On this blog we talk a lot about how systems can help you build the life you want. There are plenty of examples of how to build complex systems to track how you feel and detailed instructions on how to implement those systems. But how do you apply this ‘system thinking’ to your life?
Look for the problems
Systems are really good at solving problems. There are probably thousands of small problems you face daily. Should you build a system for all of them? Hell no. But the problems that come up every single day, you should consider building a system.
“Honestly though Scott, what the hell do you mean by build a system?” Well, systems can be super complex, but they can also be devilishly simple. The best way to illustrate this system-building mindset is to show you a system I built (and continue to refine) to solve one of my most common problems: food. Full disclosure, my wife helped build this system, so building a system can be a team thing too.
Real world example
One of the most frequent arguments my wife and I got in always started with a simple question, “what’s for dinner?” My brain then had to do mental gymnastics to determine what we’ve had eaten recently (and therefore can’t eat today), what ingredients we had, what we’re in the mood for, how much time we had, how much energy we had to execute the dinner, or the litany of questions about where we would go get food if we didn’t make dinner. Every night.
I’m sure you’ve either dealt with this exact issue, or you have something similar that takes energy away from the present. It became clear that we needed a system. In thinking about the solution, we needed to solve one thing:
- What we wanted to eat and when
So naturally, that meant we should sit down and have that conversation one time per week, instead of every day. This isn’t avoiding the conversation, but putting aside time to have it once, instead of constantly. So we started to schedule time on our calendars to specifically talk about what we were going to eat the rest of the week.
In the process of identifying this need, we also identified a few areas we could increase the efficiency of this exercise in the following ways:
- Groceries: If we had this conversation before we went to the grocery store, we could make sure we got the right ingredients for the food we wanted. This made us wildly more prepared to shop and helped us navigate the issue of rising food costs.
- Previous choices: One of the problems is that it can be difficult to remember what you like week over week. So if we started to capture our choices in a database, we could call upon prior meals when thinking of what to eat next. This allowed us to streamline the conversation for some of the meals while allowing us to mix it up a bit.
- To do this, we capture our meals on a custom Google Calendar that is only meant for food. We can close the calendar if we don’t want to see it, but reference it later when we need a meal idea or two.
- This also helps you know what’s for dinner in the future.
The biggest thing here: start small. Don’t worry about making a system solve every problem at the beginning. That’s because you probably won’t implement the system because you’ll spend too much time building it. You’ll also find that when you implement a system, it often doesn’t go the way you thought it would.
“No
–plansystem survives contact with the enemy.”Helmuth von MoltkeScott McGlynn
That quote is a great reminder that you can spend all day preparing, prepping, or designing a system that ultimately hasn’t been tested. So start building your system one block at a time so you can adjust when things don’t go perfectly.
Building your own system
So now you’re armed with that example, I just have a question for you: “What’s a recurring problem that you can solve using a system?”
Take the thing that’s bothering you and think why is this bothering me? What role do you play in that? What is something within your control, knowledge, or experience that you can do to impact the problem? Who do you know that can advise you on how to fix it?
Once you start a system, put it in place for a period of time (let’s say at least two weeks) and then come back and determine what worked and what didn’t. Maybe you found that you didn’t keep up with the system; that’s a clear indicator that it’s too complex and that you need to simplify it. Maybe you found that it didn’t fix it completely or it barely did anything; okay, come back to the table and find another solution to start with. Maybe you found that it worked and you’re not empowered to find that next problem you can solve. REGARDLESS, systems are there to help you keep moving forward.
Remember, Big results come from small actions, done over and over.
Additional Resources
Atomic Habits – James Clear (Book – Part of Amazon Affiliate Link) – Learn more about how to create systems and why they are so powerful.
Systems with Scott Blog: Automation Audit: Finding Areas of Automation to Make Less Decisions (link)