Is one.
Here’s the problem: if only one person knows how to run part of your business, what happens when that person gets sick, has a family emergency, or quits on you?
I am a very organized person, yet I’m glaring this problem in the mirror right now: none of my workflow processes or systems have any written documentation. Why? Because it never feels urgent to write them.
I know what I’m doing, and time is at a premium. I could just do the task in 15 minutes, or I could take 30 minutes to write down every single step. Of course I always choose 15 minutes – EVEN THOUGH I KNOW BETTER. Even though I believe in investing in the future and setting up systems for consistency… I don’t do it.
Instead I am the embarrassed owner of a hodge-podge of spreadsheets, Google documents, fragmented lists, and notes in unpredictable places. This “system” has “worked” for years. Because it’s tailored to my quirks and memory and speed. But there is little margin for error and no redundancy. And when I want to delegate tasks to others, it’s a mess.
As embarrassing as this is, it’s damn common. Many sophisticated women entrepreneurs I know struggle with the same thing: no systems for operating procedures or work flows or documentation. It’s layers deep, because you need each task to be documented, plus you need to organize the documentation!
Organization is challenging. There is SO MUCH information to keep track of and a near constant sense of urgency around getting things done. No wonder it feels impossible to document and organize all processes – you and I have so much to do!
But I need this pep talk, because the longer I put off documentation the more I shoot myself in my foot. Plus, it embarrasses me and almost certainly wastes my time to rely on memory and assorted Google documents alone.
I pledge to myself and to you that I will TAKE THE TIME TO DOCUMENT ever task that I do. I’ll start by putting it in a Google doc, and then I’ll move it to my task manager Asana.
This post is part of my 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days series. View the rest here.
