Within the Fresh Thinking Group (FTG), Dave Antrobus acts as its technology director, overseeing various matters about innovation and technological improvements. Besides, Dave is FTG’s co-founder. They established the company to provide capital assistance to companies that need it, be it start-ups struggling to survive in the market or established businesses experiencing various struggles. However, Dave’s wealth of experience at FTG makes his input for businesses to survive these difficult times following the unprecedented occurrence of COVID-19, mainly about technology issues.
Since the pandemic struck, governments introduced new regulations restricting people’s social lives, and to an extent, their work-life. People assumed new working locations remotely, making it challenging to derive motivation from other peers at their main places of work. This situation results in extended screen time, which Dave Antrobus discourages by giving several recommendations. For instance, the Fresh Thinking Group technology expert advises people to be part of online social groups. Although it’s impossible to have physical meetings, friends can still meet through social media, motivating each other to remain focused on work and life and discouraging particular digital addictions. Besides, it’s important to build physical relationships with close family members and friends, eliminating the need to seek friendships and relationships through social media.
Every person addicted to screens has a driving factor, including specific social applications. Using his leadership experience from Fresh Thinking Group, Dave Antrobus recommends that people have a personal evaluation, helping them understand what attracts them to remaining behind screens. Besides, this understanding helps in developing other activities to spend time undertaking, substituting screen time addictions. Using his time at Fresh Thinking Group, Dave sees it essential to have a schedule for digital entertainment instead of making it the fundamental source.
Dave Antrobus sees it important to avoid such addictions when working with remote teams to get maximum productivity. For instance, technical personnel at the Fresh Thinking Group, like developers of software products, prefer working remotely instead of going to an everyday workplace. Having them in optimum conditions helps to maximize their productivity, and it cannot be done without making them understand the need to avoid digital addictions. However, Dave recommends guarding remote workers against feeling isolated, which sometimes occurs by being away from teammates.