounges, sometimes even a chapel if there is one. The absolute worst place to work is the boarding area where the noisy, swelling crowd will distract you faster than you can load Facebook. Use Airport Lounge 1-Day Passes: If you're already someone who frequent these hallowed areas, proceed to the next section. If you aren't, it may be good to know that some airport lounges offer one-day passes which give you: free WiFi, snacks, and even have complimentary drinks. Most importantly, these spaces are relatively comfy, quiet, and electrical outlets abound. Focus on the Busywork: Working at the airport may not be the best place to do high-level problem solving or brain-heavy creation. Depending on how long you have, this might be the perfect time to clear out your email inbox, organize the files on your downloads folder or desktop, even organize your notes in Wrike. Brainstorm Ideas on a Notebook: Layovers can also be a time to think over ideas for projects you want to work on in the next six months — whether these are personal or work projects. Get Some Exercise: In the absence of any motivation to get work done, you can still keep yourself from vegetating in the boarding area by walking around. Get some exercise. Do some pushups or crunches. Just stay away from the candy shop. More Road Warrior Tools and Tips If you're constantly traveling for work, then you should check out our recommendations for travel gear and travel tips.

9 Simple Ways to Give Thanks to Your Team
Collaboration 7 min read

9 Simple Ways to Give Thanks to Your Team

Sometimes, it seems like the spirit of the holiday season is lost on us. Here are a few simple ways you can give thanks to your team to encourage happier and more confident employees.

Enjoy the Turkey: A Project Manager’s Guide to Surviving Thanksgiving Day
Project Management 5 min read

Enjoy the Turkey: A Project Manager’s Guide to Surviving Thanksgiving Day

Many people see project management as a complicated tangle of work breakdown structures, spreadsheets, critical path timelines, risk assessments… There’s a reason they give out certifications for this stuff! But as David Allen astutely points out everyone is a project manager — especially on Thanksgiving Day.  What size turkey do you need? What if dinner’s ready, but the guests are late? Or they show up two hours early? Is there such a thing as gluten-free gravy? With so many variables to juggle and plans to coordinate, let’s turn to the experts: how would a certified project manager pull off the perfect Turkey Day? Step 1: Define your scope. How big of a celebration do you want? How many guests? Do you want to break out the good china or would you rather have a casual, "grab a plate and have at it" meal? Is dinner served at precisely 4 pm, or would you rather have an all-day, "drop in and grab a piece of pie" affair?  Project Manager’s Tip: Don’t do more than you need to. If your guests aren’t going to notice or care about hand-lettered, gold-foiled name cards, don’t waste the time, money, and effort creating them.  Step 2: Make a plan. Sort out your menu, whom you’re going to invite, who’s bringing what, figure out the seating chart, create your shopping list.  Project Manager’s Tip: Be realistic. Don’t plan a 6-course gourmet feast if you’ve never peeled a potato before.  Step 3: Map out your timeline.  If you value your sanity, you can’t just fly by the seat of your pants — you need an organized itinerary. Schedule what you’re going to make ahead of time and when. Figure out what time everything needs to go in the oven and in what order for it all to come out at just the right time.  Project Manager’s Tip: Do the risky stuff first, if possible. If you’ve never made homemade cranberry sauce, don’t try it for the first time an hour before the turkey’s done. It’ll be less stressful for you and you’ll probably get better results if you buffer in some extra time around any uncertainties. Step 4: Assess the risks. What’s the likelihood your fad-diet-obsessed cousin will be eating Paleo this year? What if someone drops the gravy boat? What do you need a backup plan for, and what can you shrug off?  Project Manager’s Tip: Remember that not everything is worth worrying about. If a risk or issue won’t have a major impact on your day, don’t bother bending over backwards to address it.   Step 5: Work with your stakeholders. Ah, family. They’re a lovable bunch, but they can be a handful. Your sister-in-law claims she makes the world’s best pumpkin pie, but that's been your mom’s territory for ages. Share your planned menu and let people pick what they'd like to bring. If conflicts arise, be flexible when you can! After all, who's going to complain about two pumpkin pies?  Project Manager’s Tip: Communicate early and often to keep surprises to a minimum. Step 6: Collaborate with your team. Most of all, a great Thanksgiving takes teamwork. You’ll need to delegate certain tasks to other people, or count on others to help you if you want to pull off a successful holiday. Besides, people usually want to help out!  Project Manager’s Tip: Just because you’re the "manager," doesn’t mean everything has to be done your way. If your sister wants to buck convention and bring a turducken, why not? You never know — it could be the start of a fun new tradition!  Step 7: Don’t forget the retrospective. At the end of the day, when your family is drowsy from an overload of tryptophan and carbs, your sink is piled high with gravy-crusted dishes, and the candles are burning low, take a few minutes to reflect on the day and everything that went well.  Project Manager’s Tip: Focus on the highlights! Everyone worked hard to make the day successful, so remember to say thank you. It's what the whole day is about! It'll help you fully appreciate a job well done. Ultimately, the important thing to remember is that Thanksgiving is not a day to manage. It’s a day to savor. It doesn’t need to be perfect — and that’s good, because things will go wrong. The green beans may be soggy, and your aunt may still forget to bring the cranberry sauce even though you've reminded her three times. But if you spend the day surrounded by loved ones, laughing and making memories that bring a smile in the year to come, your Thanksgiving project will be a resounding success. So take off your project management uniform and just enjoy it! Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Wrikers!

