View Article  Why now is the best time to oursource

Cost Saving

Outsourcing is cheaper than having employees; full time, part time or temporary and that’s not just counting the cost of advertising and recruiting. It costs to take the time out to devise effective training and deliver it successfully too. Not to mention time consuming appraisals and progress meetings and the more obvious costs of NI, holiday pay, holiday cover, bonus, sickness pay and benefits.

High Quality

Outsourced specialists know they are only as good as their last piece of work so they will produce top quality work every time to keep you as their long-term client.

Better Business

Now is the time when you should be marketing, strategising and ‘doing’.

Outsourcing means someone else does the jobs you don’t have the expertise for or the time for. It can also mean ticking off the jobs that you just don’t want to do from your to-do list!

  • Why should you be doing data entry when your best skill is to be out networking to meet new contacts?
  • Why are you chasing money when you should be maintaining an excellent working relationship with that client? Let someone else be Mr Nasty!
  • Why spend time doing administration when that time can be spent talking to new or existing clients and building the business?
  • How long does it take you to find newsletters and blogs that you need to read or to do online business networking? Will that time be better spent just reading what’s perfect for you and just responding to great on-line contacts?
  • Why organise the database when your priority is to write the new marketing plan?

Bad Hair Days

Outsourcing means there will always be someone available to support you. No sickness. No holidays. No paternity leave (but outsourcing will cover for yours). No hangovers and no bad hair days!

Access to a larger talent pool and a varied knowledge base

Outsourcing means an entire new department in your company; a team full of additional skills. If they don’t have all the answers, they are very likely to have the resources to find the answer for you so you will also have improved knowledge.

In addition, they are likely to know of other contacts and services that can also help you.

Operational Expertise

Outsourcing means you will gain access to their know-how which will save you time in the long run. For example, you can use their best practice or HR policies rather than developing your own or they can come in to teach your staff time saving tips or sales skills.

Catalyst for Change

Outsourcing can often mean a catalyst for major change that otherwise

may be very time consuming or not happen at all.

Of course, outsourcing means you can carry on working from home with no expensive office to run!

View Article  Tip of the Week April 24th 2009

 Managing Your Space

Manage your space as a whole - especially at the proposed or actual introduction of new systems, tools, technology, people or processes, which might threaten to generate new demands on your time. Ask yourself - is this going to save my time or add to my burden?

Managing your space - which includes managing, redefining or reconditioning the expectations of others - is a critical aspect of effective time management.

 

 

View Article  Tip of the Week March 27th 2009

Review your activities in terms of your own personal short-term and long-term life and career goals, and prioritise your activities accordingly.

Plan preparation and creative thinking time in your diary for the long-term jobs, because they need it. The short-term urgent tasks will always use up all your time unless you plan to spend it otherwise.

 

View Article  Tip of the Week March 20th 2009

Manage phone calls

Manage your emails and phone calls - don't let them manage you. Ideally check at planned times, and avoid continuous notification of incoming emails.

The more senior you are the more selective you need to be about when to be available to receive phone calls.

Try to minimise the time that you are available to take unplanned phone calls, unless you are in a customer-facing, reactive role (customers can be internal too).

Even if you are customer-facing, plan some time-slots when you are not available, or you'll never get anything important and pro-active done.

View Article  Tip of the Week March 13th 2009

Take short energy breaks
In order to get the most out of your day, it's important to feel energetic.

If you're hungry or you are feeling light-headed, take a short break and have a snack - something nutritious.

Feeling a little bit stressed? Take a 10 minute nap or an 10-minute walk.

View Article  Tip of the Week March 6th 2009

Define your Hours


If you need to work on something important every day, define the hours you plan to work on that project and block those hours of time out on your calendar.

 For instance, Marketing, Errands, Finance and, Sales and Administration Hours.

View Article  Tip of the Week February 27th 2009

Eliminate interruptions


It's difficult to get things done when you are being interrupted.

The only way to focus is to eliminate interruptions.

Close your office door. Give your kids a project to work on while you write your letter. 

Divert your calls to someone else.

 (Try www.kbluton.co.uk)

View Article  Tip of the Week February 20th 2009

The To Do list

Write a NOT To Do List

Write a list of what you're doing each week that you want to stop doing.

 

Are you involved in activities that you don't enjoy?

 

Are you always helping someone out, and never getting any time-saving favours in return?

 

Are you tired of dinner being interrupted by the telephone? Remember, you have the power to say 'No'.

 

The choice is yours.

View Article  Tip of the Week February 13th 2009

Be sure you have a mix of A (High), B (Medium) and C (Low) Priority items on your list.

Try to have your list reflect 60% 'A' Priority items, 30% 'B' Priority items and 10% 'C' Priority items.

