5 Simple Ways To Balance Out Your Work and Personal Life - Ryan Nofal

Hi Guys,

In today's fast-paced world, mastering the art of time management is essential for achieving a harmonious balance between your professional and personal life. This delicate equilibrium is something that Ryan Nofal, the Managing Director at popular marketing agency Penquin, knows all too well. With his wealth of experience, Ryan offers valuable insights into how to effectively balance work and personal life while thriving in both domains.

Prioritise and Set Clear Goals

Ryan advises that setting clear goals in both your professional and personal life is the first step to success. "Without clear goals, you'll find yourself drifting, unsure of where to invest your time and energy," he explains. So, make a to-do list, set achievable objectives, and stay focused on what truly matters.

Time Blocking

Ryan explains that time blocking is a great way to dedicate uninterrupted time to completing certain tasks. Time blocking means allocating dedicated chunks of time for different activities. Whether it's work projects, meetings, or quality time with family, this technique boosts productivity and keeps your work-life balance in check.

Set Boundaries

Maintaining clear boundaries between work and personal life is crucial. Ryan suggests, "Set specific work hours and stick to them. When it's time to be with your family or engage in personal activities, be fully present." Setting boundaries ensures that you can be productive during work hours and fully enjoy your personal time without distractions.

Embrace Technology Wisely

In our tech-savvy world, technology can either be your best friend or your worst enemy in time management. Ryan suggests, "Use tech to your advantage by tapping into productivity apps and tools." Whether it's calendar apps, project management software, or communication platforms, these tools can streamline your work tasks and make you more efficient.

Take Care of Yourself

Last but not least, self-care is non-negotiable. Ryan firmly believes that taking care of your physical and mental well-being is essential for achieving a work-life balance. “Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and mindfulness practices can help reduce stress and increase your overall productivity and happiness,” he concludes.

In a nutshell, mastering time management is achievable with a little bit of work. By setting clear goals, using smart time management techniques, establishing boundaries, harnessing technology wisely, and prioritising self-care, you can strike a balance between your professional and personal life. This balance allows you to thrive in both worlds and discover the equilibrium we've all been chasing.

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Logitech Rally Bar Huddle and Sight AI camera Brings Equitable Meeting Experiences @Logitech

Hi Guys, 

Logitech Rally Bar Huddle and Sight AI camera brings equitable meeting experiences to small rooms and makes hybrid work meetings more equitable for remote participants.

This week, South Africa got a taste of the future of equitable meetings with the launch of the Logitech Rally Bar Huddle and Sight AI camera. As the newest additions to Logitech’s family of conference cameras, the Logitech Rally Bar Huddle and Sight AI are designed to deliver equitable video conferencing meetings with ease.

Huddling up:

As companies redesign their office spaces to create more collaborative spaces for their hybrid workforce, huddle rooms have become more popular. According to research firm Futuresource, 68% of companies plan to invest in AV technology for small meeting rooms and huddle spaces.

“Huddle rooms are popping up faster than companies can video-enable them,” said Charis Nicholas, Head of High Touch and End User Video Collaboration in Southern Africa. “We designed the Rally Bar Huddle from the ground up to have the optimal AI functionality for modern equitable meetings while coming in at a price point that is affordable for any and every single huddle room out there."

Designed with built-in AI video intelligence, 4K image quality, and AI-based noise suppression, the Rally Bar Huddle is the gold standard for organisations looking to enable equitable meetings. Adhering to the highest sustainability standards, the plastic parts in Rally Bar Huddle include a minimum of 42% certified post-consumer recycled plastic. It is also quick to set up, simple to manage, and comfortably integrates with Tap IP through CollabOS.

The Rally Bar Huddle is specifically designed for rooms of up to six people to ensure every participant is seen and heard in 4K clarity. Using built-in AI video intelligence, meeting hosts can welcome remote participants to the conversation without compromising engagement. The newly improved ported audio system gives Rally Bar Huddle twice the audio quality of the Logitech MeetUp. It is partnered by an advanced sound pickup via six beamforming mics and AI-based noise suppression that creates a natural meeting experience for remote employees.

A Sight to behold:

Logitech Sight is an AI-powered tabletop camera that works with the Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini to intelligently capture the best perspective of meeting participants and track their conversations as they move around the conference room. Currently, more than 43% of remote employees report not feeling included. The Logitech Sight helps solve this by giving remote workers an “at the table” experience when meeting with in-office colleagues.

Logitech Sight AI camera makes hybrid work meetings more equitable for remote participants. By extending audio and video into larger rooms, using the Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini camera at the front of the room, Sight AI gives participants access to a range of alternate perspectives.

“We’re no longer all at home in equal-sized video boxes like we were during the height of the pandemic. In a hybrid work world, a mix of in-office and remote workers increases the challenge of delivering equitable experiences to everyone, “said Charis Nicholas.

With dual 4K cameras and seven beamforming microphones, Sight captures conversations and nonverbals as they naturally happen. This, in turn, enhances employee participation and engagement by helping remote attendees feel as if they’re in the room. Coming later after launch, Sight will enable RightSight with Smart Switching, adaptive intelligence that selects the best view between the tabletop camera and front-of-room camera, intuitively switching between views of in-person interactions and tracking conversations naturally.

