Image by Storm Crypt

These past couple of weeks as new parents have been as expected…frantic, terrifying, exhausting and like being on an emotional rollercoaster that we’re not sure will ever stop!

And of course at the same time, as business owners & entrepreneurs we’re still running our business and continuing to plough on with various existing projects. Fortunately, having a newborn come into your life is rarely a complete surprise, so we’ve been preparing our business for this event over the past few months and have managed to put it onto something resembling autopilot whilst we adapt to the change.

We’ve automated, streamlined and hacked as many of our tasks, activities and processes as possible so in the precious few hours when we’re not feeding, settling, burping or changing the babe, what we used to have the whole day to do, can now be achieved in just a quarter of the time.

Much of these fall into the camp of tactical hacking versus strategic process-driven automation and can be implemented easily into your business, sometimes within just a few minutes…

Here are some of the things we’ve done…

Using Automator (Mac only)

If you have a mac, the built-in automator scripts are super useful. Once you’ve set up the workflows, you can use Automator to quickly & easily complete single & batch tasks such as:

• Resize/crop/apply filters to images – great for processing images for blog posts, Twitter & Facebook.
• Batch process files – e.g. rename large groups of files
• Make scheduled backups of your files & emails
• Send out birthday emails
• Change image file types

Useful Resource: Automator – Your Personal Automation Assistant

In Your Browser

If you spend much of your working time online, using online tools & services then how you set up your browser can have a massive impact on your productivity & ability to get things done quickly.

• Set your most commonly used sites to open in new tabs when you start up your browser – I have email, Twitter & my Project Dashboard (a Google doc) open automatically whenever I fire up my browser (I use Flock, by the way).
• Ensure you’re using the full functionality your browser offers e.g. install the right plug-ins & add-ons that will help you do your job. The Collections packs in Firefox feature groups of related add-ons for things like web development, travel & life hacking.
• Have your most commonly used sites/URLs collated in a separate “Daily” folder on your taskbar – that way  you can access them easily & quickly when you need them.

Useful Resource: Firefox Add-on Collections

In Gmail

I like to think of myself as a bit of a Gmail Ninja – my Gmail account (technically it’s a Google Apps account) is pimped out to high heaven and I regularly check out the Labs features to see what new, nifty things I can add.

Set up Canned Responses: Use this Labs feature to respond to common queries you receive on a regular basis. A precursor to doing this effectively however is to identify the main drivers of work/tasks that come into your inbox.

For example: there are a number of things on this site which drive & cause incoming emails (e.g. requests for LIP Guide authors, requests for people wanting to be interviewed & featured on the site, affiliate program applications, requests for interviews) – much of the time a similar response is required to share the same information.

So I use a canned response which includes all the necessary information and then just personalise the email before sending it out. That way, I don’t have to write out the same information each time (perhaps forgetting/mistakenly amending some of it) & can maintain consistency and efficiency when disseminating the relevant information.

Set up Filters: Use this feature to auto-process emails by automatically labelling, forwarding, archiving, sending a canned response and more, depending upon the rules you set.

For example: every time one of our Little LIP Guides is sold, I have a filter that’s set up to forward the sales email to the author of that guide so they know a sale has been made. I also have a number of filters set up to automatically label & archive notifications, system-generated updates & other mail which I typically don’t need to read but might want to keep.

Set up Multiple Email Accounts: I’ve mentioned this before but it’s worth mentioning again…you can manage multiple email addresses/accounts in just one gmail account – allowing you to receive emails to all your various different email addresses in the one inbox and also send mail as if you were sending it form whichever email address you want to (i.e. you don’t have to send it as if from the gmail address just because you’re using gmail to manage your mail).

Use Quicklinks: If you regularly need to access a specific email for reference or you want a quick way to reference particular information from within your email, you can use quicklinks to add links to any URL in your Gmail account.

For example: I have an email with frequent flyer numbers in my quicklink section, along with an email with projects & ideas which I add to regularly. It’s sort of in place of a “to do” list although I use Tasks for my daily activities.

Integrate Gmail, Calendar, Docs & Tasks: By integrating your calendar, docs & tasks into your Gmail interface, you’ve got everything you need in one place. You can see your tasks on your calendar & in your email inbox and access everything you need with the click of a mouse from the same screen.

Useful Resource: Become A Gmail Ninja

On Your Blog

Create a posting schedule: Since I started blogging a few years ago, I’ve always tended to do so as & when I feel like it. Occasionally I’ve tried imposing a posting schedule and managed to stick to it, but real life & travel plans have often got in the way. This time round however, creating a *realistic* posting schedule has helped ensure this blog stays on track with regular posts & content – and that again, it stays consistent over the course of each month. Much of the meaty content has been pre-scheduled, meaning all I’ve had to do is write the weekly updates & some of the more time-sensitive posts.

Pre-schedule posts: This is a simple way of ensuring you stay ahead of yourself with pre-scheduling of posts (most blogging platforms let you do this). Prior to going on my “maternity leave”, I set the goal of having at least 1 month’s worth of posts written & pre-scheduled here on the blog so I could relax once the babe was born, knowing I had content ready to go.

Maintain a set of back up posts: I have a number of posts which I call “back up” posts. I use these when I look at the schedule and decide I’m not happy with something. Whilst the back up posts aren’t always complete, more often than not they’re in an almost final draft state and need just a bit of polishing to be ready to post in place of something already scheduled.

Keep an image swipe file: One of the most time consuming aspects I’ve always found with this blog is finding a suitable image for each post. The solution? Keep a swipe file with images you come across for reference & future use. I do this in 2 ways: firstly by using the web clipboard functionality in Flock and secondly using Evernote to collate suitable images as I find them.

On their own, many of the above might seem like obvious, small fry things to do but implement them all across your business and I’m pretty sure you’ll notice a positive impact on your productivity, efficiency and ability to get more done in less time. Let me know how you get on…

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