March 22, 2019
Chaotic Routine
We’re five days into the first 10-Day Systems Challenge, so I’m currently hyper sensitive to any “chaotic routines” in my life. Toward that end, we had a landscaping company come out this morning to give us an estimate for maintaining our yard.
Stay tuned for more on on this when their quote comes in but for today, I’d like to focus on chaotic routines - what they are, why they are bad, how to get rid of them, and what the benefits of doing so are.
What is a chaotic routine?
At first glance, the term “chaotic routine” might sound like an oxymoron. I mean, how can something be both chaotic and routine at the same time?
Well, if you’re like most of the 300+ people in 10DSC, you probably have quite a few activities that you engage in on a regular basis (i.e., they are commonplace - aka routine), but each time you do them you basically wing it (i.e., they are disorganized - aka chaotic).
A chaotic routine could be business related, like invoicing clients, or setting up a conference call, or running a remote status meeting, or recording a podcast episode, or sending your weekly newsletter.
Or a chaotic routine could be personal, like making your morning coffee, or walking the dog, or going to the gym, or running a load of laundry, or taking out the recycling, or dropping the kids off at karate.
Why are chaotic routines bad?
Whether yours are business or personal, the problem with chaotic routines is that they waste your time on something you’re probably not getting joy out of.
Plus, they burn up a surprising amount of brain power and emotional energy. They require loads of low-level decision making. They force you to improvise constantly, which is a very demanding thing to do. They are reactive mode instead of proactive. Hard not smart.
Bottom line?
Spending lots of time and energy improvising your way through mundane activities is a pointless waste of resources.
How can I eliminate chaotic routines?
The good news is that once you start looking for chaotic routines, they’re easy to spot. And in most cases, they’re pretty easy to fix. Step One is to simply look for chaotic routines in your life.
Once you have a list of chaotic routines, there are two things you can do to get rid of them:
Outsource and systematize.
I think you’ll find that lots of of your CRs can be outsourced. Things like groceries, laundry, housekeeping, landscaping, etc. And whatever can’t be outsourced can probably be systematized to some beneficial degree.
What are the benefits eliminating chaotic routines?
Whether you outsource or systematize your chaotic routines, you will save time AND improve results simultaneously. Best of all, decreasing the number of chaotic routines involved in your revenue generating business activities will lead directly to you working less and making more!
I feel like this sounds too good to be true when I put it in these terms, but it’s not rocket science. Delivering better results faster increases your profit margin - and OBTW, delights your clients.
Yours,
—J