How To Work Less But Achieve More
Julie Starr • July 1, 2021
It does not matter what sort of career you have, what you do on a day-to-day business, or what sort of company you are involved in, we should always be looking to achieve more. However, when it comes to looking for different ways to take our business or our efforts to the next level, we simply assume we need to put in more hours and do more. Instead of this, we should be looking to work smarter – this especially applies to business sustainability. How can we improve our processes so that we achieve more within this set period of time? Read on to discover some of the best ways to start working smarter rather than working harder.
- Tighten up meetings – There is only one place to begin, and this is with meetings. After all, when it comes to time wasted, meetings are right up there are most businesses. Instead, make sure your meetings have an intended outcome and limit them to 30 minutes.
- Speed up your tech – Is your tech slowing you down? If so, you need to look for different ways to speed it up. Using fibre optic broadband is a good place to start. You also need to make sure that all the computers and other devices you use are up-to-date and operating efficiently.
- Learn to prioritize and delegate with greater effectiveness – The first thing you need to do is make sure you delegate the tasks you should not be doing. If there is something on your desk that could easily be handled by someone else, get them to do it. When it comes to tasks you have to do, make sure they are prioritized in order of importance. If there is something that can be done in less than half an hour, do it now.
- Hire people that are more intelligent than you – The next step to work smarter at your business is to take on employees who are more intelligent than you in the certain elements of your business that you need to focus on. A lot of managers want to stunt the employee journey , but you should encourage it.
- Build processes for you and the rest of the team to follow – If you do not have procedures that are clear, you are most definitely not working as smart as you could be. In fact, your employers and employees will find that they are just running around in circles.
- Automate tedious work using technology – The final piece of the puzzle when it comes to working smarter and not harder is to utilize technology to streamline or automate any tedious work. Nowadays, there is a tech platform for virtually every element of running a business, from employee management and client interaction scheduling to sales and project management. Make the most of this.
- Integrate sustainability strategies into your daily operations – Integrating sustainability concepts (recycling, paperless office, energy efficiency) in the business brings eco-awareness to the workplace and also creates a space for innovation to occur within your operations by performing daily operations with an environmental mindset. Elements of environmental business attract commitment, energize employees, creates meaningful work, and positively impact your business as well as the planet.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that you can work smarter rather than working harder. If you follow the tips that have been presented above, you should notice a considerable difference when it comes to the efficiency and success of your business. Good luck!
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.
If you're lucky enough to have a garden as part of your business, taking some time to set it up for summer is a great investment of your energy. Not only will it be ready for your customers to spend time in, but you can also incorporate some eco-friendly elements into it. Many people just think about the property and what eco-friendly updates they can make , but there are plenty that you can implement in your garden. This gives you the best of both worlds. You own a sacred and beautiful place for your customers to spend their summer, and at the same time, you can do your part for a better planet. If this is the route you want to take, then you also need to consider how to do this with the different seasons. To help you on your journey, here are some top tips for preparing your garden for summer. Plant trees and flowers Planting trees and flowers in your garden is a must. It will make a beautiful scene of nature for everyone to enjoy. Trees will provide people and animals with shade, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife. More trees are needed in the world because they purify the air that we breathe. Flowers, especially if you plant with pollinators in mind, can be an excellent way to attract bees and butterflies, which contribute largely to the earth. Use natural pest control When preparing your garden for summer, you can do this more sustainably and kindly by using natural pest control. Simply by planting trees and flowers, you are likely to attract lots of different wildlife, some of which may destroy your efforts. While all wildlife should be considered, you may need to take measures. Some better and more eco-friendly ways you can do this, as opposed to spraying toxic chemicals onto your plants and into the air, you can implement companion planting, using protective nets over your crops, choosing resilient plants, using natural repellents, and encouraging natural predators so nature can do its thing. Maintain your garden Maintaining your garden in itself can make it more eco-friendly. Composting your garden waste regularly, and kitchen waste can help you to reduce overall waste and create nutrient-rich soil. This is a great cycle of sustainability. You can also keep on top of things that need cleaning and replacing, so you can recycle the materials for other garden structures and projects, and repurpose things around your garden before they become waste. If you have features in your garden like a swimming pool, then a regular pool maintenance service is going to be vital in keeping your water consumption to a minimum, as when it is cleaned and maintained, it will need to be drained and refilled less as well as using less energy. You could also consider how you can use natural purification methods to reduce chemical usage and support biodiversity right in your backyard. Your garden is just an eco-friendly project waiting to be built. Use these top tips to help you get started.