An end-of-year checklist that might save you 260 hours next year

Two-hundred and sixty hours is a lot of time to get back. But it’s actually a low estimate. Just this past year, a study of 35,000 workers found that AI saved them one hour per week—which is enough to get you there. And what if you had more than just AI? 

We created a checklist of 10 things our startup and small business customers tell us saved them time this year, for you to apply next. Some are AI tools, but others are age-old practices we all know, but forget. (Especially the last one.)

Here’s a financial year-end checklist, too → 

But wait, where does my wasted time go? 

Founders and business owners say they tend to waste time in a few common areas: looking for information, repeating themselves, switching from one task to another (known as “context switching”), and financial tasks like bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, and taxes.

Which applies to you? Use that knowledge to decide what you’ll try from this list.

10 unconventional items to add to your end-of-year checklist

☑️ 1. Track your time in January

There is how you think you spend your time. And then there’s how you actually do. Founders who track their time are often surprised by the difference. Hard numbers are deeply revealing.

For example, you may not realize how much time you spend on social media. Which sounds like marketing, right? But only when you are also getting leads or sales from it. It’s an investment. Is your effort worth it? 

With time data, you can start to create rules for yourself and employees in all areas, from benchmarking how long it takes to turn tables over to how many calls salespeople should make each day.

We recommend looking at Harvest and Toggl, though there are many others.

☑️ 2. Turn your marketing graphics into templates

If you’re always waiting for designers to make graphics for you, consider asking them to instead, set you up with templates. This can save you all that back-and-forth of making requests, asking for edits, and waiting for the result. 

If they have created graphics for you in the past, this is actually quite easy. Give them 9-10 examples and ask them to recreate them in a design tool like Canva or Figma and hand you the keys. Back-and-forth eliminated. (You can still ask them for minor fixes.)

The team here at Pilot uses Figma and it looks like this.  

☑️ 3. Automate one annoying process

What is one action you take repeatedly on your phone or computer? Odds are, there are at least some parts of it you can automate, or hand over to a software that does it for you. For example, if you are always sending post-service follow-up emails, create automated versions that go out after you complete a job. 

There are many good tools for this but one is Zapier, which you can use to set rules for all your different apps and software. If you add a new product to your Shopify store, it can automatically generate new Google Ads.

Or here’s another common example: Switch to a time-tracking app like Harvest and it can automatically invoice your clients.

☑️ 4. Earmark time to explore an AI use case

The good news is all the AI tool vendors are in breakneck competition to make their apps so easy, they’re habit-forming. What that means for you is you probably don’t need a certificate in “prompt engineering.” Give it a try, and if it’s too hard, wait. 

A few great time-savers that work right now:

• Use an AI note-taker to transcribe meeting notes
• Use your email software to notify people who abandon their cart
• Use an AI writing tool like Jasper to edit your memos
• Use an AI thinking tool like Claude to study customer information and suggest new copy for your online review site profiles

☑️ 5. Try out a virtual assistant

Let’s be real, there’s still a ton AI can’t help you with, mainly around matters of judgment. Many founders eventually realize they don’t have to be doing as much as they’re doing, and a generalist virtual assistant can help them:

• Book meetings
• Manage projects
• Reply to emails
• Enter data
• Conduct research
• Train others
• Keep organized
• Write documentation
• Update the CRM

See what Redditors recommend → 

☑️ 6. Clean your books to find one thing to say “no” to

Startups don’t starve—they “drown,” so to speak, by chasing too many opportunities. This is your time to refocus. What needs your attention most? For many, the answer is in their margins.

Not knowing their margins costs small businesses $118,121 in lost profits each year, says QuickBooks. Part of that is they keep selling services and products that lose money. 

Set up time with someone who advises your business financially to explore your financial books to understand your margins per project (if you’re a service business) or product. 

Or if you’re going to do it yourself:

1. Look at your profit and loss statement (P&L)
2. Write down your total cost of goods sold (COGS)
3. Subtract that from your total revenue
4. Divide the result by your total revenue
5. Multiply by 100
6. That’s what your making on your products/services (before other expenses)

Run that same calculation for specific services or product lines. Figure out what your highest and lowest margin products are.

Based on that, pick one thing to not sell next year.

☑️ 7. Optimize your “back office” software

Back-office operations like payroll and invoicing can eat up a lot of a founder’s time. And while there are parts you’ll never fully let go of, we’ve never met a company that didn’t have room to optimize this. For example, setting your Gusto or Rippling payroll on “automatic” mode, so you don’t have to run it. Or create automated reminders for customers to pay their invoices, so you don't have to follow up.

Watch our webinar on this with Kimia, head of savings at the startup Ramp, Justin, on the Pilot product team (who’s a former business owner), and Hudson, head of our CFO Services team.

☑️ 8. Start using a password wallet

If you aren’t familiar, a password wallet is an app on your computer and phone that stores passwords securely. A good one will allow you to share passwords across team members, which professional services and consulting founders tell us has a number of advantages. You can more easily:

• Onboard contractors—simply add them
• Save team-wide passwords (saves on subscriptions)
• Allow people to cover for each other while out
• Protect your business from cyber attacks

The result is fewer emergencies and people locked out of their devices.

Read The New York Times’s top recommended wallets → 

☑️ 9. Ask one employee to walk you through their day

What if employees are spending their time in ways that unintentionally eat up your time? For example, constantly asking for your review, when they could use a peer to correct their emails.

Make it fun for employees and let them know you want to save them from drudgery. Together, brainstorm ways for them to be more efficient. 

Ask them:

• Walk me through yesterday
• What do you enjoy most?
• What do you enjoy least? 
• Why? 
• If you were an outside efficiency advisor, what would you suggest?

Pick one thing that you both agree to change together.

☑️ 10. Find a freebie you can throw in for customers as a treat

This is our least tech-forward recommendation but it is timeless. Find something small you can include in your service offering, like hotels do with chocolates on pillows, to diffuse customer complaints. Surprisingly, a ten-cent chocolate can buy a tremendous amount of goodwill. 

Take the example of an enterprising pizza delivery person: They noticed many customers wouldn’t order a soft drink, but then would want one. The delivery person bought their own pallet of soft drinks and rather than make customers pay, they gave a bottle away with each pizza. In return for the $2 giveaway, they’d often earn a $20+ tip. Picture goodwill, multiplied across your operations for all of next year, and how many customer complaints might not happen.
Remember when we said that saving 260 hours was a conservative estimate? That’s just the average. That study found 20% of people were saving two hours each day and 5% were saving 3-4. (And presumably working half-days Friday!)

Certainly worth a little investment this season, no? Whatever you try out, we’d love to hear on LinkedIn.

Also, tell us what we should write about next: hithere@pilot.com.

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Pilot provides the most reliable accounting, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses. We partner with thousands of companies to help them grow sustainably and operate more effectively. Contact Pilot’s dedicated team of expert professionals for additional help today.