Support Systems

Time, it’s never on our side is it? It either flies by, or it drags, we either need more, or we’re bored. With the joys of trying to run two YouTube channels, writing, still tweaking a website, and learning on top of a 40+ hrs per week job and family life, I definitely feel that time can be against me sometime.

That’s why I try to structure my time as efficiently and effectively as much as possible, and in general I think I’m pretty good it. I’ve developed a number of systems and habits to keep me working towards my small process goals.

But then something happens, and it all goes out of the window and we need to react and adapt. The last couple of days feel like that….

I did some filming on Friday only to find out that the autofocus had gone loopy and that was 30 minutes wasted. So today was my backup day, and things have got in the way once again. Was I angry, yes! Was my anger justified, to an extent yes. Did I over react, hell yes!

So, I’m having to adapt and overcome. I’m using my time now to be productive in other ways that are still a step in the right direction, but maybe not the way that I had thought.

Ali Abdaal talked about productive procrastination, in a way that when he was trying to delay a job rather than just aimlessly scrolling through instagram or similar, he used it as a time to consume other YouTube videos. This wasn’t a completely pointless use of his time, but it wasn’t always his main objective through the day.

That’s a really important lesson. There will be days when your plans don’t work out, but we need to roll with the punches, and make the most out of a bad situation.

When I was younger, I remember reading that Sir Clive Woodward had a number of systems that he employed with the England Rugby team. For instance, plan A was that they would arrive at the stadium for a match 2 hours before a game. This was their optimal solution and meant they could get through all fo their preparation in time.

But, they also had a number of other scenarios that meant they could react and overcome if they were an hour late or an hour early. This mean that they were never surprised and could still carry out meaningful preparations.

This is summed up brilliantly by the following:

You do not rise to the level of your goal, you fall to the level of your systems

Atomic Habits – James Clear

This is why it is so important to have a number of systems and tools in place, as they will be the support mechanisms in place when your well thought out plans collapse around you.

But what does this actually mean in the context of creating content?

When I look at planning my YouTube videos, I have a plan of what content I’m going to create and in what orders. This means that I’m always at least one or two videos ahead so I have a couple in reserve. When I started, I was filming, editing and posting on the same day, but I quickly realised that this wasn’t sustainable.

The same can be said for writing. I have a list of my next 10 or so articles, and can work ahead of time. However, I also have some flexibility in there, as this is not the article I was meant to be writing today! Take inspiration form your day.

I am a relative newcomer to Notion, but use it to plan video content, articles, website structure and content, and a myriad of other items. I know I’m not using it to it’s full extent, but in terms of project managing my life and content; it is brilliant!

Obviously, there is an element of being reactive when creating content, but you also can’t sniff at having some structure and plans in place. It doesn’t matter what system or tools you employ to work for you, as long as they are there.

We’ll touch on Notion in a but more detail in due course, but if you want to look now, I would definitely recommend checking out Thomas Frank, Ali Abdaal and Elizabeth Flips on YouTube.

So what systems and tools are you using to keep some structure to your life?