Thread by @rroudt

To do less, leverage your knowledge.

We grow attached to the processes in our work, but they often prevent us from doing the work that matters.

Free up mental space by defining, refining, automating and delegating your processes.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my essay in the thread.

Everybody wants to do more in less time. But how often do you think about just doing less? Instead of working your ass off, you could leverage what you know.

Your work process is a piece of valuable knowledge. By doing your job for years, your recurring tasks have become second nature. You do them automatically, without thinking—and that's where it goes wrong.

When you get attached to your tasks, you start to believe you're the only person able to do them. You become your process, and it's difficult to say goodbye. But if you truly want to become more productive, you have to leverage your knowledge and step away. But how?

Use @nateliason's Personal Leverage loop to 10x your productivity:

• Define and refine your processes.
• Automate whatever you can.
• Delegate what you can't automate.

With you out of the picture, the process can become better and move beyond you.
nateliason.com/blog/personal-…

First, you should define and refine your process. Write down the individual steps of what you do often, and find what's unnecessary or can be combined with another step.

When writing down the parts of your process, keep in mind that someone else—or your future self—needs to be able to understand it. Provide context and be explicit about what's important. Take out the guesswork.

Once your process is crystal clear, you should see what parts you can automate. By automating the grunt work, you save time and money. It's important you have refined your process before automating it, otherwise you run the risk of introducing unnecessary complexities.

Whatever you can't automate you should delegate. Now that you're left with the parts that require human insight or creativity, look for someone who you can teach the system. Show the other person the basics, but then let them free to improve the process.