Are Small Inefficiencies Hurting Your Productivity?

In this first entry I would like to introduce my plans for this blog. One of my passions is helping people use technology to work more efficiently, stay organized and be more effective. (Proof that you can find someone passionate about almost anything.) I am one of those people who will spend 3 hours to figure out how to save 30 minutes. That doesn't say a lot for me, but it might benefit you. In this blog, most of my entries will deal with tips, tricks and strategies to help you be more efficient, organized and effective.

I am also very interested in hearing your experiences. My goal is for us to learn from each other so we can all become more effective. Then, with a highly productive week behind us, maybe we can all leave early on Fridays.

Now, on to the first blog:

Small inefficiencies throughout your day can add up to significant amounts of wasted time. I don't want to sound like the guy who says you can save a million dollars over a lifetime by using a dab of toothpaste instead of a dollop. However, when it comes to time management, we waste a lot of time on seemingly inconsequential things. For example, if each person in a 25 person company receives 10 spam emails per day, and it take 5 seconds to handle each email, the company will waste 126 hours per year just on spam. This does not even take into account the distraction caused by the email and the time it takes to get refocused.

Nearly everything in your office affects your productivity in some way. Consider the following:

• The layout of your computer screen


• Do you routinely have to minimize windows to get to the icons on your desktop?


• Do you routinely have to navigate the start menu to find frequently used programs?


• The software you use for your to-do list


• Do you take notes on paper and have to retype your tasks into your to-do list?


• How easy is it to organize and prioritize the items on your to-do list?


• The type of cell phone you use


• Can you reply to emails from your cell phone?


• Does your cell phone wirelessly synchronize your notes and to-do list from your computer?


• The phone system you use


• Do you have to manually type phone numbers or can you use TAPI to just click a link and dial from your CRM system?


• Do you have to lookup people's extension or can you transfer a call by drag and dropping the call on your computer screen?


• Does your phone ring every time someone calls your company? Do you glance at the caller ID every time the phone rings?


• The ergonomics of your desk


• Do you have multiple monitors so you do not have to constantly switch between software applications?


• Do you sit facing distractions like a window, a hallway, or a television?


• The workflow within your office


• How do you disseminate information within the office?


• Do you have to manually follow-up on tasks assigned to others in the office?


• How you manage your inbox


• Do you have 3000 emails in your inbox?


• How much time do you spend in your inbox each day?


• Are you using macros to automatically handle certain types of email?

I could go on for pages with seemingly minor things that reduce efficiency and cause distraction. Most of these "minor" things, however, affect your productivity tens if not hundreds of times per week and they all add up to significant time. Like the spam example in the first paragraph, something as simple as a few unwanted emails can have a major impact on your company's productivity as a whole; over three solid weeks of full time effort in the example above.

The point of the blog entry is just to get you looking at your surroundings with an eye toward efficiency. In future blog entries, I'll begin sharing specific suggestions from my "Working Efficiently and Staying Organized" seminar. If you have any productivity suggestions from your own experience, please share them.