The JCI 10 Outstanding Young Persons of Nigeria honors 10 outstanding young people under the age of 40 each year. These individuals exemplify the spirit of the JCI Mission, and they serve as stellar examples of entrepreneurial spirit and ethical leadership.

JCI’s 2022 elite list of TOYP has been carefully analyzed and selected from an initial 2,000 unique nominations pool of innovators, technopreneurs and various industry leaders. Joel’s interests and contributions to national digital transformation via numerous initiatives and programs helps in identifying and solving technological inadequacies, developing innovations to solve real life problems and tailoring skills that will significantly advance humanity and help people live better lives.

He has continuously left an invaluable mark as a technology powerhouse while driving partnerships and sustainability across a number of impact-oriented initiatives over the years. As a forerunner with long-term contributions to the African technology ecosystem, he seeks to build a sustainable structure that uses technology to solve Africa’s greatest problems.

With the help of his team at Prunedge where he currently serves as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, he demonstrates his ambition of developing and sustaining various successful and dynamic solutions for Government, MSMEs and enterprise businesses in Africa. Prunedge is an enterprise technology solutions company focused on using technology as a tool for solving some of the world’s greatest problems.

He has also founded other organizations such as; Emerging Communities Africa, a non-profit focused on catalyzing technology ecosystems in rural and suburban communities across Africa; GloEpid, a health non-profit focused on helping to prevent the world’s next epidemic and Tech4Dev, a non-profit social enterprise that creates access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy.

While accepting this Award, Joel said “This award is another platform to show determined young Africans, especially Nigerians that they have the tenacity and capability to do much more, when it comes to innovations in the global ecosystem. At Prunedge, we are committed to consistently providing innovative solutions that meet the needs of all our clients and utilizing technology to create endless possibilities.” Joel was recently accepted into the Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and Technology Executives across the Globe.

As one of the inspiring TOYPs, Joel will serve as brand ambassador for JCI Nigeria. As he continues to overcome unique challenges, he will not only bring awareness to his own personal goals but shine a spotlight on the JCI mission as well which includes serving as a stellar example of entrepreneurial spirit, ethical leadership and providing development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change.

The African Brand Leadership Merit Awards is an initiative of the African Brand Congress (ABC). The Congress is designed to educate, engage and inspire Brand managers and professionals in the pursuit of best practice in brand building and value creation.

The Award is aimed at celebrating Leadership, innovations and creativity in Africa. It showcases brilliant minds and institutions that are delivering positive change and shaping Africa’s future.

Prunedge received this award because of its Value Creation and Brand Building Efforts and Growth in 2022. Prunedge is well-known for innovating and developing affordable technological solutions that solve everyday human problems by improving the efficiency of systems and processes in the social, commercial, and public sectors.

Joel Ogunsola, the CEO of Prunedge reacting to this development said, “This award recognizes our entire team for their efforts in building Prunedge and establishing it as an industry leader in a highly competitive market. One of our culture phrases is innovation, this award confirms the brand’s commitment and unrelenting drive to deliver solutions that improve the efficiency of day-to-day processes. For us, excellence is a watchword that characterises every aspect of our business, and this is what we are projecting to the world.”

The award was received by Daniel Ale, the company’s Chief Technology Officer. While receiving the award he said, “We are glad to be recognized and will continue to strive to push the boundaries of secure and improved business environments, encouraging work that continues to result in real-world changes.”

At Prunedge, we believe that our clients are the most important part of our business. As a result, we strive to satisfy them by constantly innovating simple and smart solutions to real-life problems.

It will be recalled that earlier in the year, Prunedge also claimed the Software Company of the Year and the award for ICT Services Implementation & Support at the Beacon of ICT awards. These awards attest to Prunedge’s immense contributions and dedication to the development of the ICT sector, utilizing technology to make a difference in the world.

See Here: Prunedge wins BIG at the BoICT 2022 Awards Night

What exactly is work-life balance? 

Defining work-life balance today is no easy task. Literally, anyone can define what they think work-life balance should be and they may be right. In the last decade, the term ‘’work-life balance” has gained a lot of press, especially in the workplace as side discussions between staff members and their disgruntled family members. Work-life balance is a term used for the idea that you need time for both work and other aspects of life, whether those are family-related or personal interests. Remember the popular saying ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?’ 

Digital integration encourages an “always-on” culture blurring the line between work and personal life, with numerous people claiming they really can’t place a tag on when work ends and their personal life responsibilities and hobbies kick off in the day as most times these are done interchangeably during the course of the day. For example, the Popular instant messaging app, WhatsApp was once regarded as a personal tool for interacting with friends and family has fast become a business tool for many with the Facebook-owned platform increasing capacity to add more contacts in a group and launching a business model of the app in 2019. 

Defining work-life balance involves looking at how working people manage time spent at and outside of work. The methods an individual uses to juggle all their work and life demands constitute their work-life balance. Many professionals feel stressed and not “balanced” despite consuming numerous articles on how to achieve the perfect work-life balance mix. A widespread misunderstanding is that a good work-life balance is determined by how well you do professionally. Yet a lot of people succeed professionally at the sacrifice of a balanced personal life. 

