How to Increase Business Efficiency

You survive the work day minute by minute, squeezing last second meetings in between hours of business analysis, days of caffeine-assisted research, and an eternal string of pings from colleagues. When your schedule is as congested as a New York City subway, it’s difficult to imagine the possibility of having any “free” time.  You do not have power over how much time you have in our day, but you do have complete control over how you use the time that you have.  To quote author Annie Dillard, “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”   And, since your time in the office (and in life) is limited and valuable, it’s important to use it resourcefully. 

This being said, here are 7 ways to increase business efficiency in a world where time is money… and every second counts!

3.   Prioritize:  Create a realistic To-Do List to prioritize your tasks for the day.  Normally, we spend 80% of our time carrying out 20% of our responsibilities, so the most important tasks should be at the top of your list.  When you’re prioritizing your list, keep in mind how long each task will take you to do.   In addition, depending on your peak performance time, you may want to bang out a few of the easy tasks right off the bat, or, you may want to tackle your most difficult assignment first to get them over with.  Challenging tasks should be handled when you’re feeling most productive.  As you complete the tasks on your list within a specified time frame, give yourself a small reward to keep your motivation high throughout the day.   Also, when you’re generating your To-Do List, be sure to factor in some time to allow for unexpected emergencies and interruptions. 

4.   Sleep Well and Exercise Often:  Sleep and exercise give your more energy and keep your mind focused to allow you to be more productive throughout the day. 

5.   Organize:  There’s no reason to waste costly time looking for a report that’s lost somewhere in the black hole of your office or over-stuffing your filing cabinet like it’s a Mardi Gras piñata.  Organize your office and your desk on a consistent basis, whether it’s weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly.  In the long run, it will prove to be a worthwhile, time-saving task that will help you work more efficiently.  In addition to your work environment, don’t forget to keep your e-mail Inbox organized as well.  Within your e-mail, create folders for different projects, clients, colleagues, etc. so if you need to refer to a specific message, you’ll know where to find it.  It also helps to clean your Inbox weekly, deleting all unwanted mail and moving crucial e-mails to their appropriate folders. 

6.   Delegate:  If you’re swamped with a massive amount of work that you know cannot be completed in the amount of time allotted, if possible, ask for help or delegate some of the work to another person who is available and capable.  It’s better to consider your schedule and be honest about the work you can handle, rather than to knowingly bite off more than you can chew and miss an important deadline.  A successful business is all about teamwork – chances are, if you can’t deliver, someone else can.

7.   Update Technology:  Installing faster technology is an investment.   It requires you to spend a chunk of money at the beginning, but in return, you will be able to get your work done more quickly – which is priceless.