Three Must-Implement Techs for a Calm, Rewarding Work Day
It doesn’t take much to move your day from the monotony of mundane tasks and manual systems to the magic of efficiency.
By changing up your tech stack with three simple adoptions, you will find yourself thinking of your day as rewarding rather than busy!
“Stop overthinking. Just do three things.”
One
Get an online scheduler.
Let’s say you have 3 meetings a week (consider yourself lucky), and you spend 10 minutes setting up each meeting (I would think this is an underestimate).
That’s 30 minutes (I’m a bookkeeper, I can do the math). Xs 4 weeks a month. Xs 12 months a year (I’ll let you do that math).
You can set up all your basic needs in an online scheduler - once - in 30 minutes (this is not an underestimate).
This is what the magic looks like when you decide to use an online scheduler that your guests can book automagically with you.
They choose a time you have set as available that works for them.
That sends them a calendar invite
And sends you a notice
Plus marks it off in your calendar
To set this type of scheduler up is free and will, honest to goodness, take less time to set up than organizing a few meetings!
But then you can add to the magic.
You can set up several meeting types and sync them all back to your main calendar types.
Time-based
Activity-based
Team member based
You can also add questions to the booking to tell you more about themselves than their name and contact details.
Why they want to book with you
Prospecting questions
Vet the tire-kickers
You can add details to the booking.
Meeting links
Pre-meeting information, so they are ready with materials
You can charge them for the meeting before they can confirm their booking with you.
Don’t give away your knowledge!
You can set your hours and block off days - no more being tempted to schedule meetings when you should be doing more rewarding things.
Set your schedule and stick to it
Close off booking days as you start to feel overwhelmed with your workload - I often will close off a Wednesday and Thursday if I’m rattled by Monday or Tuesday
Who are some of the players?
Two
Get a second - or third monitor.
I believe in this so much that I have one for my laptop as well.
I have a USB one, but you can use an iPad with an app called Duet
Duet’s tag line is “Be Twice As Productive,” and I couldn’t agree more, except I believe you will be more than twice as productive!
Your second monitor is your new pile of paper, your copy/paste (although there’s often #AZapForThat), your happy place to drag windows & tabs around to view without “back-arrowing”.
Multiple monitors allow you to meet virtually, see your guests and share a different screen.
This creates privacy and security of what you are sharing
This allows you to see your guest(s) in a larger view and interact more naturally with them
You can control your meeting settings in the second screen giving you more real-estate for chats, questions panels, poll options and the like
Side note: I’m completely jonesing for one of those big curved ones right now.
Monitors are like chips, you can’t have just one.
You can, in theory, multi-task with deep work and communication screens open. It sounds a little self-defeating since this blog is about creating a rewarding work day and efficiency.
Three
Template your communications
There are so many ways to do this, but I’m going to start you off simple.
Text expanders and text replacement.
Text expanders are for computers - a little bit of magic where you key in a few strokes into an email body and a whole phrase, a link (to your brand new scheduler, for example), a paragraph pops in.
Use text expanders as a browser extension for emails where you have repetitive content that you use in replies
CloudHq has a great one called snippets. This link will lead you to a page with all kinds of fantastic workhorse tech that I love, including CloudHQ
Text replacement is for mobile and tablet - this is even more magical since you can have your text expand on every single communication!
Emails, texts, social media, messaging, content creation, overriding auto-correct (it’s never “duck”)…
iPhone/iPad: settings > Keyboard > Text Replacement > “+” icon > Enter long phrase and shortcut text
Android: Settings > Language & input > Google Keyboard > Personal dictionary > “+” icon top right > Enter long phrase and shortcut text
I have used text replacement on my phone for years to quickly send my home address, email, and phone number. And phrases to make sure my newly de-nested kids were well and safe -“Alive, well, not dead in a ditch and when are you coming home to see your mother?” - are emotional and long texts to pen.
But I didn’t implement it for business until early 2020 when my APIA GF, Tiffany Stewart, and I talked about the magic of text expanders for our emails, lamenting that we didn’t have them on our mobiles - and the aha lightbulb blinked. I was “Like what! This is awesome! How did I not do this before?”
::APIA GF = Accounting Professional I Admire Girl Friend::
Templated emails
This is a super simple way to send the same subject line and content without pecking it out over and over again…and over again.
Google and Microsoft products offer this, so get it done!
Or there are “apps for that,” such as 17Hats and Dubsado, to name just two of many. And the apps can personalize the emails with placeholders/tokens, so the recipient feels more engaged.
Multiple signatures
If you want to have a variety of “Call To Actions” in the emails that are perhaps unique content or replies, create various signatures.
Referral and testimonial CTAs links to client handbooks, business-y endings, personal endings, cheerful endings, sympathy endings - it’s super useful to create signatures you can toggle through
Copy and paste documents
I use Notion for this, but any document app would work.
This is for content you may use repetitively in blogging, presentations and explainer videos, when composing them on a computer.
Again with the links - your Call To Action phrases, addresses - anything that you often use and is a time suck to type, have a cheat sheet ready with this information
Fun hack - you know when you peck out an email or communication and then realize that all caps was on - no, it’s just me that does this?
Well, if you do this too, in docs and presentations, you can go to Toolbar > Format > Text Capitalization and change all highlighted text to what you want in one fell swoop. For emails, copy/paste into the doc, change and copy/paste back into the email
One of my other fav copy/paste hacks is for links that I need to share. I have a spreadsheet with multiple tab sheets for the verticals of links I send often.
Scheduler time block links
Links to my website pages
Partner affiliate & referral links
Social media links
Links to my online template store
These three tech implementations will change your day.
I guarantee it - even for the tech-averse.
Kick the monotony of the mundane to the curb, let your tech do the heavy lifting and enjoy the rewards of engaging in the work you love.
BTW - it was 1,440 minutes a year. That’s 24 hours a year to do something other than set up 3 meetings a week.
Simply yours, Kellie :-}
::Shameless Call To Action::
I sell cloud accounting templates, standard operating process handbooks and client guides.
