With all of the different aspects and moving parts of owning a business, I am always looking for ways to improve communication, scheduling, and systems to create a more organized and streamlined workflow. I use different time and productivity hacks to make managing my business easier and less stressful, because, let’s face it, running a business is hard enough.
Communication & Scheduling
Communication and scheduling are extremely important when it comes to being efficient and successful. If your communication is unclear, you will not get the desired results from an employee or vendor. If your scheduling is not organized, you could be late for an important meeting with a new client, creating a bad first impression.
Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back”
-Harvey MacKay
Time Saving Communication & Scheduling Hacks
Saving time, of any sort, is always a benefit. And finding ways to save time in your business can benefit you in more ways than one.
Here are some time-saving communication and scheduling tasks that have helped me streamline my business:
- Make sure all of your calendars and contacts are synced between all of your devices to help keep appointments, calls, and contact information organized, handy and up to date.
- Have time blocks when no meetings are scheduled for maximum productivity on other tasks and to help you with workflow planning.
- Keep meetings short. Thirty to forty-five minute meetings are best to keep everyone focused and on-task. Send out an agenda and start the meeting on time. If you run out of time during the meeting, schedule a second one. Click here for more video meeting hacks.
- Include only necessary contacts in meetings and emails.
- Do not reply all to email chains with “thank you”s and “ok”s or other non-informational responses.
- Avoid last minute meetings.
- Be mindful of time zones when scheduling meetings.
- Send a meeting or call reminder 15 minutes ahead of time. Also create an agenda and send this prior to the meeting so all attendees know what will be covered and can have any questions ready.
- Arrive at meetings or calls five minutes ahead of time. Know how to use the meeting platform and be ready to start when the host is.
As I mentioned before, saving time is always a benefit…there never seems to be enough of it, especially during the work day. Finding ways to streamline your business by implementing time-saving hacks, using free business tools, and automating tasks will make a tremendous difference to your productivity. Try these communication and scheduling time savers and let me know how they work for you!
