One of the reasons why outsourcing is so effective is the speed with which tasks can be completed, the reason they are completed so quickly is simply good organisation.  This is how we do it.

1. Group similar tasks together. During the week you may have a number of different tasks that you need to complete, from updating social media, dealing with sales enquiries, to making credit control calls and everything else in between. Organise your time so that instead of dealing with tasks as they arise that you actually organise yourself to make all of your credit control calls at the same time, that you deal with all of your emails at the same time and that you update all of your social media for the week at once. Doing things this way will mean that you get into a rhythm of the task at hand and you will rattle through your jobs quicker. It is also more efficient because if for example you need to log in to databases to access information you have only logged in once – this may not sound like much, but if for example it takes you one minute to log in to access the information you need and you have 30 transactions to process, by lumping them all together and carrying out as one task you have already saved half an hour. It also ensures you don’t then spend time throughout the week dwelling on a particular task which can distract you from getting on with something else.
2. Create a default diary. Thinking about the blocking tasks together write a list of everything that needs to be done for the week and then create a default diary to work from. A default diary is when you allocate time throughout the week to particular tasks. For example, two hours a week making social media updates, an hour a day checking and responding to emails, an hour a week making credit control calls, an hour a day responding to telephone calls, five hours a week making business development calls, etc. You then need to decide the optimum time to carry out these tasks and fit them in to a calendar. This is a useful exercise in itself as when you have this all set out in front of you it makes you realise how much time you realistically have to concentrate on other tasks – or how little!
3. Expect the unexpected. When you create your diary don’t fill it completely, make sure you allow time every day to deal with those unexpected eventualities that arise in most businesses every day. When you do this you need to think about the time that you have set aside for this, and know what you would spend the time filling this space with if nothing unplanned does arise that day – business is often unpredictable but you can at least be prepared either way and make sure you are maximising your time.
4. Build in time to work towards ultimate business goals. This is top priority, if you want to achieve more in your business in 2015 than you did in 2014 then you need to be working towards a clear plan to achieve this. Break down your goal of where you want to be by the end of 2015 into a series of steps and spend an amount of time every week working to achieve these steps. By following these steps in turn you will ensure that you are making constant progress to achieving your long term goals.
5. Delegate and outsource. By the time you have filled in your default diary with all the tasks that need to be completed during the week, as well as allowing time for working towards goals and allowing time for the unexpected you will most likely be wondering how on earth you are actually going to squeeze all of this in to your working week. Some of the tasks on there may be important but is it really the best use of your own time to work on fulfilling these tasks? Ask yourself when you look at each task do you really need to do this personally or can someone else do it for you? If you don’t have people already working for you to absorb these tasks then think about outsourcing. It’s easy to subcontract everything from bookkeeping, administration, telephone answering, telemarketing and much, much more. The benefit of outsourcing is that you would only pay for the time actually taken to complete a task, and generally speaking outsourcers can perform tasks at great speed and competence.

I’d love to know how you get on with putting this in place, please comment and let me know if this has helped at all, or if you have ideas of your own please let me know.