The 5 Best Tips for Handling Data Entry Duties

data entry duties

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Data entry is an essential part of your business operations, but that doesn’t mean it’s an enjoyable one. A typical office worker spends 1.5 hours each week manually entering data into various systems and software channels. If you skip a week because you’re busy (or procrastinating…shhh!), you might have several hours of data entry to catch up on.

Fortunately, it’s possible to make this task easier and more fun by creating a workflow that is effective and distraction-free. Here are some of our best tips for handling data entry duties so you don’t fall behind.

1. Find a Playlist You Love

Staying focused is one of the hardest parts of data entry. It’s easy to get distracted by other conversations throughout the office or the goings-on in the breakroom. One of the best tips for handling data entry duties is to invest in a quality pair of noise-canceling headphones like these Bose QuietComforts. They’re not cheap, but they’re worth it! And when you get them, throw on a playlist that gets you into a data-entry groove and allows you to knock out the work. Here are a few of our favorite options.

Classical Music: There are many great playlists with relaxing music or dramatic songs to ramp up the intensity. Ever try galloping through your work with The Ride of the Valkyries blasting in the background? It will definitely get you entering data like a champ.
K-Pop and Other Foreign Language Jams: Some people have a hard time listening to English lyrics while transcribing words and sentences. Check out some international music that gets you hyped up for data entry.
Throwback Thursday: choose a decade and find a playlist from that era. You can complete your data-entry tasks with hits from the 80s or the top songs from the 60s.

You can also use these playlists to set a timeframe for how long you want to work on data entry. If you find a 90-minute playlist, you can work until the last song ends, then take a break.

2. Buy a Tomato Timer

Your brain can only handle so much without a break, which is why one of our best tips for handling data entry duties costs less than $10 on Amazon. Set your tomato timer for your desired work time and challenge yourself to keep typing until the alarm goes off. You can set it for 20 minutes and reward yourself with a series of stretches or push through a whole hour so you get this task off of your plate.

While your smartphone has timer apps, these can be distracting. It’s easy to check the digital timer and get sucked into group chats and social media apps. Put your phone away and use this analog method to stay focused.

3. Look into Support Groups and Focus Buddies

Find someone who helps you stay focused. This person or group of people should call you out when you get distracted so you don’t waste time and make the data entry process longer than it needs to be.

This option is more challenging than it might seem. Too often, your “study buddy,” can become a source of distraction when both of you don’t want to get the work done. You might spend more time chatting and taking breaks together, which turns an hour-long task into a multi-day project.

For an objective solution, look online for virtual focus groups. Cave Day runs seven days a week and allows members to slide into one-hour and three-hour focus sessions. Each session is run by trained experts who lead distraction-free work sprints. Your session leader and other members can hold you accountable.

4. Upgrade Your Note Taking

One of the best ways to improve your data entry and save time is to get your notes organized before you start. Clean, easy-to-find information is your #1 ally when it comes to filling in the blanks, and there are some excellent apps out there that can take most of the hassle out of organizing and retrieving your info.

The best note-taking software will keep all your client information in one place, allow you to use tags to make searching easy, and even let you add notes about your notes on a sidebar! You’ll never have any trouble finding exactly what you need or sharing data with your team, and that will make your data entry afternoons fly by in a breeze.

5. Reward Yourself for Completing Your Data Entry Tasks

Small rewards can motivate you through even the most undesirable tasks. Make sure you have a treat waiting on the other side of the data entry project that aligns with the amount of work you need to do! This could be as simple as enjoying a chocolate bar after an hour of work or taking a walk outside to stretch and move around.

For bigger projects, plan for bigger rewards. If you have to dedicate a day to data entry, schedule a night out with friends or a romantic dinner afterward. You earned it!

Streamline Data Collection and Reporting with Notehouse

One of the best tips for handling data entry duties is to improve how you collect it. If your team is stuck reading scribbled notes and incomprehensible short-hand, they will have to contend with impossibly slow data entry. However, if you have the tech to take legible, organized, and easy-to-understand notes, your team will easily be able to convert this into your software systems.

Notehouse is a human-friendly solution for anyone who takes notes. Whether you run a non-profit or are a budding entrepreneur, you can improve your workflows with this system. Spend less time taking notes and more time acting on them with our tools. Try Notehouse today and start making data entry a snap.