How process can improve your capacity

I have a morning checklist for each day of the week. It lists items that need to be packed and remembered each day for my kid. It includes the basics, like the lunch sack. It also includes the day specific items such as library books on Wednesday and swim bag on Thursday. The daily morning routine involves double checking that list to ensure I have everything I need pulled together for the day. 

After seven plus months of school, you would think I had mastered the weekly schedule and would not need to check a list to confirm I have the right things packed. I do check it. I use it to confirm I am on track for the morning. I use it to avoid the list of things my kid needs taking up space in my brain. 

My simple morning checklist improves my capacity.

We all have limited capacity each day. That capacity is divided between professional and personal activities. Take into consideration any heightened emotions and/or decision fatigue and your capacity to move things forward reduces. When evaluating your limited hours available to work, capacity gets divided further across multiple functions and client commitments. Determining the quota of time to be spent in the different areas of your role requires you maximize your capacity, spending more time on higher impact activities and streamlining anything possible. 

That is where process can help. 

Process is following a repeatable set of steps to achieve an end point. Identifying and documenting processes in your business can improve your capacity in three ways:

1. Streamline activities – Knowing the steps that need to be taken and what needs to happen before and after each step reduces the time you spend figuring out what needs to be done. Jumping in, getting the task done quickly reduces the time you are spending on the task. You may also find steps that can be eliminated, streamlining your process even further. 

2. Delegate/hand off activities – Creating a process allows you to evaluate what tasks can be handed off to another team member. Not only will you know what does not need to be done by you/your role, you will be able to efficiently train someone on the necessary steps.

3. Reduce mental load – When a process is in place, you can clear your brain of all the nagging reminders and attempts not to forget that take up space in your brain. You can confidently tell yourself that you do not need to worry about what needs to happen next, and those nagging thoughts of steps to take can stop living in your brain rent free.

There are many processes that likely exist in your business already. Many may be floating in your head. Perhaps team members have their own processes, also in their heads. All those processes require time and energy to coordinate and execute, reducing capacity to focus on high impact work and/or move work forward. 

Documenting your processes, creating formalized checklists, coordinating with your team on who owns different steps of a process may seem like a lot of work when what you are doing is fine. The key thing to ask yourself is whether “fine” is good enough when you also have a lengthy list of projects or client work you would take on if you had more capacity.

Simple processes can have a significant impact on your business. Spend a couple of hours mapping out your processes and you may find you free up multiple hours each week from a reduced mental load. While my morning checklist does not free up multiple hours per week, it frees up space for me to be more creative when planning my client work first thing in the morning. And better planned client work is definitely more valuable than spending time trying to remember what I need to put in the soccer bag on Wednesdays.