In working with government offices, we have found one of the biggest pain points is the inability to find the time to manually enter or transcribe information through data entry. This is an enormous issue, considering if this information isn’t imported in accurate fashion, private information could be missed, leaving a breach of confidential data.
After researching proven methods, I have applied my own advice on managing time and workloads in the office in order to be a data-entry powerhouse.
Did you know that 89% of respondents to an annual Wasting Time at Work Survey by Salary.com reported they waste time at work each day? Numbers show that 61% admit to wasting 30 minutes on average each day… which adds up to 2.5 hours each week and 130 wasted hours annually!
Here’s what you can do to boost productivity and get more done each day...
- Limit your trips around the building.
Ever start your day going to get a cup of coffee? Sure, most of us do! Well then you catch yourself stopping by Janet’s desk to see how her weekend went and Peter stops over because he heard you talking about the new exhibit at the zoo... yadda yadda yadda. You grab your coffee, get back to the lab and 30 minutes have already flown by!
Standing up and walking around is very important. Try being as quick as possible, if folks notice you look like you’re on a mission, they won’t stop to chitchat. If someone does stop you to chat, ask if you can meet after work for drinks or even over lunch to catch up.
- Audit your project processes.
Are you tracking every single metric under the sun? Well if you only use three of the ten billion, you should review why you are collecting the data and ‘cut the fat’. Pulling through projects for various data is time consuming and wastes precious time. Streamline your processes on a quarterly basis to ensure needs are being met without overworking.
- Set deadlines for everything.
Deadlines drive us to complete projects not only on-time, but in a timely manner. There are many ways to maximize the use of deadlines to drive project productivity. For example, setting up buffer times for either before or after the project will make sure you have enough time scheduled to complete the project or task at hand. For more tips and tricks, check out 5 Ways to Use Deadlines to Your Advantage by The Freelancer.
- Prioritize.
Prioritizing what needs to be done will ensure that the truly important and urgent work will receive more attention and be completed in a timely manner. There are so many other benefits of prioritization like boosting quality and feeling less burned-out. For more information, check out 5 Benefits of Prioritizing Our Work by HubPages.
- Meetings – Can this be handled offline?
More often than not, meetings are coordinated to discuss things that could be summed up with an email or a quick phone call.
Think about compiling a weekly status report from each department in order to cut down on executive meetings. This could save hours each month.
- Enlist help.
After completing a process audit, setting task deadlines and prioritizing your workload it will be easier to see how much time you simply cannot cut out each week. The audit will clear up which pain points need additional attention. In order to master time management, it may be beneficial to enlist help for the pain points. For example, if data entry is a large pain point, it may make sense to select a solution to capture seemingly confidential information to automate the redaction process.
Extract Systems invented a tool to assist with the capture of paper documents and automate the following:
- Indexing and redaction process to release documents online
- Standardizing entry names, codes, identification numbers
- Assuring accuracy with guaranteed 99% post-verification accuracy
And it…
- Has rules tailored to federal, state, district, county, industry or customer-specific requirements
- Saves hundreds of hours of data entry work
- Eliminates 75% of manual data entry work
- Stays up-to-date with redaction law changes at no extra cost
Can you imagine how much time and energy you can save with a tool like that? For more information, request more information here:
Do you have more tips and tricks for managing time in the office? Let us know! Leave your suggestions in the comments below!
