Office admin tasks have become one of the biggest time wasters in business. So why not use this opportunity to eliminate the clutter?
There are several common admin tasks that almost everyone in every office has to perform. As an admin, it’s important to know how to effectively manage these mundane administrative tasks to save time and energy.
If you’re like most people, you may have come to accept a number of inefficient practices.
In this article, we’ll talk about five tips for improving the efficiency of these routine admin tasks and hopefully make you more efficient in your own office as well.
1. One task at a time
It can be easy to get sucked into extreme multitasking, especially when your jobs have started to really stack up and you’re a little stressed. While it might feel like you’re doing more, studies show that people lose around 40% of their productive time when they shift between tasks too frequently.
Pick a task for the morning or afternoon – not necessarily the whole day – and stick with it, even when it gets a little maddening. If you’re totally stuck, then it might be worth moving on, but really be honest with yourself as to whether you’re stuck or just looking for something else to do.
2. Set realistic objectives
It’s common that we set massive goals at work and in normal life, then become frustrated when we can’t achieve that goal in the allotted time frame. Instead, try setting multiple smaller goals that you can then achieve relatively easily – you’ll likely get more done, you’ll feel better about your productivity, and you’ll be better able to track your progress. You’re also less likely to get stuck on a single task this way.
3. Outsource your bigger document scanning jobs
While it’s not too much of an issue to scan the odd document on your average office printer-scanner, when you have more extensive scanning jobs, it can become an incredibly laborious, time-consuming task. A great way of saving time when scanning documents is to outsource the whole job.
The professional companies that offer these services use automatic scanners that can scan huge files accurately in as short a timeframe as possible. The time you save can then be spent on doing what you were actually hired to do, which is unlikely to be scanning.
4. Limit distractions
Everyone is susceptible to distraction – it’s a fact of human nature. Even so, the true extent of just how distracted we are in the modern workplace might surprise you – a recent study found that employees waste an average of two hours a day going on their smartphones.
The best way to stop getting distracted is to remove distractions from your surroundings; put your phone on do not disturb mode, download an extension that bans social media on your desktop and laptop browser, and maybe even put a sticky note on the back of your chair asking your employees not to come and chat to you if you’re a true chatterbox.
5. Make lists and prioritize
It’s a common occurrence that many tasks take a lot longer than expected to complete – especially meetings and calls. To ensure that you get the most important things done, make a list before you start the day – either the night before or in the morning – and do the essential things first. This might also have the positive side effect of making you a lot more efficient.
Using these tips, you should be able to massively improve your efficiency when it comes to office admin tasks, getting the boring stuff done as quickly as possible and moving on to doing something a little more interesting.
