How to Reduce Your Admin Workload in Sustainable Ways

August 6, 2019

As an entrepreneur, you’ll know how frustrating it can be when your entire day in the office gets swallowed by a mountain of admin work. It’s not that this work doesn’t need to be completed because, of course, it does. But there’s so much other stuff that gets neglected when you’re dealing with routine paperwork all day long.

So, is it possible to reduce your admin workload and to do so in a way that’s sustainable for your business? Well, the short answer to that is yes. There are always steps that you can take to reduce your admin workload and to ensure you’re never left wishing for more hours in the day. Here are some steps you should take right away.

Hold Fewer Meetings

Meetings can waste a lot of time and often, they don’t even accomplish all that much. It’s a shame to say that but it’s true. That’s why you might want to think about holder fewer meetings in your workplace. Of course, they’re sometimes necessary and they do often achieve positive things. But that doesn’t mean you should hold meetings for the sake of it; try only holding them when there’s a reason to and when they have a clear purpose.

Use Outsourcing Options

Outsourcing can offer you many great benefits. You’ll be able to focus on other things when you allow certain admin tasks to be taken care of by external companies. Tasks that are easy but time-consuming and repetitive can be taken care of by anyone, so why waste time doing them yourself when you have other more important things to take care of? There are outsourcing companies that can take care of just about anything for you, so make the most of that.

Learn to Prioritise Better

Sometimes, you just need to prioritise your workload better in order to ensure you don’t end up with too much work taking up your time each day. There might be certain tasks you can delegate while you take care of the tasks that only you as the head of the business can take care of. Learning to prioritise your tasks in a more organised takes a little effort, but it’ll be worth it for you in the long-term.

Hire a New Receptionist

Hiring a receptionist will mean that you have to deal with less paperwork each day. It will also mean that you don’t have to filter through the stuff that’s important and the things that can just be ignored. The very best skilled receptionists will make a huge difference to your daily work and the amount of admin you have to deal with, so if your workplace doesn’t have one already, it’s something that you should definitely look into and seriously consider.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Automation is changing business in many ways. But it doesn’t have to be about huge robots carrying out tasks on production lines and things like that. It can also be about automating repetitive admin tasks in helpful and simple ways. Of course, not all admin is suited to the option of automation, so this is something that you’ll have to consider implementing on a case by case basis, but it’s certainly something for you to find out more about.

Hire an Accountant

Hiring an accountant could be the change your business really needs right now. When you have an accounting expert doing important work for you, you can make sure that you always have your accounts in order and all those little tasks are taken care of. It’s one less type of admin for you to have to focus on and deal with, and that’s got to be a good thing for you. Find a reliable professional that you can put your trust in.

Keep Good Records

Keeping good records can save you so many potential problems further down the line. If you have your records in order and everything is where it should be, you’ll have no trouble finding the information and records you need when the time comes to access them. You don’t want to land yourself in trouble just because you didn’t take the time or put in the necessary effort to keep good records.

No one wants to be bogged down by admin work, so make it sustainable by taking the steps above. It’s easy to spend less time on frustrating admin work if you know what you're doing, and there’s nothing particularly complicated about it. That extra time can then be spent on more productive work.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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