Mighty rivers are fed by a myriad of small tributaries. The same is true of gains in productivity. Small, incremental savings can add up to hours of free time over the course of a year and days over the course of a decade. Identifying areas you can eliminate wasted effort is a key to becoming more profitable. By lowering your “time overhead” you put free time right back into your schedule.
You might not realize it, but you probably spend a significant amount of time retyping common phrases, email messages to clients, code, or information into websites. Wouldn’t it be useful if you could simply type an abbreviation and have your computer automatically insert the fully expanded text?
Both Windows and Mac systems have applications out there that do just this. You can create a library of commonly used email messages (think: thank you notes, meeting follow-ups), signatures, snippets of text, and more and access them with a quick keystroke or right-click/context menu.
Below are two great options:
Text Expander for Mac
http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/
“Save time and effort with TextExpander! Whether it’s a simple email signature or several paragraphs of a standard response, you’ll love how easy it is to use TextExpander to avoid typing the same thing over and over.”
PhraseExpress for Windows
http://www.phraseexpress.com/
“PhraseExpress saves hours of typing. It is the ideal solution for personnel in office, technical support, customer care, help desk, call center and medical or legal transcription settings.”
Even if you don’t think a text expander program would serve your needs, what about others in your team? The less time your assistants spend typing up repetitive messages, the more time they’ll have to help you with your clients.
