Amazon Echo. Google Home. Yep, they are at the top of many wish lists this holiday season.

But if you have a tech-savvy person in your household, they aren’t the only gadgets that will put a smile on their faces. We have some ideas that will leave them playing long after the gift wrap is taken out with the trash.

Not sure what gifts to give this year? You can never go wrong when you wrap up technology. We have a few ideas for every member of your family.

Google Home

The stylish Google Home smart speaker is the hot new rival to compete with Amazon’s Echo.

Work smarter, not harder.

If you’ve taken and efficiency classes you’ll know this is a time-honored practice.

Still, the concept of working smarter, not harder is evolving all the time. A few short years ago improvements may have evolved around software and ergonomics.

Every day we strive to learn a little bit more. It may be something simple, or a complex task.

But as we weave in and out of our daily practices, it all comes together in a unique way. We think differently. We understand how things fit together. We see the flow in an entirely distinctive way from others around us.

Telecommuting is becoming a widely accepted practice throughout all industries. Surveys show that more than 13 million people here in the US currently telecommute for at least part of their workweek. And research suggests that as many as 45 percent of all positions are prime candidates for telecommuting.

In some aspect, every business is a service business. Making sure a customer is handled effectively from beginning to end is the key to a happy customer. But many businesses struggle to keep this process in top shape. While even tiny improvements can have a big impact on both retention and increased satisfaction, it won’t happen if you don’t spend the time putting a plan in place.

Have you ever watched an experienced networker in action? They circle the room, warming up and making friends with everyone they meet. Not only do they put on a happy face and show true interest in what the other person is saying, they seem to be able to carry on a conversation about a wide range of topics.

Have you ever sat back at the end of a busy day and wondered exactly what you accomplished? Sure, a lot of things came across your desk. You had a great lunch meeting filled with potential promise. But what did you truly accomplish?

The trickiest part of the time management process is finding all of those time wasters that kill your efficiency and rob you of the opportunity to do more in less time.

As we head into the New Year, many people develop a long list of resolutions to put into place.

Resolutions are always about change; they are about putting things into your life that don’t already exist, and changing habits in such a way that they make your life better, such as losing weight, or making your life more productive, such as organizing your home and clearing out the “junk”. But resolutions don’t have to be on a personal level alone; why not take this time to build new productivity habits in your project team as well?

Studies show that almost half of our daily routines are spent performing habitual actions.

Nothing is more exciting than being promoted and put in charge of a new project. Yet after the excitement of the promotion wears off, overwhelm may quickly set in as you think about the journey ahead.

As a new team leader, your first order of business is to build an effective team.