Key Take-Aways

• Give your systems time to evolve.
• Return to the fundamentals before searching for something new.
• Every effective system is bespoke—built around your life, not someone else’s.
• Your systems don’t fail because they’re unfinished. They fail because you abandon them before they have time to improve.

If The Problem Still Occurs, The System Isn’t Working Right

I can move from one thing to another too quickly, without fully absorbing the lessons before moving on. Looking back, I’ve realized the problem usually isn’t that the system failed—it’s that I abandoned it before it had time to evolve.

For years I’ve proudly admitted that I have a sweet tooth or that I’m an emotional eater.
Snacking when I’m stuck on a problem, binging when things didn’t go my way.

I’ve managed my eating long enough to get abs and look good for a bathroom selfie or two.
But I usually lose that progress soon after because I never built a system that could maintain it once the goal was reached.

I’m addicted to the novelty of learning something new. Once I’ve started to understand a concept, I find something else that’s exciting and move on before the lessons have time to settle.

Every time I do that, I reset the learning process instead of refining what I’ve already built.

The problem is most humans aren’t perfect copy machines.
It takes time to know and understand and incorporate these lessons into your day.

If you’re starting down the path of incorporating systems into your life, then an understanding that you won’t perfect these over night.

You’re deconstructing and rebuilding the infrastructure of your daily life.

But every day you make little course corrections, you’ll inch closer and closer.

That’s what finally changed how I think about systems. They aren’t meant to be built once—they’re meant to be improved continuously.

Iterative and Incremental Development

Like a version’s first release ‘v1.00’, you’ll see what worked and didn’t, make updates then try again with ‘v1.01’, again and again until you get it.

“The Book of Charlie” written by David Von Drehle first introduced this concept to me.

Charlie practiced medicine during the Great Depression, when there wasn’t a rulebook for every situation—only principles, observation, and constant adjustment.

That mindset reminded me of both Kaizen and iterative development: small improvements, constant feedback, and another chance to do a little better tomorrow.

You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything. So you have to decide what’s important and worth spending your time on.

Thew fewer things you have on your plate, the more deeply you can focus on them, compounding your progress more effectively.

I’m working on cutting the unnecessary out of my own day so I can better focus on what’s actually important.

I talked more about that process in this YouTube video if you’re interested.

Fewer Things Better Means More Focus Time on What’s Important

Iterating on a system also means giving yourself enough time and attention to improve it. That’s difficult when your focus is scattered across twenty different priorities.

When I first started on my productivity journey I was stretching myself in 100 different directions working on everything all at once. Working on my professional skills, reading, social skills, learning about the world, whatever interested me.

Making minute progress everyday slowly understanding why.

With only 16 hours awake in the day, if you’re trying to cram 50 activities in everyday then it’s no wonder you’ll always feel busy but never like you’re making adequate progress.

“If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable” – Seneca

If everything is a priority then at the same time nothing is a priority.
So you’ll have to audit your daily activities and decide which will deserve your time and focus going forward.

Once you decide where you want your focus to go, then you can curate your systems to steer you towards making that your new daily default.

Systems Establishes New Defaults

Work on Your Systems and Your Goals Will Take Care of Themselves.

I’ve been wrestling with the Goals Vs System hierarchy in my head for quite a while.

I understand systems to an extent, but I haven’t done as much due diligence to incorporate them into my day as I probably could have.

I still see the same patterns repeating.
That’s frustrating, but it’s also feedback. It tells me the system still needs work—not that I need an entirely new one.

But instead of moving to the newest concept, I’m pumping the brakes and taking this slow.

Sitting with the biggest problems until I’ve got this figured out, instead of moving on as soon as I get the slightest bit bored.

This is why this is the third of however many necessary weekly posts it takes until I’ve established systems in my day and have taken care of my biggest recurring issues.

Building new defaults is a bigger challenge the older you are, the more set in your ways, the more gradual work you’ll have to do to rewire your brain.

“Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.” (Clear, Atomic Habits)

I’m in the middle of reworking my defaults. This time I’m resisting the urge to throw everything out and start over. Instead, I’m making small adjustments and giving the system time to evolve.

Maybe that’s the lesson I’ve been missing all along.

How about you? Do you have any defaults you want to rewire? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

Citations

Clear, James. “Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead.” Atomic Habits. https://jamesclear.com/goals-systems