Are you a lark or night owl? Do you know when your most productive time of the day is? You may know instinctively, if not, it is worth working this out, by tracking your productivity. These hours are precious, you can get so more much done. Don’t waste them scrolling on social media or doing the washing.
Here are my top five time saving tips.
1. Make a list
Do you prepare for the week ahead? Perhaps before you finish on a Friday, or maybe you prefer to plan on a Sunday evening. Whenever you do your planning, write a To-Do list for the week. Then mark the 3 top priority tasks that you must complete by the end of the week.
Ideally these should feed from the goals and objectives you set yourself for the year (or quarter / month) ahead.
2. Plan your daily schedule
Once you have your list of what you need to achieve. Add to that the meetings and appointments already in your diary. Now plan when you intend to work on each of the tasks on your To-Do list. You can add them to your calendar/diary like appointments. Treat them like appointments with yourself. Time you need to set aside to achieve all the things on your To-Do list.
3. Batching tasks
Grouping similar tasks together, or batching tasks, is a great way to save time. If you have bills to pay, emails to read and respond to, telephone calls to make, printing documents. All of these things should be grouped in your day, so you set time aside in your schedule for the amount of time you want to spend on them. Or sometimes for bigger tasks, set a whole day aside to do something. For instance, if you need new photographs for your website, or to respond to enquiries and go back with quotes or update your excel list of contacts.
4. Put a time limit on each task
Do you get distracted easily? Do you feel you have to respond to an email, just because it has arrived in your InBox? Or do you get tempted to pick up your phone and scroll on social media, when you should be working? This can waste valuable time.
If that sounds like you, one approach is time-boxing. You can schedule your day using the 50/10 approach. Where you divide you day into blocks of 50 minutes, taking a 10-minute break in between each when you can scroll, or check emails.
Other alternatives to this approach include the Pomodoro Technique, where you set a timer, and work for 25 minutes, then take a short break, before starting another 25 minute ‘pomodoro’. There are apps that support this, or you can use a basic kitchen timer. These approaches encourage focus and in turn will help save time.
5. Make a list of things you could delegate
We can’t do everything ourselves. We delegate at home – do you have a cleaner, pay for your ironing to be done, or perhaps you have someone help you with the garden? So why not delegate in your business. Do you have an accountant or bookkeeper, someone to do your social media and marketing, or someone to take your phone calls?
If you are trying to do it all yourself, consider what you have on your To-Do list that you could delegate. Then consider who you could delegate the tasks to. Once you’ve got over the initial fear, one way to determine what you can delegate is to use the 6 T’s. Anything Tiny, Tedious, Time-consuming, Teachable, Terrible (at), Time-sensitive. Have a go and see what you come up with.
If you don’t implement delegation at home with your spouse and kids you are missing a trick.
Conclusion
If saving time is something you need to do. You could consider hiring a Virtual Assistant. I might be able to help take some of the tasks from your To-Do list. Please get in touch, and we can grab a coffee and discuss how I can help you save time in your day and give you valuable time back.
I can help you with tasks big and small, regular or one-off. I can flex my services to your needs. Some of the things I do include sending monthly email newsletters to clients, updating spreadsheet records, updating data in systems, sorting emails into folders, setting up file structures, typing up documentation, reviewing a process that isn’t working etc.
