Most people know I’m not the biggest morning person.
If I have to be somewhere—especially early—I want to get out of bed at the very last possible moment and still arrive on time. And I’m definitely not one of those people who rolls out of bed instantly awake and ready to tackle the day. It takes me a while to get my brain online.
Years ago, I realized I wasn’t going to change that. Instead, I built systems around it.
My morning follows the same sequence every day.
- Shower.
- Put the bacon in the pan.
- Set the timer.
- Blow-dry my hair.
- Come back and flip the bacon.
- Set the timer again.
- Stretch.
- Come back and take the bacon out.
- Cook the eggs.
Why?
Because if I buy the same brand of bacon, use the same pan, set the burner to the same temperature, and cook it the same way every time, I know exactly when it needs to be flipped and exactly when it’s done.
- I don’t have to think about it.
- I don’t have to watch it.
- I don’t have to be fully awake.
- I just do the next thing.
The timers hold the schedule for me, and the routine carries me through the morning until my brain catches up. It lets me get out the door on time without getting up thirty minutes earlier than I need to.
That routine got me thinking about something I see in businesses all the time.
A business owner says, “I don’t understand why Employee X takes so long. I could do that in a quarter of the time.”
They’re probably right. But the employee may not be slow. The employee may simply not have your system.
You taught them what needed to get done. Did you teach them how you organize the work? The sequence that makes them efficient? Which steps can happen at the same time and which ones depend on something else being finished first?
Did you teach them the little efficiencies you’ve discovered over years of doing the job?
Because that’s where experience lives. It isn’t just in knowing how to do the work. It’s in knowing the most efficient order to do the work.
The other benefit of standardizing your process is consistency. When everyone follows the same process, employees don’t have to wait for you every time they have a question. They can ask the person next to them and get the same answer you would have given.
That’s how businesses become less dependent on the owner.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “That sounds great, but standardizing everything in my business sounds overwhelming.”
You’re right. It is a project. But here’s the question I’d ask instead:
If every employee in your business consistently operated at 80% of their potential—even on busy days, stressful days, or days when everything didn’t go according to plan—what would that be worth?
Because that’s what good systems do. They don’t make people perfect. They make average days more productive, busy days less chaotic, and good employees more consistent.
And over time, that’s where remarkable businesses are built.
