Evaluating Efficiency - Finding Your Own System and Some Tips to Help!
As discussed in my monthly newsletter, finding your unique system to achieve your goals is critical to your success. Your systems may consist of processes, tools, and strategies that allow you to work effectively to achieve your goals. But sometimes, you may find you have outgrown your current processes, or they are working against you. As a result, you'll spend unnecessary time and energy completing tasks that could be eliminated, automated, or delegated. It's time to get your systems in order and free up your time!
Why Does Finding Your Own System Matter?
When systems are effective, they can help your business grow. They allow you to proactively address problems within your teams and workflows rather than constantly having to dig yourself out from piles of unnecessary work caused by small things going wrong. Unfortunately, when things snowball into significant issues, it slows us up and harms our overall efficiency. This will not only cost you time but also money.
Strong systems are the best way to work smarter, not harder. If your systems are automated, you will save hours each day, and this new workflow will give you more space to enjoy recreational activities, time with friends and family, and pursue goals unrelated to work. You will find fulfillment both inside and outside of the workplace, and you deserve to have time to find joy outside of your business.
Consistent Evaluation Is Key
It's important to evaluate your systems constantly. To ensure they work for you and not against you, start by identifying your current systems and considering how they contribute to what you and your team need to accomplish. If your current practices are not optimal, evaluating where your work is getting bottlenecked is crucial. There may be a faster way to get the job done, a more transparent communication method, or even a system that can better automate these spaces in your processes. To learn more, check out this article by Preeti Kapoor on "How to create systems to work faster and more efficiently?"
Watch Out for This Common Pitfall
The most common problem we see when working with clients is that they go through implementing new systems, but they don't stick, and they find they have system envy of their colleagues. They see their coworkers utilizing methods they attempt to implement to no avail. I remember when companies would bring in experts such as Franklin Covey to train team members on their systems. Meeting attendees would have a tabbed, color-coded tracking system to track actions and activities to pursue goals. While these systems may work for some, effective goal-planning strategies are not "one size fits all."
Currently, more research is emerging about the difference in right and left brain thinking and the unique needs associated with each. This emerging research suggests that if you are predominantly left-brained, you do not have to avoid trying to utilize some right-brain approaches and tactics and vice versa. In fact, opening your mind to different approaches is highly beneficial in becoming a more innovative and agile leader, but what works for some may not work for others.
Books like Daniel Pink's, A Whole New Mind or Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor speak to the importance of this. Customizing an organizational system that plays to your strengths is essential too. Whether you are a tactile learner and planner or a visionary and conceptual planner, it’s important to find the best tools and systems for you.
Here are a few tools that can cater to the organizational systems of both left and right-brained people:
Dot Planners
One tool so many people are using to work more effectively is Dot Planners. These planners help you take control of your day by assisting you in creating a vision for your year to work toward making your goals a reality. These planners have space for yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily planning and room for you to write tips and tricks to make your day more efficient. Dot Planners feel less like your typical paper planner and more like a personal assistant if you can set them up in a way that works for you. Their unique layout allows you to customize them to reflect your work habits and efficacy.
Miro Board
Another tool that many businesses use to organize their systems is the Miro Board. This online whiteboard can help you and your team brainstorm, workshop ideas, and create strategy maps. Beyond its basic whiteboard functionality, it has sticky notes and more than 25 other add-ons to enhance your experience. It also lets you close out all the tabs you are working from on your computer and see everything in a single space. This feature can save you hours of searching for the tab you are working on and flipping back and forth to others.
If you need help working more efficiently and need some coaching on revamping your systems, contact us today.
