Which sounds better to you: A 10-hour day filled with tasks to slog through, documents to create, and data to decipher? Or a six-hour stretch of highly productive and satisfying work?
I seriously doubt any of you went with option #1. Fact is, we could all benefit from greater workplace productivity. For most of us, that means finding new ways to tackle tedious tasks so they take up less time and energy.
Or, to put it succinctly, we need to be better at getting things done.
To be clear: I’m not talking about minimizing distractions and taking more breaks. While these simple workplace productivity tips can go a long way in transforming your workday, they’re only part of the equation.
If you want to get work done faster and better, you'll need to address some logistics, too. Whether it's setting up a new integration or creating a template, these microdoses of efficiency can quickly add up to hours of output.
Here at Formstack, we've identified several key steps the typical employee can take to be more efficient. From survey tools to online forms to document generation, there are plenty of apps you can use to take back your time.
And so, without further ado, here’s our list of proven productivity tips for Formstack users in 2019.
Use Online Forms to Automate Workflows
Many companies think of online forms as one-dimensional: online surveys to conduct market research, registration forms to collect payments, lead generation forms to capture prospect information, and so on.
But these aren’t the only ways to leverage this commonly-used tool. Online forms can be a big time-saver in the day-to-day, too.
If you haven't already replaced manual tasks with automated workflows, now's the time to start. For example, we’ve known companies to use Formstack Workflows to automate entire processes around:
- Service requests
- Sales quotes
- Budget approvals
- Project approvals
- Invoice requests
- Employee reviews
- PTO requests
- Travel reimbursements
- Product evaluations
- Employee feedback
- Job applications
Healthcare organizations use workflow automation for patient intake and registration. Consumer brands rely on it to improve communication with customers. Whether you need to speed up internal processes or save time on client interactions, automated workflows can be a huge productivity booster.
Pro Tip: Jumpstart your workflows with ready-to-go form templates to save even more time!
Use Document Generation to Streamline Information
It might seem like you’re spending most of your time creating and collaborating online. But we've talked to many employees who, once they really examine their days, are surprised to discover just how much time still goes to offline activities.
For example, studies show that more than 80% of businesses are still trying to create paperless processes, and that looking for non-digital files can take as much as 40% of an office worker’s time.
Imagine how much more productive you'll be when everything you need—and we mean everything—is all online, in one place.
To work toward this goal, first consider the number of documents you collect in a typical week. Then look for ways to have as many as possible generated automatically.
This is where Formstack Documents comes in handy. Many companies use this document generation tool to take the information they collect in online forms and have it fed directly into dynamic documents. The process can be used to create a wide range of documents, including:
- Contracts
- Proposals
- Letters
- Applications
- Agreements
- Invoices
- Reports
- Registrations
- Event tickets
Once you’ve created a template and set parameters, the rest of the process is hands off. Better yet, you can adjust your settings to have new documents automatically uploaded to cloud storage, emailed to customers, or sent to a third-party app.
Use Data Management Tools to Keep Everything Synced
How much time do you spend updating your customer accounts? Checking on subscriber lists? Analyzing information?
Sadly, the vast majority of organizations still struggle to get much value, if any, from their company and customer data. In marketing and selling alone, nearly half of all decisions are still being made based on intuition or personal experience.
Which is crazy, considering the world is capturing 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily. Much of it is housed within our companies. Tapping into a small segment of your data can have a tremendous impact on productivity.
To do that, you’ll need to leverage integrations. By syncing different apps and tools, you can ensure your data flows freely from one dashboard to the next. This will not only give you a streamlined view of up-to-date information, but save you countless hours that would otherwise be spent tracking down different data points. A decent integration takes mere minutes to set up, which makes this an especially important step toward greater productivity.
You can easily start this process with Advanced Integrations, which lets you sync your form data to your most critical business systems. Automate your data flow, and put an end to manual uploads forever.
Wondering what more you can do to increase productivity in 2019? Check out Formstack’s unified platform—a powerful suite of tools you can use to simplify, streamline, and get things done.
