Careers Tips | Have More Happy Mondays
Careers Tips | Have More Happy Mondays
Do you feel like you lack a little motivation? Fall back in love with your work this Monday with Randox Careers!
Even if you’re in love with your day job, we all get a little deflated sometimes! Staying positive is one of the most imperative keys to success. As Will Henry once said, “The wishbone will never replace the backbone.” Success means staying strong and working hard, and here’s Randox Careers’ top tips to staying motivated on the path to achieving your goals, even on Mondays!
1. Make Lists
Start the day by making a list of everything you want to achieve in your day ahead. Add to the list as the day goes on, and carry over anything you don’t finish. This will help you organise your thoughts, which can often make multitasking look less daunting. With lists, you can visualise your workload and feel satisfied as you tick tasks off as they’re completed!
2. Bounce Ideas
Don’t be afraid to share your ideas! Bouncing ideas off of other colleagues, have meetings, get lunch together to discuss the topic, don’t be afraid of constructive criticism. Other colleagues may be able to use their expertise to help guide you in the right direction, and add fresh perspectives to your creative thinking process
3. Breaking Your Tasks Up
Breaking your tasks up into smaller, bite-sized fragments can make your goals seem more achievable, and make you feel that little bit closer to success. Switching between these smaller tasks can also help lift a feeling of monotony and give you more variety in your work. Keeping it fresh means you might have new, creative ideas on how to approach things after you’ve stepped back. Often we see things a little bit differently from a new perspective!
4. Exercise Before Work
Wake up an hour early, and go for a jog or practice some yoga before work. Getting your blood pumping can give you a morning release of happy endorphins and get you mentally ready for the day ahead! Yoga is also notorious for mind-cleansing, helping you to clear your thoughts of all negative worries. Don’t fancy exercising before dawn? Try giving yourself more time to get ready in the morning. By doing this, you can ensure you eat a full, wholesome breakfast. Giving yourself some me-time can help prepare you for the day ahead just as well!
5. Set Your 3, 5, and 10 Year Goals
Set your goals and work towards them! Write these goals in e-mails and schedule them to be sent to yourself in 3, 5 and 10 year’s time! These can be little things, like learning another language, or bigger things like buying your first car. Make sure these goals are achievable though, as unobtainable goals can demotivate anyone.
6. Happy Positive Reinforcements!
Have you got a favourite motivational quote? Maybe it’s Theodore Roosevelt’s “Believe you can and you’re halfway there” or George Addair’s “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” Whatever your favourite motivational quote is, embrace it! Set is as your wallpaper on your phone or laptop, write it on a sticky note and place it on the wall, you could even buy a professional print online and frame it! Don’t forget to congratulate yourself, and take pride in your work. Use your mantra to keep you going and don’t forget to look back and admire your own tenacity!
7. Take a Break!
Lastly, don’t forget to rest! Let yourself relax for 5 minutes, take a walk and stretch your legs, or sit in the sun for a little while to clear your mind. You could, alternatively, clear your mind by de-cluttering your desk. Take 10 minutes to reorganise your feng-shui. Often, resetting your mind and clearing your work area can help you see answers and solutions more easily.
Follow these 7 simple steps, and you’ll be sure to have a skip in your step every Monday morning. Best of luck with the week ahead, and happy Monday!
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Careers Tips | Simple Tips to Prepare for That Dreaded Presentation!
Have you been asked to make a presentation as part of a job interview? No need to worry!
The word “presentation” can strike fear and panic into anyone, but you can overcome a mild case of Glossophobia in just 6 simple steps!
1. Find Your Technique!
Everybody’s different. Therefore, no one’s preparation or presentation techniques are the exact same. There are plenty of ways for preparing for presentations. To determine your perfect technique, you need to identify your problems. Get some feedback from peers if you’re not sure! After this, you can use your problem-solving skills to try and find a solution. For example, if you find you panic when you forget words and sentences, learn a much “looser” version of your presentation. Learn your slides back to front, but leave the verbal message up to improv! This may be a much better technique to convey passion, if you know your topic well.
2. Communicate a clear message
One of the main reasons you are making this presentation is to communicate a particular subject or field. Make sure that you know what you’re talking about and focus on the topic at hand. It will make you come across more focused in the eyes of the interviewer.
