7 Tasks You Can Automate Today

Improving your productivity could save you a ton of time. Some people work longer hours in an effort to boost their output, others see the benefit from taking breaks and coming back to work refreshed and ready to go. Time management and productivity training is all it takes to develop these skills.

However you choose to improve your productivity, don’t overlook the incredible time-saving opportunities that technology presents. Technology is out there to automate some of your more mundane everyday tasks, thus freeing up time to focus on development, new opportunities or that niggling issue that’s been sitting in your to-do pile for months. Whether you want to improve your productivity at home or at work, there’s a host of innovative apps, software and websites at your disposal.

Here are just some of the things that can be automated for you:

Sending Invoices
Most companies use some kind of financial software. Very few of them use the software to its full capability. It’s sometimes possible to program your software to generate regularly occurring invoices automatically. This means a lot less admin and a lot more time for you.

Paying Bills
Set up standing orders so your company or household bills get paid automatically. This saves you time but also reduces your chances of missing a payment and having to pay a penalty.

Posting on Social Media
There’s a host of social media management tools, both free and paid for, available online. These planners allow you to schedule your social media posts across a variety of platforms, well in advance. They will then automatically post at the time and date you request. This means you don’t need to stay glued to your computer or set a timer to post at the optimum time for your target audience. Planning your posts for the next few weeks in just one session is a much more time effective way of working.

Sending Emails
Sometimes you find yourself sending out very similar emails again and again. This can be particularly true if you work to answer customer or client enquiries. Most email packages allow you to create template responses. This means you don’t need to type out the same email from scratch every time. Instead, use the template and tweak the relevant sections for a much speedier response – consider getting email training to get full control over your inbox.

Email Marketing
Sending marketing emails or informational emails to clients and customers can be a lengthy process. If you have good database software and up-to-date email marketing software, you can easily automate your emails. From sending special offers on a customer’s birthday or informing clients that their service plan is ready for an update, the possibilities are limitless. By inputting the right data fields into your database, you can create custom mail outs for almost every scenario.

Fill in Online Forms
Some computer operating systems include this as standard but, even if your software is a little old, there are apps available that can perform the same function. Never again will you have to type out your name, address, email address and phone number. Instead, your handy software will remember the information you input and recreate it for you next time you fill in an online form anywhere on the internet.

Lights, Locks and Heating
Smart homes and offices allow you to control various aspects of your building from your smartphone. This means you can either automate or easily control the temperature, turn off the lights at the end of the day or automatically lock doors.

Make the most of the technology available and automate as many of your daily tasks as possible. Then all you have to do is decide what to do with all that extra time.

By Tess Pajaron
With a background in business administration and management, Tess Pajaron currently works at Open Colleges, Australia’s leading online educator. She likes to cover stories in careers and marketing.