Systems of Efficiency

Welcome back, friends. Hopefully you enjoyed the previous task of creating a couple different lists that break down your current lifestyle and start to map out the road ahead. These will come in handy in a moment, but for now, set them aside and let’s focus on the most crucial step to this whole equation…YOU!

The human element to systematic frameworks can help us understand the efficiency frontier of daily planning. There is a threshold by which even the most efficient systems lose their power because we have taken away the need to simply exist. We each have unique personality traits/rhythms of existence that can play a make or break role in how we approach our daily lives.

I was just talking to my daughter about this principle this morning as we discussed why she tends to sleep in later than her brother and miss out on special time with Mommy in the mornings. I explained that some of our bodies require more, or different, rest than others. She (and I) require a LOT of concurrent sleep to function well. Her little brother on the other hand, does not. He functions best in little spurts. He is always the first to wake up well before the sun, and the first to crash at nap time or fall asleep on a five minute car ride. She and I could sleep until 10am every day if you let us, and despite her young age, she loves to stay up late chitchatting away. All of us are wired differently, and we would be remiss not to take that into account when setting up the systems in our lives. One size does NOT fit all.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a morning bird or a night owl, we all need a space to shut off our brains and not actually think about the systems running in the background. Maybe we start by scheduling in this time, or maybe you are so in tune with yourself already that you can feel when you need to take a break.

I like to think of this as the space to expand/contract. Some days you just need an extra cup of coffee than usual to get going, others you find your productively level is higher than expected, and then there are the days where you may need to cross off some items and just breathe. Let’s take some time now to be introspective about what we already know about ourselves and the space we need to maximize our efficiency without dropping over the cliff of the frontier.

So tell me, what is your typical “sweet spot”?

Do you find that you work best in the mornings? Are you a night owl? Do you enjoy having your “me time” before the kids wake up or while they are at school? Do you find that you work best by cranking away at your to-do list for three days straight and then taking a whole day off or are you content working for 3-4 hours a day and then doing something fun? Do you find that you go absolutely crazy if you don’t have uninterrupted conversation with your girlfriends at least once a week or do you prefer to take a daily walk around the neighborhood to ponder your thoughts alone?

Building these human elements into the systems of efficiency that we create for you will help avoid burnout, or perhaps more vividly, the assumption that you’re a robot who doesn’t have any needs themselves.

YOU matter. YOU are a human being. YOU can do anything you set your beautiful mind to. So let’s make sure we aren’t running against the natural wind of our bodies and nourishing our minds with the space it needs to breathe.

Until next time,

Olivia