By integrating with leading video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, Sight makes it easy to use hybrid-friendly meeting layout features like Zoom Smart Gallery and Microsoft Teams dynamic view. Compatibility with popular platforms also assures IT teams that their smart room technology will continue to meet the evolving needs of their hybrid workforce.

About Logitech

Logitech helps all people pursue their passions and is committed to doing so in a way that is good for people and the planet. We design hardware and software solutions that help businesses thrive and bring people together when working, creating gaming, and streaming. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI). Find Logitech and more of its business products and enterprise solutions at www.logitech.com/business, the company blog, Logitech Business or @LogitechBiz.

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More than 2/3 of South Africans Struggle with Workplace Stress - Survey Findings @YuLife

Hi Guys, 

A new survey by YuLife and IPSOS reveals interesting facts about South African employees and the challenges they face.

A recent survey conducted by YuLife, an insurtech start-up dedicated to transforming the nature of insurance, and IPSOS, found that 85% of South Africans grapple with stress at their jobs but that only 39% of employees find their wellbeing programmes “fairly effective”. Another 32% of respondents found their well-being programmes ineffective. The study’s research forms part of an enlightening new ebook from YuLife titled, ‘How to build a winning South African workforce’’, which went live on November 15th2023. By taking a deep dive into employee wellbeing management within organisations and examining how employers can create truly engaging wellbeing solutions, this ebook is set to become the gold standard for local companies looking to build high-performing teams.

Jaco Oosthuizen, co-founder and Managing Director of YuLife South Africa says, “Unfortunately, South African employees have some of the worst mental health in the world and are desperately looking for ways to improve that. Employers and HR leaders are trying their best to support their employees but don’t have a lot of concrete data at hand, so we gathered the research to assist, inform and enable employers to understand what employees in SA value at work.

One of the starkest findings was that only 28% of respondents reported feeling cared for by their employer. These findings suggest that there are opportunities that employers can take to improve their workplace wellbeing offerings and align them with what employees really need.

It is not all about money.

According to the survey, more workplace benefits like better healthcare or improved pension plans would be enough for 51% of employees to remain with their employer.

While we often think money is many employees' only motivation, the survey shows that most people want to be able to manage their wellbeing better and are likely to choose organisations that help them do that. The survey comes during Mental Health Awareness Month and during a time when holistic wellbeing, particularly mental health support has become a key focus for employers. It also helps shed light on the challenges faced by South Africans grappling with their mental health in the workplace.

YuLife is a new entrant into the insurance and wellbeing space in South Africa and has been transforming the employee benefits market by rewarding employees for healthy living. One of the ways it does this is through an innovative app that supports mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. It uses gamification mechanics, underpinned by behavioural science to encourage high levels of employee engagement.

“By turning these aspects into meaningful and positive behaviours, we have managed to create an app with the highest engagement numbers on the market. We don’t state this to amplify ourselves, but rather to express that we are tangibly helping people set, and stick to small achievable goals that lead to long-term wellness benefits,” says Oosthuizen.

How to keep employees happy

The YuLife and IPSOS study clearly highlights the fact that company culture, flexible working conditions, and training opportunities were among the most eye-catching factors for individuals looking for an employer. The ebook goes even further covering trends, how to use wellbeing data to build winning teams, how to get the best out of hybrid workforces and more.

The study found that 36% of employees considering leaving their employer would be persuaded to stay if they got a greater allowance for leave days or more training opportunities; additionally, 179 out of 500 respondents said a lack of recognition would lead them to consider leaving.

“Companies need to rethink how to engage employees’ wellbeing and get meaningful buy-in from their staff which in turn will drive productivity,” says Oosthuizen.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Roughly 56% of employees say their employers collect feedback on employee satisfaction while just over half of employers collect information about their workforce’s physical and mental wellbeing.

Encouragingly, 72% of employees believe that their feedback regarding improvements to employee wellbeing programmes would likely be taken into consideration. That shows how employers who care are already trying to bridge the gap between themselves and their employees’ expectations. This can be extremely beneficial to businesses and the economy. Given the current economic climate, and the cost of ignoring it, ensuring that employees’ wellbeing is looked after may be one of the few steps that every organisation can take to help contribute to the country’s bottom line.

‘How to build a winning South African Workforce’ is available from November 15. To help give your organisation the edge, click here to get access to the full ebook today!

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A New Era of Galaxy AI is Coming — Here’s a Glimpse @SamsungMobileSA

Hi Guys, 

Internet at your fingertips. A camera in your pocket. And then, artificial intelligence (AI) improves your everyday life.

Samsung Galaxy helped democratise internet access and turned cameras into a communication tool we can’t live without. Even as all eyes are on AI, some of its best benefits haven’t come to mobile technology yet. Galaxy is about to change that.

No company can harness AI’s potential like Galaxy. Why? Because only Galaxy puts the power of openness in the palm of your hand. Designed to empower everyone, everywhere, Galaxy AI is universal intelligence on your phone as you’ve never seen it before. In all the places it matters most — from barrier-free communication to simplified productivity, to unconstrained creativity — we’re unleashing new possibilities.

