What is the most annoying part of your job? Copy Supervisors may say, “having to REPEATEDLY coach my team on how to annotate and reference because they continue to make the same mistakes;” Account Supervisors may say, “having to REPEATEDLY estimate the resources and budget for different projects of the same type;” Account VPs may say, “having to REPEATEDLY create similar upfront slides for every pitch.” Doing something REPEATEDLY can become burdensome and thereby deplete the joy out of performing a duty and ultimately result in sloppy work.
Believe it or not, failure to perfect these mundane tasks that lurk in every role can cost you your business. I believe that these tasks deserve to be perfected rather than ignored; but I also believe that humans don’t have to do them–find a way to leverage technology to do these mundane tasks accurately for you. It’ll save you time, sanity, and your business.
Here’s my personal story:
How I found a way to save writers 4+ hours per project
Back when I wrote my very first Payer Value Proposition, I remember staying up until 3:30 AM to finish the first draft–simply to reference the slides in the client-specific format. The entire night I was sulking over how I was losing sleep over a task that I admittedly felt was below me. Eventually, I finished referencing and handed over a completed draft on time.
But the next day, I was determined to find a way to make technology perform this mindless work for me so that I would never have to reference again–ever. Victory was mine when I found out that Zotero (a free online citation manager) and EndNote (a paid citation manager) could create the references for me–without the introduction of human errors. Having learned how to save 4+ hours per project, I now created more time to execute additional projects, catch-up with colleagues, learn a new skill, or step out for some fresh air.
Seeking out ways to leverage technology to perform tasks efficiently and accurately can enable you to get it right the first time, avoid time-consuming re-do’s, and impress your clients with impeccable accuracy. On the contrary, you risk losing your business by enduring the mundane tasks without learning how technology can do them for you.
It’s time to make big strides and turn heads–let’s go.