3. Practice!
Practice, practice, practice. When you are conducting a presentation that hasn’t been practiced, it’s obvious. Take some time to prepare your presentation beforehand so you have more time to practice. Practice in front of others, they’ll be able to give you feedback to improve your presentation in a way you’ve never thought of before! The more you practice, the more familiar you come with you presentation which will help you eliminate your nerves!
4. Do your research
There’s nothing worse than a candidate making a presentation who hasn’t done their research on the company. Have a look at the company website, read up about the products they sell and the events they take part in. This will impress the interviewers as it looks like you care about the company you’re applying for and that you want to be a part of the organisation.
5. Watch your timing
The last thing you want to do in your presentation is have your interviewers fall asleep. If you feel like you have too much information to get across in a short space of time, don’t worry – it’s better to keep it shorter and more interesting than bombard them with information. Less is more, so a helpful rule to follow when making a presentation is one slide per minute.
6. Deep breaths
Nerves before a presentation are completely normal. Arrive early, drink some water and take deep breaths to calm yourself down. Just remember that pressure can help you perform well!
Thanks for reading, and good luck!
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Medical Technology: Expanding Powers and Possibilities
What does the future of Medical Technology and Healthcare look like? How big of an impact does technology have on health?
Let’s start with a few fun facts: more people on this planet own a smart phone than a toothbrush, Google handles an estimated 1 billion search queries every day, every minute 20.8 million+ WhatsApp messages are sent, and you can probably check if all of those facts are correct in about 0.70 seconds.
If one thing is clear, it’s this: technology has made the world a different place. We live in a digital world where we rely on technology to make friends, to keep friends, to track progress, to prompt us, to wake us up, to motivate us and, most importantly, to keep us healthy.
When considering the future of technology, we may picture crisp-white rooms, voice-activated coffee machines and holograms… at one time it was a common idea that the future would hold flying cars! There is, however, one thing we can all agree on. In the “future”, however advanced technology may be and however far we may have come: whatever technology is created will be created to aid human life, as tech-innovation has always been. Inventors have striven to simplify and solve life’s little problems for centuries. Holistically speaking, most products and services with vigorous research and development programs are devoted to searching for new ways to fulfill human lives. We, at the RX series team, are based within a marriage of sectors that are more human-focused and yet forward facing in terms of development of new and exciting ideas than any others; health, medicine and technology.
“We take our commitment to research and development very seriously” comments Peter FitzGerald, founder of Randox and the RX series on the company’s R&D department, “Randox is at the forefront of life-changing research and development in the diagnostics industry.” Jason Silva, an American public speaker pondered, “In symbiosis with our technology, our powers are expanding exponentially and so, too, our possibilities” and just as Silva stated, advanced technology can greaten human abilities and opportunities vastly when dedication to healthcare is combined with advanced knowledge in technology and innovation. Diagnostics and medical technology are at the forefront of life changing innovation. RX series scientist, David Brown, pondered advances in Medical Technology, “There is constant progress being made in the range of diagnostic tests across every aspect of healthcare. Medical technology needs to meet the demand of these tests along with the expectation of patients for fast results. “
Today, only the smartest minds are dedicated to tackling the many issues within the industry. Many sectors play a part in innovation in healthcare; reagents production broadening test menus and researching new assays for a wide variety of human conditions, quality control bringing confidence in laboratory results for organisations and patients, health services giving complete diagnostic reports for preventative health, medical devices pushing the boundaries for automation, software design, reliability and precision, bio-sciences, toxicology, food testing, and so forth. Randox have played a large role in innovating all of these sectors. We do this, because we are confident that complete consolidation is the future of healthcare. The RX series team run on the belief that our machines function as the high-tech heartbeat of the laboratory and and our quality control and reagents function as the lifeblood, working in harmony to deliver effective results, and advancing in synch with each other.
When the RX series sees the future, we see test menus expanded to cover all ranges of analytes for earlier diagnosis, we see high class automation and longer walkaway times to make laboratories more efficient in time and money, and finally, we see those who rely on our medical technology for accurate results living happy, healthy lives, having trust in doctors and medical professionals worldwide.
Earlier this week, we heard from our followers and friends from around the world, who let us know what they think the future of Medical Technology holds… What do you see when you imagine the future?
