This document discusses maintaining efficiency in childcare. It begins by summarizing how Charles Schwab introduced to-do lists to improve productivity in factories in the early 1900s. It then provides tips for effectively using to-do lists, including focusing on high priority tasks, thinking about how to train others rather than taking on all tasks yourself, and aligning tasks with one's energy levels throughout the day. The document also discusses setting realistic deadlines and minimizing multitasking. It includes several template forms that could be used to track to-do lists, attendance, and staff rosters.

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3. CONTENTSEFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE
2 REVIEW YOUR
WORKLOAD
WITH REGULAR INTERVAL
3 SET REALISTIC
DEADLINES
FOR YOUR TASKS
4 DON’T LET YOUR
PHONE
DRIVE YOUR WORKLOAD
5 KEEP
MULTITASKING
TO A MINIMUM
6 THREE FREE
TEMPLATES
READY TO PRINT
1 HOW TO MAINTAIN
TO DO LISTS EFFECTIVELY
AT WORKPLACE

4. EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016
Charles Schwab, a steel tycoon and a man obsessed with output and economic efficiency, also one
of the first Americans to introduce a time saving workflow process, called Taylorism, in his factories.
In the early 1900’s, Charles sent out a memo stating that he would reward someone who could perk
up productivity amongst his factory workers.
Page 1
Ivy Lee, the father of public relations, met up with
Schwab and suggested each employee should
write down 6 tasks everyday and rank them from
highest to lowest priority.
They should immediately get to work on the first
task as this would be the most important as per
priority. After completing the task they were to
take on the next one in the list. Any unfinished
tasks can be added to the next day’s list. After
approximately 3 months of this exercise, Schwab
noticed productivity radically improved.
Since theTo-Do Lists have been widely used in the
way they are now days. However, there are key
HOW TO
MAINTAIN TO DO
LISTS EFFECTIVELY
things to keep in mind when making these. There
are several merits of using To-Do Lists effectively
keeping the following in mind.
Do not confuse quality with quantity. Many
people link self-worth with the amount of work
they did in a day. Following the same psychology,
they tend to tick off as many tasks in a day.
However, this in most instances leads to covering
low impact, easy to complete tasks for validation
and sense of accomplishment. Over time, this
makes us less effective at our job.
Think for the business NOT in it. While you try to
get everything in your own hands and try to get it

5. EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016 Page 2
sorted yourself, you could have trained someone
else to do it. As the saying goes, ‘Give a man a
fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to
fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. Keeping this
in mind, do not over crowd your list and keep it
simple & short. Focus on where you are and how
do you want to be involved in your business. Most
successful people have 3 or 4 items in theirTo-Do
List for a day.
Prioritise the tasks and align them with your daily
aptitude. Most people feel energetic & fresh in
the morning. Others feel better when the day
is over and now they can focus on planning &
forecasting etc. Keep tasks that take longer for
the times you feel better in control and fresh.

6. Page 3EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016
Ever wondered why all super heroes have sidekicks? Because even super heroes need help and
support and a trustworthy team that can deligate and offload tasks to. Delegation is a trait that
requires practice and smooth execution and easiest way to balance yourworkload. To understand how
delegation works, it is important to know why certain people tend to avoid it. The fact is, delegation
requires effort and dedication. In many cases, it may appear easier to do it yourself rather than getting
someone else to do it, after all, you know exactly what needs to be done.
Simply put, by involving other meaningfully, you allow them to develop skills and grow confidence
so that the next time you need that task done, it won’t be that much work. Sometimes trusting
someone else with your business can be hard. However, delegating will help you embrace the trust
and advance your leadership characteristics.
REVIEW YOUR
WORKLOAD

7. Page 4EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016
Now that you are using your to do lists effectively
and delegating effectively, you also need to be
realistic when setting deadlines against your daily
goals. People often tell us to set goals and have a
plan to achieve them. However, if the goals are set
without realistic and achievable timelines, goals
might as well be dreams.
If a task is big and the deadline is more than two
weeks, set milestones midway to help you keep
on track. It is also important to be specific when
setting deadlines and tasks for yourself. If your
task is ‘create marketing strategy for next year’ -
your milestones can be ‘create a list of marketing
strategies that fit ($xx) budget by 3rd of August.
It is important to set deadlines and milestones
with short and long term goals in mind. This gives
you continuous sense of achievement and keeps
you motivated.
SET REALISTIC
DEADLINES
FOR YOUR TASKS

8. Page 5
DRIVE YOUR WORKLOAD
Does effective communication mean speaking to all your families every day? Or in some cases multiple
times a day? You can build effective communication strategies that can help you cut down your
time on the phone by up to 60%. Software like Kids XapTM
help you build effective communication
DON’T
LET YOUR PHONE
channels such as daily updates including food
intake, nappy changes, injury reports, sleep times,
auto generated statements and newsletters. Ifyou
can build effective channels of communication
between your staff and the families, you can be
available to work on driving the business further
and focus on other areas that need improvement.
In most cases setting the right channels for
communication is not enough. When you deal
with huge number of users involving in a business
process, any change made is required to be
communicated effectively. It is also required to
stick to your processes and most of the times,
guide users to follow the processes
For example, if you have put a process in place
that allows your staff to send daily updates about
food intake & sleep times electronically, some
of the families in the start, may keep calling
you and not check the updates electronically.
In this case you can recommend that family to
check updates online and ask if they are able
to do so. Assist them if they cannot do that,
and let them know that importance of why you
have set up this channel for them and how this
channel is more effective than the previous/
time consuming process.
EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016

9. Page 6EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016

10. If you try to think what you actually do while you ‘multi-task’, you are actually task switching. Without
creating multiple copies ofyourselves and your brains, you cannot really multitask. All you do is swap/
switch between tasks and try to switch attention from one task to other. This results in expending
your attention on switching gears. Moreover, you are never fully ‘focusing’ on either activity.
Contrary to the popular belief, it does not actually save you any time. It usually takes less time for
a project when you do one thing at a time with complete attention and focus. Try sending all your
emails at ones or pay all the bills at once. Do you think it will take you longer if you try to type all
emails while switching between them contrary to
writing them one by one? This is because every
task requires a certain mind set and once you get
in the groove, you should finish the task.
Experts have estimated that switching between
tasks can decrease productivity by up to 40%.
This also increases the chances of errors specially
when one or more of your tasks require critical
thinking.
KEEP
MULTITASKING
Page 7
TO A MINIMUM
EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016

11. Page 8EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016

12. To Do List
Page: Automate task priority using Kids Xap™. BOOK A DEMO 1300 543 792 | www.kidsxap.com.au
Centre Name: Staff Name:
Sr.no Task Description Due Date
How it looks on Kids Xap
TM Visit
Website
EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016
9

13. Take Attendance
Centre Name: Room Name: Date:
Child Name Sign In
Time
Guardian Name Signature Sign Out
Time
Guardian Name Signature
Automate your attendance using Kids Xap™. BOOK A DEMO 1300 543 792 | www.kidsxap.com.au Page:
How it looks on Kids Xap
TM Visit
Website
EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016
10

14. Staff Roster
Page: Automate your rosters using Kids Xap™. BOOK A DEMO 1300 543 792 | www.kidsxap.com.au
Centre Name: Week Ending:
Room Name Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Automate your rosters using Kids Xap™. BOOK A DEMO 1300 543 792 | www.kidsxap.com.au
How it looks on Kids Xap
TM Visit
Website
Page: 11
EFFICIENCY IN CHILDCARE | AUGUST 2016