Change Will Do You Good

My wife and I very much enjoy living in Manhattan. Some people think that living in Manhattan means that you go to Broadway shows every night. While my wife and I do attend our fair share of theater, she is a singer after all, there are just as many mundane tasks that must be dealt with living here as there are anywhere else. People fall into patterns. Even with literally tens of thousands of restaurants available within a half-hour of where I’m sitting, when I go out to lunch the waitress will ask if I want “the regular.”

Last weekend, with absolutely no planning whatsoever, Suzannah and I decided to go hiking. In less than two hours from the moment we made that decision we found ourselves alone and looking at a waterfall in the middle of the woods. We spent the next three hours hiking and talking. Our environment could not have been any less like the one we woke up in that morning. Something about the change of environment also led to a change in thinking. When we did talk about work, Suzannah and I came up with some new approaches to solve problems in our package tracking system approach that had been vexing us for a while. Further, when we returned home that night, I was able to notice things in our home that I had not seen before.

Many tasks in life are repetitive. This is particularly true in the world of package tracking software and mailroom management. While we want consistency in what we do, it is important to occasionally look at it from another perspective as well. Even if you cannot take a long walk in the woods today, you can still physically step away from central receiving and take a deep breath.

I know that it’s hard, but take a moment to think about something else. It is really impossible to not think about something, so instead think about the time when you felt the most resourceful, calm and put together. When you are ready, head back in and look at your package tracking software again, but in a different way. Pretend that you have never been here before and you don’t know why anything works the way it does. Ask yourself questions like:

1. How is the lighting in here?

• Is it too dark or too bright?
• Are there areas where it might be hard to see or to work?

2. Is it clean?

• Is it so dirty or cluttered that it looks like things might get broken or lost here?
• Does it look like you have a package management system?

3. Can I read everything?

• Are there warning signs I need to see?
• Are there instructions on what to do?
• Can I read them?
• Would they make sense to a stranger?

4. What are people spending the most time on?

• How much of their time does it take, with or without package tracking software?
• Are they doing it by hand?
• Do they have to do it twice?

This is the sort of exercise that pros do all the time. The first time you do it you will probably find ten areas that need a lot of work. After the fourth or fifth time you will find one or two areas that need some minor tweaking. Oh, and logging those packages by hand? That really needs to be pushed to the top of your list. Contact us to streamline your mailroom management with package tracking software.