12 Systems-Thinking Steps for Moving from Friction to Flow [BEST OF]

Free Time for Your Future Self: For any area of your business that causes friction, run through these systems-thinking questions to inspire small steps today that will save time far into the future. 

This is from our BFF community’s private feed, with an excerpt from the Free Time book and toolkit.

This episode originally aired on June 17, 2022.

🌟3 Key Takeaways

• Prioritize designing processes for the critical systems in your business, and let the ‘nice to have’ systems be good enough for now. 

• Break your calcified habits by stepping back (or jumping back in!) and looking at your processes with fresh eyes at least twice a year.

• Freeing time is a muscle we build. It takes practice and adopting a way of thinking about how you document and delegate.

📝Permission

To take a break or a walk. Solutions to our most vexing challenges don’t often come to us while we’re sitting at our desk, so get up and drop a bucket into the wishing well of your brain, then trust that it will pop up with solutions when it’s time!

 ✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

If this, then what? For friction area in your business, consider what the trigger action is, what next step needs to happen first, and whether it can be automated through a service like Zapier. 

📘Books Mentioned

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business

• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Free Time Toolkit

• Automation tools: Zapier, IFTTT

• Publishing Company: Get it Done

🎧 Related Podcast Episodes

• 002: Eliminate Email with Cal Newport

• 042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media (Pivot Replay)

• 062: Made By Monday 🐸 On Content "Frog" Batching

• 092: Train the System, Then the Person

• 101: Run Your Business with Exquisite Greatness and Tiny Art Projects with Alexandra Franzen 

• Pivot 076: On Plan Z, Creative Finish Lines and the Graceful No—with Alexandra Franzen

• Pivot 183: Cultivating Opposites and Checklists with Alexandra Franzen

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