A quarter of all diseases such as Cancer, cardiovascular related illnesses and diabetes effect people under the age of 60, thus taking them out of work in their most productive years. Living a healthy lifestyle is both vital for living into your retirement years and for maintaining productivity in the short term.

First and foremost, you should always ensure that you have a decent 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Sleep deprivation is a productivity killer, and if you don't ensure you have a decent amount of sleep you are much more vulnerable to illnesses and time off work. Some companies, such as Goldman Sachs, have even brought in sleep experts to try to help combat the problem which is costing companies and health insurance firms a fortune. A Harvard research study suggested that the average worker loses 11.3 days worth of productivity every year due to sleep deprivation, and it effects your focus, your reaction speed, your decision making abilities, your cognitive speed and your memory. A lack of sleep can also have serious ramifications during your travel to and from your work.

Aside from just your sleep, it is important to maintain a good diet. People who eat a healthy balanced diet tend to be happier and more positive people. A positive mood goes a long way in business, and this will also ensure that you are receiving the correct vitamins and nutrients your body needs to help prevent you from unnecessary illnesses. Also, eating a decent breakfast will ensure that your body has sufficient sugar and carbohydrates to power through your mornings as a lack of sugar has the ability to drain you of energy and to help you lose your concentration and motivation.

Regular exercise is also vital to a healthy lifestyle. This, much like a healthy diet, helps to improve positivity by stimulating various brain chemicals that leave you feeling happier and more relaxed, and also you overall health which allows you to be more approachable at work and to be more aware of opportunities surrounding you at work. Exercise is also an excellent stress reliever at the end of every day, and people who exercise tend to be more focussed and more driven in the work place as regular exercise boosts your energy. Having a good exercise schedule also has the added benefit of improving your sleep cycle and your ability to switch off at the end of the day.

While it is impossible not to catch illnesses from time to time, living a healthy lifestyle will ensure that your body is able to perform at it's full potential, that your mind is able to maintain concentration and focus through arduous tasks, and to leave you with a happier and more positive outlook. The bottom line is that healthy people tend to perform better in the work place, and that more time sat behind the computer doesn't necessarily mean more productivity. Be sure to eat well, to exercise and to sleep well to maximise your performance at work.

Millions of people use Instagram as a media and social platform every day, in fact, over 400 million daily and over 600 million monthly according to Instagram. It uses a very simple, effective and accessible format which allows users to seamlessly scroll through a timeline of photographs and images. Naturally, it has also become a place for business advertising, so that as users are scrolling through collections of images they will also scroll past short visual advertisements, tailored to their location. According to the website itself, over 5 million businesses use Instagram for advertising.

Many businesses have their own Instagram account, and the website claims that over 70% of users are following a business of sorts. This allows them to effectively place adverts on their audience's timelines without even paying for advertising. Instagram also offers users to publish in a variety of formats besides your conventional imagine including videos of up to a minute long and “stories” which effectively allows a stream of images and short video clips to be played consecutively, which gives businesses a choice of ways to advertise their product or to spread their message and even feature full screen sized ads.

Having a business profile on Instagram also allows other benefits for users. Instagram offers insights into followers and posts providing potentially valuable information for your business. Businesses can also boost posts by paying for promotion to spread it to a larger audience.

Instagram allows users to p[ay for advertising in a variety of different formats. There are simple photo advertisements which appear in people's timelines like any other photo. Also, users can post like this in video format if you have a longer message or want to capture attention with movement. There is an option where advertisements appear in a carousel format which allows users to swipe sideways through a collection of visuals if they wish to find out more. Lastly you can advertise using the stories feature for the biggest and boldest adverts.

You can tailor your adverts to reach specific audiences by filtering who will see the advert by location, demographics, interests, behaviour and much more. This means you can refine your target audience and reach only the people that matter to your business, although it is worth being aware that most users of the platform tend to be from younger generations. Certain companies like Harley Davidson have used Instagram to create a new, younger audience for their product and to broaden their customer base. Other companies use it to reinforce and to expand their current consumer base.

With younger generations relying more and more on their mobile devices, the quickest way to develop any business targeting this audience is through apps and mobile advertising. It helps to engage them in a familiar environment and connects with them on a very subconscious level. In an age where people seldom have the time to read a larger piece of text, quick visual elements are the most effective at delivering a message quickly and effectively, and for this Instagram is the perfect tool for any developing business to expand its audience.

