The key to successful accomplishments is ensuring you complete your work efficiently but also quickly. Whether you are trying to meet a deadline on a project or you run your own business and want to drive productivity through the roof, spending some time thinking of solutions will go a long way in saving a lot of time in the long-term.
To help both employers and employees, there are all kinds of automation tools and time management techniques. Here are a few to get you started:
1) Analyze what you spend time on
A big part of being able to use your time better is to understand exactly how you’ve been using that time. If you track what you do for a few weeks, then you will start to see how much time you are wasting and which areas need improvements. You can either manually record on a piece of paper to show what you are doing or even use an app such as Time Rescue to analyze what websites and applications you have spent time on. You will soon have a much better picture of where your time is going.
2) Time-saving apps
Once you have identified where your time is being used, work out if there are any apps or online tools that can automate the tasks or at least speed up the process. For example, if you spend a lot of time inputting expenses, sending out invoices and creating receipts, then apps have the ability to complete these tasks much quicker.
3) Dual Monitors
Do you ever find yourself constantly switching between windows on your PC? If you have dual monitors set up, you can keep one document open and use the other to browse for online research, etc. By having two computer screens, you can save a lot of time throughout the day and hinder employee frustrations.
4) Buy new systems
If your PCs and other equipment are outdated, you might find that they are extremely slow and prone to restarting. If you are wasting time each day waiting for a PC to boot up, then you are wasting precious minutes that can total up to hours when combined. It may be financially more effective just to buy new kit, and if your broadband connection is running slow, then look at upgrading your package to save lots of time in the future.
5) Back up data
It can be an absolute nightmare losing documents and data after a system crash. If you have ever spent hours pulling together a large document to have then it suddenly disappear, then you will understand the importance of backing up. If you have a default backup process set up, you won’t have to spend hours re-doing the work that you had already done. Even if you do lose your data, there are other ways of retrieving the documents, such as data retrieval contacting companies that offer raid 0 recovery services (as well as similar services) to get your documents back.
Once you master the art of productivity, there’s a chance to see a rise in profits as well as happier employees.