Back to Back Issues Page
The Form Gallery, Issue #060 - "Top Seven Tips to Increase Office Productivity"
April 12, 2013
Welcome:

Top Seven Tips to Increase Office Productivity

We are getting blessed with a lot of rain in Oklahoma after our long drought of almost no rain...Thank You Jesus...Prayer changes things! :)

I've included "The Top Seven Tips to Increase Office Productivity" in this issue because too many of us who work in the church or business office today as a secretary or whatever our position might be are letting too many distractions keep us from doing our work (I'm speaking to myself too). Read below.

Are you finding yourself overwhelmed in the office? Shepherdbase will save you a lot of time in your church office. Shepherdbase - Church Membership Database will track memberships (unlimited), contributions, attendance and much more for ONLY $34.99 so Hurry & Enjoy these Savings!

Contents-At-A-Glance

Top Seven Tips to Increase Office Productivity
Mothers Day Brunch Flyers
Bible Study Flyers
FreeChurchForms.com New Web Pages with New Forms
Shepherdbase (Church Membership Database
FCF (Free Church Forms) CD
Church Office Package – Special Limited Offer
Free eBook - ”Top 10 Tips on How to Organize Your Office”
FreeChurchForms.com Table of Contents


Top Seven Tips to Increase Office Productivity

The roles of a Church Secretary are changing to demanding much more of our attention than ever before. Most secretaries or business people, in these days and times, have their offices (find themselves working) on the road or from their kitchen tables. Business offices are not traditionally in a specific building anymore. In a lot of ways, this flexibility is great, but with each new work setting also brings a new set of productivity challenges.

Home office workers reduce their commuting time to zero, don't have coworkers to distract them and can schedule work to best fit them, but their work is often distracted with their children, errands, and other distracting comforts. These tips should help you no matter where your office is located such as:

  • 1. Create a Secluded Work Space if Possible - Make sure your office is secluded with no distractions besides the business phone if possible to be able to focus on your work. If it's not possible to alleviate all noise or distractions then check into having a door put in your office that can be closed to block out any outside noise such as children screaming, loud TV, etc. because this gives clients a negative impression of your business or organization. If you work in a co-working space, wear headphones (listen to music) because this signals to other coworkers that "I can't be disturbed right now." and creates an indicator of busyness. It's great to talk with your coworkers, but there is a time to talk and there is a time to work. Also, remove as many papers off your desk as possible because it is proven fact that just one piece of paper will distract you at least five times a day.
  • 2. Always Take Your Breaks Out of the Office - Don't ever eat lunch in the office if at all possible. Use your lunch break as a time to relax, re-energize and refresh your mind by getting out of your office chair and completely out of the office.
  • 3. Increase Your Self-Discipline - If you have to chain yourself to the desk, make sure you don't let every distraction side track you from your work. Here are some examples: 1) Turn off your personal cell phone until your personal breaks then you can check your calls/texts - only answer the business phone(s). 2) Set certain times (every hour, etc.) throughout your workday to check your emails and DO NOT check them until the set times - checking emails can distract you and end up wasting huge amounts of your time. 3) Do not get on any social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Etc.) during your workday unless your business requires you to or you are on break - this is huge time trap. 4) Write down everything that distracts you throughout your workday and then try to eliminate the ones you can to where you will have times throughout the day where you can work on a project and not be distracted at all, except for maybe the business phone. 5) Make a "To-Do-List Today" in a notebook and prioritize the list from most important to least important task, and make it your goal to get everything done on your list by the end of your workday.
  • 4. Plan Your Workday First - Take the first 30 minutes of your day to plan and organize what you will be doing the rest of your workday and devote the final hours of your workday to some of your least-pressured tasks. Make a list of the important tasks you need accomplish today and then stay focused on these items. Organizing your day first will help alleviate spending the first half of your day responding to emails and reading. It will also help you to set goals to finish tasks so you can mark them off of your list as done.
  • 5. Create a Positive Relaxed Working Atmosphere - If possible, surround yourself with the right people who are positive, smart and have work styles similar to you. Also, keeping your office organized will lower the stress tremendously by giving you a peace of mind and saving you many hours of wasted time searching for documents and files. Some people like to listen to music while doing their paperwork to give them a less stressful, calming effect while working.
  • 6. Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions - Many people during their workday wastes a huge amount of time by trying to figure out how to do a project or task by themselves because they do not want to ask anyone how to do it. If the project you're working on requires some skills that are outside of your immediate field, see if your coworkers might be interested in working with you on the project or at the very least help answer your questions. Don't be afraid to ask because if they don't know they might know someone who does. If you work at home alone, use the internet to help answer your questions or locate phone numbers for support.
  • 7. Create Time-Savers to Help Simplify Processes - I saved this one for last because this is one of the most important lessons you will learn to save yourself time and increase your productivity in the office. If possible, keep everything electronically on your hard drive and you can keep a hard copy also if desired. If you're working from a coffee shop or in an airport, the last thing you want to do is shuffle papers around in a little space.

    Learn how to take notes in PDF documents and get used to reading documents on your computer. It will be a challenge at first, but it will be worth it in the end. You can carry a small notebook for notes and memos. If possible, get High Speed Internet if your job relies solely on the internet or if you are on the internet very much at all. Organize your computer files (My Documents folder) to easily find the project you are looking for in a small amount of time.

