Systems and Tools for Stealing Back Hours of Productivity

Businesses and individuals often feel overwhelmed and stretched — that they can't get done all the work they need to. The solution they frequently turn to is finding a new app to use or hiring more employees to spread the load.

But my guest would say that you can steal back hours of productive time simply by using the tools and teams you have now, if you learn to use them in a more efficient way.

Nick Sonnenberg is the founder and CEO of Leverage, an efficiency consulting business and the author of Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work. Today on the show, Nick explains how people spend almost 60% of their time doing work about work, and why hiring more people can actually make the problem worse rather than better. He then shares his "CPR Business Efficiency Framework," and how making changes in how you communicate, plan, and manage resources can open up hours of time. We talk about how to organize your communication channels so your work day isn't taken up by what Nick calls "The Scavenger Hunt," one of the most underutilized tools for taming your inbox, how to stop wasting time on meetings, and tiny changes that will add up to many hours saved each year. Along the way, we talk about how some of these tactics can save you time in your personal life as well.

• AoM Podcast #689: Email Is Making Us Miserable — Here’s What to Do About It
• AoM Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity — Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work
• AoM Podcast #973: A Butler’s Guide to Managing Your Household
• Teach Your Wife to Be a Widow by Donald I. Rogers
• "Saving Seconds Is Better Than Hours" — Time article by Nick
• Texts.com
• Workona tab manager

• Come Up for Air website
• Leverage website
• Nick on LinkedIn
• Nick on IG
• Nick on X

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