You have to work to live, and there probably isn’t a single person in the world who wouldn’t like it if they found a new technology that made their job easier or more enjoyable. If you know someone who was an accountant in the ‘80s, you’ve probably heard stories about how much easier financial work became when the first spreadsheet software hit the market. Transformative technologies like that aren’t as rare as they seem. They’re actually being developed all the time because tech companies know that one of the quickest ways to earn money is by developing a new technology that makes people better at their jobs.
So, what are some of the recent technologies that can transform your work performance in 2023? Here are just a few of the more promising ones.
Augmented Realty
Perhaps you heard about the announcement of the new Apple Vision Pro headset in 2023. It’s possible that you ignored the announcement, though, because you followed the saga of Meta’s experiments with virtual reality and concluded that attending meetings in a virtual space is just as boring as being there in person. Augmented reality and virtual reality are two very different things, though, and it’s possible that the Apple Vision Pro and other devices like it will eventually transform the way you work.
Augmented reality uses a pair of goggles that have the ability to display images while also allowing you to see the outside world. A front-facing camera allows the goggles to “see” what you’re looking at. Software identifies the objects in your field of vision and allows images to be superimposed over them. If your job involves looking at and manipulating physical objects, augmented reality is a potentially transformative technology because it can essentially walk you through complex tasks in real time.
Suppose that you’re a mechanic, for instance, and you’re working on an obscure type of car for the first time. You could study the relevant technical manuals before getting to work – which might take hours – or you can simply wear your goggles and see the car’s components identified in front of you in real time. Augmented reality could also transform fields like construction, surgery and any type of complex repair work.
Alternative Nicotine Products
If you don’t think of nicotine as a technology, it’s only because you’re not paying attention. Companies have been using technology to manipulate the tobacco plant since the 20th century and perhaps even longer than that, always with the goal of creating tobacco products that are more pleasurable to use and more difficult to quit. The modern cigarette has very little in common with a natural tobacco plant, so it’s no wonder that people who start smoking find it virtually impossible to stop.
More recently, though, some clever inventors have proved that a positive technology can sometimes be the perfect counter for a negative one – and that’s a great thing for you if you’re a smoker.
Do you work at home? If you do, there’s a good chance that you smoke at your desk because you can do whatever you want if you aren’t working in an office. The problem, though, is that smoking in an enclosed space is terrible for indoor air quality. If the air that you breathe isn’t clean, you’re going to feel tired and foggy headed when you’re trying to work. You might think that smoking at your desk improves your productivity, but it actually does the opposite. Switch to vaping instead. Try a disposable vape like the Crystal Bar. There are so many Crystal Bar flavours that you’ll never get tired of trying them all.
If you don’t work from home, there’s a good chance that you aren’t allowed to smoke at your desk. Instead, you go outside for smoke breaks – and that hurts your productivity even more. Switching to vaping won’t help your productivity as much in this case, so you should consider trying nicotine pouches instead. With pouches, you can get your nicotine fix without leaving your desk, and that’s going to make you dramatically more productive at work.
Distraction-Free Software
One of the major drawbacks of working on a computer is that you generally have access to the Internet while you do it. It’s likely, in fact, that Internet access is actually required in order for you to do your job. The fact that you can collaborate with your coworkers online and find instant answers to your questions is certainly a good thing, but the bad thing about having Internet access at work is that you also have an infinite variety of distractions at your fingertips. One minute, you’re working on a report or a memo – and the next minute, you’re flipping over to your browser window to check the latest happenings on your favorite social media feeds. Before you know it, you’ve wasted half of the afternoon.
If you find it impossible to avoid distractions when you’re supposed to be working, you need to try to find work software that offers a distraction-free mode. If you use Microsoft Word, for instance, this feature is already built in – all that you need to do is click the “Focus” button at the bottom of the window. When you click “Focus,” the Word window expands to fill the entire screen. Other applications are hidden from view, which means that the only way to switch to your browser or another distracting application is by taking Word out of Focus mode.
For many people, needing to click an extra button in a work application in order to switch to a more distracting application provides a very effective reminder to stay on task – and if you look around, you’ll find that many work apps either have distraction-free modes built in or are designed from the ground up to block distractions. Distraction-free work apps are available for a wide variety of job types such as finance, programming, writing and more. Try one and see how much your output improves.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
