An A-Z Guide: Z Is for Zoom to Improve Productivity

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We’ve already established that we only have 24 hours in a day. You can’t get more time, no matter what you do. But by working faster, you can zoom through tasks.

Improving your speed means you can get more done in less time.

Here are some tasks where you can increase your speed and efficiency.

Typing

How fast do you type? By increasing your speed, you’ll be able to knock out your writing assignments faster.

If you need help improving your typing speed, here’s a post I wrote with tips.

Composing Blog Posts

If you’re a freelance writer, you need to ensure your writing practices are efficient. Here are some of the strategies I use.

Outlining

In high school I mocked outlines. I always threw one together after I had written my paper.

Planning your paper after you’ve already written it kind of misses the point. Outlines help focus your thoughts, and ensure your writing is going in a common direction.

So take a few minutes and outline posts for you and your clients.

Think Time

I don’t like jumping right into writing after doing an outline. My posts come together much more quickly if I use some think time.

So each morning, I review the outlines of any posts I’ll be writing later in the day. Then, as I’m making breakfast, feeding the animals, or setting up for school, I can be thinking.

Often, it’s not even active thinking. But, my outline and ideas are in the back of my mind, just percolating.

By the time I sit down to write the post, I’m ready to go. It comes out of my brain and onto the keyboard quickly.

Read Aloud

Taking time to read aloud helps improve my editing speed. For client posts, I always take time to read them aloud before I submit.

Don’t Feel Like You Have to Do What the Experts Say

I do most of my editing while I write, because it’s the method I’m fastest at. I don’t like looking at errors, so it slows me down to write first.

But, most writers will tell you it’s faster to write everything and then go back and edit.

I say figure out which way works best for you, and then stick with it. You don’t have to do what the experts say!

Batch What You Can

I save some tasks for batching. It makes more sense for me to update my financial records once a week instead of opening it up and doing it each time I make money or spend money. Once a week keeps it from being too overwhelming, but also makes it worth my time.

I’m learning to batch my email, though I’m still struggling to stay out of the inbox when I’m not working specifically on this task.

I batch other tasks in my business and at home to streamline. Here are some examples:

• Folding and putting away laundry
• Many parts of meal preparation
• Sending pitches
• Data entry for a client
• Social media scheduling

Downside of Zooming

There is a downside to zooming. If you aren’t careful, it’s easy to make mistakes when you’re working quickly.

So increase your speed slowly, as you ensure you’re accuracy isn’t affected.

What Do You Zoom?

I’d love to hear which tasks you’ve decided to zoom in your business or home to get more done.

We Made It to Z!

Can you believe it? Twenty-six business days ago we started at A, and we’ve worked our way through the alphabet, learning strategies for working at home with kids along the way.

Which was your favorite tip? Are you still struggling with something? Fill me in so I now how to best help!