The Power of Building Systems in Your Life
By: Brian Kim - June 7, 2007
Ever since I was young, I was always a big fan of creating systems. It was probably something ingrained into my personality. I was always looking for ways to do things better, never being content with the status quo. In my mind, there was always potential to make things better provided that there was a system in place and even if there was such a system in place, to make that one even better,
However, systems take time to build but once you figure out everything and the system is set in place, activities becomes easy to do and time and energy are saved.
We all build systems in our lives even if we don’t realize it. And what I mean by a system is simply a certain way of doing thing very effectively.
You probably have a system for paying bills. On a certain day of the month, you gather all your bills and pay them while balancing your checkbook or if you’re tech savvy, you automate the majority of your bills and pay by ones you can’t by hand.
You create a list of what you need to buy before you go to the grocery store so you can save time and also to cut back on the chance of overspending.
You have a system for working out – you do this muscle group today at this time with this many sets and this many reps.
These systems are there to save you time and energy and result in a high return on investment AND more importantly, these systems are reflective that you have done your research in the first place. Your research will include the following.
What you should do.
Why you should do it.
How you’re going to do it.
The three pillars of building an effective system.
If you think about it, all businesses need systems set in place. Businesses cannot survive without systems because without systems, businesses will continue to forever be chained to working in their business, and not on their business. That’s why there are set procedures, training manuals, and proper methods set in place for every business.
Can you imagine if a business had no system in place for taking orders, processing them, and delivering the goods and services? Chaos would ensue and the business would fold.
When businesses have systems in place, they can concentrate on developing better products, providing better customer service, or thinking of new ways to expand the business. In short, they create time to work on their business.
Similarly, you should work on your life, not in it and the way to stop working in your life is to develop systems to free yourself of time and energy to work on it.
Start developing systems in your life in areas where you currently don’t have one or try to improve upon existing systems in which you already do.
Your morning, evening, back from work blocks of time etc., would be ideal places to look at to see where you can implement systems if you don’t have one or improve upon existing ones if you do. The idea of implementing systems in your life may seem robotic and mechanical, but remember these systems are there to serve you and if you’ve done your own personal research, they are the best ways of optimizing your own individual life.
For example, you might be wise to take time in developing a morning system that is optimal for you as what you do in the morning usually sets the tone for the rest of the day. What time you wake up, what you do afterwards, whether it be reading or meditating or both, the kind of food you eat, when you eat it, etc. These are tons of “what you should do” factors that need to be taken into account and research will usually need to be done to answer why you need do exactly that. What time to wake up and why? What to read and why? What to meditate on and why? What food to eat and why? When to eat and why? When those questions have been answered, the how will naturally follow. How to wake up at that time? How to make sure you read that material or meditate on that subject afterwards? How to make sure you eat that kind of food, etc.
Once you take the time to research everything and figure out a system that you can use, you literally squeeze all the benefits that you personally value in the morning and truly optimize your time and your life by doing just that.
Your systems should be sound when put in place but always be on the lookout to adapt or change them or scrap them all together as you see fit. Systems are never set in stone and there is always room for improvement. In fact, you should reevaluate the systems you have in place every couple of months to see if you can improve upon them or change them.
You save time because you stop figuring out what you should do because you already thought it through and decided the best things to do in the best order which would result in the best way to maximize your time and energy and in return, give you a high return on investment.
So remember, build systems so you don’t become chained to working in your life.
Build systems in your life so you can start working on it.
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June 7th, 2007 at
True. Because we want to accomplish things faster and easier than the usual way, we tend to create our own system.
We know that doing things faster means more time for us to do other things. This could be our main reason why we continue on searching and developing.
June 11th, 2007 at
I agree. Our life is simpler with the aid of systems. Since most people’s goal is to make lives simpler by doing things the easy way, it’s not surprising that we also get some disadvantages from living a simple life.
June 12th, 2008 at
the website offers critical advice, however, the advice isn’t dynamic, i.e., one piece of advice isn’t integrated with other advice. for example, “You save time because you stop figuring out what you should do because you already thought it through and decided the best things to do in the best order which would result in the best way to maximize your time and energy and in return, give you a high return on investment.” if we apply this, then we leave little room for making mistakes because we’re always doing the “best.” logically, under this system of having systems, we disallow the possibility of making mistakes, at least theoretically.
July 19th, 2008 at
[…] But what do they have that you don’t have? It really is quite simple – they have the right attitude. They refuse to accept anything below average or mediocre of themselves. They expect success. They do not avoid problems, but rather thrive in solving them. With each problem solved, they become better. And, they never stop learning. They are never complacent with the knowledge or the skill they have right now. They continuously aim to improve themselves. […]