How To Systemize Everything
If you’ve ever looked at another very productive person and wondered how she manages to get it all done, the answer might surprise you.
She’s got good systems.
It’s true. The most productive people all have one thing in common: they don’t reinvent the wheel every day. Instead, they’ve figured out the best, most efficient way to do every task, and they create a system to do just that.
No matter what you are working on and what projects you find yourself tackling, a systemized approach will help you:
• Work faster and produce more
• Produce higher quality results with fewer mistakes
• Easily delegate the tasks you don’t like to do
The Magic of Templates
How many times do you answer a certain email? What about responding to customer complaints?
All of these tasks and more become effortless when you create fill-in-the-blank templates that can be repurposed for specific cases/people. Templates can be as simple as a “canned response” in your email client or help desk, or you can use software such as Text Expander (for Mac) or Phrase Express (for Windows). You might even create a template document in Dropbox or Google Drive to house all your templates for easier access.
While templates will undoubtedly save you time, the real beauty is that once they’re created, you can easily delegate tasks if you are in the place to do that. Simply instruct your assistant on the proper use of your templates, and you’ll be free to do other, more important things.
Checklists Prevent Mistakes
It might seem counterintuitive, but when you perform the same tasks over and over again, it’s easy to miss a critical step. You might think you paid your bills this month—you might even remember doing it—only to look back and see it was never completed.
But when you implement checklists, it’s suddenly much more difficult to miss an important task.
You can easily create checklists for all your common tasks and projects using nothing more than a text document. If you’re managing a team, checklists in your project management system allow you to see exactly what tasks are complete, and which are still outstanding. Same process can be done if you are managing a household.
Templates and checklists turn amazing women into productivity superstars, and it’s easy to get started. The next time you answer an email you’ve answered before, save your response. The next time you set up a new product in your shopping cart or create a new opt-in page, take the time to record the steps. These documents will make future projects easier and faster to complete.
Have Automated workflows
Having all your checklists and templates complete, you can now automate part or all of them by using a workflow in a platform. I use Asana for some of my workflows (great for recurring tasks or even as a CRM). I also use Dubsado to onboard my clients with automated lead > intake > contract, proposal, invoice etc. But if you are not in the business space, you can use Asana and/or Trello to track workflows in your life.
I don’t know about you but I want to spend more time WITH my amazing clients and WITH my loved ones than to work on repeating tasks that could be either automatically handled or easily taken care of with a checklist.