In my last post, I talked about the value of leveraging systems to effectively automate optimizations. I’d like to dig more into the concept of systems and how they can be set up and used effectively.
A system may be defined as “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method” (Oxford English Dictionary). When designing a system to optimize a process, I try to suss out the core principles of that process—to break it down to its bare necessities—and build the system around those. Everything else is gravy. If I can turn those core principles into direct, specific action steps, often on a specific schedule (think S.M.A.R.T. goals), then I have a practical system that I can use to perform that process reliably, repeatedly, and without expending a lot of brain energy.
When I talk about automating optimizations, I’m not so much talking about having a machine do it all for me (although that is sometimes very helpful), but rather triggering automatic thinking. If I can develop a system, which becomes a routine, which becomes a habit, and I can perform the process with minimal conscious decision-making, then I would consider that process automated in this context. Consider driving home from work on your normal route, and arriving home not remembering any of the drive itself—that’s automatic thinking: the commute home has become an unconscious habit that doesn’t require very much conscious decision-making.
Whenever I find myself doing a process repeatedly, especially if it requires decision-making, I try to turn it into a simple system. Usually, I document that system somewhere (a notebook, a Google Doc, etc.) and fine-tune it over time until it’s working well for me. Developing a system is most definitely an iterative process, refining it until it reduces more friction than it creates.
Here are some books that have been very useful to me as I think about developing systems:
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan