Continuing my theme of Marginal Gains, in this post we will look at a few tools that will save you time which can then be put to better use. Some you may be using already but hopefully someone will benefit from these.
Finance
An obvious one is an accountancy app such as Xero or Quickbooks. These allow you to keep on top of your receipts, invoice payments and outstanding bills in a user-friendly and ‘instant’ fashion. With Making Tax Digital now in full flow they are also required for VAT returns.
There’s now no need to try and remember your car journeys or try to keep track of odd notes in the car. With MileIQ it automatically tracks your mileage and with a swipe you can classify each trip then send the monthly report directly into Xero, for example.
Communications
Two tools that come to mind (although I appreciate there are plenty more not covered here!) are Slack and Zoom. Slack is like a private Facebook platform for your organisation providing a single place for messaging, tools and files – helping everyone save time and collaborate together. Zoom is a video-calling platform which helps to build relationships without the hours in traffic.
Productivity
Working efficiently with a team on a project when the parties are in different locations can be a challenge. In today’s world where we expect next day mail deliveries and instant chatbot responses it is increasingly important to be slick with our workflows. Trello is an online collaborative Project Management tool which gives internal teams and clients access and visibility to progress on the job in hand without the headache of trying to schedule in regular update meetings.
Where documents are used collaboratively OneDrive which is part of MS 365 helps that eternal cycle of track changes and circulation of documents by email. Selected parties have access to and the rights to view and edit shared documents.
The above is only a tiny snapshots of how you can gain some valuable time by working in a different manner. That time over the days, weeks and months can then be used for more interesting and/or profitable use.