Gestational Diabetes: The Third Kind
Year upon year, WHO (World Health Organisation) have set a date to raise awareness of various health issues from Food Safety, to Hypertension to Vector-Borne diseases. This year, WHO are setting their goals in raising awareness on Diabetes; those with family and friends affected and those diagnosed. The RX series take a closer look at a type of Diabetes we don’t often talk about to raise awareness for the #BeatDiabetes campaign by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Diabetes is a life-long condition, featuring in the top 10 causes of death globally, responsible for approximately 1,497,371 deaths worldwide and 6,088 in the UK alone yearly. As a major non-communicable disease, diabetes claims on average around 8% of total health budgets in developed countries.
As many know, diabetes can come in 2 common forms: Types I Diabetes; where the pancreas does not produce insulin and Type II Diabetes; where the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin/the body’s cells do not react to insulin. Not very often, however, do we hear the term Gestational Diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects pregnant women, usually in their third trimester. The good news is, the condition usually disappears soon after the baby is born, but what are the risks, how serious is it really and what are the chances you may find yourself dealing with the condition?
Pregnancy puts extra demands on the body, as it demands higher level of nutrition, and energy. Gestational Diabetes (GDM) occurs when the body can’t produce enough extra insulin to meet these demands.
The condition is surprisingly common, with 15% of all pregnancies resulting in the mother suffering from GDM. Whilst it only occurs in pregnancy; it is estimated that over 50% of women who have had gestational diabetes will go on to develop type II diabetes within 5-10 years of delivery which is a startling statistic.
A study carried out at JSS Medical College aimed to investigate the biochemical parameters that could be used to diagnose GDM. Levels of serum creatinine, uric acid and the albumin were studied in GDM patients and unaffected pregnant women to consider any correlation between these biochemical markers and certain clinical parameters. The RX daytona, a clinical chemistry analyser from Randox’s RX series range was used to analyse the samples. The conclusion was that biochemical parameters such as serum creatinine, uric acid and albumin, can help in predicting the early onset and progression of GDM.
The study also stated that early diagnosis was paramount as it could help in the proper treatment of gestational diabetes and its associated complications for mother and baby, thus helping to improve the quality of life of the GDM patients and their offspring.
There are measures women can take before and during pregnancy to prevent the likelihood of Gestational Diabetes occurring. One study shows that increasing fibre intake to 10g per day reduces the risk by 26%. Also, women who exercise before pregnancy have a lower risk of gestational diabetes, the more intense the exercise, the lower the risk. However, this doesn’t have to mean extremely strenuous exercise, anything as simple as walking at a brisk pace, rather than at a leisurely pace will reduce your risks.
This year on World Health Day, we urge you to share your stories and give support for those affected by diabetes and use the hashtag #BeatDiabetes to get involved with the conversation.
Randox offers high quality tests for the diagnosis of diabetes and the monitoring of its complications.
To find out more about the RX series range of clinical chemistry analysers and how we tackle Diabetes with accurate and early diagnosis, take a look at our brochures below.
Questions? Speak to the RX team: theRXseries@Randox.com
Go Green: World Water Day 2016
Year after year, the UN Water celebrate World Water Day as a way to raise awareness of various prevalent issues linked to Water globally. This year’s theme is “The Link Between Water and Jobs”, focusing on workers whose jobs, as well as their lives, depend on a sustainable access to safe water and how cleaner water can create jobs and a greener environment.
It is estimated, almost 50% of the population’s workers rely on clean water. However, only 1 in 10 actually have access to clean water. This is a dangerous statistic for many individuals, such as the farmer, the fishermen, the factory workers and many more of those included in the 340,000 individuals who die every year from poor, unclean water.
According to UN Water, “Water is the essential building block of life. But it is more than just essential to quench thirst or protect health; water is vital for creating jobs andsupporting economic, social, and human development.”
Here, at Randox’s The RX series, we understand that every dropmatters, and we value our planet. As a socially and economically responsible company, we ensure that our analysers are engineered for unrivalled efficiency, using as little as 5 litres per hour, and display consistently low sample, reaction and dead volumes across our full range of analysers.
Let’s use this as a day to learn:
Visit the UN Water Day 2016 website
Pictured: RX monaco