View Article  Tip of the Week February 6th 2009

Write a To Do list

 Create a To-Do list every day

 

Include 4-6 tasks on your list ane work on those items.

 

Don't allow yourself to put anything else on your list, until those are completed.

View Article  Tip of the Week January 23rd 2009

PC Shortcuts (Part 2)

 

Ctrl + EndGoes to end of document

 

Shift + HomeHighlights from current position to beginning of line

 

Shift + End

Highlights from current position to end of line

 

Ctrl + Left arrow

Moves one word to the left at a time

 

Ctrl + Right arrow

Moves one word to the right at a time

View Article  Tip of the Week January 16th 2009

PC Shortcuts (Part 1)

 

Alt + F File menu option in current program

 

F1 Universal Help in almost every Windows program

 

Home Goes to beginning of current line

 

Ctrl + Home Goes to beginning of document

 

End Goes to end of current line

 

Ctrol + End  Goes to end of document

 

View Article  Tip of the Week January 9th 2009
Happy New Year!
 

Organise your emails

 

Emails are playing a bigger part in our daily lives and can become a time guzzling hindrance if you let them!

 

To request our complimentary email organising tips, please email us on help@missjones.info

 

Wishing you the very best for a happy & organised 2009!
View Article  Tip of the Week December 19th 2008
Take some time off!
 
This is our last tip of the year as Miss Jones has an annual shut down from 24th December to 1st January.
 
To be refreshed and ready to start the new year afresh, we suggest you do the same!
 
  • Take time out for yourself
  • Take time out with your family and friends
  • Revaluate and reflect on how 2009 is going to be even better!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy & organised 2009!
View Article  Tip of the Week December 12th 2008
Bring in the Experts
 
Outsourcing allows firms to buy in expertise without having to take on a full-time member of staff.
View Article  Tip of the Week December 5th 2008
 
This week we have a
Website Of The Week

 

Please have a look at

www.hitmelater.com

 

Simply reply to emails with any number of time options                                     

 

i.e. 24@hitmelater.com 

 

and the email will come back to you at a time of your choosing.

 

Try it and see!

 

No more cluttering up your in-box

View Article  Tip of the Week November 28th 2008
 

Do the jobs you're good at

 

At work and at home, concentrate on what you're good at and delegate what you can.

 

A more experienced person will do the other tasks in less time.

View Article  Tip of the Week November 21st 2008

Back up often

Back up daily and then make sure you store your back-up separately. Even just backing up on a CD and keeping it a different location could save you days, weeks or months of work.

View Article  Tip of the Week November 14th 2008

SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN

 

When typing, save your work literally every few seconds using Ctrl & S. Especially every time you are interrupted, when you have a read through and when you amend

something.

 

If your computer freezes up, you will have retained most of your work, and you won't waste time having to do everything all over again.

View Article  Tip of the Week November 7th 2008

 Prepare for phone calls

Before you call someone, make a list of important things you want to say or ask. This way, you won't forget anything, and you won't have to waste time calling back later.

View Article  Tip of the Week October 24th 2008
 

Send back the original

Rather than typing up a brand new letter, answer routine correspondence right on the original letter you received.

Make a copy for your records and mail the original back to the sender with your response.

 
View Article  Tip of the Week October 17th 2008

Use PC short cuts.

A few to start with:

Ctrl + X Cut

Ctrl + C Copy

Ctrl + V  Paste

Ctrl + P  Print

Ctrl + S  Save

View Article  Tip of the Week October 10th 2008

Make the most of every minute!

Do something whilst you are waiting for...

documents to open

someone to answer the phone

pages to load

the kettle to boil!

View Article  Tip of the Week October 3rd 2008

Train Yourself

to go down your 'to-do list' without skipping over the difficult tasks

 

View Article  Tip of the week September 29th 2008

Only touch a piece of paper (or email) once

Deal with it

File it

Or bin (delete) it!

View Article  Tip of the week September 19th 2008

Simple

Do one task at a time!

View Article  Time Saving Tips - How to put 25 hours in your day

I thought you may be able to use some of the tips we send weekly to our website subscribers.

Here are the last 3:

Tip 1 - No clutter - No distraction. Keep only the items on your desk that you are using for that particular project so you are free from distractions.

Tip 2 - Write it down! Writing things down will save time and frustration later. Why take the chance of forgetting an appointment when it only takes seconds to write it down?

Tip 3 - Schedule block times to work on similar tasks. Pay bills & update your records whilst everything is on your desk and fresh in your mind. Make all your phone calls together, sign birthday, holiday and business cards for the whole month in one sitting.

If you'd like to subscribe, please visit www.missjones.info