Out of the Box Solutions Blog

Out of the Box Solutions has been serving the Michigan area since 2002, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses

Tip of the Week: Editing PDFs with Your Cloud Productivity Suites

PDFs, or Portable Document Format files, are something many people come across in the course of doing business. Not everyone knows all the cool stuff you can do with them, like changing things in them. This week, we'll talk about some simple ways to make and edit a PDF file.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Powerful Technology Can Help Build Dynamic Business

Technology can bring many dynamic benefits to an organization, but it can also derail its successful trajectory. One of the significant considerations that must be made is whether the technology your organization is implementing fits your business needs. Today, we will describe how having a knowledgeable perspective can help you avoid making investments that may not produce the rapid returns that most small businesses require. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Tip of the Week: Waste Less Time By Using Every Moment

The idea of “finding time” for particular tasks has always been a bit of an odd saying. After all, there is a finite amount of time in any given day. No matter how hard you search, you’re not going to magically find more of it. What you can do for those tough-to-schedule projects and tasks, however, is make more time by freeing up time that is already in use.

Let’s go over some strategies you can use to make more time for the projects that matter most, whether they are for business or for life.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Quickly Take a Screenshot in Windows 11

Sometimes it can be really handy to take a screenshot of something on your computer screen. Sure, there are tons of applications you can download and install that let you do this, but with the modern version of Windows 11, you don’t need any of that if you just need to take a quick screenshot and share it with someone or put it in a document. Let’s jump right into it!

0 Comments
Continue reading

Promises of Remote Work are Being Broken… and It’s a Bad Idea

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a few years since circumstances… “encouraged”... so many businesses to suddenly adopt work from home policies. As these circumstances have gradually normalized, many businesses have elected to keep these policies in place, either maintaining fully remote operations or shifting to hybrid operations.

However, some notable businesses have taken efforts to roll back remote work capabilities, if not discontinuing them entirely.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Resolve Common Collaboration Security Mistakes

Communication and collaboration tools are central to the success of any business—especially in today’s connected business landscape. More than anything else, you cannot let your collaboration tools put your company data at risk. We have some tips you can use to avoid some of the common challenges that businesses face with collaboration and data security.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Address These Common Employee Complaints for a Better Workplace

One of the more challenging issues to deal with as a business owner is bridging the gap with your unhappy employees. While it’s certainly true that unhappy employees could be upset for any number of reasons, some of which are completely unrelated to work, there are others that you might have complete control over without necessarily realizing it. Let’s go over how you can help your employees be happier and more fulfilled during their time with your business and, thereby, more productive as a result.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Make a Laptop Feel Like a Desktop PC

Modern laptops are great, in principle. Not only do you have a ton of options to get a device that does everything you need, but you get the added benefit of having a portable workstation. That being said, working on a laptop all the time isn’t exactly the most comfortable way to get things done. Fortunately, most modern laptops can easily be used like a desktop PC with just a few components.

0 Comments
Continue reading

You Need to Have the Right Perspective of Your Business’ Technology

Businesses are always trying to get the tools they need to do things in the most efficient manner they can. They are under pressure to do so and therefore can have issues when they decide to implement technology that doesn’t necessarily help them meet their goals. In this week’s blog, we take a look at how having the right view of technology can set up some long-term success for your business. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Using the Eisenhower Matrix Can Keep Attention on Critical Tasks

The modern worker has a lot of challenges and one of them is a laundry list of tasks to accomplish. For this reason, it’s best to have a plan for tackling your to-do list. One of the most effective ways to prioritize tasks is through what is called the Eisenhower Matrix. Inspired by a speech given by the former President of the United States and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War II, the Eisenhower Matrix simplifies complex task lists to make getting through them more effective. Let’s take a look at how it works.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Stretch at Your Desk to Keep Yourself Limber

As critical as it is to make sure your business’ IT remains in good shape, it is just as important that you and your team members are in good shape as well. Otherwise, the aches and pains that can settle in could easily have a detrimental impact on your productivity.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Efficient Project Management Starts with Technology

Projects are a big part of doing business. When we mention projects it’s typically in reference to IT projects, but for your average business, when they think of projects it means specific jobs coordinated for specific clients. In this environment it is essential to get the people on a project team on the same page and working towards a shared end. In this week's blog, we thought we’d discuss the importance of solid project management and how certain technologies can help project managers improve their turnaround times. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Want to Boost Your Productivity? Focus on Communication!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always got a thought in the back of your head regarding your business and how you can make it more productive. While there are a lot of different ways you can do so, we wanted to focus on one that might not be the first to come to mind: communicate more.

0 Comments
Continue reading

One Big Problem Many Businesses Have: Unnecessary Meetings

Oh, the afternoon meeting, the woe of many office workers around the world. Sometimes they are fine, but other times, it’s very clear that they are not always an effective use of your time. Despite this, there is still a heavy emphasis on meetings in the workplace, to the point where some employees feel that their time is being wasted and misused as a result—a premise that is supported by surveys and research.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Need to Get Things Done? Try Taking a Power Hour

If we asked you to identify the one hour of your day when you get the most done, would you be able to tell us? Even more interestingly, do you know how to get the most out of your so-called “power hour?” Let’s take a look at some of the theories about how you can make the most out of your most productive time in the workplace.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Patience Can Equal Productivity, Part 2

Last week, we wrote about how patience plays a big role in people’s ability to be productive and efficient. This week we want to explore a few ways to help the people in your organization to become more patient. We all know people in our lives that seem like they could definitely take a chill pill. If that is you, using these four suggestions can help you be more patient in situations that demand it. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Patience Can Equal Productivity

People can be very productive. They can also be pretty terrible at being productive. The staff that can find consistency in their productivity typically results in a pretty successful business. Obviously, people have all types of suggestions on how to improve staff productivity, individual productivity, and a lot of it is just hitting on the same stuff. There is one variable, however, that is found in a lot of productive people: Patience. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Build a More Productive Business with Technology

Productivity is the measure of how your business operates. Without a certain standard of it, any business will stagnate or fail. The overall productivity of your business comes down to a combined effort of the tools you deploy and your employees’ ability to maximize individual productivity. This week, we will take a look at how the emergence of technology built specifically for your business directly correlates to higher degrees of productivity.

0 Comments
Continue reading

What is the Digital Employee Experience?

It’s incredibly important that your business understands where it’s allocating its time, money, and resources, especially with technology-related challenges. Today we want to discuss what is called the digital employee experience, or DEX, and how understanding your employees’ relationships with technology can shape the way they approach the workday.

0 Comments
Continue reading

4 Things You Can Do to Promote Smartphone Productivity

Smartphones are a critical part of your business’ productivity, but sometimes you and your employees might have differing views on how to translate that productivity into profitability for your business. If you want to avoid the pitfalls associated with smartphones, well, today’s article might just be for you. Here are four tips and tricks you can use to get your smartphones to work for you.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Mobile? Grab this Article!

Qr Code