As a small business, maximising productivity is essential for growth and success when resources are limited. While there are endless tips circulating for being more efficient, not all necessarily apply to the reality of small business operations and constraints.
The key is identifying actionable productivity hacks that create tangible time and resource savings for specific small business needs. Here are 13 practical strategies to boost productivity that can transform how you operate.
1. Automate Repetitive Tasks
Look for ways to automate repetitive administrative or operational tasks. For example, use tools like Zapier to automate passing data between platforms and trigger actions when events occur.
Set up auto-generated invoices in Quickbooks when project milestones are marked complete in Asana. Auto-send welcome emails when a contact signs up for a newsletter. Auto-post blog content to social media channels.
Automating rote repetitive tasks eliminates wasted time on manual processes. Even automating a few key workflows can add up to major time savings. Start by listing your most frequent daily/weekly admin tasks and evaluate automation opportunities.
2. Outsource Specialised Work
Consider outsourcing specialised work outside your team’s core expertise that is taking excessive time away from critical functions. Common examples include bookkeeping, graphic design, IT, and HR paperwork.
Qualified outsourced contractors can take ownership of complex niche tasks that employees without specialised expertise struggle with or find inefficient. The right outsourcing partners become valuable extensions of your team.
Don’t spread current employees too thin trying to handle too many peripheral tasks. Outsourcing specialised work allows you to focus team energy where it belongs and on the business’s true competitive advantages.
3. Consolidate Software Systems
Evaluate if your business is using more software tools and apps than necessary, which fragments work and creates duplicative efforts. Consolidate down to essential platforms that seamlessly integrate together.
For example, unify project management, communication, time tracking, resource scheduling, and document collaboration under one solution like Asana or Smartsheet rather than multiple apps doing subsets of those things.
Having strategic core platforms streamlines work and minimises the need to toggle between disparate apps constantly chasing information flow. Identify where consolidation makes sense.
4. Create Helpful Documentation
Developing clear, up-to-date documentation around processes, guidelines, training, and operational knowledge helps prevent productivity loss from repeated questions and reinventing the wheel.
As the business evolves, proactively document changes in standard operating procedures, product specs, troubleshooting protocols, scripts, resources, etc. Make it easily discoverable for employees and contractors.
Good documentation minimises disruptions, allows quick onboarding of new team members, and reduces demands on senior team time for assistance. Aim to encapsulate institutional knowledge.
5. Set Priority Deadlines
Avoid overloading the team with competing priorities that lead to counterproductive multitasking. When assigning work, clearly communicate core “must-meet” deadline priorities for the week versus secondary targets.
Ensure tasks are realistically achievable within set timeframes. If new priority projects arise, have an open dialogue about redistributing workloads and adjusting timelines collaboratively to prevent last-minute heroics.
Clarity around weekly priorities enables focus and execution success. Lack of priority definition causes scattershot efforts with marginal payoff.
6. Standardise Processes
Analyse areas where inconsistent workflow approaches waste time and cause miscommunications. Define and document standardised processes for key functions.
For client onboarding, map out a step-by-step procedure to follow. Remove ambiguity around how to run certain reports by establishing templates and guidelines.
Standardising efforts when possible, without being overly rigid, promotes clarity within the team and streamlines training new hires.
7. Save Wasting Time on Documents
Often, PDF documents contain valuable messaging and content that could be repurposed or updated, but editing PDFs directly can be difficult and messy.
Using a secure online PDF to Word conversion tool allows transforming PDF files into fully editable Word documents while perfectly retaining all the original text, images, tables, columns, and formatting.
PDF to Word conversion unlocks the content within PDFs for easy editing, restyling, and reuse, so time doesn’t get wasted recreating or copying content trapped in PDF format.
8. Delegate More
Small business owners and managers often take on too many responsibilities that exceed bandwidth, which causes delays and overwork. Take time to identify tasks that could be delegated to others.
Define recurring duties that specifically align with the strengths and growth goals of each team member. Start slowly delegating discrete assignments and assess performance before gradually increasing scope.
Effective delegation and trust in team capabilities is freeing. It ensures you and your business don’t become constrained by any single person’s bandwidth limitations.
9. Batch Similar Tasks
Group similar tasks together into blocks on the calendar to maximise focus time. Don’t let your day become fragmented, ping-ponging between different types of work.
For example, check/respond to emails at set times rather than all day long. Dedicate blocks of time for deep work free from messages and meetings. Set daily timeframes for administrative tasks as well as strategic thinking.
The rhythm of focusing on one task type at a time boosts efficiency dramatically rather than constant multitasking. Disruptions get minimised through batching.
10. Evaluate Meetings
Audit recurring meetings to determine their necessity. Some may provide marginal value and waste cumulative hours each week that could be better spent working independently.
Consider reducing impromptu gatherings by sharing status updates or quick questions via email or chat instead. Consolidate overlapping meetings when possible.
When meetings are truly needed, use agendas and share materials in advance so attendees are prepared with any required context for making the most of the time.
Eliminating even one recurring meeting opens up time for priority work. Evaluate how to pare down calendars for maximum impact.
11. Set Office Hours
Make yourself more accessible and responsive by establishing set office hours when you’re available for ad hoc conversations. Communicate this period to employees and encourage stopping by or booking time.
The defined window helps prevent constant disruptions so you can focus on deliverables. Employees feel their needs won’t get ignored. The face time can enhance morale and alignment.
Consider having department heads or mentors set office hours as well for people to get guidance or touch base on pressing matters in real time when needed.
12. Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Utilising shortcut keys for common actions avoids productivity drains from excessive mousing around interfaces and menu digging. Learn at least shortcuts for copy/paste, open/save, select all, undo/redo.
Enable quick access to frequently used apps and files by setting custom shortcuts. Tools like TextExpander speed up entering repetitive text. Keyboard habits really add up.
Shortcuts keep hands in the optimal home row position for faster more ergonomic work rather than excessive reaching for the mouse slowing you down.
13. Evaluate Feedback Tools
Look critically at any software tools your team uses for collecting customer or employee feedback and consider switching to more efficient options.
For example, integrate on-site or in-app surveys and polls rather than lengthy email surveys with poor response rates and manual analysis. Examine if you truly need the features before renewal.
Assess if current feedback tools provide analytics and integration capabilities to streamline acting on insights. Don’t overpay for unused capabilities or outdated solutions.
The right productivity hacks transform small business operations without major cost or effort. Thoughtfully identifying areas where small changes drive significant time savings allows you to focus resources on the strategic priorities that matter most. Work smarter by implementing the productivity strategies that move your business forward.
