When people first approach me in business, they often talk about their struggles with getting organised and coming up with/creating systems to help “manage their business”.
They’re looking for the “correct” system. One that can get them back on track in their business, to feel productive and organised so everything that they’re doing makes a difference in their business.
But it very rarely works.
Instead they feel constricted by clunky systems and spend most of their time trying to organise the systems meant to organise them.
This seems… counterproductive.
At the same time, being organised and having systems to get things done has become a dirty word to some people. The desire to organise is “lost to them”. They just “embrace chaos” and think they don’t do any organising at all….
A lot of these systems being built are designed to be external. It’s about “fixing the errors” in our own way of working. It’s based on the philosophy that there’s only one way to do things. When there isn’t.
When left to our own way of working, we still seem to do things… things happen.
For example, you can always figure out when you’re thirsty. It might not always be when you think you should drink something but eventually you will get to a moment where you will want a water or a tea, you’ll go off to do that!
Another example was when I first started my business; I was so worried that I’d forget things I needed to do for clients, but I would always remember at some point. It might’ve been a day or two later than you think it should’ve been. But something always reminded me, whether it be that something in the environment or I ‘just remembered’, it somehow always worked out.
You will find a way that works for you. We might take a little longer to “remember” to do these things or have to trigger it by something, but then it all works out.
It is impossible not to. It’s your biology.
However, sometimes these self-organising systems aren’t matching when and how we want to do things.
Say you’re away from a computer for a few days. Without triggers you’ll self organise around the conference, like talking to people and listening to presentations. But your clients are waiting for your reply.
A calendar with appointments and tasks, adds an external trigger that supports your self-organisation. It will use your internal systems and help you by adding an external system to adapt and help.
This is what I mean by Systems are Humans.
If you need help talking through what’s the “highest priority” right now just so you can start moving forward…
You’re looking to really dive into the way you work, and to design behaviours that will make it easier to grow your business your way.