Original article written by Dave Kerpen for Inc. Magazine

There is a proven correlation between our happiness and productivity. Of course, sometimes whether or not we’re happy isn’t up to us. When your situation rules out happiness, it’s time to revise your strategy. If you relieve a little pressure, you’ll find the balance needed to keep your head up during the daily grind — at work and beyond.

In spite of the many illusions that insist otherwise, there are only two things in your life that are totally under your control. Your action, or your response to a given situation, is the first. Your attitude is the other, and it’s your outlook relative to that situation.

It may sound like a frightening prospect, but it can be a relief to realize that most things are outside your control. You can drive carefully and still get in a car wreck. You can renovate your home and still struggle to sell it. The thing is, even when your circumstances appear to be working against you, you do control both your outlook and response.

There’s no doubt that it can be difficult to deal with the day-to-day when your life is unbalanced. Fortunately, the following tips — one of them dealing with mindset and two focusing on actions — can help.

1. Pitch picture-perfect.

That idyllic work-life balance we’re all striving to achieve isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. You’ll be much happier when you ditch the idea of work-life nirvana and instead recognize the value in experimenting with the ideal balance. Make sure your family, employees, and the people you care about know that you’re relying on their feedback. It can be hard to tell you’re dropping the ball if no one lets you know.

If you create the kind of environment, both at home and at work, where people feel comfortable communicating with you, you’ve already established a balance check. Realize that every now and then, something might slip through the cracks. It’s OK, and it happens to the best of us.

2. Schedule slack time.

We’re inundated with stories of CEOs like Elon Musk, who works for days without ever leaving his office, and Tim Cook, who gets out of bed at 3:45 each morning. These leaders are certainly successful, but modeling your behavior after them is a mistake. According to a study from researchers at Stanford, our productivity plummets after 49 hours of work in a week. Entrepreneurs, in particular, are prone to burnout and its profound negative effects.

In the early days of co-founding mobile technology studio Dogtown Media, CEO Marc Fischer worked himself so hard that he lost more than just productivity.

“Even though I loved what I was doing, I sacrificed my mental and physical health. I’d work until my vision got blurry, and once I literally made myself sick,” Marc says. “That’s when I realized how important it is to take a break. If you don’t, life will force you into downtime, anyway.”

To avoid working yourself into the ground, schedule time for breaks during your workday, and plan to take time off for vacations. While even the briefest hiatus might feel indulgent, you’ll profit from renewed energy when you return.

3. Take advantage of tech.

There is an entire family of apps devoted to increasing our productivity. Task management apps like Evernote and Things keep you organized and task-focused. Procraster and SelfControl put a stop to your procrastination by getting to the root of your delay. And if your productivity problem is really just that you look at your phone too much, the Forest app encourages you to focus elsewhere by growing virtual trees on your screen (but only if you leave it alone).

Another family of apps — this one focused on health and fitness — can help you when you do get close to burnout. Headspace, Inc., for one, is trying to bring the stress-relieving power of meditation to the masses, and the company currently has the top-ranked meditation app on Wirecutter. Calm, Apple’s 2017 iPhone app of the year, has meditation lessons and sleep stories that will soothe your thoughts away from life’s stresses. While one app download might not offer the whole solution to your particular circumstance, every bit of balance helps.

4. Be kind.

I’ve found that the best way to change my mindset is to focus on kindness for others. It’s amazing how doing a simple, mundane act of kindness can shift my perspective and improve my mood. In the heart of New York City, I like to go downstairs and give $5-10 to a homeless person to make my day. But there are lots of quick, easy options for acts of kindness: Hold the door open for people entering your office building for 10 minutes. Grab coffee for a couple of coworkers. Call your mom. You might be surprised at how great you end of feeling after an act of kindness.

5. Practice gratitude.

I’ve found that the other simple, fast way to improve my happiness and therefore my productivity at work is to practice gratitude. Write a list of people and things you’re grateful for. Write a hand-written thank you card. Go up to a fire fighter or police officer to say “Thank you.” Whatever your choose, being grateful will actually make you happier!

Sometimes trying to work in life’s crazier seasons can make you feel like you’re in a hurricane — and not the eye of it, either. Ditching the idea of perfection, recognizing the importance of downtime, practicing kindness and gratitude, and exploring the variety of productivity-boosting and stress-relieving tech tools available are all small but important steps that will help you regain some balance. Start with these ideas and regain control of your actions and mindset. You’ll be surprised at the benefits that result.

Apple and Android app developers have been watching Google go through a slow-motion metamorphosis the past few years. With the release of the Pixel phones and a new hardware line, the direction of that change is becoming clear: Google is becoming a lot more like Apple. In the process, they’re capturing more of the upscale tech market than developers and consumers might have expected.

To drive the point home, reports have surfaced that the company recently hired David Foster to run their hardware line. Given that Foster formerly ran hardware for Amazon and served as senior director at Apple earlier in his career, it’s no surprise that Google would want him on board to shepard their hardware ecosystem through the growing pains of infancy and into the hands of mainstream techies.

This is good new for Los Angeles mobile app developers, who have been increasingly looking outside the Apple-saturated US market for startup opportunities. When it comes to fast-growing markets in India, Africa, and South America, Android is still king. Startups that solve problems for audiences who’ve recently crossed the digital divide could find huge opportunities in coming years, and having a major US player like Google shepherding the Android OS into the future will be a major asset.