Why Is A Healthy Work-Life Balance Important? 

Work-life balance is a necessity, not a luxury. Maintaining a work-life balance is not only important for job satisfaction, but it can also help for more personal productivity. While the effects of a deteriorating personal life may not be immediately apparent, they gradually weigh on the mind and may eventually lead to harmful habits and general dissatisfaction. Let’s look at how work-life balance can be achieved in 5 steps for personal and business growth; 

1. Set Realistic Goals

We get that you want to be the employee of the year and get the biggest recommendation from the C-suite, you won’t achieve that if you keep setting unrealistic targets for yourself and faltering. Then you’d not only be battling with work-life balance, but you’d also need to do regular checks on your mental health. My daily morning ritual begins with a to-do checklist time-boxed in my e-calendar so I can track my activities for the day. With this approach, I can easily gauge the scope of the day’s job and personal responsibilities. Toward the end of each day, I take some time to assess my progress; jotting all my excesses and thinking through how to solve them so it doesn’t become repetitive. As a result, I was able to figure out what went wrong, what took too much time to accomplish, etc, and devise a plan to fix it. Be intentional, dream big but be realistic and accept responsibility for your mistakes, it’s important to recognize that you’ll make a few mistakes in the process of learning. Also, don’t forget to solicit the assistance of your colleagues, who can serve as priceless resources. No one is an island of knowledge! 

2. Customize your Workspace

Your workspace environment matters a lot to how you do your best work and the best person to put together a perfect work environment is you; You know yourself better than anyone else. In order to make your job easier, whether you’re working from home or making the commute to the office every day, you should customize your space to fit your needs (as long as it doesn’t inconvenience your colleagues) and get all tools you need to help you operate better and efficiently. 

I prefer to work in the office because it eliminates external distractions and provides easy collaborative access with my colleagues. Thanks to COVID-19, we all had to get used to work-from-home and hybrid modes since those were available alternatives. To improve work efficiency, investing in certain office-like household items like a comfortable chair, laptop stands, and other devices that allow you to work for long periods of time without feeling fatigued is the great for working comfortably from home. 

3.  Aim for Excellence, not Perfection

As your career progresses and your family responsibilities grow, it’s common for your responsibilities to increase. Burnouts can be avoided by letting go of perfectionism — don’t come for me yet, I know what you’re thinking. 

According to experts, as life becomes more complicated, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the habit of perfectionism, both neurologically and mentally. It is better to aim for excellence rather than perfection. By aiming for perfection, you set goals so unrealistic that they become impossible to reach and you never feel satisfied. Instead, strive for excellence, the difference between perfection and excellence is that with excellence, you accept failure and mistakes and you learn from them and use your learnings to advise your next steps so you don’t make those mistakes again. 

Also Read: Five Benefits of Using Cloud-Based Software for MSMEs

4. Have a Priority List

It is possible that this is the most essential factor to finishing projects on time. Setting your priorities helps you stay focused throughout the day, whether you use sticky notes, a notebook, or a mobile notepad. 

Have you met or known anyone that always takes some work home and is awake till almost midnight to finish up the day’s tasks? As work-centric and responsible as that seems, it also shows that person is a terrible time planner. By constantly prioritizing your responsibilities, you’ll be able to carve out more time for things that are important to you outside of work. 

Review constantly and be realistic. Draw up a scale of tasks to be done and schedule a time frame for all the tasks, do well to stick to your timing even when you have a pending gist with your colleague or want to follow that juicy twitter trend. Personally, I use Eisenhower’s matrix to prioritize my list of tasks or agenda items by first categorizing those items according to their urgency and importance. (see diagram 

 below) 

To properly utilize Eisenhower’s matrix, I follow the steps below; 

1. First, I make a list of everything that has to be done
2. Then, I identify the most critical activities; before categorizing them into long and short-term goals.
3. Prioritize based on urgency and importance
4. As a result, these activities should be prioritized according to urgency and importance.
5. Separate conflicting priorities
6. Consider the amount of time and effort it will take to finish the task.
7. Schedule Intermittent Breaks

         5. Don’t rest when you’re burned out, rest when your energy levels are dropping. Take regular pauses throughout the day to keep your energy levels up. Even if you don’t have the time to take a lunch break every day, try to do so. Also, get up and stretch 10–15 minutes a time during your session or take a walk in the park, while listening to some soothing music at least that’s what I do. Because of this, you’ll have more clarity, focus, and productivity. 

While it’s easy to get sucked into the demands of today’s busy workspace, finding the right balance between your work and personal life is very critical to long-term success. Ignoring it can be likened to refusing to service a frequently used car — it’ll eventually break down. The best lesson I learned recently, is that ‘’Resting won’t slow you down, it will take you far.’’ Fortunately, there’s never a bad time to start and the five steps listed above can serve as all you need to get started.