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Getting admin / office work done can be a nightmare. As a certified office boy, I do this stuff all day every day. So, here’s my tips on how you can get more done, in less time.

1.Decide on your ‘One thing’ – Every day, ask yourself the following question:

‘If I could only complete one task today, which one would have the biggest impact on my business’

The answer to that question is your ‘one thing’. Do that task first and try to do it until it is complete. You’ll be amazed how much progress you can make just doing the single most important thing each day.

2. Eat that frog – There is probably a task on your to-do list that you are putting off. The concept of ‘eat that frog’ is to do the most horrible task on your list early in the morning. Once you’ve done that, nothing else that day will be as bad. So, if there is a metaphorical frog that needs eating on your list. Get it done early!

3. Time blocking – In order to get more from your day, you need to be disciplined. Set blocks of time for tasks. Both in work and personal life. And put those time blocks in your calendar / diary. Set the appointment with yourself and try not to let yourself down.

If you block an hour between 6pm– 7pm for social media, it’ll mean you are less likely to waste time doing it during the day.

Set time blocks for everything you can. Admin time, family time, picking the kids up from school, quoting etc.

Oh, and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick to it perfectly. Life can get in the way. Just try your best and stick at it.

4. Write down your list of jobs! – Have a notebook and write down your list of tasks each day. Trying to keep it all in your head just causes stress and you’ll probably forget stuff.

Each day I write down my list of jobs. I will then go through and number the most important ones, so I know what needs prioritising.

When new jobs come up during the day I use the following rule of thumb:

If it will take me less than 5 minutes to do the job, I’ll do it straight away. If it will take longer than 5 minutes, I add it to my list and carry on with what I was doing.

5. Don’t flit from one task to another – Stopping at starting tasks and generally jumping around from one thing to another is not efficient. Some people will claim they are great at multitasking, but believe me, they are not. There has been study after study that proves switching from one task to another slows you down. So, pick a task and stick to it!

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And the biggest thing to remember…COMMUNICATION!

Customers don’t care how busy you are. They expect good communication.

It takes 2 seconds to send a thumbs up response to a message. Or to reply to an email saying that you’ve received the email and will respond to it later as you’re currently on site.

Think about this…

One of the biggest reasons Uber is more popular that normal taxis is because of the little map you get showing you where your driver is.

This simple piece of communication keeps you at ease.

With normal taxis, you don’t know where the driver is, or even if they are coming. You just stand there curtain twitching, wondering if you should have another drink.

It’s the same with Dominos and their online pizza delivery tracker.

Because they constantly communicate where the pizza is, and when it’ll be with you, they have almost eliminated the number of calls they get from people saying, ‘where is my pizza!?’

If you can bring proactive communication like this into your business, you’ll find customers are far less demanding and you’re a lot less stressed!