Active development of Android by Google also makes it a more serious contender as a first platform for small US startups, who have traditionally started with iOS and then branched out to Android once the concept is proven within the Apple ecosystem. App developers always benefit from choice and diversity, and having another Apple-scale player in the consumer smartphone hardware space will only benefit the tech community.

Google Glass crashed and burned in their attempt to bring wearable augmented reality tech to the masses. Will SnapChat be able to succeed where Google failed?

New media material leaked around the upcoming Spectacles launch has NYC iOS app developers and consumers cautious but hopeful that the “new media” company could bring the concept of Google Glass to the public — minus the creepy factor.

But before we look at the social implications any further, let’s take a look at the specs (pun intended).

For starters, SnapChat’s product will have an affordable entry-level price point, with retail prices set at $130 for the limited release this fall. SnapChat, which recently changed its name to Snap Inc in an attempt to broaden its association outside of the famous messaging platform, is seemingly using a scarcity tactic to drum up buzz and exclusive associations around the product. This could backfire, as consumers already largely associate Google Glass-type products with elitist techies. Chances are, though, that Snap’s brand association will be strong enough to at least dull the stigma.

The devices will have a battery life of approximately one day, and comes with a case that doubles as a charger. The design is similar to Ray Bans, with chunky plastic and built-in sunglasses as the default option. Video is recorded via two conspicuous “hornrim” lenses by tapping the glasses’ rim.

Some iOS app developers are counting on the glasses being a welcome addition to the photo-and-video-recording product landscape, allowing users to participate in life without stopping to pull out a phone and “curate” the experience. Beme, among other distraction-free mobile app interfaces, have attempted to solve this problem before with mixed results (and slow download rates.).

Will strapping a camera on your face be enough to get users onboard the “glass” revolution? App developers won’t have to wait long to find out.

Taiwan is an exciting place for startups and mobile app developers these days. Long known for hardware and manufacturing, the culturally diverse nation has made huge investments into software development and startup culture in recent years. It used to be that young startups looking to make a name for themselves had to look to bigger cities like Shanghai or San Francisco. Now, the best place to bootstrap may well be Taiwan itself — with initiatives like the Taiwan Startup Stadium creating world-class mentorship and funding opportunities.

Given all the activity and potential brewing, it’s enormously exciting for us here at Dogtown Media to be attending the Taiwan-US Investment Conference in Los Angeles, where we’ll be speaking alongside other veterans of the mobile app development industry. Subjects to be covered include pitching to international audiences, virtual reality opportunities, and how big data affects small business. Tickets and event information are available here.

We’re particularly looking forward to hearing about local-level startup success stories like 85 C Bakery Cafe (otherwise known as “the Starbucks of Taiwan”), which are sure to give invaluable insight into how tech startups can carve out market share in seemingly over-saturated industries on a broad scale. Like LA, Taiwan is an entrepreneur’s paradise — huge financial and logistical resources coupled with a progressive, tech-positive government promise to nurture more than a few tech giants in the Taipei startup scene in the next few years. We, for one, are curious about how to get on board as early as possible. Chances are we’re not the only Los Angeles iPhone app developers who feel that way.

The Taiwan-US Investment Conference offers enormous value to any mobile app developers in the tech industry with an interest in how the increasingly international tech community will evolve in years to come. Follow us on Twitter @DOGTOWNMEDIA and keep an eye on #InvestTaiwanUS to learn more.

On Snapchat, users can share photos with a controlled group of friends and recipients. When a user uploads photos, he or she also sets a limit for the amount of time the photos will be available. Currently, users can display photos for 1 to 10 seconds, before they disappear from a recipient’s device and are completely erased from the Snapchat server. iPhone app developers are already taking advantage of Snapchat’s growing popularity, especially given rumors that Facebook is interested in acquiring the service for a reported price of around $3 billion.

Founded by two Stanford University students in 2011, Snapchat entices many users who are concerned about privacy issues. Other popular photo sharing websites, including Facebook and Instagram, permanently store shared content. There’s no way to completely erase an image from either site, which makes Snapchat an attractive alternative to people who are looking for more control over who sees their photos and how long they remain available.

While details of Facebook’s rumored offer are still murky and subject to much speculation, Snapchat’s popularity is continuing to grow at a very rapid pace. Regardless of whether or not a union with Facebook is in Snapchat’s future, mobile app developers in Seattle and around the country have an unprecedented opportunity to benefit from one of the biggest social media explosions to come along in years.

Apple announced the conference would take place June 11-15 this morning. Tickets were priced at $1,600 each. It is expected Apple will announce the new features of iOS 6 on opening day, as well as the details on OS X Mountain Lion.

Developers like us in L.A. area and of course Northern California were highly disappointed by the news. On the conference webpage, Apple apologizes for the tickets being sold out. “We’ll be posting videos of all our sessions shortly after the conference, so everyone can take advantage of great WWDC content for free.”

If you’re still enrolled in college as well as in one of Apple’s developer programs, you have a second shot at visiting the conference, and it’s free too. Students have until May 2 to apply for a scholarship.

Dogtown Media is a Los Angeles iPhone app development start-up with four titles successfully launched in the iTunes app store.