One of the easiest ways to make business processes more efficient is to identify activities that waste your time and eliminate them from your to-do list. Entrepreneurs encounter time-wasters more often as they typically try to do ALL the things. Burnout usually lurks around the corner for those who travel down this path. Avoid time-wasters by tightening up, streamlining, delegating, outsourcing, or automating various tasks. 

Start by identifying what’s draining your time.

Perform a Time Audit

You may be able to guess where you’re spending the bulk of your time, but the only way to know for sure is to perform a time audit. This means logging your time at work for a set period to gather objective data. You can do this with an app or software program that logs your time. The results may surprise you.

Consider Time Spent vs. Results

Look at the activities where you spend the most time. Do they produce the most results? You may discover you’re spending a great deal of time on activities that don’t produce results. Meanwhile, those that produce more significant results aren’t getting the time they need.

What’s Stopping You from Getting Things Done?

For tasks that take a great deal of time, what is making them take so long? There’s probably some stage during the process that’s taking longer than it should. Look for bottlenecks where tasks get caught up and can’t progress. If the actual work to complete a specific task takes too long, you might consider delegating or outsourcing it. I’m a HUGE fan of outsourcing! Staying in your lane and letting experts flourish in theirs can only help your business!

The Biggest Culprits

What kinds of tasks tend to waste the most time? Here are some ideas on what you should look for:

• Tasks that don’t require your specific skills and expertise. These are things anyone with the proper training can do. For the best efficiency, you should perform tasks that only you can do. (Pssst, remember how I mentioned I LOVE outsourcing).
• Routine things you do regularly on autopilot. If you can do them without thinking about it, others can as well. The solution, my fav, outsource the autopilot tasks.
• Tech tasks that can be automated. If there’s anything you’re doing that a computer could do, you need to automate it. Check out the BEST automated tools around! (link to the Social by Prosavvy Blog)
• Meetings that aren’t totally necessary. Utilize free video apps like “Loom” to clearly share info with your team and avoid unnecessary meetings.
• Meaningless communications. Delegate someone to filter communications and only contact you when necessary.
• Unexpected visits. Ask people to make appointments ahead of time, so you’re not derailed from other things you need to do. Free apps like Calendly make scheduling stupidly easy.
• Lack of prioritizing. Tackle the most critical tasks to make sure they get done and receive your best attention and energy. For example, instead of handling each email as it comes, attack your inbox in order of priority.

If you take the time to overhaul your business practices, you can save a great deal of time in the future. Map out each process and determine where time is being wasted. Then, you can figure out how to tighten up and make the most of your time at work.

Do you want to learn more about working smarter and more efficiently? Check out one of our Implementation services to see how ProSavvy can improve your business processes and help achieve your business goals.