Professionals must be careful not to spend too much of their time dealing with office chatter, whether it takes the form of email, instant messages or other communication. Instead, schedule short segments of your day to catch up on communication with teammates and unplug during other times to focus on work, writes Stacey Lastoe.

It can be easy to fall for the idea that working more hours will make you more productive, but most professionals find that long hours result in rapidly diminishing returns, writes Geoffrey James. Taking time to engage in creative activities that you enjoy instead will actually improve your work performance, according to a recent study.

Facebook is testing a feature that will allow users to mute others' posts for 24 hours, one week or 30 days. The feature could be an alternative to unfollowing friends and colleagues, writes Leah Fessler.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has introduced legislation to help parents who work nontraditional hours find affordable child care. Parents and advocates say child care has not kept pace with the changing labor market, with only 6% of providers offering overnight service, 3% offering weekend service and 2% offering evening service, research shows.

You will sabotage your own job search if you fail to adequately value your strengths, writes Robin Madell. Keep your expectations reasonable so you can maintain a positive outlook and focus on encouraging thoughts instead of problems during your search, Madell advises.

Police in Aspen, Colo., recently warned locals against taking selfies with bears, reminding people that harassing wildlife is illegal. A mother bear and her cubs came down from a tree near a mall in Aspen last week, attracting a "fairly large crowd," police said.