Almost every Monday morning I have a time slot dedicated for organizing my week.

I review client work, my internal tasks, map out projects and markup my calendar accordingly.

What started as a notebook process, slowly evolved into a more advanced calendar mapping – organizing time blocks and moving items around according to priorities and breaking up & delegating different items on my to-do list.

Before setting up this system, many weeks fell into an “organized chaos”, with tasks and projects getting done well but ultimately felt more stressful than it needed to be.

There are still stressful weeks, for sure (that’s part of running a small business – or any business really), but setting aside time for planning out weeks in advance limited the impact of those stressful times by having a system where I dedicate times to mitigate stressful items that pop up creates an instant relief valve.

Is it perfect?

Far from it — but more things get done, weeks go much more smoothly and I can prioritize, slide around and shift “on-the-fly” much easier as everything is mapped from this small system I created; it’s effective.

If things become less effective with my weeks, I don’t have to restructure everything in my business and start pulling things back or turn “mole hills into mountains” to stabilize things — I simply have to tweak this small system.

That fact alone relieves tension – I know exactly where to look when there’s friction somewhere. Not in the work itself, but the system that operates it.

Systems Aren’t Cages – They’re Ultimately Freedom

Systems feel too restricting for some small business owners, which is understandable.

The goal for many small business owners in starting their business is to create the space and freedom to operate – without the rigid, cold structure that comes along with working for someone else or someone else’s dreams.

But without creating your own structure and systems, you’re going to be exposed to the chaos of the external world – that means every little thing that pops up will draw your attention and pull you in too many directions – that pulling ultimately wears you down, leaves little time for the freedom you desire – leaving you farther away from your goals (and can create a bitter feeling of the small business/business world).

In another one of life’s ironies – more structure and better systems can equal more freedom (in most cases).

When Outcomes Change, Tweak The System (Not The Entire Machine)

As mentioned above, when you isolate and create systems for different parts of your business it makes troubleshooting – and reporting – much easier for you.

If leads aren’t as expected, you can look at your marketing systems.

If sales are slow, look at your sales systems.

If projects aren’t getting done, look at your operations systems.

If turnover is high, look at your hiring system.

If your data and metrics look off, look at your metric stack and the systems you have to manage them.

Holistically, you’ll find connections between systems — an overbooked or understaffed operation (full capacity) can slow down sales (and marketing) and so on, but ultimately you’ll be able to recognize these “kinks” better because you have those two systems to evaluate.

Start Small – But Start Regardless 

My Monday morning routine is an incredibly tiny system – but a system nonetheless – that creates more predictability with my weeks. If you’re reading this, it’s probably on a Monday which is another tiny system that I have for mapping out and sending my content.

As things grow, however, those tiny systems can be scaled and passed on to others, without much effort.

Not everything needs a system or a plan, but creating systems in a few key areas can create a basis that can alleviate potential “flare ups” as you grow and expand your small business.

As you work toward your targets and goals for your small business, which systems will you need to will help act as a “relief valve” for you and your team?