How You Can Stop Admin Backlog Before It Starts

8 simple 5-minute fixes

Enjoy the benefits of streamlined admin, freeing up time to focus on growth and innovation.

As a successful business owner, you want not only to maintain your success, but also build on it to make your business even more prosperous – which means more customers and more sales. With these comes more work, which is vital in order to keep up with demand, and to manage and grow your business. This can start to feel overwhelming, because there just aren’t enough hours in the day, especially when it comes to managing routine admin tasks that are essential to running your business. 

I know you want to make the most of your time, to achieve more and grow your business. However, lack of time can mean you potentially delay carrying out these essential admin tasks because of other priorities – such as your clients. 

Before you know it, your admin will have mounted up. You’ll be inundated with a list of pending tasks, leaving you feeling distracted and swamped.

The best way to avoid an overwhelming admin task list is to keep things organised as you go – and, if a task takes less than five minutes, tackle it right away. Letting a backlog build up will take much longer to clear, but staying on top of tasks as they come will only take a few minutes.

To avoid accumulating tasks and the resulting overwhelm, here are eight quick and easy ways to stay on top of your admin task list. Start by scheduling and doing the following tasks on a regular basis, either daily or weekly:

• Quick start

  To quickly get started, schedule a block of fifteen to thirty minutes a day to manage your admin. That's potentially three to six essential admin tasks you can compete in one day!

• Emails

  Each time an email arrives, it creates a task for you. My tips to save you time are:

  
  

  • Answer emails you can deal with immediately. That would be those that require quick replies, such as confirming receipt, acknowledging an email or sending a brief response to a straightforward query.

    
    

  • Once actioned, don't leave it in your inbox to clutter, distract and delay. Create an appropriate email folder in your mailbox and archive it. Same with the emails in your "Sent" folder.

• Update your CRM data

  Whether you use a CRM database or a spreadsheet, having accurate and up-to-date information on your prospects, leads and clients is vital for effective marketing, higher sales and strong customer connections.

  
  

  • Any small updates should be added straight away, e.g. adding a new lead as soon as you receive an enquiry and updating immediately after a follow-up.

    
    

  • Have your CRM app on your phone to update while you’re out and about and on the go.

    
    

  • Schedule time once a week to update, track and analyse for the latest insights.

• Log your expenses

  Timely collation and tracking of your business spending ensures your expense reports are up to date. It also supports claims to the money you’re entitled to, without having to pay any penalties or more tax than you should.

  
  

  • Set aside regular daily or weekly time to collate, scan/photo, file and log your receipts and e-invoices.

    
    

  • For when you’re out and about and on the go, add your accounting app to your phone/mobile device and take photos of receipts, to upload and log as you go.

• Reconcile your bank transactions

  Regularly reconciling your bank account transactions against those in your accounting software is a critical business practice, alerting you to any discrepancies in your finances.

  
  

  • Log into your accounting software app daily to check, confirm and reconcile transactions.  This will keep the number of transactions to reconcile, and therefore the time spent, to a minimum.

    
    

  • Plus you’ll get quick financial updates and be able to fix any issues before they get out of control.

    
    

• Review and update your diary

  Regular reviews of your diary will help to manage your time better and keep you organised.

  
  

  • At the start or end of each day, review your calendar for that week and adjust as required.

    
    

  • During your review, send quick confirmations or updates for meetings or calls.

    
    

  • Add an important date, task or deadline to your calendar or scheduling tool as soon as you know of it.

    
    

  • Have your calendar app on your phone/mobile device, so you can update while you’re out and about and on the go.

    
    

  • Once a week, spend time scheduling specific tasks for the following week, including those fifteen to thirty minutes for your "Admin Management".

    
    

• Set reminders and notifications

  It’s important to set reminders and notifications as soon as you're aware of a task or note to make. This ensures nothing gets missed, you never miss a deadline and you keep on track.

  
  

  • Add important dates, tasks or deadlines to your calendars, scheduling tools and/or project management software as soon as they're mentioned.

    
    

  • Be sure to have the apps for your phone/mobile device, so that you can do this when you are out and about and on the go.

    
    

• Filing or organising documents

  Implementing a standardised filing system for both digital and physical documents is essential to staying organised and make information accessible and easy to find, so:

  
  

  • File away any paperwork or digital documents (such as email attachments) into their respective folders as soon as you receive them.

    
    

  • Create a standard file naming process to save time and rename files for better and quicker organisation – e.g. Contract_[CLIENT NAME]_[DATE].pdf can then become ‘Contract_NKBVirtualAsst_DD.MM.YY.pdf’.

Using any or all of these quick-action methods on a regular basis will help you create a long-term habit that you can use to build into your time-management and increase your productivity. You'll find you have more time and better focus for higher-level opportunities, projects and strategies to build your business and make you money – and not  worry about getting behind on your admin!

But, if you still find yourself spending too much time on admin, read my 5 Simple Strategies to Tackle Your Admin Tasks and Refocus on Growing Your Business, which provides simple, smart techniques to help you quickly break through the bottleneck and get back control.

Get Back Control With a Virtual Assistant

Don’t let poor management of admin steal time away from you – it will stop you from realising your full potential to keep your business growing. Save time and get back control to refocus on growing your business by eliminating the admin chaos.

You can avoid getting distracted and overwhelmed by time-consuming tasks that stop you achieving your business goals, as well as freeing up your time by delegating those tasks to a Virtual Assistant.

Phone or email today to arrange a Consultation and find out more about how my Virtual Assistant services can help you gain more time to spend on getting results and growing your business!

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