12 Tips for a More Effective Work Life

1. 
   Set expectations and deadlines. If you write these down, it'll give your teammates structure, your supervisors confidence, and yourself enough time to get things done right.
2. Say No. Say no to ideas without enough support to move forward. Say no to customer requests that don't match your business capabilities or direction. Say no to false emergencies to remind people to plan ahead.
3. Make time. Your week should be divided into three sections: learning, teaching and doing. Make time throughout your week to exercise all three.
4. Delegate appropriately. Don't be afraid to give work back to a colleague or to request support from another department. As a team, you work best if everyone is doing their best at what they do best.
5. Under promise. No one but you knows how long something is really going to take. Don't promise everything as quickly as you know it can be done, give yourself plenty of flexibility.
6. Review each night- Take time to reflect on the day and refocus on what's really important.
7. Engage with groups- Not people in your organization, but people with a completely different focus/market. They will use tools in ways you haven't seen before and connect lots of dots for you.
8. Find mentors- Look for super mentors. People well beyond what you have and want with the experience to help you get there.
9. Read- Like mentors and groups, these can connect new ideas to old ones to make something beautiful
10. Put pride aside- Don't worry about who gets credit for ideas and work. If your sights are on a new level, those things won't matter.
11. Ask what’s really important- Number of people asking and authority of people asking can make the task seem more important than it is. Ideas tend to recycle themselves within groups. Don't let that derail you from the high-importance items.
12. Plan ahead- Real fire drills do happen, but more often than not, they are a result of procrastination and near-sightedness on behalf of management or ourselves. Don't let them become your day-to-day.

Why Biometric Security is Dangerous

Biometric security has been touted as the ultimate security in digital technology. Today we have iPhones with Touch ID that make it really easy to login, buy e-books or download apps. Personally, I love the Touch ID as a low-security barrier to replace that 4-digit entry code. Unfortunately, bio security will never put my mind at total ease, because it's biggest advantage over other authentication protocols is also it's biggest flaw.

One of the greatest advantages of bio security is the fact that you possess a unique genetic makeup that creates distinct thumbprints, retinal patterns and other identifiers. Theoretically this means no more remembering long passwords with some combination of capital letters, special characters and numbers. But what happens when your biometric ID is stolen?

Unlike passwords that can be changed, your body will always be the same. If it seems ridiculous that someone would steal your finger or your eyes, you're right. This isn't mission impossible either, where they use unique contact lenses. It's important to remember that your biometric information has to be converted to digital information at some point. Someone doesn't have to have your eyes to copy the digital code your eyes produce and send that signal to a computer system.

Of course security companies are developing systems to prevent this 'spoofing', some examples include multi-layered biometric and motion scanning where the person's interaction with the authentication device is as relevant as the fingerprint or retina, but just remember, it all comes down to 1's and 0's.