How to Achieve More With Less
Whether you own a small store, run a restaurant, or work at an ad agency, you may feel that the day does not have enough hours to get everything done. Often, time is so scarce that thinking about improving this situation does not even seem feasible.
In my career, I have experienced these scenarios many times. In the beginning, I told myself that I was not in control. Later, I realized that I was more in control than I initially thought. Here are a few insights which I found useful to become more productive:
Doing the Right Things
The first step in better managing your time is knowing which tasks are important and therefore a priority and which are less so.
As a rule of thumb, I consider any work directly servicing customers always a priority as it creates immediate value for my clients.
Many back-office tasks also fall into this category. Think about a business that stopped paying its suppliers. The consequences would be so dire that it would likely fail.
However, there are probably countless tasks whose purpose is not entirely clear. They seem to be a reasonable starting point to increase your effectiveness by asking the difficult question if you could eliminate them.
Doing Things Right
Even if you cannot completely eliminate a particular task, you may be able to make it more efficient.
As soon as you look at the entire workflow, you may notice many inefficiencies. Redundant steps and missing or unnecessary information are typical causes of wasting time. Optimizing the workflow is a great and inexpensive way to solve some of these problems. A reorganized workflow also provides a solid foundation to tackle the next step: automation.
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
To free up even more time, you could use computer software to replace many manual steps. In today's world, such software is often available as a subscription service whose features can be configured to fit your business needs. Here are two examples to illustrate my point:
A restaurant that also offers take-out could subscribe to software allowing its customers to order directly from their website, automating many manual steps, and thus improving customer experience.
A store could consider selling online, choosing software that offers to run their physical and online business from a single platform, saving them time and money.
The holy grail, achieving more with less, means working effectively and efficiently at the same time. On this note, let me close with a quote from famous management consultant Peter Drucker: "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things."
