Productivity and Efficiency Tips to Make the Most of Your Work Day

Have you ever felt that you or your team weren’t getting nearly as much work done during the week as you should? Or do you have work days where you feel far too much time is wasted on emails and other uninteresting (but necessary) tasks? Sometimes a review of your work processes can help you find a way of improving your productivity. Here are a few ways of cutting out some of the unnecessary stuff in your work and getting more out of your day:

Make full use of your software tools. Too often, businesses will latch on to a new technology or software because it’s trending, rather than an actual need for a better process. The result? A system that is either used ineffectively or has potential that is going to waste. Before you adopt a new system, make sure you have someone on the team who takes responsibility for learning and teaching that system. You should do the same for systems you already use – Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat all have advanced features that can help push your efficiencies.

Automate where possible. Incorporating automation into your business isn’t a simple process, but the payoff in terms of time and money saved can be huge. Time-tracking or customer service follow-up emails are just a few of the areas that can be handled through automation. Just make sure you have a plan for implementation and training before you jump into the automation pool.

Create a workflow and process document. Once you’ve found a workflow that works out for your business, write it down in a document. This serves as a “master document” for optimal workflow that anyone can review and is helpful for getting new hires on the right track. Make sure you audit this document once a year to update any processes that change, or that you want to change moving forward.

Control your meetings. Like emails, meetings are an inescapable part of business. Unlike email, meetings affect many of your employees at once, so its important to keep them on track and as few as needed. Create and stick to an agenda for your meetings – and that means sticking to your allotted time. If your meeting is scheduled for an hour, make sure everyone is out that door after an hour.

Outsource if you need. Far be it from us to not recommend outsourcing. If a task is outside of your expertise, outsource it to someone who will help you accomplish your goals. This will free you and your team up to perform the tasks that you excel at and keep productivity high.

Do you have any productivity hacks that help you get the most out of your business? Drop us a line at info@quincycfo.com and share! We’d love to hear what works and doesn’t work for you.