It goes without saying that knowledge of a second languages can have serious benefits on your career prospects and your chances of getting hired. The USA is a country built on immigration and there is a large percentage of the population who speak English as a second language. The most popular languages in the US are as follows;

1 - English. Considering this is the national language it is obviously the most spoken. It is also the most international language in the world, taking the top spots in the tourism, business and academia, and has become essential to creating business connections worldwide. An extensive knowledge of English is essential to anybody looking to stay or work in the US.

2 - Spanish. Sharing it's borders with Central and Latin America, it comes as no surprise that there is a large demand for Spanish as a second language. There are, in fact, more Spanish speakers in the US now than there are in Spain, according to the New York Post, with more than 41 million native Spanish speakers residing in the US and a further 11.6 million who are bilingual. A report in the US Census Office suggests that by 2050 there may even be up to 138 million Spanish speakers in the US, making it the world's largest Spanish speaking nation with Spanish being the mother tongue of nearly a third of the population. A large percentage of the Spanish speaking population live in Florida and California, however you will always find Spanish speakers in the US and a little bit of knowledge can carry you a long way.

3 - Chinese. Nearly 3 million people in the US speak a Chinese dialect, such as Mandarin or Cantonese, and these figures are quickly increasing. With such a large population and a booming industry, China is quickly becoming a global trading superpower with strong connections worldwide. Most Chinese speakers reside in the larger and more famous cities such as New York, LA and San Francisco.

4 - Tagalog. This is a language that comes from The Phillipines and is spoken by just over 1.5 million people in the US. This figures has tripled in the last three decades and has surprisingly surpassed the demand for Vietnamese and French.

5 - Vietnamese. The number of Vietnamese speakers has had the largest increase in the last few years, and there are currently around 1.5 million speakers in the US.

6 - French. Compared to 1980, there has been a 28% increase in French Speakers in the US. There is a much larger demand for French speakers in Canada which boasts a large French-Canadian population in Quebec and neighbouring cities. The population is denser in the north eastern states, arguably because of the influence from French-Canadian populations in the immediate proximity.

Learning a second language opens up a plethora of different opportunities, both in business and in your personal life. It allows you to possess a larger perspective and can even delay brain disorders such as Alzheimers and Dementia. With the US becoming an increasingly international nation, maybe it's time you picked up your Spanish dictionary to pad out your resume a little more.

In today's digital age, almost anything and everything can be delivered to your front door after pushing a few buttons on your computer, potentially even less with options such as amazon.com's buy with one click option. Because of this, consumers are leaving their houses less and therefore gaining less exercise. Also, by spending all of your money online, less money goes into the local community. There's also the cost of shipping to consider when buying online, although more and more companies are now offering this at discounted prices, sometimes even free, which can increase the net price of your product substantially, and the ESG disadvantages of transporting your purchases to your address, but there are some serious benefits to shopping online.

Firstly, it's convenient. It's a time saving method which eliminates the need to walk to town, and what used to take an hour can now potentially take five minutes. Some services, particularly online supermarkets, will remember your previous purchases, so while your first visit to the online store might take some time to complete, your second visit could take merely minutes if you require the same grocery list as before.

With more competition online, prices tend to diminish and so you have more chance of finding a good deal. Sometimes you can buy direct from the manufacturer which cuts out the middle-man and pushes that price down even further. With the advantage of not having to keep and maintain a physical shop, the companies operating online tend to be able to save a lot of money and to attract a larger consumer base off their cheaper prices. Also with more competition comes more variety. If you're looking for something very specific, you are most likely to find it, and if not, you are likely to find a website or a contact you can consult on how to get that. The high street is a little more refined and generic and can't compete with the variety online. There are even websites these days that do all the hard work for you and find the cheapest prices and tell you where to shop to save the most money.

Sometimes you can even cut yourself out as the middle-man. If you require sending a gift to somebody, often you can have it gift wrapped and shipped directly to the intended recipient without having to lay your hands on the purchase yourself.

There no crowded shops online, and for people who don't like being around busy markets or other people for that matter, or for people who don't have time to be waiting in a queue every time they go to buy a new t-shirt, online shopping is perfect. There is a lot less pressure to buy things quickly as people can shop at a pace that suits them, and this also encourages less spontaneous purchases which are often initiated by good deals at the checkout.

One disadvantage is when you're shopping for attire, because you can't physically try on the product. This however is beginning to change as some larger clothing companies offer free return services if it is the wrong size.

As long as you don't mind cutting the social interaction from your shopping experience, online shopping can save you a lot of time and money.