December 8, 2023
SOPs and Checklists FTW!
Yesterday, I presented a new webinar called Ruthlessly Simple Time Management for Solo Professionals.
For most of my webinars (and podcast recordings and coaching calls and workshops launches and student onboarding and so on), I have created detailed SOPs/checklists that allow me to fly through complicated processes with superhuman speed, ease, and accuracy.
But yesterday’s webinar was an outlier.
It had enough unique characteristics that none of my existing SOPs or checklists applied.
For example:
- It was not public so I couldn’t share the registration page in the usual way.
- The replay expires, so I had to host it in a non-standard way.
- The post-processing of the video into audio and transcript formats was greatly complicated by the 3-hour session length.
- My standard sharing procedures for the audio and transcript did not apply, so I needed to improvise.
So...
Since I didn’t have an SOP or checklist for this sort of event, I had to wing it.
And guess what happens when you wing it?
Your productivity tanks!
Last night and today, I spent HOURS doing rework.
Fixing stuff I screwed up.
Responding to questions/confusion that my screw-ups created.
Potentially damaging my reputation by not having delivered precisely what I had promised.
Ironically, a big piece of my presentation was about the importance of SOPs and checklists, especially for solo professionals who want to run their businesses without employees or contractors.
You better believe that the next thing on my list is to create an SOP for this type of event while it’s still fresh in my mind so I can fly through it like Superman next time.
Yours,
—J
P.S. Despite my post-production struggles, the presentation’s content was solid, and attendees got a lot out of it.
The replay is available to Ditcherville members until Sunday night at 11:59pm ET. If you’d like to get access, join us now:
Monthly, annual, and lifetime memberships are available.
I hope to see you in Ditcherville soon!