With our system clearly mapped out we’re probably going to notice that there are some inefficiencies. So, our job now is to start refactoring the system.
Refactoring is basically the process of changing a system to improve efficiencies without changing the quality of the output. For us, this means looking at our mapped system and deciding if there’s any way we can make things happen quicker or more efficiently, while still continuing to pump out brilliant videos/blogs/podcasts/whatever.
In general there are 4 ways we can do this:
❌ Eliminate
It’s unlikely that everything we’re currently doing is strictly necessary to continue producing high quality creative content. If that’s the case, eliminate it.
The way we should think about this is by using the 80/20 rule (or the ‘pareto principle’): find the 20% of what we do that’s delivering 80% of our output/results, and focus our attention on that.
🧊 Remove Friction
Friction is any force or process that removes energy from a system over time. So, if we’ve got any friction in our system everything will slow down or we’ll have to continue putting in more energy/effort to keep it operating at the same speed. But, if we remove the friction, we’ll increase the system’s efficiency far more effectively.
⚙️ Automate
Automation refers to a system or process that can operate without our intervention. This is the pinnacle of efficiency, because it means stuff is getting done without us having to be there.
🤓 Delegate
Where possible, we should be hiring people to get them to do work for us so we can focus on the highest leverage work. Don’t worry about this too much for now as we’ll talk about all of this in depth in the OUTFLOW section.