Use Accessories and Apps to Improve Performance from the Boardroom to the Game Room

Everyone is looking for an edge. That edge represents a performance boost that helps them be more competitive and ultimately come out on top. As with love, we often look for that edge in all the wrong places. Athletes often turn to performance-enhancing drugs for their edge. Business people often turn to insider trading. Entertainers turn to physical enhancements to make them look younger or more attractive. In a culture that insists failure is not an option, we will do almost anything to avoid failure, even if it is ultimately harmful.

Fortunately, there are healthier outlets that can give us the boost we need to be successful. Technology is one of those outlets. Tech companies are using our desperation for an advantage as a marketing strategy to sell us a lot of expensive junk that we don’t really need. Apple want’s creative pros to think they can’t be creative without a Mac or iOS device. Microsoft wants you to believe that you cannot be productive without their suite of tools. Google wants you to think that you cannot truly be free to customize and express yourself without their ecosystem. None of these things are true. Here are a few ways technology really can give you a boost in the following areas:

Productivity

If you want to be successful, you have to be productive. And if you want to be productive, you have to take better notes. Almost every useful thing you can do will be enhanced by taking more and better notes than you do right now. 

Cornell Notes is not an application. “It’s a method for reviewing your notes that helps you retain the information.” Writing good notes is only half the battle. Your notes need to be sticky. The thing they need to stick to is not the bezel of your computer monitor, but to your mind. Without retention, notes are meaningless. You also need notes you can read later. So typed notes often have an advantage over handwritten notes, depending on the quality of your handwriting. 

Thanks to the new focus on collaborative work and study, your notes also need to be sharable with others. That means your notes have to work not only for you, but for everyone on your team. Think of your study notes like keeping minutes for an important meeting. When your notes are better, everything in the productivity workflow is better.

Gaming

Sometimes, we play for the sheer fun of playing. But most of the time, we play to win. Even when playing a game by ourselves, we are highly competitive. Our previous high score or best time is not good enough. That competitive spirit is what drives us to seek ways to improve gaming performance on our devices. 

There are plenty of PC optimizations that will improve your performance. A hardware improvement would be to get a good gaming mouse. Some people are better with a mouse than with a console game controller. But your typical mouse isn’t up to the task. The best gaming mouse accessories are tailor-made for serious gaming. They will increase your speed and accuracy. The problem is that some of those mice have about as many buttons as a keyboard. Hyperbole aside, check out the Razor Naga Pro to see what I mean. 

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Home Decor

Home decor is often overlooked in a conversation about things enhanced by technology. That is too bad because there have been some amazing advancements that have helped millions of people do a better job transforming their house to the home of their dreams. There is the addition of LiDAR which allows us to do accurate measuring and leveling with smartphones. There are also the upgrades to 3D rendering which allow us to place AR furniture in our existing spaces. That way, we can see how things will look and fit before buying them and realizing we have made a big mistake. You can enhance your home decor game with technology and apps you likely already have.

You don’t need performance-enhancing drugs to get the edge in productivity, gaming, and home decor. You just need a handful of accessories and apps for the technology you already have.