#productivity

#productivity

Somewhere between endless meetings and half-finished projects, we all went looking for better ways to get things done this year. These are the 2025 titles that helped people stay organized, focused, and finally finish what they started.

Sandra doesn't like any dishes left in the sink. She'll wash and put away her breakfast dishes before she leaves for work. Even if it's one or two dirty items, she won't dump them in the sink and walk out the door. She's like this in all areas of her life. She prefers to do tasks steadily, as they come in. She doesn't like anything to build up or feel cluttered.

Think about how you currently handle waste. Are your team members spending valuable work hours making multiple trips to the local dump? Are they bagging up endless amounts of waste, or worse, dealing with overflowing bins? Every minute they spend on these tasks is a minute they aren't spending on revenue-generating activities, serving customers, or doing the specialised work you hired them for.

Google Docs has been part of my life for nearly two decades. I remember when it first launched back in 2006 -- I was still in high school, and I haven't stopped using it since. Being able to access a full-featured word processor from any computer in the world felt revolutionary then, and its usefulness is still relevant today. Also: I've been testing AI content detectors for years - these are your

Others foresee a revolution that might add between US$17 trillion and $26 trillion to annual global economic output and automate up to half of today's jobs by 2045. But even before the full impacts materialize, beliefs about our AI future affect the economy today - steering young people's career choices, guiding government policy and driving vast investment flows into semiconductors and other components of data centres.

When you're trying to snazz up your emails with a signature at the bottom, it's all too easy to overthink it. Gmail's signature tool offers extensive formatting options. (Want to sign off in Comic Sans? Go for it.) And typical signature-builder sites can get even more complex, with seemingly endless fonts, buttons, and shiny doodads to choose from. The truth is, you don't need all that to sign your emails in a presentable way.

Portable monitors solve the productivity problem of trying to work effectively on a laptop's single screen when you're away from your desk setup at home or the office. Adding a second display while traveling (or working from coffee shops) dramatically improves multitasking capabilities and lets you reference documents while writing, monitor data dashboards while coding, or keep communication apps visible alongside your main work.

At the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference on Tuesday, CFO Denis Coleman discussed the company's recently announced OneGS 3.0 initiative-a multiyear overhaul of its OneGS program aimed at integrating AI throughout the bank's operating model to reduce complexity and boost productivity. The effort is a top priority and will involve every division and function across the firm, from business lines to control functions to engineering, Coleman said. "At its core, it's an effort to drive more scale and more growth," he said.

When was the last time you had a good day of work? The kind where you got into flow and stayed there long enough to think deeply about a problem? Paul Graham wrote about this in 2009: a single meeting can wreck an entire half-day for someone who needs uninterrupted time to build something. Sixteen years later, we've added Slack, Teams, always-on video calls, and a culture of instant responsiveness.

The next big meeting on your calendar might not have any other attendees-it might just be you. A growing number of high-performing leaders, including managers at Google and other Fortune 100 companies, are carving out protected "focus blocks" and treating them like mission-critical meetings. With constant pings, shallow tasks, and back-to-back calls, this might be the only way to produce strategic, high-value work. Google and Microsoft have even rolled out Focus Time features that automatically block off calendars to protect deep work.

Apple's app of the year suggests the tech giant was all about helping iPhone users get organized in 2025. Tiimo is an AI-powered visual planner that's marketed towards those with neurodivergent brains. With to-do lists, daily tasks, and reminders, Tiimo mixes an AI chatbot with a classic planner. It's free to download and use, with a premium version available for $10 a month.

Younger people definitely laugh (even lightheartedly!) at the things older people tend to do, like napping, playing bingo, or eating dinner early. But recently, the BuzzFeed Community wrote in to share the "old person" habits that actually make life way better - and it got such a great response that even more people shared habits of their own! So, from young and old alike, here are some "old person" habits that you might consider adopting for yourself:

We asked 14 business leaders to share the songs that get them motivated and energized for the day. They named tracks by Beyoncé, Eminem, and U2, among others. Listen to their complete playlist on Business Insider's Spotify. From getting hyped up before important meetings to getting energized at the beginning of the day, these 14 leaders shared their go-to pump-up songs and why the tracks motivate them.

While hand tracking works for me about 70% of the time, when I'm focused on efficiency and getting work done, I need the headset to be as reliable as my laptop. Therefore, pairing the headset with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse is my preferred method for navigation until Samsung can improve the reliability of its hand and eye tracking. The availability of apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Office is strong, and they perform as expected.

December is here, which means as the year comes to a close, companies carefully curate a nostalgic rewind of the past year with experiences such as Spotify Wrapped or, in Apple's case, the release of the 2025 App Store Awards honorees. The awards are designed to showcase the best apps and games available on the Apple App Store during the past year, with Apple's App Store editors carefully selecting 17 apps from the nearly 2 million apps across various devices.

AI is changing work, and Anthropic studied its own staff to learn exactly how. In a blog post published on Tuesday, Anthropic shared the findings of its August research study, which surveyed 132 of its engineers and researchers, had 53 detailed interviews, and examined the internal use of Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic coding tool. The study aimed to understand how AI is transforming work at the company and society more broadly.

In a post on X on Wednesday, the 27-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, told his 33.4 million followers that he hasn't been fully satisfied with the quality of his latest videos. "After some reflection, I just want to say I think some of our newer youtube videos haven't been as good as I wanted. I apologize," MrBeast wrote. "Ya boy is going to go into ultra grind mode and make the greatest content of my life in 2026. Promise," he added.

After 14 years out of office, last year's Autumn Budget was largely met with an understanding that tax rises were necessary. Labour had been dealt a poor hand by its predecessors, with borrowing elevated and debt rising. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced tax rises to steady the ship and expressed hope that such an action would be a one-off. Yet, one year later, the Chancellor has reneged, announcing a further package of £26 billion worth of tax hikes.

The Surface Laptop is more than capable of powering through a 12-hour day and handling typical productivity tasks with ease. The laptop offers impressive standby times, too, while the quiet, tactile keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and some might even prefer it to the MacBook Air's. The mechanical trackpad isn't haptic, but clicks still feel surprisingly well-defined and crisp. You also get a sharp 1080p webcam, two USB-C 3.2 ports, and one USB-A 3.1 port.

Outside of the income generated from his channel, YouTuber habie174 also earns a living via a standard 9-5 job that allows him to work from home. But as more and more remote workplaces are implementing return-to-office policies, habie147 fears his days as a remote worker may be numbered, and wants to find a way to make the most of his homebound workplace productivity before he's dragged back to in-office work. The solution? Stop working from home, and start working from Tamriel.

Productivity isn't about doing more-it's about doing better. The right tools transform cluttered surfaces into composed workspaces, turning everyday rituals into moments of intention. For the professional who treats their desk like a cockpit, who believes every object should earn its place, these gifts speak a language of precision, craft, and quiet efficiency. They're designed for people who notice details, who value form that serves function, and who find satisfaction in tools that simply work.