- Plan the productivity of your days.
Determine when you have the most energy, morning or afternoon. That’s the time of day you should plan to be most productive; work your activity schedule around that.
Make a list, either written or mentally. What are the 3-5 most important tasks to accomplish today? List them in order of priority, keeping in mind the principles of SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. Make it a habit to stick to the list. FINISH a reasonable number of those tasks every day so you can go home with the glow of accomplished productivity. Plan for “quick wins” and accomplish a few of those every day. Build accountability into your goals.
Implement the principle of bite-size portions. Break big projects up into achievable, measurable steps on the roadmap to success. “I’ll have this done by tomorrow, this will be done by noon on Wednesday … and I’ll plan an extra day or two just in case.”
Work intentionally to move the needle on those big projects, keeping in mind that each should be measurable and have an achievable deadline. Separate achievable projects into specific days of the week. Mondays are reserved primarily for payroll, for instance. No matter what anyone has on their plate, the HR plate dictates the completion of payroll before the end of business day. To accomplish that, I need tool accounts, commissions and time cards approved by all the managers, for which we’ve established a 9:00 deadline.
Plan to start and complete projects well BEFORE the deadline, rather than waiting until the last minute, because every project has the possibility of developing roadblocks that hinder progress.
As often as possible, after your projects have been accomplished, plan some time to help other people with their duties. Ask your team, “Is there anything I can do for you today?” and train them to help others in turn. Encourage the open-door policy of interruptions into the less important tasks on your desk, so you can maintain the flow of productivity on another person’s desk.
- Provide ergonomic office chairs and L-shaped desks for admin personnel.
Uncomfortable office chairs cause people to get up and walk around without really knowing why. A good ergonomic chair reduces backaches and headaches because of better alignment. Employees will feel better, stay in their chairs longer, and collaborate contentedly together. The Tempur-Pedic 6400 is my favorite. It’s practical, it’s comfortable, and one by one, all our office employees requested it. And the best part is that it ends up paying for itself as productivity improves. Feel free to shop for a better price.
Supercharge productivity with an L-shaped desk in an organized work setting. The main workspace will house the keyboard, mouse and monitors, while the L is ideal for collaboration, workflow management — and paper storage, frankly! This layout promotes efficiency and task prioritization as it minimizes clutter and repetitive arm movement.
- Invest in technology.
If your administrative personnel have old, slow tech, they will waste ridiculous amounts of time waiting for their computer to restart, unfreeze or catch up, and productivity will be severely hindered. Depending on the age of your tech, simply upgrading the computer could improve productivity by 10-35%. Employees are less frustrated, money is saved, and productivity is enhanced.
In many cases you can do away with desktop computers and use laptops that plug into a dock. This decision reduces the need for two computers – one laptop can be used in house as well as remotely.
Spend the money and invest in two good quality, generously-sized monitors; this simple step can improve productivity by up to 40%.
- Provide for efficient office storage and organization.
A cluttered workspace is not conducive to efficiency nor productivity. I am not convinced by the studies that praise the relationship between genius and clutter as applicable to administrative processes. If it takes an employee 15 minutes to search for the item needed to finish a job … the simple answer to maximized productivity is streamlined organization. Standardize storage and placement. Time is money. Wasted time is wasted money. The solution is to organize. Do it, do it, do it.
- Essential … and optional software.
At first, you’re going to use the software you can afford. Google is great for a start-up if you manage security wisely. The argument for spending money on software as soon as you can afford it is that if you buy carefully and on an as-needed basis, the investment can decrease payroll hours. If your employees cannot work efficiently with the software they have because of limitations, the software you buy will pay for itself in productivity and efficiency.
Invest in software that will grow with your business: Microsoft Office; Quickbooks Online for paying bills; a suitable CRM (customer relationship management) database for your business (GoHighLevel is highly ranked – let me know if you need a recommendation for someone to help you set up and customize); a good payroll system (I prefer Paylocity because it integrates with 401(k) reporting); AI that works with your company website to answer phones (I’ve used ZyraTalk, but everything is moving quickly these days); and Smartsheet for internal analytics and tracking. If you offer health benefits, I like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Delta Dental and VSP Vision Care in Oklahoma. Choose what works best for your company.
Optional software: Microsoft Teams; Adobe Pro (if you wish to edit pdf documents); and Paint Shop Pro (if you wish to edit images, create transparent digital signatures for use in Word, Adobe Pro, etc.).
OBS (Open Broadcaster Studio) is open source; it’s good for recording processes on your computer screen. Teach someone how to complete a process by recording all the steps as you go.
Make sure employees learn how to use these programs correctly, and cross-train employees in each department.
- Build (and maintain) processes.
As your company grows and the number of employees increases, you will find plenty of opportunity to build and streamline processes. Note that this is an ongoing process that will continue as long as the company exists.
- Intentionally and critically observe the way things are done from the beginning of the day all the way through the end. Actively look for ways to reduce duplication, number of steps, locations and clicks.
- Write a Standard Operating Procedure for every repetitive process in the company. Job descriptions and handbooks are processes. Cross training a task is a process. Issuing checks is a process. Receiving payments is a process. Answering the phone with a prepared script is a process. Write a separate SOP for each.
- Start using calendars with appointments, invitations, and reminders.
- Set up autopay for approved repetitive bills.
- Ask your bank to teach you how to receive ACH payments.
- Reduce waste of time, resources, manpower, and materials.
- Pay attention to quality control.
- Every time you discover an administrative weakness or process failure, ask “Why?” And then, “How can we fix it?” Immediately write an SOP. It won’t be perfect but it’ll be better, and can be tweaked as time goes along.
- Automate procedures with Smartsheet — let me help you with that! Introduce a Smartsheet paper receipt form, for example, that everyone has on their smart phone. Every time they make a purchase, they must enter the receipt into the form, along with spend details. Once that data is in Smartsheet, it’s easy to match it with credit card statements and detect potential fraud and mistakes. Automate notifications of absences the same way. New Hires. Separations. One Smartsheet form with automated email notifications can trigger multiple cascading company interactions, including trusted external vendors.
- Focus to finish.
“Close out” chunks of time during the day when you may not be disturbed. Space them throughout the day with hours in between. During those close out times, identify and eliminate all sources of distraction: turn off phone notifications, close email and social media, reduce clutter and all reminders of other tasks, etc., so you can work undisturbed for a specified length of time.
Establish regularly scheduled meetings as close out times. Allow 15-30 minutes after every meeting to return phone calls, texts, emails, etc. This way, no one has to wait more than the meeting length for a response.
It takes time and discipline to establish these habits … but you can do this. :-)
