Increasing the productivity of your practice involves a combination of planning, discipline and co-operation.

Improving productivity must be a team effort that defines your values to clients, says Brett Strano, financial advisor with Edward Jones in Mississauga, Ont.

Here are five tips to help you improve the productivity of your practice.

1. Involve your team members
Your staff plays a key role in the day-to-day operations of your practice. It is therefore essential that team members are part of your efforts to increase productivity.

Aiman Dally, CEO of Copia Financial Solutions in Toronto, recommends getting input from staff on how to improve efficiency. Where necessary, he adds, provide the training and tools for staff to work more efficiently.

2. Seek outside help
Sometimes we are caught in our own traps, Dally says, in which bad habits prevent us from performing at our best.

“We know what we want to do,” Dally says, “but have been doing the same things for so long that we can’t seem to come up with innovative ways to do them better.”

One way to effect a change in habits is to work with a coach, Strano says. A coach can take an unbiased approach and suggest changes in your behavior and your processes that you might not have thought of on your own. Similarly, making use of a mentorship program can also help you increase productivity.

3. Reduce administrative burdens
Your time is valuable and to make the most of it, you should avoid being bogged down with administrative tasks. “You must be able to delegate tasks to be more productive,” Dally says.

To make the most efficient use of your time, Dally says, a team member, such as your assistant, should undertake your administrative tasks. “It is more cost-effective,” he says.

If you are an investment advisor, Strano says, your administrative staff can do anything that doesn’t require a securities licence. “You can build a client service template,” he says, “and get your admin staff to populate and maintain it.”

4. Do it now
Procrastination is the enemy of progress. “Set yourself tasks that you would like to accomplish,” Dally says, “and do not put off to tomorrow what you can do today.”

To help overcome procrastination, Strano suggests, write down all tangible things you would like to accomplish each day and make sure you do them.

The discipline required to increase your productivity is like training for a marathon, Strano says. “You will gradually build up resistance.”

5. Measure your progress
Set milestones and follow up on how well you are doing, says William Piggott, vice president, international money movement, with ADP Canada in Toronto. This can be done by establishing metrics and key performance indicators, he says.

“Whatever metrics you set to monitor increases in productivity,” Dally says, “measure your results at defined periods and make adjustments, if necessary, to make sure you get to your goals.”

Meeting your goals can be rewarding and encouraging, according to Strano. If you achieve or exceed your sales goals, he says, “you feel like a million bucks,” which can lead you to work even harder.

This is he second part in a two-part series on improving productivity.

Click here for part one.