The Copy-and-Paste Discovery That Saved My Client 40 Hours a Month
Last Tuesday, I got a text from Barb, a client who runs a boutique marketing agency: "I just duplicated our entire campaign workflow in 30 seconds. THIRTY SECONDS! I could cry."
Six months ago, that same workflow took her team two full days to recreate from scratch. Every. Single. Time.
If you've ever found yourself rebuilding the same project structure over and over, wondering if there's a better way—there is. And I learned about it the hard way, through a particularly painful project that almost made me question my sanity.
**The Financial Firm That Changed Everything**
Picture this: I'm sitting across from the CFO of a mid-sized financial firm, and he's showing me their project workflow. It's beautiful—truly. Color-coded tasks, perfectly mapped dependencies, clear stakeholder assignments. A work of art.
"Great," I said. "How long does it take to set up each new project?"
His answer? "About a day and a half."
I nearly choked on my coffee. They were running 15-20 similar projects per quarter. That's roughly 30 days a year spent just... copying and pasting. Manually. Task by task.
The worst part? They'd normalized it. "That's just how project management works," they told me.
Spoiler alert: It's not.
The Ridiculously Simple Solution We Almost Missed
Here's where I admit something embarrassing. The solution was sitting right there in their project management tool the whole time. A tiny button labeled "Duplicate." We'd all been so focused on the complex features that we'd overlooked the simple ones.
When we clicked it for the first time and watched an entire workflow—tasks, dependencies, assignments, everything—appear instantly, the room went silent. Then the CFO said what we were all thinking: "You've got to be kidding me."
What Actually Happens When You Start Duplicating
Let me paint you a picture of what this looks like in practice. Remember Barb from the beginning? Here's her before-and-after:
Before:
- Monday morning: Start building new campaign workflow
- Thursday afternoon: Still assigning tasks and setting dependencies
- Friday morning: Finally ready to actually start the campaign
- Stress level: Through the roof
After:
- Monday morning: Click duplicate
- Monday morning (30 seconds later): Entire workflow ready
- Monday morning (1 minute later): Already working on actual campaign strategy
- Stress level: What stress?
The math is simple. Barb's team runs about 10 campaigns per month. At 2 days setup per campaign, that's 40 hours monthly just on setup. Now? Under 10 minutes total.
The Hidden Benefits Nobody Talks About
Sure, saving time is great. But here's what really surprised me about workflow duplication:
Consistency became automatic.
That financial firm? Their error rate on project setup dropped to nearly zero. Turns out, when you're not manually recreating everything, you don't accidentally skip steps or forget key stakeholders.Teams actually started improving their templates.
When you know you'll reuse something, you invest in making it better. Barb's team now spends time perfecting their master workflow instead of recreating mediocre ones.Scaling became... fun?
One client told me, "I used to dread taking on new projects because of the setup headache. Now I'm actively looking for growth opportunities."**Your Turn: Making Duplication Work for You**
Here's my challenge to you. This week, look at one workflow you've recreated more than twice. Just one. Find the duplication feature in whatever tool you're using (trust me, it's probably there), and create your first template.
Start small. Maybe it's your client onboarding process. Or your content calendar structure. Or that weekly team meeting agenda that never really changes.
The first time you click "duplicate" and watch hours of work appear in seconds? Send me a message. I love those moments—they remind me why I do what I do.
Because here's the truth: You didn't start your business to spend time on repetitive setup tasks. You started it to solve problems, create value, and maybe—just maybe—have time for lunch away from your desk occasionally.
At Digital Labs, we've helped dozens of teams discover these "hidden in plain sight" features that transform their workflows. Sometimes the most powerful solutions are the simplest ones. We just need someone to point them out.
So, what workflow will you duplicate first?
*P.S. - That financial firm? They calculated they've saved over 400 hours in the past year just from duplication. The CFO sent me a photo of their team at 5 PM on a Friday—at happy hour instead of still building workflows. That's the kind of success story I live for.*
Comments
Post a Comment