Considering that half of the methods that house cleaners use to determine how much to charge are by size and not by time, the faster they are, the more they make in a day! That can mean that increased productivity can equal more cash in their pocket for each minute saved. So we’ve pulled three great tips they use to help us become even more productive ourselves!
Zone Cleaning
Much like the idea of batching work in terms of paperwork or like tasks, zone cleaning focuses on working one room at a time. Instead of doing all the floors in every room, they might conduct a top to bottom of one room and then move to another. If we have 5 problems in one area, 3 in another, and 2 in the next then try and batch all the like problems in the first area into groups. Then handle everything in that area before moving onto area 2. You might be surprised how much your productivity increases by not moving from area to area (like we discussed in the article Productivity Blocker: task switching) and not “room swapping.”
Checklist Repetition
For a house cleaner they might set up a checklist of, set up automated tools, handle shelves as well as flat surfaces and dust, then change soft surfaces, finally vacuum and mop. While simple, it creates an easy to follow process they can use over and over. Checklists are fantastic tools for boosting your productivity. While it may take some time to set up in the first place, they can reduce mental load later on and be used over and over.
Tool Optimization
While tools like Lidar, robotics, and AI used to be reserved for only huge budget uses, now many are in our everyday lives. Floor cleaners now use Lidar and AI, to sweep and mop. Intelligent machines detect what kind of laundry we’re doing and help set up the right cycle, and smart technology is in all kinds of appliances. House cleaners use this to their advantage letting a robot sweep while they’re in the next room. For us, many times we can implement automation that helps us achieve success. Dictation software can help us get thoughts out quickly and take us straight into editing. Using work management systems allows us to use forms to put others requests into workflows.
