Strategies to Simplify Your Daily Workflow

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to “do it all?” They accomplish a long list of tasks every day and don’t even seem to break a sweat. Chances are, these people we love to hate are executing one of the below strategies to simplify their workflow.

Simplifying your workflow can have an extreme impact on your daily productivity. Most of us don’t realize how many tasks we repeat throughout the day. By consolidating these tasks, we have the power to shave off time — time that can be better allocated chasing the things we REALLY want to accomplish and driving closer to our big-picture dreams.

If you’re in the market to get more time to spend on the things that really ignite your passion, then consider incorporating one of (or all of) the below strategies into your daily workflow:

Create Templates.

workflow templates

Creating templates helps streamline your business greatly. By having documents and systems on hand that we can simply “plug and play,” we eliminate the need to start a project from the ground up every time.

Examples of templates could be:

Depending on your business, the style of the template could take on multiple forms. If you’re a freelance contractor, then chances are you need a solid invoice template and a versatile contract template. Having these templates on hand will also help improve your response time for clients — a win-win for all!

Create Automated Email Responses.

For most businesses, if you look at your inbox, chances are you give the same response multiple times throughout the day. People frequently request the same file, ask the same question, or inquire about a specific service. Having a “canned” response somewhere that you can copy and paste can be a major game-changer for your daily workflow. This is also handy for when you’re out of the office and don’t want to return to a flooded email inbox. By having automated responses ready to go, you allow people to do some of the legwork on their own and have the answers to their questions already there.

Outsource when possible.

Releasing some control and letting others do the tedious work for you is one of the best-kept secrets of successful businesses and entrepreneurs. Even if the task isn’t necessarily hard, if it takes up your time — time you could spend gaining more clients — then it’s worth outsourcing. For example, let’s say you’re a freelance photographer, and you typically spend 10 hours a week editing images. Instead of spending that time editing, you could outsource that task and spend those 10 hours teaching a profitable workshop — one that pays more than what you spend to outsource. This is how you make more money and grow your business.

If you think outsourcing might be beneficial, then first look at where you’re spending the most time in your business. Identify those tasks that “eat up” time and could be better handled by someone else.