Workflow Magic: 5 Tips to Streamline Your Day

In this episode of the BizMagic Podcast, I’m diving into the world of workflows—yep, that buzzword everyone loves to say but rarely explains. Spoiler alert: you probably already have some workflows, even if they’re unintentional and held together with duct tape and willpower.

Workflow Magic: 5 Tips to Streamline Your Day is packed with the exact steps I use (and teach my clients) to take the chaos out of daily biz tasks. Whether you're juggling clients, a team, or just your own brain, these tips will help you make smoother, smarter moves behind the scenes.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Why starting with what’s already working is smarter than reinventing everything
• How to automate (without automating total chaos)
• Why batching your work can be a game-changer for energy and time
• The magic of templates to save your brain and your inbox
• A reminder to review and refine your systems regularly—no dusty workflows allowed

I also shout out some fav tools like Zapier, Dubsado, 17Hats, ClickUp, and even a quick Gmail hack you might not know about.

✨Remember: this is about building systems that work for you. Not someone else’s perfect Pinterest board of a business—yours.

Got a question? Wanna brag about your favorite workflow tip? Email me at patti@bizmagic.co or come hang out on Instagram @bizmagicco.

If you’re craving real support with your backend tech, automations, or just figuring out what to use and when—check out Tech Magic, our signature service that helps you make the backend of your biz less of a disaster.

🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a biz buddy, rate it, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps us grow this magical little pod

Learn more about BizMagic or the BizMagic Podcast.

Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast, your place for all things tech in your online business with solid. So General Biz Chat two. My name is Patty Meyer and I am the CEO and founder of Biz Magic, where my team and I support entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by the backend tech of their business.

We create, implement, and teach the tweaks that help our clients make a bigger impact with less stress.

Today we're diving into workflows. Yep. That magical buzzword everyone loves to throw around, but no one really explains. I am talking about the systems and processes that keep your business running smoothly, or at least keep you from pulling your hair out daily. If you've ever felt like your to-do list is giving you side eye, this episode is for you.

By the end of the episode, you'll walk away with five practical workflow tips that you can start using today. Are you ready to make some workflow magic? I know I am. Alright, so let's dive in. First, let's talk about why workflows matter because I know someone out there is thinking I've been running my business without workflows and I'm fine.

Okay, sure. I'm sure you are. But are you thriving also? I would probably say that you are likely running your business with workflows and some systems and processes, even if you didn't intentionally put them into place or realize that you have them. Workflows can save you time, reduce decision fatigue and help you avoid dropping the ball, especially if you're managing clients, a team or even just yourself.

They also create consistency and consistent businesses are the ones that grow. So if you're ready to get off, what I like to call the hot mess, express stick with me because here comes tip number one. Tip number one, start with what's already working. This might sound counterintuitive, but before you rush off to overhaul your entire business, take a beat.

Look at what already is working. Like I said, you likely have systems and processes in place even if you didn't realize that you had or intentionally had put them into place to start with. Maybe you've got a killer client onboarding process that just flows beautifully. That's great. Write it down.

Document every single step. Congratulations. You just created your first workflow. Yeah, it's that easy. The point here is to build on what you're already doing well before you try to fix everything else. It's like cleaning your house, right? You start with the room that's already semi clean so you feel accomplished, right?

You're gonna build to the room that's. Hot mess express because you can start ticking some things off and you can kind of get your flow going. Tip number two, automate but don't over automate. Start small. I want you to think about repetitive tasks that make you groan, that you avoid doing, that you just refuse to do because you hate them.

Like for some people that could be sending follow-up emails, scheduling social media posts, or creating social media content, invoicing clients tools like Zapier 17 hats, Dodo. Bonai can handle all of this for you, but here's the thing. Don't automate processes, you haven't nailed down manually yet.

Otherwise, you're just gonna start automating chaos and trust me, I've been there and it's not fun. So you really wanna make sure that you have a solid foundation for some of these manual tasks before you start automating them. Tip number three, batch your tasks. Batching is your new best friend. Instead of switching between 10 different tasks all day, group similar ones together, for example.

