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Productivity growth has been dropping steadily for over a decade, according to a recent study by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This begs the question of whether all the technology we have come to rely so heavily on is actually helping rather than hindering us.

Having an overloaded calendar may seem like a characteristic of successful entrepreneurship, but just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re handling your time efficiently. Although this always-connected era encourages us to pack in as much as possible, that’s precisely the sort of pressure you must avoid to stay focused on your most valuable tasks.

The business technology landscape looks a lot different from how it did just a few years ago. No longer are employees and the devices and applications they use locked within the corporate network. Today, they’re accessing the business systems and documents over the cloud with a wide variety of devices, which increases the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches.

As we become more reliant on technology to handle all those boring and repetitive tasks, it’s not long before artificial intelligence (AI) enters the conversation. We’re constantly being told about how AI will revolutionize business and render yet more jobs obsolete.

Cybercrime is on a sharp rise. According to Radware, there were 2.3 billion data breaches in 2018 versus 826 million in 2017. This alarming trend is costing companies more and more. The average estimated cost of a cyberattack for an enterprise was $1.1 million in 2018, which is a 52% increase from 2017. Studies also show that it takes 196 days to fully recover from any data breach.

There is an overwhelming amount of technology solutions in the market that claim to streamline business processes and increase productivity. Because of this, it’s easy for business owners with limited IT knowledge to choose the wrong solutions.

To avoid this, you need to understand your business’s goals, and do thorough research about the solutions that can help you achieve them.

In the past, managing data was fairly easy since most computing resources were hosted in-house and managed by an internal IT department. But today, technology environments are growing more complex because of cloud computing and mobile technologies.

It’s often easy to lose sight of where data lives and where any potential security issues or performance bottlenecks lie when company devices are spread out across different locations.

Pretty much any business founded more than 10 years ago was built around what would now be considered legacy systems. In fact, there are plenty of organizations that still use obsolete tech. For example, a major French airport was brought to a standstill in 2015 due to a glitch in key systems.

There are few things more frustrating when you have deadlines looming up than a sluggish and unresponsive computer. It’s one of the most common problems, especially with office computers, which often lack regular maintenance and upgrades. But, before you go about replacing your computers, there are a few things you can check for first.

A lot of business leaders remain uncomfortable about letting their employees use their own devices for work. Without a combination of careful planning and suitable policy, the risks can be high, especially since employers have limited options for restricting and controlling the use of personally owned devices.