TOPIC: Efficiency Ideas

Experience is a huge part of that John. Jay's working on 10,000 inspections (right Jay?). He can drive up to a house and know half of what's going to be wrong before he even enters via signs from the outside. When you work with any program so long you also memorize everything. I've gone on ride alongs where guys use the program so quick I can't see where they are tapping as they've memorize the order of their narratives.

So one thing, reorder your narratives so the most used are at the top.

Got that one on the list!

And I'm not quite hitting 10,000 but I'm almost at 30!   lol ;D

Eat more pizza

"Find a way to keep hands free of tools until needed.  (I find my hands are always full with a digital recorder and camera.  I then must set those down to test something, open something, grab another tool, etc.)"

I wear a tool belt.  Everything goes back into the tool belt immediately.  I don't set my camera, screwdriver or any tool down anywhere anytime.  Everything goes back into its specific pouch on the toolbelt.  In 5 years I have never left a tool behind and my hands only have the tool or camera needed at the time. 

Don't use a voice recorder or paper notes.  I just take a photo of everything that needs to be remembered.  Works for everything except squeaky floors.  Pictures of sounds don't work well.  Since most digital cameras also can shoot video, a short video of the sound could work. 

3 hours total including report?  Most of my inspections take 3.5 hours just doing the inspecting.  Report writing is extra time.  If the house is vacant and the customer does not attend, I can complete the inspections quicker.  Only accept jobs with slab foundations would save 1/2 hour per inspection.  ;D

Just tried a new method today and the onsite seemed to go faster.
I was left alone at the beginning and simply walked through the entire house calling out all material items on video.

Went back and did inspection by only taking shots of the defects.

Getting ready to start that report and will let you guys know how the writing goes if anyone is interested.

What saves me the most time is doing the report on site. I don't carry a printer but they get the report e-mailed. Sitting in my truck or at the house saves a lot of time. If I wait and do it when I get home there are to many distractions and the report takes forever. I do not stay up until midnight doing reports anymore. I give myself enough times between inspections to do this. You don't forget things.

I have a power supply in my truck to plug in my computer and an internet connection with me. When I get home I have nothing to do. If I have a late inspection I still force myself to do this even though I want to get home.