There are 1440 minutes in a day. No more, no less. Just because you’re crunching a deadline doesn’t mean that you can invent some way make additional time.

Now saving time, that’s a whole other thing. You can save time, although it’s not a exciting to spend as when you crack open a piggy bank and find three quarters, a half dollar, a few buttons and bunch of lint. You spend time throughout the course of the business day, so it just adds to your productivity. This is precisely why I like the “one touch” philosophy for most things – both in business and my personal life.

Side digression: For those of you who aren’t familiar with the one touch, it basically means you only touch a task, an email, a .. whatever, just once. Assuming I can keep your mind out of the gutter for this digression, here’s how it works with email. Let’s say it’s Friday at 4:15p and you get an email from the client. It’s after hours and you are off the clock. Do you read the email? If you have no intention of doing anything until Monday, why waste time reading it? Or, you can read it, reply -or- set an action task for Monday. Then archive it away. You’re still at inbox zero, you still have your action items for Monday .. and you don’t have to go back, re-read that email and reply/act on. Back to saving time …

How many times have you needed to create a banner, a header, a cover image, etc. etc. etc. for your business? I am reminded that I just had to re-do my Twitter cover, plus when we re-branded with our new logo there was a new Google+ cover, Facebook cover, LinkedIn banner, icons, buttons, and so on. So here’s my long winded way of saving you time when it comes to your graphics. Create your own cheat sheet.

Here’s what it looks like .. it is pretty basic and pretty easy. Make it once, then you can refer to it time and time again when you have to make a new, or tweak an existing, graphic for your business.

When our logo was redone, there were many little things that needed to get updated, fixed, changed, and revamped. With this one cheat sheet, I can:

• Open it in Photoshop while working on a new banner, button, etc. and use the color picker to get the right shade of green
• Open it in a browser or picture viewer and type in the HTML or RGB code on a website for a custom product, updating a WordPress theme, etc.
• Easily share the one file with multiple people who may be working on a new WP theme for us, or getting promo items just right, etc.

For each instance where I would need to go and use a color picker, find the right font and size, I save at least 5 minutes – but probably more. Just doing 6 covers/banners for social media would equal 30 minutes of time that could be spent working on client work.

About Out of the Office Virtual Assistance:

At Out of the Office, we offer ideas and ways to increase your productivity, decrease your workload, and work more efficiently. We nurture a successful business relationship, while continuing to grow as your business partner. We are focused on streamlining your administration, social media planning and execution, and offering creative solutions for your business success.