3 Ways to Save Time on Your Next Big Project

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When you think of what it means to have a fulfilling and successful life, you might come up with a dozen or more different factors that would contribute to having your "ducks in a row" and feeling truly content with your circumstances.

Most people will want a degree of success in their professional lives, good relationships with their loved ones, an active social life, health and a decent level of fitness, and so on.

One of the major things that just about no one ever feels like they get enough of, however, is time. You routinely hear people complaining that if only they had an extra twenty minutes a day.

Working in construction, it's easy to feel that we're completely booked around the clock, with no real minutes to spare. But are you really as time strapped as you think? Could part of the issue be that you're just not making the best possible use the time that you do have, and taking the right steps to make sure that you get the most out of the time that's available to you?

Here are some ways to save time on your next big project, so that you have some extra to spend as you please.

Use digital services to streamline your quotes process

Ideally, you would spend the least amount of time possible coming up with quotes and proposals for your clients, would beat your competitors to the punch, would secure the best possible deal with yourself, and would get straight to work.

In reality, however, the process of quoting contracts often takes an entire day, if not longer, and can be a draining process in and of itself.

Luckily, digital services can help you out here.

Rapid Quote is a quicker system for quoting electrical contracts - and can not only give you a competitive edge, but also free up hours in your schedule for other things.

Come up with strategies for cutting down on the amount of admin work, and focus on your core competencies

Have you ever noticed how much of your working day you spend on tasks which fall outside of your core competencies? Stuff like handling admin tasks, or filling in for others on the job site. In fact, it's not unlikely that you spend a major chunk of the average day doing this kind of "work" while daydreaming about what's for dinner.

Coming up with strategies to reduce the amount of this kind of work, and in turn allowing yourself to focus on your area of core expertise, can massively increase the amount of free time you have, while also increasing the odds of you performing to the best of your abilities on the job.

You could talk to a project lead about off-loading some of these lesser tasks. Or you could sub-contract those tasks to someone else. You could even consider hiring a PA to deal with admin work.

Even if you're able to free up just a few minutes a day this way, that's time you can spend reading , planning your weekend, or catching up on your music listening.

Schedule your days on a shared digital calendar to keep all fellow contractors in the loop

A lot of time is lost through indecision, and unfocused attention. Time-blocking your day - that is, schedule how you're going to spend your time, using a service like Google Calendar, can make all the difference here.

Of course, working in construction, you'll naturally have a pretty solid schedule for your working day anyway. But it might be the other members of your team, or any other contractors you're working alongside, are left out of the loop, or miss some important point of what's being done when.

In order to ensure that you're not stepping on each other's toes, time-block your day on a digital calendar, such as Google Calendar, and then share it with everyone who could benefit from knowing the timetable.

This way, even if certain people aren't on shift that day, they'll be able to get a sense of what's been done and what they should do when they arrive.

This, in turn, boosts your joint productivity and increases the odds of you having free time at your disposal to spend with family or friends.