The 3 Questions to Ask before Building a System

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Read Time: 7 Minutes

Systems building is extremely powerful.

If done incorrectly, it can cause serious pain for you and your team

However, if done properly, it can take your productivity to the fkn moon 🚀

Let’s do an activity. I want you to write down the 15 tasks on your to-do list, RIGHT NOW

Before we build a system to remove ourselves from the equation, ask these three questions:

Can someone else do these task?
Do these tasks take less than 5 minutes?
Are these repetitive tasks?

As a reminder, every system is made up of 3 elements: Team, Tactics, and Tools.

Team-Who is performing the task
Tactics-What steps are being taken to perform the task
Tools-What tech is used to perform the task

Let’s dive in to each of the 3 key questions

Can someone else do it?

The answer will usually be yes.
Apply the 80/20 rule here and identify the 20% of the tasks that ONLY you can act on to create the most value for the organization.
Bookkeeping, creating social media content, building your website, and even managing your inbox are all tasks that other people can do
Managing investors, large client deals, and speaking at conferences…those are more uniquely suited to you, the high-growth leader
Write down who else can execute on your Top 15 tasks you listed above

Does this task take less than 5 minutes?

While people make an argument that you can complete any task that takes less than 5 minutes, I think this is death by 1000 cuts
If your day was filled with a bunch of 5-minute-tasks, that can add up to over 80 tasks per day
Changing tabs every 5 minutes exhausts your brain
If the answer is yes, package this task up into a Playbook document (list of steps) and delegate this to someone on the time
If the answer is no, then decide if this task is something you truly need to be doing (see question 1 above)

Is this a repetitive task ?

Did you do the tasks on your list the last few weeks?
If not, it was probably an ad-hoc project that wont be repeated.
If so, you’ll probably have to do it again next week…
Technology has been created to help us automate (or eliminate) repetitive work.
Whatever cannot be automated can be delegated
Write down the steps and have someone on your team figure out how to automate (or do) the work

Answering these questions will elicit 1 of 2 responses:

trigger you to your core
light you up

The concept of letting go for some (ALL) founders is one that requires immense self-awareness and appreciation for the journey.

And, the concept of building systems around your work is the differentiator among the leaders that make it, and those who burn out after becoming monsters 👹.

Remember, you get to focus on what you are uniquely suited to focus on.

This can be developing the product or service, speaking with clients, and/or handling the books if you want to.

The system you build around you can handle the rest.

P.S. How many of the above tasks are still ones that YOU will focus on?

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