I am creating and recording this podcast on a Tuesday afternoon, and I am going to record at least two or three other podcast episodes while I'm sitting here. And I do this because I put myself in this mindset one time, and I have my podcast episodes recorded. For the next month or so, not including any guest episodes, right?

So batching can help you stay in the zone. It cuts down on decision fatigue, and it makes you feel super productive because when I'm done with recording all of these today. I'm gonna be like, oh, hell yeah. I have my podcast episodes recorded for the next month and a half. I still have to edit and still do a lot of other work, but this BA main kind of bulk of it, of the sitting and recording, which is a part of it that I really love is done.

And so I don't have to have it sit in the back of my mind for the next month and a half thinking, oh shit, I need to sit down and record my next podcast episode, because I'll have done that, and then I'll edit in a batch. So batching is really, really helpful. Um, we all wanna feel productive and like a wizard getting everything done right.

Tip number four, use templates. If you're still typing the same email 20 times over and over and over again a week, we gotta have a chat. Templates are a game changer. You may not know that they exist. If you're using Gmail for example. When you go to compose an email at the bottom of it, there's three little dots, and if you click those three little dots, there should be something that says templates.

Uh, you might have to enable it in your settings. I can't quite remember offhand. I. But I use templates all the time for, let's say, um, inquiries for work. Um, so if I have a potential new client reach out, I don't have to type every single time to say, Hey, thank you so much for reaching out to me. I would love to talk with you.

Here's my link to schedule a consultation call. I just go, boom, boom, set up a template, add a couple customized things, and it moves on. And I have that with a ton. My podcast workflow is an example. When somebody signs up to be a guest on the podcast and I bring them on, there's workflows that happen that use templated emails to get information from them and send them reminders, right?

All of that happens, so. Creating canned responses for common emails like proposals or client onboarding can be a game changer if you use a project management tool like Clickup or Asana. Set up task templates for recurring projects because that also makes things really helpful. Templates save you time, but more importantly, they save your brain.

No one has time to reinvent the wheel every single time. And not only do you not have time, but you don't have the brain space for it. And it just makes things frustrating and it then tends to make it so that you will avoid doing certain things because if you didn't write it down the last time you did it and that it worked well, you don't wanna necessarily have to sit there and think about, how do I do this right?

How do I do this best? Right. All right, our final tip, tip number five, review and refine your workflows regularly. No workflow is ever perfect forever. Your business evolves, you evolve. Technology evolves. Your clients might evolve, so your workflows should also evolve. Set maybe a quarterly date with yourself.

Pour some coffee or some wine or whatever your vibe is and audit your workflows. What's working, what's not? What can you tweak or toss? Think of it like a tuneup for your business processes engine. We all want our business and our engines to work smoothly, so make sure that you give it a checkup regularly.

Okay, so let's do a quick recap. For you to have a beautiful working workflow system, you're going to start with what already is working. You're gonna automate without over automating. You're gonna batch your tasks, you're gonna use templates, and you're gonna review and refine them regularly. While I know all of this might sound super simple.

When you put them into action, they can truly transform how you're running your business. And remember, it's not about doing it perfectly, it's about doing what works best for you, which of course, I'm always going to remind you with any advice or information that I share with you. You always have to do what feels best to you and what works right for you.

And that's it. It's pretty straightforward. Um, I hope that this was super duper helpful for you. Um, feel free if you have any questions about any of this or you wanna share some of the workflows that you have or maybe some tips that you have for workflows, send me an email at patty@bizmagic.co or you can follow me.

On Instagram over at BM Magic Co. And of course we love doing this sort of stuff. So if you ever want help coming up with some processes in your business, um, finding the right tech to help you automate some of your tasks or processes. Feel free to reach out to us@bizmagic.co and we have Tech Magic, which is our signature offering for tech support and basically customizable in meeting you where you are and what your needs are.

And your business. That is it. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Biz Magic Podcast. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast. Like most small businesses and podcasts, we rely heavily on word of mouth. So if you like what you heard today or in any episode, please share with your friends and colleagues.

And rate, subscribe and comment on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, cheers to your magical biz success.