3 Easy Ways to Systemize Your Business and Decrease Burnout

Most of us spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to solve the same problems over and over when those tasks could be systemized to create the space and capacity to focus on work that yields results.

The positive correlation between productivity and systemization means that the more efficiently you systemize, the more productive you are. The secret most high performers know is that it isn’t how well they do something once; it’s about doing it well again and again. 

The more consistently you deliver great work, your business will deliver great customer experience and top-notch results. You wouldn’t go back to a shop whose clothing sizes changed each time you visited. If there’s one thing customers love, it’s a business that always delivers. 

Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does nudge the odds in your favor; your consistent performance determines whether you reach your goals or miss the mark. 

Okay, so systemization increases the odds of success of a specific activity, career, and business, but did you know that systemization makes a significant difference to your well-being?

Decreasing mental workload and burnout with systemization

LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report shows that 30% of manager burnout comes from unclear job responsibilities. In other words, not knowing what’s expected or a lack of systemization leads to burnout. 

Burnout also occurs as a result of unmanaged, long-term, work-related stress. In many cases, this stress is due to sustained cognitive overload causing employees to be less effective and productive.

Cognitive load theory explains this phenomenon. It states that people have difficulty performing tasks and learning new things if they’re trying to process too much information at once. Additionally, humans tend to make poorer decisions the longer they have to deal with cognitive load.

“After a long period of thinking hard, making decisions that favor ease in the short term, but are worse overall, appears to be a biological regulation tool to combat cognitive fatigue. ”

Madeline Holcombe
Writer, CNN Science and Wellness

What does this have to do with systemization?

Systemization, at its best, reduces decision-making fatigue and cognitive burnout, giving you more mental energy for other tasks. Systemize your routine at work and what you and the family are having for dinner, and you may just find yourself with the energy to do that evening workout or join that class you’ve wanted to start.

Systemize your business and scale up in ways you’d never have imagined.

3 ways to use systemization to increase productivity

Systemization is the way forward when looking to increase productivity in your business. Here are three ways to tackle systemization and drive efficiency.

1. Make your processes more efficient

Think about your morning routine. It likely includes brushing your teeth, showering, and combing your hair. These are things you’re already doing. Systemization is just about recognizing the daily activities you have in place and optimizing them.

The small differences in performance grow into a series of large victories when repeated over time. 

Case in point, in 2003, when British Cycling was all but doomed, they hired Dave Brailsford, a coach famed for his approach to marginal gains. Up to that point, the performance of British Cyclists had been so underwhelming that one of the top bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team out of fear that it would hurt sales. 

Five years later, in 2008, the British Cycling team won an astounding 60% of medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

If it worked for British Cycling, it might work for you.

So, adopt a continuous improvement mindset instead of trying to systemize your entire business or life in one week. It’s about making tiny changes and improvements every day. Your mental workload will lighten, and as you see improvements in your personal and professional life, you’ll be motivated to keep adopting systems that promote little wins. 

Reflecting, you’ll see that a small adjustment in your work means big results.

Simple systemization hacks to implement today

The perfect approach to systemization doesn’t exist. It all depends on your type of work, role, the size of your team, as well as your personal preferences. A few simple hacks that you can establish today will make a world of difference to your well-being and productivity tomorrow.

1. Systemize your calendar

Look at your calendar right now. It’s probably full of requests from other people, but is it in line with your priorities and objectives? 

Systemize your time with your calendar by marking the time you complete a particular task and aligning the task with a goal. 

Two things might happen. You’ll realize you spend a bunch of time on work that just isn’t that important, or you’ll actually start to allocate time to your priorities to help you focus and complete tasks by a certain date. Both ways, you win.

2. Manage notifications

Do you get distracted every time you receive an email or message? Systemize your notifications by setting up Slack channels for specific notifications or tasks to keep you focused. Alternatively, set an allocated time when you view notifications or simply delete the ones you don’t need.

3. Templatize

Do you respond to customer queries by writing out a response each time? Do you create the same style of document for each meeting? Use templates for repetitive tasks to reduce the time it takes to create documents.

Templates actually increase the opportunity for continuous improvement, and they’re easy to update and manage, providing consistency within a project or process.

4. Create processes

Consider a workflow that lives in spreadsheets, emails, or purely in someone else’s head. How could that workflow become a business process that is more efficient for everyone? If it works in the case of weekday dinners, it’ll work in a professional capacity. 

5. Prioritize tasks 

Prioritize tasks the way it works for you – whether completing urgent tasks first or starting with something light to warm up. This sets you up for the day and reduces anxiety. Combine this approach with automating tasks that you previously spent hours on, and you’ll find yourself winning on the productivity front.

6. Plan your day toward a better output

People tend to have a routine for their personal lives that centers around eating, sleeping, socializing, and caretaking. But you can – and should – plan your day for optimal results. 

If you’re a morning person, systemize doing deep work in the morning and having meetings in the afternoon. Need hours to concentrate on a specific piece of work each week? Block it off in your schedule and create a meeting-free day. 

But remember, it’s ok to have an unproductive or bad day. Don’t beat yourself over it. Focus on learning forward.

Every day the clock resets

When 61% of the average workday is spent on tasks of little to no value, it’s time for a change. 

It doesn’t often occur to people that they have a say in spending time and energy. How you’ve always done something may not be the most efficient way. Does that something even need to be done at all? 

When managing your time, you have a few choices: do it yourself, delegate it, or delete it. Or you can systemize it!

McDonald’s, with over 38,000 locations in over 100 countries, has 93% ownership by independent local business owners. They’ve used systemization to achieve consistency, customer service excellence, and optimal efficiency. 

Seem too overwhelming? 

Even if you’re not currently systemizing, you still have a process. You still take a series of steps to get from A to B. It’s just that your methods are probably not – absolutely no offense intended – that efficient. More than likely, you’re spending a ton of energy and time completing your to-do list every day. 

If you’re concerned with achieving your potential, delivering your best, and contributing within your role, systemization can do nothing but provide you with much-needed relief and benefits.

As Brian Tracy says, “Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with.”

Systemization delivers a better work-life balance, decreases overwhelm and burnout, increases productivity and creativity, and raises the potential for success.

Working from home can take a toll on systemizing everyday tasks. Here’s how to work from home (from anywhere in the world) without hurting your routine.