Penny Choo, Co-Founder and Managing Director of BloomThis

I get 24 hours in a day, like everyone else. Since stepping into motherhood, I often wish to have more time and energy for what matters. Strategic meetings, proposal writing, collaboration networking, and team check-ins are now sandwiched between childcare pick-ups, vaccination appointments, birthday party planning and food prepping for a cute but fussy eater.

I love being a mom. And I love running a business. But most of all, I love being efficient.

Eight years ago, my husband and I started BloomThis, an e-commerce that offers same-day delivery for flowers and gifts in Malaysia. We like to joke that both our babies — the real one at home and the ‘firstborn’ business — are equally demanding. Both scream for attention when holidays are around the corner.

Thankfully, tech has been a major time-saver at home and in the office. I hope you can conserve extra energy with these strategies too.

Schedule everything

I can’t live without Google Calendar. It’s free, easy to use, and effective. If it’s not on the calendar, I cannot honour the commitment.

Your company would probably already have a colourful team calendar packed with meetings and deadlines. That’s great.

Also Read: 5 common productivity challenges affecting remote worker and how to overcome them

Pro tip: Keep meetings within the given time. Be punctual if we can’t be early, and remember Peter Drucker’s rule for a productive meeting: decide in advance the purpose of the meeting and guard the time jealously.

Communicate regularly, even if it means low-going tech

At BloomThis, we collaborate extensively at internal and external levels. Click Up makes it easy for task management across the company. We use it to manage project roadmaps from ideation to launch for the latest collection. And with a clean dashboard and hierarchy view, nothing gets missed out.

Where do we talk on a day-to-day basis?

Also Read: 5 productivity tools for busy startup founders to stay focused in 2022

We have experimented with team-based apps like Slack and BaseCamp. What we found was across our executive team and manufacturing team, some were less tech-savvy and needed a simpler app.

So we moved to DingTalk by Alibaba. It gets the work done, and we can keep work conversations away from Whatsapp, ultimately creating a better work-life balance for our people.

How can tech help your team to set boundaries in communication?

Centralise knowledge and operation systems on a shared platform

Make it easy for the team to know what you know and vice versa. Gone are the days when we had thick binders and filing cabinets. Most of our executive and HR work is paperless — even contracts are digital.

For that, we rely on Google Drive and Notion. Cloud storage acts as our central database and knowledge library for the team to access information like employee handbooks, SOPs, guidelines, and operational blueprints.

To innovate together, we dream on Figma. Before launching a digital product or feature, we review the concept, idea, and flow to envision how the end product looks. It is great for developing a Minimal Viable Product collaboratively too.

I am really proud of our tech team, who developed the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system from scratch. It’s a software that manages our daily activities from supply chain to procurement, projects and risk management.

Once an order comes in, the system computes quickly to check the inventory for raw materials needed, what is the lead time and expertise required, who is the florist, artisan or baker assigned, and how long does it take to produce and be delivered.

Our promise is to deliver artisan-curated and handcrafted gifts on the same day. Tech allows us to serve our customers with a good and memorable experience, a core value we hold dearly — customer first.

Customise productivity tools for personal life

Frankly, I used to get anxious looking at the long list of work waiting to be done. It’s endless and overwhelming. These days when I have a deadline to meet, I rush it out with the Pomodoro method.

Also Read: Avoiding costly mistakes: How cognitive biases can affect entrepreneurs

Try doing deep focus work for 25 minutes, rest for five minutes, and repeat three times. Turn off all phone notifications while you’re at it. Once you are familiar with the rhythm, you don’t have to stick to the time structure. The underlying principle is very powerful — it trains our brain that if we have just that 25 minutes to get work done, we will!

I love it because I just slice out the tasks and do one thing, then race to check it off before the timer rings. Talk about the dopamine rush.

Also Read: 5 productivity tools for busy startup founders to stay focused in 2022

For notetaking, I will swear by Notion, again. It doubles as my notepad and organiser, similar to Evernote, but I just find it seamless to switch between the office and personal work on one app.

Make home appliances your extra hands

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a part-time maid whom I am forever grateful for. Now, we use a smart home system. My home is not fully fitted with smart appliances, but small steps have made a huge difference.

When I get home, the floor is clean. Thanks to the robot vacuum that started working while I was in the office. I use a two-in-washer and dryer now. With Malaysia’s heavy downpour with occasional flood warnings, it gives me peace of mind. Let the weather be the least of your concern when you do laundry for the family.

I have great helpers in the kitchen too: an automatic cooker, a steamer and an air fryer. Whether it’s chicken chop with mushroom sauce or teriyaki grilled salmon, just place the meat into the air fryer, add sauce, veggies, and voila! Craving chicken curry with tender potatoes? Just 30 minutes in the pressure cooker, and we’re ready for a warm, homemade meal with rich nutrition locked in.

Wearing multiple hats as an entrepreneur and parent throws us a myriad of challenges to cope with. These tools not only save time but also give me the energy and head space to invest in family relationships and friendships and to pursue hobbies. As social disconnectedness harms our mental health in the long run — when was the last time you had time for a hobby or a hangout with your buddies?

To wait for the day when we finally cleared out the tasks, we would be flat-out tired. Or we could fall sick, having the time but not health. What’s one tech tool or system that might help you regain the control you want in your business or home? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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