Hopefully business is booming during the Summer months but we also know that some of you may be hit by the holiday exodus and find yourself with a little extra time. We would always advise you to switch off and enjoy these quieter periods but, if you are working and fancy making the most of these less hectic moments, here are a few tasks you can do now to make your life easier in the long run.
Organise and reduce the size of your mailbox
Quite simply a smaller mailbox is easier to manage by both yourself and the computer; the fewer mails you have the less likely you will have trouble finding the content you need. When clearing out emails you don’t need to be heavy-handed, deleting large chunks of mails as you go. Instead create meaningful folder structures to get a large amount of mails out of your main inbox in a way that still means something to you. Storing mails from Company A Ltd to the same location each time means you can find what you want quickly.
Mailbox grown to an unmanageable size? That same folder structure can be replicated outside of your main mailbox in a Personal Mail Store, better known as a PST. These can be safely stowed away, out of the main mailbox, for when you need to refer back to them.
Don’t archive everything or you are just moving the problem to a different location. Do delete emails you don’t need. A simple reply of ‘thanks’ doesn’t need to be kept if you’ve safely filed away the previous correspondence. Old newsletters don’t need to be stored away, the offers will have expired, the news old – just delete them.
With a clearer mailbox it is now easier to see what is coming in and what you’re working on at this moment in time.
Spring-clean your filing system
Similarly, now is a great time to organise your files – both paper & electronic – and decide which documents are necessary to keep and which can be binned.
You may find duplicated documents or you may find others you can combine together to make a more coherent whole, such as excel spreadsheets, half-finished word documents etc.
You never know, you may even come across some interesting documents you’ve filed away to look at later but never got around to it – now is the time.
We should state, of course, that retention and disposal of documents should be completed in line with data deletion guidelines and existing regulations so please do seek advice if unsure.
Investigate new Systems & Software
With technology moving at such a speed, it is often tricky to keep up with the new systems which are introduced to make our lives easier and streamline processes. Now is a great time to investigate these a little further and see how your business can benefit.
With so many people confined to their homes, many organisations are thinking outside the box to provide online services to maintain generation of income. Systems, such as Zoom, have become very popular for online meetings as well as training sessions & gym classes, whereby participants pay to receive a meeting ID and password.
Of course, there are numerous systems out there to help you manage all aspects of business, whether accounts and invoices, customer relationships and sales, email marketing and social media. Chatting to your business network, online of course, is an invaluable way to share ideas and insights before you start further investigations into whether a particular system is right for your business.
Learn a new skill
Would you like to improve your excel skills?
Or have you always wondered about designing your own website?
There may be an IT system that your business is using which you would like to learn more about or perhaps you’re keen to add another technical string to your bow?
Whatever the skill you’re looking to develop, there is bound to be an online course out there to suit your requirements. It’s worth investigating and, even if you build in 30 mins each day to develop that skill, just think how wonderful you’ll feel when you’ve learnt something new and can look back over your achievements.
I may even take up those online guitar lessons I started up a while back but never found the time for…! 😉
Best of luck with everything, stay safe everyone and, if we can help at all, do let us know on 0118 976 7111.