There are 168 hours in a week. 56 of them are spent sleeping, 40 hours are spent at work, and the leftover 72 is up to you. The NBC News article on time saving tips gives insight into how you can shift more hours from work to leisure, which is what we’re all about here at Rockton. We’ve added our own spin to the article, providing a few extra time-saving tidbits for Dynamics GP users (our niche).
Time-Saving Tip #1: Create a Designated Emailing Time
According to a McKinsey analysis, the average professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering emails. To drop that down a few notches, you could set yourself a window of time that you will read and answer emails. Adhering to this timeframe, you could create an automated response email to let those who email you know that you’ve received the message and will get back to you later. This could save you more than an hour a week. Give it a try!
Time-Saving Tip #2: Finish Several Related Tasks at Once
Task-grouping is similar to multitasking. Either you can group tasks together, such as scanning and printing documents in one session (we have a tool to help with that), or create a group of individuals to focus on a specific goal or project. For example, giving the marketing team dedicated photography days to focus only on building content with no distractions. Task-grouping can be applied to a variety of circumstances as long as they are related. Let’s look at a couple to see how Rockton’s tools can help Dynamics GP users with task-grouping.
Take Scanning and Printing Documents in One Session
Yes, you can gather your documents and take them to the printer, but we can do you one better: schedule your reports for when, where, and how you need them in Dynamics GP. That includes sending it to a printer. Our Dynamics Report Manager is a one-stop shop for managing all your reports. Click here to see for yourself.
How About Paying or Approving Multiple Timesheets, Invoices, or Bills at Once?
This task-grouping saves time of having to reference documents and logging in and out of systems. To help streamline this process even more, Rockton’s Project Cost for Dynamics GP automates the creation of invoices, employee expense transactions, payroll transactions, project budgets, and project purchase orders. One less thing for you to do. Click here to check out what else Project Cost can do for you!
Time-Saving Tip #3: Make Meetings Concise and Small as Possible
Meetings can be a real time suck, and almost a third of them are unnecessary according to a recent Otter.ai study. The NBC News states keeping to a strict agenda can cut 20 hours of meetings in a week in half. This can also encourage the meeting members to stay engaged. Forbes sheds light on alternative measures to shorten meetings. They suggest:
- Accomplishing the same goals a meeting has via email, chat or a document. Microsoft has plenty of options to promote collaboration within your team and clients.
- If a meeting is uncertain or does not have a clear purpose, then it should be removed from your calendar. This can help alleviate unnecessary meetings and be respectful of everyone’s time.
- Being invited to a meeting does not mean you are required to attend. Look at the topics being discussed and decide where you are needed in the meeting (aka you don’t have to stay the entire meaning) or politely decline if the meeting is not relevant to your expertise.
- Implementing meeting-free times to give employees more time to work on their projects. Shopify has “meeting-free” Wednesdays and Slack has “Focus Fridays”. These encourage employees to work interruption-free.
Let us know — Have you tried any of these? Which worked best in your workplace?
Time-Saving Tip #4: Let Someone Else Accomplish Your Task
Ask yourself, “Do you have time to do said task or will passing it off to someone else be time saving?” Delegating a task you simply cannot get to is okay and even beneficial for you, the other person, and the company. You will have more time to focus on important tasks. The other person gains experience. The company efficiently moves the project along. Win-win-win. Establishing general roles and responsibilities early on can help you determine who to delegate a task to.
How Can Rockton Help Delegate in Dynamics GP?
Two tools come to mind – Dynamics GP Toolbox and Auditor. Dynamics GP Toolbox has 27 tools to help make delegation and responsibilities clear-cut. This add-on tool allows you to create password policies, inactivity rules, report and manage security policies, and more. It can also help you manage full system lockouts bason on user groups, plus manage versions of all third-party products. Another tool in Dynamics GP Toolbox is Batch Review, where you use one window to manage the different batches (for sales, purchasing, financial and inventory). From this one window you can approve, delete, and post a batch or you can manage transactions within a batch by adding, deleting, editing, moving, voiding, and transferring transactions. Dynamics GP Toolbox can help save you time by supporting those responsibilities and roles determined earlier. Learn about Dynamics GP Toolbox here.
Similarly, Auditor, a changing data tracker, can determine who changed what, when and how. This add-on tool gives you even more flexibility and control by authorizing changes and requiring comments to changes. Auditor does more than that though so check it out here!
Discover How Rockton Can Help You Work Simpler & Easier®
Work doesn’t need to drag on. With these time-saving tips and our tools, you can transfer some work hours into leisure hours. Give any of these time-saving tips and tools a try and let us know if it worked for your business. We are here to help you discover how to work simpler & easier® in Dynamics GP. Reach out to learn more about our tools, book a demo, or have any questions.
