Would you like more time? Life moves at a frantic pace these days and all minutes count! So, how can you get more?

Any job contains tasks that recur. These can be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Some of them make you income but many are just administrative grist to the mill.

So, if you could reduce the time spent on these what would it mean? You betcha – more time. Our most valuable and finite resource. We touched on this in our last blog and today we’ll put some specifics in place.

Start now!

What stops people from putting Processes and Systems in place?

Not knowing –

• How to go about it
• What will help most
• What systems my business should have
• How and what to delegate
• What to measure in the system i.e. the “checks and balances”
• How to go about identifying processes that aren’t working and then changing them
• Not starting!

From the beginning, it’s vital that you create and record your systemisation.

Systemisation =  Processes, procedures and standards that explain how a business should operate

Why will Systemisation help?

Change the way you spend your time

Stop spending time on repetitive tasks – write them down to get them out of your head. Then delegate, automate, eliminate! Now, you can focus on growing your business.

• Create freedom in your daily schedule
• Grow your business steadily
• Consider how you can
  • Stop being busy doing the wrong things
  • Stop doing too much
  • Stop over-handling
  • Start delegating
  • Increase your productive hours
  • Increased productivity during work time can leave you with true leisure time to recharge

Reduce your Risk

Employee turnover is a fact of life. Reduce it’s impact on your business by documenting all employee tasks. Keep this up to date and refined over time, aiming for continuous improvement. Training a replacement becomes a much simpler prospect!

Reduce errors and corrections – make your procedures easy to follow. You may choose to illustrated with screenshots, create videos or checklists to ensure no steps are missed.

Create value for your business

As you move through this process you will be achieving the following

• Create an ongoing knowledge base
• Create an operations manual / systems
• Create an Induction process for new staff
• Create a more valuable business  –  A business built on a foundation of well-documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) has a higher value, which grows over time.

How to start today – KISS principle (keep it simple)

Take stock!

• Note about what you do on a day to day basis – write these down for a week or longer (until you build up a clear picture)
• Highlight activities that come up regularly
• Don’t forget to add in quarterly, yearly and occasional but recurrent activities
• These are the systems to work on and create efficiencies in!

Then, Choose a starting Point

• Ask a  few questions

1. Which of these activities makes the biggest impact in my business?
2. Which of these activities causes me the most trouble/pain?
3. Which of these activities do I dislike because I feel like I’m recreating the wheel each time I do them?

List the Steps

• While either doing the task or imaging the activity – write down all the steps you use to get it done
• Next time you do the activity – review your list and adjust if needed

Find Efficiencies

• Look at the steps of your activity
• For each step, ask yourself if you can

1. Automate it? – Does a tool exist?
2. Delegate it? – Can someone else be responsible?
3. Batch or Group it? – Do the task at one time per day / week / month to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time

Remember to look “downstream” in your procedures also. For example an error or omission early in your processes can create a big time-eating headache later. Add in (quality) checks and extra steps to prevent this if needed.

Tools to Help and Document your Progress

So many options…..! Here are a few which you may already use for something else – if so, perhaps you can leverage them even more.
Don’t forget that many of these tasks can be outsourced to a Virtual Professional.

• Evernote
• Asana
• Trello
• Google Drive
• Microsoft Office tools
• Sweet Process (Premium)
• Lucidchart to draw process flows

OR – a combination of any of the above
Don’t let this stand in your way – just start and you can pretty it up later, adding logos, templates etc.