Our top 8 productivity tools for maximum efficiency
If you were to spend a day observing the conversations that we have at FACTEUR PR, efficiency is a huge buzzword around here. Time is a nonrenewable resource, and in an agency setting, we have to be incredibly mindful of how we spend our time throughout the day, every day. You’ll often hear us asking ourselves or each other…
“How is this activity going to move the needle for our clients or our company?”
“Can we automate this task or do this faster or smarter?”
“What can we streamline?”
While we’re always tweaking our processes and time management efforts, we’ve learned a lot in eight years about efficiency. I want to share a few of the productivity tools and tips that have helped support me and my team to be as savvy as can be with our time.
Our top 8 productivity tools for maximum efficiency
Client meetings on Mondays
This is not a tool but a practice, and one of the most important ones we began last year at FACTEUR. Science from UC Berkeley proves that batching calls in a single workday like this helps harness focus for the benefit of productivity and even creativity. When we can avoid context switching – aka mentally jumping back and forth between tasks like meetings, pitching, meetings, pitching – this not only gives us more prime time to pitch but also better quality of outreach, as well.
We’ve been using Asana literally since the birth of FACTEUR (Inc.com even interviewed me once about the platform, that is how much I stand by it). For us, Asana is all about tactics not strategy, and in a remote-work environment it helps keep everyone accountable.
Whether you’re in-office or remote, Slack is a fantastic tool to communicate with your team. Yes, texting back and forth is great, but actually my favorite thing about Slack is the huddle feature. Instead of calling a formal meeting, we can huddle in a quick call together and knock out any issues, bring the team up to date, get clarity on assignments, and so forth.
With school drop-offs and the work day starting as early as 8 a.m. some days, I rarely have time to leave the house and go to any kind of gym. (For the record, I have to work out first thing in the morning otherwise it’s not gonna happen…) I love the SweatApp because it literally has any kind of workout I could be in the mood for, including weight lifting, yoga, pilates, etc. And I get to listen to my own music, which is important to me.
This is a new software for us, and so far, I am obsessed. MeetGeek records and takes comprehensive notes for you during a meeting, and it automatically organizes and distributes the notes to all attendees immediately after the meeting. I still believe in the importance of taking your own notes, but this platform helps us focus on the client and maximizes efficiency after the meeting. Now, rather than spending time organizing our follow-up emails, the follow-up is done and we’re ready to plug into Asana and execute.
I dragged my feet on a CRM system for a long time, because it takes weeks to set-up and integrate. What I like most about Dubsado is that it streamlines the client onboarding process. Prospective clients can view their proposals, sign their contracts, and set up their automatic payments right from the beginning; and best of all, they will have access to all of their documentation and onboarding materials through their own Client Portal. This saves our client time and saves me time. Who doesn’t love that?
We don’t typically bill by the hour, but we still track our time. Why? Understanding the time that goes into our accounts is valuable data that helps inform our agency pricing and EHR, makes sure the workload is manageable and helps us learn more about what tasks yield the best outcomes and which ones, if any, need to be eliminated. The list goes on. Like having a food journal, many of us are surprised when we start taking a close look at how we spend our time every day. As they say, what gets measured gets done, and time tracking helps us get it done – and efficiently!
A Playbook
If a task or practice is ever going to be repeated, chances are we have it documented and organized in our FACTEUR PR Playbook. Yes, you heard that right. A Playbook. From how to build a media list to taking time off to what to do in tricky situations to setting up a social media content calendar, we document every.single.task. here. This helps especially with new employee onboarding and training, and our team can better spend their time on relationship-building and securing results rather than trying to figure out how to do something or set something up.
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