Galaxy AI is a comprehensive mobile AI experience, powered by both on-device AI developed at Samsung and cloud-based AI enabled by our open collaborations with like-minded industry leaders. It will transform your everyday mobile experience with the peace of mind you count on from Galaxy security and privacy.

For a tiny glimpse of one benefit Galaxy AI will enable, look no further than the very thing our phones were originally created to do, calling each other. AI Live Translate Call will soon give users with the latest Galaxy AI phone a personal translator whenever they need it. Because it’s integrated into the native call feature, the hassle of having to use third-party apps is gone. Audio and text translations will appear in real-time as you speak, making calling someone who speaks another language about as simple as turning on closed captions when you stream a show. Because it’s on-device Galaxy AI, you can trust that no matter the scenario, private conversations never leave your phone.

Coming early next year, Galaxy AI will bring us closer to a world where some of the most common barriers to social connection dissolve, and communication is easier and more productive than ever.

That’s AI changing the world and your life for the better.

“Mobile technology has an incredible power to enable connection, productivity, creativity and more for people around the world, but until now, we haven’t seen mobile AI ignite that in truly meaningful ways,” said Wonjoon Choi, EVP and Head of R&D, Mobile eXperience Business. “Galaxy AI is our most comprehensive intelligence offering to date, and it will change how we think about our phones forever.”

Breakthrough experiences that empower real connection and open up new possibilities right from your phone. That’s Galaxy’s promise.

Samsung proudly supports Busan’s bid for the World Expo 2030.

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Samsung AI Forum 2023 Day 2: Discussing Technological Trends and the Future of Generative AI

Hi Guys, 

The second day of the event focuses on the expansion of generative AI, with presentations from leading researchers and a showcase of Samsung Gauss

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. hosted the second day of the Samsung AI Forum 2023, which was led by Samsung Research and focused on generative AI. The rapid progress of generative AI technology is a paradigm shift that is expected to reshape both daily life and work. As such, the forum engaged AI experts from the industry and academia to discuss and share the development and the latest technological trends of AI and introduced Samsung Gauss, the generative AI model developed by Samsung Research.

“We will continue to support and collaborate with the industry and academia on generative AI research,” said Daehyun Kim, Executive Vice President of the Samsung Research Global AI Center, in his welcoming speech.

During the first morning session, Dr. Hyung Won Chung from OpenAI — an AI research and deployment company — explained the operation of large language models (LLMs) during his speech, titled, “Large Language Models (in 2023)” and addressed the challenges they face at each stage, as well as their future trajectory.

Then Jason Wei, a researcher at OpenAI and author of the “Chain-of-Thoughts” paper, discussed how LLMs will drive a paradigm shift in AI through his presentation, “New Paradigms in the Large Language Model Renaissance.”

In addition, Korea University Professor Hongsuck Seo presented some of the trends in multimodal AI technology capable of processing various data types simultaneously — including text and images — during his session, “Towards multimodal conversational AI.”

In the afternoon, graduate students from prominent domestic universities that are active in AI research presented their papers, which have been published in leading international AI journals. They also outlined their future research directions.

The team led by Seoul National University Professor Seung-won Hwang showcased an efficient code generation and search technology using generative AI, while Professor Gunhee Kim’s team demonstrated spatial reasoning technology using multimodal approaches.

Professor Minjoon Seo’s team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) introduced fine-grained evaluation capability in language models. Additionally, the team led by Yonsei University Professor Jonghyun Choi presented on text-to-image generation technology capable of creating images by comprehending lengthy contexts across multiple sentences.

In the final session, the participants delved into Samsung Gauss and the On-Device AI technologies using this model. The model consists of Samsung Gauss Language, Samsung Gauss Code, and Samsung Gauss Image, and is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, the legendary mathematician who established normal distribution theory, the backbone of machine learning and AI. Furthermore, the name reflects Samsung’s ultimate vision for the models, which is to draw from all the phenomena and knowledge in the world in order to harness the power of AI to improve the lives of consumers everywhere.

Samsung Gauss Language, a generative language model, enhances work efficiency by facilitating tasks such as composing emails, summarising documents and translating content. It can also enhance the consumer experience by enabling smarter device control when integrated into products.

Samsung Gauss Code and a coding assistant (code.i) — which operates based on it — are optimised for in-house software development, allowing developers to code easily and quickly. It also supports functions such as code description and test case generation through an interactive interface.

In addition, Samsung Gauss Image is a generative image model that can easily generate and edit creative images, including style changes and additions, while also converting low-resolution images to high-resolution.

Samsung Gauss is currently used on employee productivity but will be expanded to a variety of Samsung product applications to provide a new user experience in the near future.

Samsung is not only developing AI technologies but also moving forward with various activities that ensure safe AI usage. Through the AI Red Team, Samsung continues to strengthen the ability to proactively eliminate and monitor security and privacy issues that may arise in the entire process — ranging from data collection to AI model development, service deployment and AI-generated results — all with the principles of AI ethics in mind.

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