9 Ways to cut down work time in the virtual office

Improving productivity by cutting down on the time required to do a piece of work is a crucial skill in todays competitive world. Developing this skill not only gives you proficiency and speed in what you do, but also puts you ahead of peers in the industry. This blog covers some of the basic techniques in getting work done faster in today’s virtual office environment.

1. Use Navigation Shortcuts

To improve speed, avoid using the mouse or touchpad. Instead use shortcut keys to navigate your machine. There are shortcut keys for almost everything – for moving in windows explorer, opening and closing files, using the web browser, using MS office applications. Using the keyboard provides the extra speed and saves time.

2. Design Systems

Jobs that are repetitive are best handled using systems. A system is a setup having well defined inputs, logics, outputs and update processes. You can create a system using any tool. However, in today’s world a spreadsheet or an analytical tool is the most convenient because most of the work done today has to do with crunching numbers.

3. Eliminate Errors

Errors are a drain on management time because of the time spent in finding what went wrong and correcting them. Techniques used in LEAN manufacturing can be used in applying logics when handling data so that errors are eliminated.

4. Fix Processes

Processes when not aligned to business requirements can be a major reason for loss of time and efforts. This can be a simple question of updating a field or coordinating certain actions. On the other hand, one may have to design a process from scratch and fix process owners. This requires both time and investment. So, a trade off needs to be made to decide if it is more beneficial to make this investment to fix the process or live with the broken process.

5. Make Meetings Effective

Meeting times are very often a function of how quickly decisions are made in the meeting. This intern depends on how data is presented in the meeting for taking the decisions. If meetings are to be made fast and efficient, prepare right and comprehensive data so that decisions are taken quickly. Share the data and deck beforehand so that data inaccuracies are resolved before the meeting.

6. Reduce time in preparing presentations

Preparing presentation decks usually take a lot of time. However, decks can be standardized. If several people need to share slides, standardize the formats before-hand so that formatting time is saved when the slides are collated. Keep placeholders for data in such a way that the data can be updated without disturbing the formatting. This is a convenient way of avoiding repetitive formatting work.

7. Make systems work faster

Any system we choose can be made to work faster by redefining business logics for calculations and data searches. They can also me made faster by making calculations work only on demand or by changing the user interface. Automation is another option.

8. Use Knowledge Management Systems

Lots of time is spent on searching for the right mail or file by managers. This time can be saved by using content management and knowledge management systems. One need not pay heavily for this. Instead use what is available in the organization such as SharePoint or OneDrive. Using nested folders is a lesser preferred option. You can also create your own content management system by writing file names in a systematic manner.

9. Use Collaborative Software

Emails are considered passé by today’s technology enthusiasts. Instead use collaborative software such as a messenger service for communications. Today it is possible not just to have audio or video calls, but also share screens like never before. With a good network connection, a significant amount of travel time and cost can be saved.

Reduction of work time in the virtual office takes a lot of time and effort. There is no magic wand of getting this right overnight. But for repetitive activities it is an effort well worth the time, because of the cumulative effect of the time saved over an year. Time saved is money because after all time is one of the most valuable things, we all have.