Productivity Hacks to Accelerate Your Practice
At Life Design Analysis, one of our main focuses is increasing productivity for advisors and those who assist advisors. We're extremely proud of the fact that 98% of LDA subscribers report increased productivity. As we know, if you save time preparing a case, it means you have more time to prospect or do one of the other thousand tasks you have on your plate.
As a business owner and entrepreneur, I know that if you are not "hacking" your productivity, you're simply not going to be able to get enough done to be successful. Why? Well, as most of you know, you have to wear almost every hat there is (Sales, Marketing, Support, etc.) So to be successful, we have to find ways to fill each role with as much efficacy as possible in the least amount of time.
I want to share some of the tools I use to work smarter not harder. If I miss any that you think are critical, be sure to get in touch and let me know!
My Top 11 Productivity "Hacks"
- Chrome Extensions
- Basecamp
- Life Design Analysis
- SocialPilot
- Saying NO
- G Suite Of Apps
- Multiple Monitors
- MailChimp
- Bullet Journal
- Pomodoro Technique
- Good Old-fashioned Discipline
Our lead engineer also had a good suggestion when asked for his favourite productivity tools. He said just good old-fashioned discipline. Turn off every distraction and put your nose to the grindstone (or in this case the keyboard). The point remains, sometimes the only way to be more productive is to have fewer distractions. If you took me up on the Boomerang tip above, you can put your email on pause either for a set durations, or choose to have it delivered at set times of the day (Gmail also has this feature).
Chrome is a great browser and if you're still using IE, you are missing out. Chrome with the right extensions can save you hours of time every day. Some of my favorite extensions are GoToMeeting for Google Calendar, Grammarly and Boomerang for Gmail but there are literally thousands to choose from so check to see if some of the apps you currently use have a Chrome extension.
Basecamp is a lightweight project managment tool that is great to keep you or your staff on track, help prioratize and keep up with the changing needs of the business. All memebers of the team can coment on a task upload media and documents and assign dates and responsibilities keeping the whole team on the same page.
If you are in the insurance inudstry either as an advisor or assisting an advisor with case prep, Life Design Analysis is an essential tool to help you create sales presentations and surface opportunity from your block of business. 98% of LDA members report an increase in productivity so stop wasting time fumbling with Excel and start your free trial today!
SocialPilot is great for scaling your social marketing efforts, allowing you to schedule content and recurring evergreen material. If you work with a team, you can also help the whole team share with just one post!
Saying no is one of the best things you can do for your productivity. Now, I don't want you to say NO to everything. It's about knowing the right things to say no to so you can make enough time for the things that are critical. Often times we feel guilty if we don't say yes to everyone but make sure you carve our enough time for you.
I can't say enough about the G Suite of apps, and I don't just mean Gmail. The G Suite is a business solution by Google that you can customize with your own domain and additionaly get all the power of Docs, Sheets, Drive and Calendar and more!
If you're still working on just one screen, it's time to double down. Even if you don't think you're that tech savy, studies have shown that people can expect a 20-30% increase in productivity by using multiple monitors.
There are lots of good email marketing clients but MailChimp takes the cake. It's easy to use, has great features and is affordable (often free). Make email marketing easy. We even offer free customizable insurance templates that you can use in your next campaign.
When I asked our Administation Manager here at LDA what she uses to keep on top of all her tasks, she had a couple of hacks to add. The first was the Bullet Journal system. If you like your Post-it notes, like to get tasks out of your head and recorded somewhere and/or are constantly rewriting and consolidating your to-do list, the Bullet Journal will be a lifesaver! All your tasks and ideas are organized coherently in one easy-to-manage project book.
She also recommended the Pomodoro Technique which divides your time into set intervals of uninterrupted focus followed by short breaks. TomatoTimer is a desktop app which helps keep track of this time. There are also app alternatives for Apple and Android. This one leads us right into my final hack.
