The corona-virus pandemic has caused a major economic crisis.

Like most countries, Australia opted for an unprecedented public health intervention to protect people from the pathogen. So far, it is working. Compared with other parts of the world, the rate of transmission and number of deaths remains low.

The corona-virus outbreak has taken a sledgehammer to the Australian jobs market.

While unemployment increased only slightly in March, it looks likely that many more Australians will lose their jobs in coming months. The government’s own Treasury figures are forecasting an unemployment rate of 10% by the middle of the year.

There is little else people are talking about right now besides the corona-virus.

With good reason. At the time of writing, roughly 1.5 million people have been infected globally and nearly 90,000 have lost their lives.

In Australia, we’ve reached 6,000 recorded cases, and 50 deaths.

With the corona virus outbreak threatening to overwhelm our health system, many of us are choosing to self isolate.

For others, it’s only a matter of time before we’re told to stay home.

This will mean an enforced layoff for some workers, such as those in hospitality.

Effective recruiting is essential to the success of any business.

The right team can make a good business great and a great business exceptional. On the flip side, unpleasant or dissatisfied staff and a toxic workplace culture can derail even the best businesses.

Bad habits can be a huge barrier to success.

At the very least, they waste our time and stop us from achieving our goals. At their worst, they can be truly debilitating. They can threaten our health, our career prospects and our financial stability.

Last month’s post, ‘How To Build Healthy Habits’, described some useful techniques for incorporating healthy habits into our lives.

It’s never been more difficult to retain your best talent than it is today.

For a range of reasons, people change jobs far more often than they used to. According to Harvard Business Review, Baby Boomers are likely to hold an average of 11 or 12 jobs in their lifetimes.

You are, to a large extent, the sum of your habits.

A habit can be defined as something you have become so accustomed to doing that you now do it almost without thinking. Research suggests that as much as 40% of our behaviours every day are habitual.

Most businesses in Australia are run through a company. Almost invariably then, if you’re a business owner, you will also be a company director.

You may even be a director of a company, but have little to do with running its business. For example, your spouse may have asked you to be a director.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of a good night’s sleep. In his 2019 bestseller Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Matthew Walker writes that sleep “enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions [and also] recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite.