Consultant notes key shortcuts to better productivity

The use of oft-forgotten shortcut keys on your keyboard can lead to a productivity gain of at least 10 per cent for accounting practices, according to a consultant.

by | 4 Jul, 2018

Consultant notes key shortcuts to better productivity

Smithink director David Smith advised firm owners to hold training sessions for their team around the use of shortcut keys and pointing out when they should be using them.

“Let’s assume you’ve got five people in your firm producing on average $100,000 in fees each. If you can improve their productivity by just 2 per cent each, there’s another $10,000 for the bottom line,” Mr Smith said.

“Methinks the productivity gain is much more than 2 per cent but it just goes to show the impact small changes can make.

“People feel better too. They feel more efficient. Working with a PC is less frustrating.”

Mr Smith noted that one of the challenges with so many shortcut keys is how to learn them all. He said to simply learn them incrementally by picking two of them to learn to begin.

“Very soon they become habit. A week or two later pick another two. Do the same thing. They then become habit,” he said.

“If you keep doing this over a few months you’ll be surprised how quickly you will have picked them up and improved your productivity.”

In particular, Mr Smith highlighted the Windows key, noting how very few people know about the uses of the Windows key given that it’s been on keyboards for more than 20 years.

“For at least as long as the Windows key has been around, I have been a strong advocate of using multiple screens. Most people these days have two although I would suggest that you need at least three… I run four,” Mr Smith said.

“Once again, the trusty Windows key provides an efficiency dividend. Windows key+Shift+Arrow will move the active window to the next screen in the direction of the arrow.

“Now that’s a hell of a lot quicker than grabbing the window’s title bar with the mouse and dragging the window across to the other monitor.”

For the full list of shortcuts, read David Smith’s full column here.

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