“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about systems lately. Not just the kind engineers or tech people use, but practical, repeatable processes that make life and work easier. Systems are about creating a predictable way to do something efficiently, cutting down on overthinking and reducing friction. If you think this sounds too complex, making toast is a system. Making your bed is a system. Anything can really be systemised. I’ve been implementing a number of different systems across my business and creative work, and they’ve had a tangible impact on how smoothly things run. At the end of the day it’s about reducing friction and making my life easier, so work gets done not only in a timely manner, but in a way that’s enjoyable!
One recent example is my order fulfilment process. Previously, I printed labels on (truthfully expensive) label paper, cut them out, and stuck them to packages. When they ran out I printed on normal paper and taped them to my packages. Was this the best way to do this? No. I was just using what I had at hand. And it worked when order volume was low, but it was slow, annoying and time consuming. While this slap dash way worked for the time being, I wasn’t exactly setting myself up for success or higher volume. I do wonder if it was a form of self sabotage! I knew at some point I would need to move to a label printer for my shipping labels, but which one? What are my friends using? How much did I want to spend? After asking the questions and getting the answers I committed to one that was a mix of good price point, came with 6 roles of labels and looked easy enough to set up. Admittedly there was some dicking around with figuring it out and a few YouTubes later I had sorted it out, made a templated drop down and now my label printing is easy and straight forward. Now I don’t even think about it, it’s just part of the process and the process flows better now. What was a lame part of my job, has now become so simple I look forward to it! The joy of systems!
Transitioning from Squarespace to Shopify was another major system overhaul. Squarespace is great for portfolios and that’s about it. It does ecomm but in the lite way, which for me was all I could handle a few years ago. Moving to Shopify felt like an insurmountable task and boy did I put it off for years, and it cost me dearly.
Squarespace is pretty and easy, but it has limited tracking and shipping options, and managing inventory or analysing customer behaviour was pretty slim on the info. I thought that was good enough, until I moved over. Shopify gives me tools to see traffic, conversion, and customer patterns. I also standardised my shipping materials (flat mailers in two sizes, boxes, and satchels) and built a repeatable workflow for labelling and packing. What felt complicated before is now automated and consistent.
Content creation has its own systems. I usually find when people are getting burnt out from making content it’s because they don’t have a strong enough system that supports the work, and instead makes it feel hard - and like something they’d rather not do. I spent time working on my content pillars, created some templates to maintain brand cohesion while allowing for flexibility and every week I create drafts ready to post so I don’t have to think about it, I just press publish. I track engagement to understand what resonates and feed the highest-performing posts into paid campaigns.
Even my email newsletter is systematised now. Instead of sending frequent updates without a clear focus, I now send a single, focused email every couple of weeks, highlighting one product or idea in depth. This allows readers to engage meaningfully and this supports other channels like Instagram and my website. Repurposing content across platforms also increases reach and reduces duplicate effort.
It’s a big GaryV thing from years ago, where he would start with the largest / longest form of content and he would then cut it up into snack sized pieces and serve those pieces to different platforms. It sounds easy in theory but I will be the first to admit that it does take a surprisingly long time to integrate it. This adaptation you’re reading right now is from the Front Row Voice Notes Podcast of the same topic. I understand that people are busy (even if they want to hear from me!) so I take that podcast and I turn it into this written version. This achieves a few things; 1. it means that I’m really only working on one piece of content with minimal double handling - I’ve already spoken about this so it’s easy for me to take my transcript (which Substack automatically generates?! That’s so freaking cool!) and I write this post based on that. 2. for the people who can’t or simply don’t want to listen because they don’t have time or they’d just rather … not, that’s fine by me, but they might be interested in the content in a different format. So Monday’s is podcast release and Friday’s is the written follow up. From there, I can take this post and apply it to my website for SEO reasons, and I can also take pull quotes from here and use them for carousel posts or on Threads.
At this point maybe you are noticing something kind of cool. All of these systems are interconnected, they are not siloed. Quality content systems let you see which content pillars are performing, this then allows you to put ad spend behind the right ones, which feeds into the website systems on who is clicking where and where from, which dovetails into shipping and fulfilment systems. It’s admittedly tricky to understand where each systems begins and ends and therefore it’s hard to figure out exactly where you should start. Once you start anywhere you will notice a pull to start systemising other parts and spaces, so don’t let this idea stop you in your tracks. This work isn’t very linear and will require some time, attention and back and forth until the path becomes more clear.
So how do I know my systems are working? I measure the success of these systems in a few ways: decreased stress and decision fatigue, smooth execution, replicability, engagement metrics, and tangible outcomes like increased sales. Since implementing these processes, I’ve seen improvements in workflow clarity, content consistency, and even sales! Hell yeah!
Systems aren’t about rigidity, they’re about creating predictable pathways so that creative and operational work can flow without unnecessary friction. They require front-loaded effort, but once they’re in place, they free up time, energy, and mental space to focus on the work that matters.
I invite you to consider where in your life there is stressful chaos, and can you design a system that helps you?
Loved this, great piece.