    Create forms or databases to make your work tasks easier such as the church membership database I created - Shepherdbase - for me to use in my church office. Before I created Shepherdbase I was putting my church member's contributions in an Excel spreadsheet which would give me a running total of contributions per member when I needed it but at the end of the year it would take me days to get all these contribution totals into Annual Contribution Letters and to send IRS Contribution Statements out also. Once I created Shepherdbase, I could easily merge my church member's contributions at the end of the year into the Annual Contribution Letters in a matter of minutes and also print the member's IRS Contribution Statements easily. Shepherdbase can do many more church tasks easily such as generating a monthly member's birthday or anniversary report, member's directory report, and much more.

    If you have tasks in your church office that you do over and over again every day then try to create solutions to simplify these tasks by increasing your knowledge in some programs such as the Microsoft Office, which has great programs (Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, Etc.) to create forms and databases. There are many more great programs and software available that can make your work tasks easier and save your precious time. These programs will help increase your productivity in your church or business office no matter where that might be.


Mothers Day Brunch Flyers

I'm sure your mom has fed you many of times, so this Mothers Day, what would be a better way to make her feel special than to treat her to Brunch at church this Mothers Day.

Give your mom the gift of Church and a delicious Brunch, all at the same time! Just plan this special event in your church for Mothers Day to invite the children, their moms and family, etc. You can even have the men of the church volunteer to fix this special Brunch for Mothers Day if you have enough volunteers. After the Brunch, you could even plan to take pictures of each mom with their children and later you could make a bookmark or even a small magnet to give to them at a later time.

I have three different Mothers Day Brunch Flyer Templates available for free below which includes the Brunch Menu and a couple of Mothers Day Brunch Recipes.

Click Here for the Free Mothers Day Brunch Flyers, Menus and Recipes.


Bible Study Flyers

Do you have a Bible Study Group? If yes, you might want to download one of the free Bible Study Flyers below to help spread the word and get more members or people to be included and join your Christian studies group.

Even if you are just simply planning a Bible Study Event, these Bible Study Flyer Templates (2) are designed for these type of church events.

If you have questions, the Bible has the answers! In Christianity, Bible Study is the study of the Holy Bible by ordinary people as a personal religious or spiritual practice to further their understanding, knowledge and Faith in God.

Click Here to download the Free Bible Study Flyer Templates.



FreeChurchForms.com New Web Pages with New Forms

I will be continually adding new forms...so don't miss an issue!

Shepherdbase (Church Membership Database

Shepherdbase (Church Membership Database) is ONLY $34.99. You will also receive 2 Offering Envelope Templates and Offering Count Sheet free as a Bonus for purchasing Shepherdbase! Hurry and Enjoy these Savings!

Shepherdbase (church membership database) will:
  • Track member's information along with a place for member's picture and automates First Time Visitor Letters for new members
  • Track member's contributions and automates Annual Contribution Letters at the end of the year
  • Filter church member's information with the click of a button
  • Track Church Attendance and automates Attendance Report

Shepherdbase is a very simple and user friendly database, but very powerful.

If you purchased Shepherdbase in the past (before Sept. 2011) and would like to receive the latest new updated version of "Shepherdbase" free of charge contact me.


FCF (Free Church Forms) CD

This great CD has all the free church forms, certificates, flyers...on FreeChurchForms.com along with 4 Bonuses as a Thank You for purchasing the CD all for one special price of $13.99 plus shipping and handling ($7.00 in the U.S. or $21.00 outside the U.S.).

The FCF CD includes:

  • Free church forms, certificates, flyers...(550+ forms each in PDF and Microsoft Office Word format - some in Excel). Also continually updated to include the latest forms created.

  • FreeChurchForms.com Table of Contents that includes folders/subfolders named the page in which they were generated and the name of the files under the folders.

  • Bonus#1 - Church Offering Envelope Templates#2 (short and long) are included in the CD.
  • Bonus#2 - Expense Report in MS Excel format that will automatically calculate expenses.
  • Bonus#3 - Beautiful 12 Month Photo Auto-Year Calendar in Microsoft Office Excel format that you can easily automate any year you want with the click of a button and change any of the photos very easily on any month you choose.
  • Bonus#4 -eBook - "Top Ten Tips on How to Organize Your Office".
Click here to purchase the Free Church Forms CD.


Church Office Package – Special Limited Offer!

The Church Office Package includes Shepherdbase - Church Membership Database and the FCF (Free Church Forms) CD along with all the Free Bonuses for only $40.99 plus shipping and handling ($7.00 in U.S. or $21.00 outside the U.S.)! Hurry and Enjoy these Savings!

Click here to purchase the Church Office Package Deal


Free eBook - ”Top Ten Tips on How to Organize Your Office”

This eBook is free to my newsletter subscribers as a special "Thank You" for subscribing to my newsletter. I have worked in several different secretarial areas with different jobs and I have learned the hard way how to organize more than one office. Take advantage of these tips in this free eBook and they will help get your office organized. Just click on the link below to download your free copy today.

"Top Ten Tips on How to Organize Your Office"


FreeChurchForms.com Table of Contents


The FreeChurchForms.com Table of Contents is available here. You will now have access to all of the free church forms...listed in alphabetical order. I update it with new church forms...as I create them. I have them in categories so that you can just click on the form you want and it will lead you to that page. Just click on the link below for the free FCF Table of Contents. Enjoy! :)

FreeChurchForms.com Table of Contents


If you have any questions, you can easily contact me through my email: terressa@freechurchforms.com or reply to this newsletter. I will get back promptly with any questions you might have.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Need Free Small Business Forms, Certificates, Flyers…Visit SmallBusinessFreeForms.com.

Scared or Prepared – Planning Makes all the Difference at DisastersPreparedness.com is where you will find Emergency Survival Kits, Emergency Food Storage, Emergency First Aid Kits & Much More.

Back to Back Issues Page