Top 5 Office Hacks
May 16, 2025
No one wants to feel busy but ineffective. Yet that’s where too many leaders find themselves—overwhelmed, overstretched, and underproductive.
The truth is, efficiency isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters—better, faster, and with less friction.
🔧 Efficiency Hack #1: Don’t Touch It Twice
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
— Hans Hofmann German Born American Painter
One of the simplest ways to boost productivity? Stop rereading emails, proposals, or tasks without acting. I led with my absolute favorite tip that I think doubles my productivity. If your inbox is as ugly as mine, you don’t want to have to go back to things. I get great joy out of deleting emails as soon as I act on them.
📌 Hack It: Apply the “touch it once” rule. If something takes two minutes or less, do it now. If it takes longer, schedule it. Don’t let low-priority tasks linger and clutter your mental space.
According to Harvard Business Review, switching between tasks can cost as much as 40% of someone’s productive time due to “attention residue.”
— HBR, “Beware the Busy Manager”
🔁 Efficiency Hack #2: Automate the Repetitive
Whether it’s client emails, scheduling meetings, or sending out weekly reports—if you're doing it manually every time, you're wasting energy.
📌 Hack It: Use tools like Calendly, Zapier, or AI assistants (like ChatGPT 👋) to streamline repetitive workflows. I’ve fallen in love with ChatGPT. I estimate it saves me at least three hours a week. Here’s a few examples. I use it to write fundraising letters, grant proposals, process documents and annual reports.
McKinsey & Company found that 30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be automated using current technologies.
— McKinsey Global Institute, “Harnessing Automation for a Future That Works”
🧭 Efficiency Hack #3: Lead with a “Start-Stop-Continue” Check-In
When things feel chaotic, hit pause and reassess. Ask your team:
- What should we start doing?
- What should we stop doing?
- What should we continue?
📌 Hack It: Run this as a 15-minute team exercise each quarter. You’ll gain clarity, ditch outdated habits, and boost team alignment. Warning: it will likely take your team a while to get used to this. Human nature likes to add things and not take them away. So, you’ll likely have to come up with examples of things that can be stopped, at least for a while. Once your team gets used to the exercise, watch out. They’ll likely have all kinds of ideas they’d like to eliminate, and you may have to reign them in a bit. Don’t worry, that’ll be a good thing.
Forbes notes that efficient leaders reassess goals and methods frequently to stay aligned with fast-moving environments.
— Forbes, “How Leaders Can Increase Efficiency Without Burning Out”
💬 Efficiency Hack #4: Kill the Meeting to Save the Mission
How many meetings could have been a message? Probably more than you’d like to admit. I’m not a fan of meetings that don’t end with clear actionable items with deadlines assigned.
📌 Hack It: If there’s no clear agenda or action item, cancel the meeting. Use asynchronous tools like Loom or Slack for updates.
According to Atlassian, the average employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings.
— Atlassian Team Playbook
I’m pretty sure you don’t have the time to waste 31 hours a month. I know I don’t.
🎯 Efficiency Hack #5: Choose Impact Over Activity
Too often, we celebrate “busy” over “effective.” Great leaders flip that script. I TRY to do my hardest least favorite task first thing every morning. Like you, I have plenty of days where issues pop up that take my attention away from what I had on my to-do list. If I have completed at least one important task, I find that I handle the unexpected better.
📌 Hack It: Start each day with your “one big thing.” What’s the one result that would make today a win? Block time on your calendar and guard it fiercely.
“Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
— Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek
You don’t need to work more hours to move the needle—you need to work smarter within the ones you already have.
Take time to tweak your systems. Evaluate your team’s habits. Automate what you can, delegate what you should, and stay focused on what only you can do.
When leaders lead with intention, teams thrive with momentum.