How To Streamline Business Processes To Get Time Back In Your Day

Why streamlining your processes is the key to a clearer mind and progress towards your business goals!

As a business owner, your time is your most valuable resource – but if you’re spending all your time working on repetitive tasks with clunky processes, that time (and energy) can quickly disappear.

The good news is that with just a few simple tweaks, you can save loads of time, work more proactively, and have your day run a lot smoother!

Here’s how to start streamlining your business workflows so you can focus on what really matters:

How To Streamline Processes

Step 1: Identify Repetitive or Time-Consuming Tasks

Take a week to observe your daily and weekly operational tasks and habits. What tasks are you doing over and over again, and where are you getting stuck (tasks that fall outside your current skillset perhaps)? These might be:

• Responding to the same types of emails
• Manually updating spreadsheets
• Jumping between tools to find info
• Doing tasks you’re not good at or don’t enjoy

Make a list of tasks that feel manual, messy, or like they really should be easier to do!

Step 2: Map Out the Current Process

Pick one of these tasks and break it down step-by-step. Write out what happens each step of the way from the very beginning to the end. For example:

Manually invoicing a client:

1. Open Word and Create an invoice
2. Export it as a PDF
3. Open mailbox and Write an email to the client
4. Attach the invoice to the email
5. Open the tracking spreadsheet
6. Enter invoice details into the spreadsheet
7. Check bank daily waiting for payment to come in
8. Open the spreadsheet again
9. Mark the invoice as paid
10. Or, redo step 4, 5, and 6 again to follow up on payment if not received

By writing it out like this, you’ll start to see where the steps in the process are clunky, repetitive or unnecessary, and where you might be able to save some time.

Step 3: Eliminate or Simplify the Process

Ask yourself the following:

• Is every step necessary? Can any of them be removed?
• Is there a better way to do any of the steps?
• Can it be done in less clicks or with fewer tools?

Sometimes it’s as simple as removing a step that doesn’t add value, or using a different tool that can handle multiple steps.

Step 4: Look for Opportunities to Automate

Once it’s simplified, see where automation can help you out.

For example:

• Use invoicing software to create the invoice, send it to the client, track the details and payment status, and send reminder emails (which come with a default message, but can be customised). If you connect your bank account, it will also show you when payments arrive in your account, and you can allocate the payment to the invoice.

Even very small automations that remove one step of a process can save you hours every month!

Step 5: Create a Simple SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)

Document the streamlined version so it’s easy to repeat – or hand over to someone else.

Keep it simple:

• Step-by-step bullets
• Links to tools/templates
• Quick video walkthrough (Loom is great for this type of thing!)

Tools to Help You Streamline

• Google Docs – for document processing
• Loom – to record how-to videos for yourself or your team
• Trello, Clickup or Asana – for organising workflows visually
• Zapier – to connect apps and automate steps

One Action to Get You Started

Pick just one task that you do often, and follow the steps above to streamline it a little this week. Any of the above steps above, no matter how small, can save you time in the long run.