We all know some basic productivity hacks. What's one genius and little-known way to use technology to streamline a certain process and shave off hours of your work week?
In many entrepreneur circles, optimizing time is one of the most important things you can focus on. This is done by measuring and paying close attention to productivity. Of course, most want the most productive employees possible. But depending on the number of tasks that need to be done, and the type, it can be tricky to maintain a consistently high level of productivity.
Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share tips on how anyone can optimize their productivity to get the most of out a limited amount of time. Some of the answers given focus on mindset and others focus on using technology to your advantage. Thes tips might offer some ideas to try the next time you're in a work slump.
1. Make Your Inbox Work For You
Far too often, entrepreneurs get so caught up in their overflowing inbox that they truly work in their email inbox instead of where they should be working. But there are a lot of tools to get out of this cycle and back into the flow of productive work. From unsubscribe roll up tools (Unroll.me is one) to leveraging rules and alerts in your email client, you can setup your inbox so that different types of emails flow to different places. There are even third-party tools to help save less-than-important emails for another time, present a round up of queued emails to review quickly, and simply sort emails based on type. At my company, we utilize all of these things and then take it a step further with a series of carefully cultivated templates. In fact, we live by a rule that says if you have to do it more than once every few months, you should consider creating a template for it. This way we save valuable time replying or following up on routine processes. A template simply already exists that we can use to check tasks off our list and move on to more important matters. Minutes, hours or even days can be saved by streamlining how you operate in your inbox. - Bill Gerber, AccountingDepartment.com
2. Prioritize With The Eisenhower Box
The Eisenhower Box is a great organizing principle: tasks can be urgent or not urgent, and they can be important or unimportant. If something is not important and not urgent, you're safe to remove it from your task list. If it's urgent and important, do it now. If it's urgent and unimportant, delegate it or delete it. But the most useful lesson I have learned is to plan important tasks so that they don't become urgent. If a task really is urgent and important, there is no time to think it through properly, no time to plan, and no room to maneuver. Sometimes, urgent and important tasks arise; it can't be avoided when you run a business. But they are much easier to deal with if you aren't also juggling three other important and urgent tasks. - Vik Patel, Future Hosting
3. Streamline The Timeline
While technology is often one of the most important tools in our workplace, they also cause a huge amount of distractions. It can be difficult at times to stay focused when your latest Facebook notification or iMessage is only one click away. However, one of the best things technology has also done to help productivity is streamline collaboration and communication. Using Google Docs or a similar service allows for employees to work simultaneously and cohesively on a singular project. This is less of a technology tip and more of a real-life tip leveraging technology, but have people working on the same project at the same time helps. Nobody wants to be the guy in the Google Doc who has one sentence typed while the others are pages into their respective task. Working simultaneously not only holds you more accountable in the moment but also gives more opportunity for employees to positively motivate each other. Additionally, syncing work schedules will create a better flow of ideas between employees and encourage collaboration. - Zohar Steinberg, token payments
4. Listen To Binaural Beats
Many people will tell you that listening to binaural beats is pointless and that there's no real evidence to prove their effectiveness. However, I've resorted to this tech hack to boost my productivity and creativity several times with impressive results. The basic idea is that listening to certain wavelengths will cause your brain to resonate at a different frequency, altering your mental state. For example, waves with a frequency between 7.5 and 12.5 Hertz are called alpha waves and can boost focus and productivity, while theta waves between 4 and 7 Hertz are good for memory retention and relaxation. You can find playlists with these binaural sound waves on Youtube and listen to them through a pair of decent headphones to achieve the desired effect. - Bryce Welker, Crush The LSAT
5. Create Standard Operating Procedures
One of the best ways to improve productivity and ensure consistency across an organization is to create standard operating procedures (SOPs). Unfortunately, documenting SOPs is in itself a time-intensive task, and it often falls by the wayside: particularly in a startup environment. That’s where SweetProcess comes in. SweetProcess aims to remove the friction from systemizing repetitive processes in your business. Creating step-by-step instructions accompanied by videos and screenshots has never been easier. You can even include interactive checklists with your SOPs so employees can tick off steps as they perform them, eliminating guesswork and potentially costly mistakes. - Karl Kangur, MRR Media
6. Use Time Tracking Software
Time tracking software is the easiest way to shave hours off your work week and streamline business processes. A good time tracking software should have automatic payroll capabilities. Our software tracks the time of employees and then automatically pays them based on time worked and the pay rate set by management. Time tracking software also allows you to get a better idea of how you're utilizing your time so you can make necessary changes if you're spending too much time on one project and not enough on another. - Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com
7. Leverage Overseas Virtual Assistants
Utilizing virtual assistants (VAs) has been an absolute game changer for me. While this isn't a groundbreaking technology, it is so surprising to me how few people use VAs to streamline basic work. My VAs handle hundreds of small tasks like checking and replying to my emails, content writing, bookkeeping, trip planning, data harvesting, research, and many other tasks. I think most people get frustrated when they hire a VA but you need to think of it just like hiring a US employee. If you carefully interview VAs and give them a structured process, they will save you hundreds of hours per month for a very little cost. - Brandon Stapper, Nonstop Signs
8. Automate Your Professional Life
Everything in my professional life is on autopilot. Everything that can be, at least. You may not be able to automate that lunch with a prospective client, but you sure can automate that client's onboarding to the stage where they say "yes" and set up lunch. In fact, once that client says "yes," the email I send to schedule our lunch (and its addition to my calendar) is completely automated thanks to a trick shared with me by fellow entrepreneur, Codie Sanchez. The best "hack" to automating your life is not being afraid of change and trying everything that has the potential to save you time. Automated "drip" email chains that help to close deals, scheduling, ad re-targeting, accounting and even driving can be mostly automated with today's tech. Look for every opportunity to automate and create more time for family. - Ali Mahvan, Sharebert
9. Try The Boomerang Gmail Add-On
Email is a huge part of business these days and the Boomerang add-on is a must-have for any Gmail user. It ties right into your normal Gmail account and we use it to alert us when we don't hear back from someone. We deal with many potential customers and it prevents deals from slipping away. I also work late at night sometimes and I use the send later feature to avoid the embarrassment of sending emails out at 3 a.m. The best part is that the free version is sufficient for most people. - Brian Greenberg, Life Insurance Quotes
10. Implement CRM Tools & Meeting Software
Following up with clients and referral partners is necessary for my business. With that in mind, I’ve created email templates that work with my CRM tool to go out on an automated, trigger-based schedule to start the process of communicating with my clients and prospects. It not only cuts loads of time from individually writing out email after email, but it can also show me if messages were delivered, opened, etc. In addition, I like to use technology to schedule meetings during a certain time of the week where I know I will have the necessary time and attention to make the most of those meetings. By using call schedule software, I can block off times I know I'll be busy and let the other party decide what part of my open schedule works for them, without ever going back and forth on which times work! - Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
