We all Love to save time at the office.
It doesn’t take many people to release that there is so many things you can do if you had the time in the office. We see people running around and trying to either be busy or look busy. Nothing screams that then how you present yourself to your managers. We can’t change our current circumstances but we can change how we deal with them and speed up those times. I’m going to talk about 3 ways that I have figured out to save time at my current job. Each one of these you could possibly do to help yourself in everything you do. Nothing I’m going to say has probably already been thought of by other people but I figured it was about time to talk about them.
Automate As much as possible.
This is the first way to save time, from emails to phone calls. If you use automation for everything you might need to do then you will obviously save time. Even then it will vary from how much time you save. One way I’ve found to make automation a part of my work is to have automatic replies to the most common problems. Since I am in IT these problem seem to be stuff that usually come our way from “How do I . . . . ” TO “Can you fix my problem with . . .”. Each one will get a reply on how they can accomplish their questions and try to help them. It isn’t very hard to setup with Office365 but Most people don’t realize that you can do this. It isn’t hard to use Outlook to create automate emails or even to have custom email templates. You can also have custom hotkeys that you press to send reply emails when something that may need to be replied to. You just have to look for ways to automate your response, even when we have so many emails coming in at any given time.
Learn Keyboard shortcuts As much as possible
This also goes without saying but people seem to forget that in Windows there are A LOT of keyboard shortcuts that help you speed up your time in front of the computer. You can have shortcuts to load word or even open Edge Browser when it is needed. There are even shortcuts to copy and paste and that isn’t just that. You can even Lock or focus on a certain task when you need to. I’ve learned all this over the last few months on my current job because you won’t believe how easy it was to use these shortcuts when I needed to. It won’t help you save time if you don’t use them so why not use them. I love these idea of using the shortcuts and saving time.
Know when to take a break
Another way to save time is to know when to step away and take a break. We should not be around the computer all the time. So it is best to learn to take some time away from the computer to make yourself more productive when the time is needed. Some people never learn this lesson and you see them always at the computer either eating food and trying to complete their work but that doesn’t help your productivity, in fact it slows you down because you now have to worry about keyboard and your dirty hands. So why eat at your desk when you could easily do that away from your computer and enjoy your meal, come back and be refreshed to do what is needed. I think most people don’t understand this concept and thus are unaware how it slows them down. I know I work really hard to go walk away when it is time for lunch and don’t come back until I am done with my food. I also find my eyes aren’t as tired if I do this and that helps save me time with whatever I am reading or writing about.
What are some other office hacks that you found to help you save time and make your more productive? Why not leave a comment and tell others what has helped your keep your speed and save you time in your office environment. I would be curious to hear what others have done to help with saving time and being more productive in their jobs.
