For fellow consumers of news imagery, the past several days have delivered a particularly grueling daily diet of disaster photographs. Toxic explosions, inner-city bombings, unfathomable photos of institutionalized slavery, heart-wrenching images of the millions of desperate, displaced fugitives of war battered me vicariously each day of the past week. To be sure, the brave photojournalists who put themselves on the front lines of atrocity and danger to focus the world's attention all deserve our incredible gratitude and respect.

  I always sit down on Sunday evenings and open Google calendar to look at how I spent my time last week and my schedule for the coming week. It gives me a good overview of how I can better improve my time management and also what to expect in terms of meetings for the week and clarity on the items on my todo list.

As a business owner or an HR leader you may discover many of your employees or team members would like to have flexible working hours and working location options. A fixed routine could be one of the factors burning them out. Allowing them to come in to work at different times seems reasonable, acceptable and of course, feasible but does the thought of letting them work remotely send shivers down your spine? How are you going to manage your people being away from you? Are things ever going to get done?

If you’re like most people, you probably write at work all the time: messages to stakeholders and collaborators, proposals to clients, reports to senior managers, plus of course, a constant flow of emails to colleagues and customers. But how much importance do you and your organisation place on written communication?