In multiple of our podcast episodes and in some of our other blog posts, we have repeatedly talked about building systems, teams, processes, and other things to help you achieve your goals. Sometimes we don't quite know our goal but we know the general area we are trying to get to. OR we know the direction but not the destination in mind. The trick to making these work is to build a foundation of systems to keep you on track to make the most out of you.
Level of your systems
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear
Most people their system is go to work at the job you don't really care for, or even hate, get the same coffee in the break room, sit through meetings that have little value, and when the work day is done, you go home, get your microwave dinner, and watch tv (or social media) the rest of the day. Sadly this is the reality for far too many people. Where is the progression? What happened to your goal to own the business you work at? What happened to backpacking across Europe?
People prefer the familiar, the comfortable, the convent over the pains of growing and making changes. One of the best things that happened to me recently was getting let go from my day job. As of writing this article I have yet to find a new full time job and it has been three months. In those three months I keep applying for job after job, you still need to make money as you work towards your goals. During that time I have "nothing to do," I have been working on projects and ideas and businesses that otherwise would have fallen to the wayside. This gives me the chance to actually work on building my businesses. Yes I have many, but that is because most are the long game. And this time has given me the opportunity to evaluate where I am at with each business and see if it was a passing whim or if there is actually something there that I can and should build.
Now I started this article as talking about systems and processes, why does comfort and job loss have to do with this? The key is the ability to see things as they are. You can take a step back or out of the normal routine of the day, and take a real look at where you are at and what you are doing and where you want to go. But the most important part is building the routine that will move you in the direction you want to go. Going to work and then coming home and watching social media is a great way to never start that book you have been wanting to write. Even before I lost my job I have been building the routine and discipline to work towards my goal. Because I knew work drains me, I go all my growth and building early morning, instead of after work.
My System
My current system that I have been doing for probably a year at this point.
Get up 5am
Read a book or go to gym
Review progress of goals and efforts
Commit to doing one task for current top priority work/project
Go To work - Day job (my current day job is building out the opportunities I want to have)
Find highest priority tasks and work on those first (sometimes this is counter intuitive)
Life/Death
Blocking others
Time Sensitive
Most value / biggest impact
Requests from others that are not urgent
After work - try to do my home chores.
Play games with my dad online (mid to late evening)
Evening reading if there is time left in the day
Go to bed 9pm
I try not to have a complicated system, because complicated I loose things, forget steps, and eventually break down because you cant build on them. I do this routine every day, even on the weekends, only the day job part shifts. (Usually home projects or bigger chores) I know people that they do their best work in late evening after everyone has gone to bed. For me I just like mornings, mainly because I am fresh, and sometimes I am groggy and that is where I work on simpler tasks.
Review of Goals
If you dont take time to check a map, how do you know if you are going the right way? Take some time to see what you are doing or planning to do, actually aligns with where you want to go. I have this horrible problem where I fixate on a cool idea and then go down the rabbit hole and get lost on a cool idea instead of the real priorities. Often you will need to take time to better define what your goals are and how you intend to accomplish them. Goals and direction can change due to a slue of things. Everything from you learned what actually is needed to do certain tasks, a change in life, or more clarity. One project management philosophy that I love and far too often it is abused and said to be the rule not the exception, is that of the Agile methodology. Yes agile is in the name, but that is the latter half and not the main focus. The high level concept is that of have an idea, work on it, check your work/progress, adjust, repeat. During the check your work/progress step this is where you can refine your efforts and direction and work towards you goal. Too many people think it is all about adjusting to make things better, this only creates confusion, distraction, and lost effort. Yes there will be lost work, but the key is trying to figure out how to use what you have and use it to progress towards your goal, and sometimes what is made is a learning opportunity more than something that will directly contribute. Take time to review, clarify, adjust, and then move on, don't spend forever analyzing what you did. The core of Agile is to keep moving, and work around problems as they arise, and when they do arise, sometimes it just means you set down a piece of work until you figure out how to solve it.
Do work
I loosely break down my work into 5 categories. Life/death, blocking others, time sensitive, most value, requests from others. I find this works well for me and in some cases I need to shift some effort because they blend categories and increase their priority. I am big on teamwork and helping others. As my second priority, blocking others doesn't mean get in their way, it means the opposite. If you are blocking others, what do you need to do to get out of their way and encourage them to keep moving. I have seen too many times where people are waiting for a small (or big) ask of someone and just completely stop. There are a variety of reasons this happens, I try to encourage helping others continue work. I might not be able to help clear the issue that is preventing the work from continuing but I at least can help the individual find the next task to work on while waiting.
Most Value or Biggest Impact can be very ambiguous, if it is ambiguous then you need to refine what it is you are wanting to do. The key is what can you do now that will help you progress quickest to your goal. This doesn't mean the small tasks first or the biggest task first. It means finding the task that will enable you to continue effectively. I have many projects that fit in the "Hurry up and wait" category. These are where I need to order parts or wait for review. If there tasks are near the top of my list of priorities then I will do enough work so that I can wait on them while someone else does their part, aka waiting for the order to arrive. If I waited to do these when the priority of the next task of assembly came up, I wouldn't be able to do it because I didn't order the parts. This is a great example of knowing what you are working towards and knowing enough of what steps are required to achieve the goal. If you just don't know then this may cause an unexpected delay.
Know what it is you want
"Not all who wander are lost." There are those who want to get to a destination, while others want to enjoy the journey. If you are working toward a destination, take the time to plan your route, do the research, know if that is really where you want to end up. But don't spend too long planning, doing you learn a lot more faster. Waiting to act can be far worse than never acting or acting and making mistakes. Jump in and do what you can now.
For those who like the journey, pick out some waypoints so you know you are actually progressing. If you run in circles really fast, did you ever go anywhere? Some people say that they want to see everything coast to coast, but if you don't take the time to pick out some of those waypoints, you may get to the destination and find you missed the journey because you didn't know what was a worthwhile waypoint. Take time to plan what those waypoints look like. Is it reading a book a month, is it living out of a van on your journey, is it trying a local restaurant that you have never been to before every night. These are specific in the sense of you know loosely what you are moving towards, but general enough where you get to choose as you go.
Make your system work for you
The trick is to build a system/environment that helps you work toward your goals and dreams. You can start by figuring out what maximizes what you currently do (like getting up early or working late), or take time to make the plan and then build a system that builds the system to achieve the goal. Everyone's system is different, just as our goals are. instead of fighting yourself to work on your goals, figure out how to reframe what you are doing so that you are not your biggest obstacle.