5 Simple ways to Save You Time

Time is our most precious resource, so why waste it on tasks that don’t bring you joy?

There are simple ways you can save yourself time (and money) by streamlining and automating aspects of your business.

You already wear lots of different hats in your business - some you love doing and you’re good at. But there are others you find more difficult and time-consuming. In an ideal world, you’d outsource all the tasks that you’re not good at (or hate doing), but for now, you do them yourself – so why not make life easier for yourself?

#1 Diary Management

If you find yourself playing email or message tennis with people, it’s time to get a scheduling system. It’s one of the first things I recommend to clients who want to save time.

A scheduling system allows people to book appointments directly into your diary using a link. They don’t need to wait until you’re available - they can book in at their convenience but within the time boundaries you set. And if they need to cancel or reschedule, they can do that themselves too.

Depending on the scheduling tool you choose, you can do anything from booking individual sessions to group sessions, taking payments, and send booking confirmations and reminders.

I’ve used Acuity (by SquareSpace) for years and it’s streamlined my diary in a way that I could never do manually without a lot of time and effort. I also haven't had a no-show for years as people get reminders of their appointment.

#2 Checklists

Checklists are the simplest system you can add to your business as a way of managing processes and remembering everything you need to do. They can be as low or high-tech as you want them to be from simple lists on a notepad or in a document to utilising project management software such as Asana (my personal favourite).

There is a huge benefit to having checklists in all areas of your business (and your life if you like to be organised):

• You don’t have to try and remember exactly what to do.
• You’ll complete jobs faster and more efficiently.
• You won’t miss out on any steps.
• You’ll reduce the number of mistakes.
• And you will have a readymade brief when you want to ask someone to do a job on your behalf.

Consider any tasks that you repeat on a regular basis and create a checklist for them. These could be anything from the process of onboarding a client, to doing your accounts or updating your website. If you do one each time you start a job that needs repeating in your business, you’ll quickly build a reference file that’ll support you as your business grows.

I have checklists I set up for my accounts software years ago and I amend it and adapt it as and when I need to. It saves me so much thinking time when it comes to doing my accounts and makes a job that I don’t love much easier.

#3 Batching

Batching is simply doing similar tasks together and is a great way to save you a serious amount of time and stress. It doesn’t have to be limited to work – you can use the principle of batching in a way that suits you best including household chores and activities, and still save a significant amount of time.

It is easier to get into your flow when you’re focusing on one job or similar jobs. It avoids having to work out where you got to or trying to remember what to do next because you are in the right zone for the task at hand.

When you stop and start different tasks there is a time delay between them. Whether it’s getting your brain in gear or logging into different websites, there is a time cost. If you reduce the number of times you move from one thing to another, it will add up to a considerable amount during the day.

Some examples of things you can batch are:

Emails – only check your emails at certain times of the day - don’t dip in and out of them as soon as you see the little notification. If you don’t trust yourself to not look, turn off your notifications or close the programme down.

Clients – book your client appointments or calls together so you can get fully into the ‘client zone’.

Content creation – whether you produce blogs, podcasts, or videos – the more you can do these together, the better. Especially if you have the equipment to set up or want to do your hair and makeup before appearing on video, batching will be a huge time saver.

Social media – create your posts for the week (or month) in one go and use a scheduling tool to automate their delivery. You will still need to check them and respond to any comments etc. but you can do this a couple of times a day.

Administration – do all your accounts and other similar administrative tasks together. This way they won’t interfere with your day-to-day work.

#4 Templates

Templates are a great way to speed up tasks and create consistency in your marketing. They provide you with a framework that you can personalise and adapt, rather than having to start from scratch each time you start a new job.

Emails - ones you send regularly are a great place to start, whether that’s answering enquiries about what you do, or providing useful information to clients. Notice the emails you’re writing regularly and create a template in your draft folder that can be simply copied and personalised.

Graphics - using templates for graphics is a great way to get a consistent look and feel for your social media, website, leaflets, documents etc. to keep everything on-brand. They will save you a huge amount of time trying to get everything looking right because you already have the design set up, you just need to amend the information and images to suit the topic.

Marketing - you can also create templates for your written marketing such as newsletters and blog posts, which provide you with a framework to work within. This will help you to organise your thoughts and write in a structured way so that you can complete the content quickly and easily.

 #5 Scheduling

Scheduling things in advance will allow you to do work when it’s convenient for you and set it to be sent out or published at a time that suits you.

Emails can be answered at a weekend (if you feel like it) but are scheduled to be sent on a Monday when you’re officially open for work.

Marketing content such as blog posts, videos, podcasts and emails can all be scheduled to be published at a time that suits your marketing strategy.

Social media platforms now allow you to simply schedule posts within their platforms without the extra expense (and tech headache) of external scheduling tools. This means any posts you prepare in advance can be published across a period of time.

These 5 simple ideas will help you to streamline your holistic business, so you have more time to do the work you love. You can adopt them at any stage of your business and make them as low or high-tech as you want – start with one and notice how much time you save.

If you’re struggling with streamlining your business or marketing, book a call with me and find out how I can help you.