We’ve all heard the age old adage ‘time is money’, and although it may sound like a bit of a cliché, there’s also truth to it. As a business owner, saving time can help you pursue new opportunities, ensure your customers are satisfied, as well as get some well deserved rest to avoid burnout. If you’re looking to save time, we’ve put together a list of the best tips to help you!
1. Do a Time Audit
A time audit is a conscious evaluation of how you’re spending your time. Take one week to track how much time you spend doing certain things over the course of your day. After you have your data, you can analyze what your main time wasters are, where you could be acting more efficiently, and what time-consuming tasks you could be delegating to someone else.
2. Delegate
The second part of your time audit is to actually follow through. As business owners it’s easy to want to do everything on your own – you do know the vision and mission of the company best, after all. However, in order to spend time on things that actually need to be done by you, try to delegate tasks that can be accomplished by an assistant or contractor.
3. Set a Schedule
Setting a schedule can help you work much more efficiently. Getting distracted and jumping from task to task can really ruin your chances of getting anything finished. Setting a schedule is a fantastic way to stay organized and on top of your task. Set aside specific times for emails, meetings, and focused work to ensure you don’t break concentration constantly.
4. Create Email Filters
Email filters are a fantastic way to keep your inbox organized and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. On average, business owners get 100 to 200 emails a day. That’s a lot to get through in a single sitting, so setting up filters can help you prioritize what needs to be answered right away, what needs to be looked at, and what can be ignored for now. Using keywords, project names, and moving any informational newsletters from industry experts or vendors to separate email folders can help you save a lot of time.
5. Use AI to Your Advantage
AI is a great tool for all those emails, social media posts, and other written communication. Whether you use AI to write the bulk of your message so all you need to do is fix it, or use AI to edit your messages and make things more coherent, AI can be a fantastic time saving tool – and most people won’t be able to tell you had AI write your email!
6. Block Out Focus Time
This is one of the most important parts of scheduling your day, so it gets its own spot. Blocking out time to focus on a project undisturbed is one of the best ways to save time in the long run. Typically, if you chip away at a task 15 minutes at a time, it’ll take you twice as long if not more than if you simply sat down and focused for two hours. Blocking out focus time is essential if you want to move projects forward efficiently.
7. Automate Processes Where Possible
Automation is an amazing time saving tool. There are systems that automate sending invoices and receipts to clients, when your social media posts come out, newsletters, messaging systems, project management, customer service, and more! If you need help with your processes, there is likely an automation tool out there to save you time.
8. Develop a Clear File Structure
One of the biggest time sinks in businesses is when you want to find a document and it’s lost somewhere in the depths of your downloads and cloud storage. Develop a file structure that makes sense to you, is easily searchable, and ensure everyone at the company follows it. It’s always a good idea to include the date in your file name. Making your file structure clear and easily searchable can save you a significant amount of time.
9. Take Meticulous Notes
Another tip to save yourself some time is to get in the habit of taking good notes. Make sure all your notes are saved in the same place rather than haphazardly written in multiple notebooks. It’s a good practice that after every meeting you type out all the notes you’ve taken and keep them in a central zone. Meticulous note taking ensures that you can answer most of your own questions and not have to waste time reaching out about the same things.
10. Eliminate Time Wasters
There are plenty of time wasters in a business. Whether you have too many unnecessary meetings, you’re scrolling through social media, or you spend too much time on coffee runs, evaluate what in your routine wastes your time and eliminate it. Avoid social media while working, buy an espresso machine for your office, and only participate in meetings with a clear agenda.
11. Include Resting Time
As a business owner, it can be difficult to remove yourself from work and take time to rest; however, avoiding rest and overworking yourself can lead to burnout, stress, and a lack of productivity. Including time in your schedule to rest gives your brain a chance to come up with new ideas, approach topics in new ways, and just give yourself a break which will save you time in the long run.
12. Don’t Multitask
Multitasking is an inhibitor of productivity. No one is able to effectively do two tasks at the same time, all it means is you end up doing two things poorly to a point where you often need to redo it. In order to save yourself time in the long run focus on a time task at a time to ensure you don’t end up having to redo it.
13. Hire Experts
Another final tip to saving your time as you run a business is to hire experts! Hiring a professional accounting firm will ensure that you can focus your time on other elements of your business while knowing that your business’ finances are fully taken care of. Hiring experts takes important items off your plate while also giving you the peace of mind that they’ll be done right!
Gallo LLP is here to help your business save time and money. Our team of expert financial consultants and Chartered Professional Accountants will ensure that everything you need to keep your business’ finances running smoothly is taken care of. Whether you need help with bookkeeping, year-end tax preparation, financial consulting, assistance during an audit, or anything else, we’re here for your business!