The goal isn’t necessarily to do more, but rather to build your systems once and use them as often as possible. This may come from my technology days, but if I ever find myself engaging in a task where I have to do the same (or similar) thing more than once, I think to myself, “There must be a way to automate this.”
In this article, I will not delve into the specifics of AI, but rather focus on tools that most SBOs are comfortable with and have used in their daily work lives. AI has made the process of developing tools and workflows a lot quicker, but let’s say that AI isn’t your thing yet — where do you start?
Your first few attempts at building a tool don’t need to be perfect; just focus on what pains you most in terms of repetitive tasks and what occupies your time more than you’d care to offer.
Plug and Play
Excel is a wonderful tool that is often underutilized. Taking time to increase the complexity of its use in a worksheet by using advanced formulas, pivot tables, and references to other files arguably takes more time on the onset, but once you have it set up to meet your needs, it’s plug and play.
A great example is the budget book we use in my school district. The end product is more than 100 pages filled with charts, graphs, narrative, and snippets of mandated state reporting.
In my second year as a school business official, I found myself in the perennial budget crunch, hastily putting together a comprehensive budget document that would be made public. Painstakingly, I transposed budget data into a Word document, trying to make it look presentable and, most importantly, ensuring the data was accurate.
I’m sure you can relate that when you’re knee deep in your own work and you’re trying to proofread for accuracy, some things get missed. This being the case, having a second set of eyes was incredibly helpful, but also a time suck.
In the third year, I had learned my lesson. I started with what was essentially a blank Excel workbook and took the structure of what my end product was going to look like and reverse-engineered it into a format that allowed me to do one export from my financial system, change a few references, and voilà: my life instantly became easier.
No longer was I copying and pasting between spreadsheets and Word documents. I was inputting data once, and because I had set up a robust multi-sheet workbook, all the data flowed to where I needed it in exactly the correct format I required. Now, I was able to review my end product once, and most importantly, have the confidence that all the data that made its way into the publish budget book was accurate and formatted appropriately.
It took me hours to get this set up the way I needed it. Halfway through, I questioned if it was even worth it. Now, eight years later, I’m thanking myself that I stuck it out and set up this template because not only does it save me time, it translates pretty easily to other districts, so as I moved on in my career, I was able to take this tool with me and hit the ground running with difference raw data.
Examples of tools I created for myself in other areas of our work include calendar-based trackers, smart sheets for project management, and an affiliate site for planning tools.
Amplify Your Expertise
Time is finite, and our free time is even more limited. I suggest you start small, prioritize your time to the best of your ability, and build something that will pay off down the road. I like the template I made because it’s not that revolutionary, and anyone can build it — it just takes time.
Your first few attempts at building a tool don’t need to be perfect; just focus on what pains you most in terms of repetitive tasks and what occupies your time more than you’d care to offer. However, remember that our systems don’t replace our expertise; they merely amplify it. Good luck on your journey to building tools to make your life easier!