5 Project Management Warnings from The Shining
Project Management 5 min read

5 Project Management Warnings from The Shining

The Shining can present us with five very distinct warnings about how we should properly manage our teams and our projects — unless you want people to start angrily chasing one another while brandishing kitchen knives.

Which of These 11 Manager Types Are You?
Leadership 3 min read

Which of These 11 Manager Types Are You?

Halloween is coming, and being the project management geeks we are, we've got an idea for you: why not dress up like a character who represents your management style for the office party this year? Are you the Hero, always ready to come save the project? Or are you the Strategist, planning and tracking every move your team makes? Scroll through our 11 types of project managers and their corresponding character representations to plan the perfect outfit this October 31st: 11 Halloween Costumes to Match Your Management Style Have a great idea for a management-inspired costume? We'd love to hear your fun ideas in the comments!

How to Enjoy Summer in the Office (Infographic)
Leadership 3 min read

How to Enjoy Summer in the Office (Infographic)

Summer no longer carries the same meaning once you pass childhood. Before, summer meant school's out, movie dates, picnics, and warm nights. Now, summer only means that it's going to be hotter in the office. It's not easy to stay productive when the sun is tempting you to skip work and go outside — but it is easy to bring summer into the office so employees don't feel like they're missing out completely. Here are some ideas on how you can bring summer to work, even as Fall starts rolling in: Like this infographic? Print it out, or share it with your colleagues using this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike How do you celebrate summer in your office? We're always looking for new ways to play here at Wrike. Share your summery ideas with us in the comments.

Celebrate July 4th with Our Independence Day Game
Productivity 3 min read

Celebrate July 4th with Our Independence Day Game

Happy Independence Day! In the spirit of the holiday celebrations, we’ve prepared a fun game for you to enjoy.

Summer Vacation Is Dying, Here’s How to Save It
Project Management 5 min read

Summer Vacation Is Dying, Here’s How to Save It

Wrike launched a Summer Productivity Survey to better understand how Americans balance the need for vacation with their work obligations. Let’s dig into our most interesting survey findings, which compare vacation trends among men and women, Millennials and Baby Boomers, and much more.

Print These Valentine's Day Cards for Your Favorite Coworkers
Collaboration 3 min read

Print These Valentine's Day Cards for Your Favorite Coworkers

Ready for Valentines? Here's a way to show appreciation for your team. Just print one (or all!) of these PDFs on regular 8.5” x 11” copy paper, fold or cut them out, and give them to your work buddies and office crushes this February 14th. ;)

New Year's Resolutions from Thought Leaders (Work Management Roundup)
Productivity 3 min read

New Year's Resolutions from Thought Leaders (Work Management Roundup)

Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we collect different links to articles that should help you do your work more efficiently and inspire you to new levels of excellence. Since this is our first for the new year, we'd like to take a look at the various new year's resolutions of thought leaders across the world. Read on! Sheryl Sandberg: Write the Joyful Moments (Time): Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says her new year's resolution is one that has already been helping her cope with losing her husband this past year — namely, to write down three joyful moments each day. Richard Branson: List Your Goals! (Virgin): Richard Branson shares a tip for anyone wanting to stick to their resolutions: write it down, and keep a list. He enumerates 10 steps to creating a list that you can stick to. Cal Newport: Cultivate a Deep Work Habit (Study Hacks): Cal Newport lives his resolution every day of his life. His resolution (and the topic for his latest book) is: commit time during your day for deep work. This is distraction-free time that allows you to work on cognitively demanding tasks. Not the shallow busywork of ticking off to-do items, but rather, the type of creative problem solving that builds real value. Gary Vaynerchuk: Improve How You Work (Gary Vaynerchuk): Gary Vee suggests you commit to these four new year's resolutions to  further your career (at the very least, they'll make you a much more pleasant coworker), namely: become a deep practitioner in something, audit your 7PM to 2AM, practice self-awareness, and eliminate complaining. Forget About Setting Goals, Focus on Systems (James Clear): Productivity author James Clear says you shouldn't commit to a goal; rather, commit to a system or a process that allows you to track results. Read why this works better than simply listing goals. David Allen: Practice Better Email (David Allen): And from the headquarters of GTD (Getting Things Done), comes this resolution which should be a staple for any organization: get better at email communications. Read the link for 5 tips on maximizing your emails, especially for globally dispersed teams. Friedrich Nietzsche: Say Yes! (Brain Pickings): Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche shares a glorious new year's resolution from his journal entry of 1882: be a yea-sayer and a beautifier of life. More Work Management Reads Think About This: 12 Apps You'll See at the Office More in 2016 (Inc) A Fresh Look at the Number, Effectiveness, and Cost of Meetings in the US (Lucid Meetings) 5 Reasons Why A Social Media Content Calendar Is Important For Your Business (Hootsuite) 8 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas (Fast Company) Go Try This: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming Your Best Self: Build your Daily Routine by Optimizing Your Mind, Body and Spirit (Buffer) How to Finally Start Working Out (Even If You Hate It) (Lifehacker) 10 Habits to Adopt Now to Be Better at Your Job in 2016 (Fast Company) Browse The Work Management Roundup on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you can check out these links via The Work Management Roundup magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.

New Year's Motivation (Monday) (Video)
Collaboration 3 min read

New Year's Motivation (Monday) (Video)

As we head into the new year, our Wrikers reflect on words of wisdom that help motivate them. Check out our video for highlights of our Motivational Mondays quotes, and leave one of yours in the comments!