Roundup No 2: What is the secret to creativity, increase your work efficiency with these 8 productivity tools, and more!

8 Productivity Tools for Work and Life

DeskTime has collected a list of 8 productivity tools and gadgets that help increase productivity at work and at home. It features products like the Doxie Go, the small, portable scanner that allows you to scan documents everywhere, and Luxafor, a LED productivity indicator that lets your colleagues know when you’re busy.

Learn more about Doxie Go, Luxafor and 6 more devices on the DeskTime blog.

10 Challenges of Working Remotely (and How To Overcome Them)

Although working remotely gives a lot of advantages, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. If you have worked like this, you probably encountered several challenges. Greg Digneo shares his experiences when he first started working remotely.

He offers solutions to the challenges he faced in order to become a successful employee. These struggles include not knowing other team members personally, feeling isolated, dealing with company culture and others.

Check out how you can improve your remote work etiquette with his suggestions on the Time Doctor blog.

How to Decide on Management Styles for Your Company

To have successful performance results from each employee, smart organizations apply a mix of management styles. Chuck Cohn, founder, and CEO of Varsity Tutors and contributor to Forbes, has looked at two reasons why a mix of management styles should be applied:

Your employees respond uniquely to different management styles
Specific situations require different management styles.

For example, if your team can’t meet performance targets, is working overtime, or is facing layoffs, then it could be helpful to adopt a management style where the team is guided more closely. Read the full article here.

The Secret to Creativity: Become an Intellectual Middleman

Laura Vanderkam, author of several time management and productivity books, has now written about a secret to creativity. She refers to Brian Uzzi, a professor at Northwestern University, who states that “a lot of the people we think of as exceptionally creative are essentially intellectual middlemen.”

Meaning that these people learn from their rich and different experiences and can therefore see parallels and apply great ideas for every situation. Vanderkam has listed several habits that can help you become an intellectual middleman. Why not become brilliant at what you do? Read more on Fast Company!