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10 Tips To Be More Efficient In The Office
During a typical day in the office, you may find yourself wasting a few minutes every hour.
During a typical day in the office, you may find yourself wasting a few minutes every hour.
It may not seem like a big deal, but those minutes can add up to hours. Those are hours you could be spending accomplishing more or spending at home.
Here are ten tips to help you make the most of your time.
1. Get rid of the clutter. If you’re constantly looking for things, you’re wasting time. Get rid of anything that is making your office seem disorderly.
2. Make your work space efficient. For example, if you use your file cabinet often, put it close to the desk so that you don’t have to walk across the room every time you need something. Keep the things you use often near so that it’s always at your fingertips.
3. Focus.. Multi-tasking is sometimes a necessary. However, you may find that you’re flitting from one task to the next unnecessarily. Finish your current project before you go on to the next.
4. Keep your email organized. Delete the messages you don’t need and create folders for the ones you do need. That way, when you need to find something, you have a good place to start looking instead of having to filter through hundreds of messages.
5. Keep paper organized. Instead of having to sift through piles of paper on every surface of your office, spend 10 minutes at the end of each day filing away the things you aren’t actively using. If you do need to keep some things out, put them in a stand up file rack that will keep them organized.
6. Delegate tasks. You need to allow your staff to do what they can to free you up for other opportunities. Let your secretary handle phone messages or emails that don’t need your direct attention.
7. Return phone calls right away. Don’t wait for messages to pile up on your desk. Instead of having to spend 10 minutes returning calls, you may spend hours. It’s a lot harder to carve out an hour in your schedule than it is a few minutes each day.
8. Define employee roles. Make sure that everyone understands what his or her tasks really are. Employees should not be duplicating each other’s services. Create standard operating procedures for each position in your company.
9. Create agendas for meetings and use them. Agendas should have time limits and you should assign someone to make sure everyone stays on topic. Keep them as short as possible.
10. Keep one calendar. Either a written or electronic calendar is a must, but you’ll run into problems when you have too many of them. Don’t waste time entering things into multiple planners - just keep one and keep it current.
You’ll find as you delegate tasks and get more organized that it feels like there are suddenly more hours in the day. There’s not - it’s simply the positive result of running your business in the most efficient way possible.