3 Ideas To Simplify Your Work Life

In the last article, I wrote about reducing stress and getting organized. I started thinking about the financially successful entrepreneurs I know. They may not be stressed, but they could work more optimally.

Since I am not one to be pushy (ok, I try not to be) and tell them they need to operate more efficiently, I hope they are reading this and will implement some of these ideas below and have a little bit of free time!

Here are three additional ideas to simplify your work life.

Recycle Your Great Work

Ever write an email for a client that was clear, concise, and expressed what you wanted to say? Maybe it was a client's late payment warning or a thank you letter for choosing you, and it could be your best-written document, proposal, or PowerPoint presentation. 

I keep a letter for potential clients in my cloud folder for easy access. I tweak a few bits of it for each potential client, but most of the document remains the same. Why should I write a different letter from scratch every time?

A more recent example is a slide deck of my service offerings. I was so grateful for having a lot of my content available in my cloud folder. Not only did it save me HOURS of work, but my brand and messaging were consistent with other material I produced in the last couple of years. 

I want you to create a folder on your cloud drive and name it "Good Stuff" (or whatever name suits you!) Search for your great content and save it to that folder. The content is now your template. The next time you need to create a similar piece, make a copy of the one you have in that folder, and tweak the copy for its new intent.

There may be a time when you will need to adjust your template. As your business matures, you should upgrade the templates. 

Shrink Your Inbox

Do you spend more than 10 minutes sorting through your email box? Could those 10 minutes be spent addressing more pressing things? 

If you are like me, you receive many emails due to signing up for discounts at your favorite clothing store, or you received a freebie on the 10 Top Ways…. (you fill in the blank). Some of these emails you wish would go away forever, others you may want to reduce their frequency to your inbox. Lastly, you have emails that you would like to read later.

Stop manually deleting and flagging the messages from the same sender. Organize your inbox only to see the emails you need to address. Unsubscribe or automatically transfer to "trash" the ones you no longer wish to receive. Route your non-pressing emails to a place you can get to later. 

Stay tuned to my video, where I will show you how to keep your inbox organized by putting the non-pressing emails in a folder to read for later.

Show Someone Else How To Do Part Of Your Job

Could your employees take some of the repeatable tasks off your plate? They probably could if you let them and showed them how. 

There are two ways to accomplish this. 

1. Create standard operating procedures for them to follow. 
2. Have someone on your team create it for you.

I prefer you choose option 2. YOU ARE BUSY!! Give an employee ownership of creating and maintaining your SOPs. Be the boss that empowers their employees!

An SOP does not need to be a written document in Word or Google docs, and it can be a process flow, a slide show, or a video. Be creative in thinking about what will be engaging and accessible to reference when performing the tasks.

Identify a task that you do on a daily or weekly basis and can hand off to someone else. Find the best way to document each step. Ask your employee to record the actions and put on the finishing touches.

Have you ever wished two of you could get the work done in half the time? Since there hasn't been the ability to clone yourself yet (except in Orphan Black), you will need to find ways to get more done in less time. 

I have a lot of ideas! Send me a DM on what you would like to simplify, and we can strategize together on what will work for you! 

If you have a great hack to get more done in less time, please share in the comments!