The Most Ridiculous System I've Ever Built

I just came up with one of the most ridiculous, boring examples of a critical part to personal development. This morning as I was about to prepare my breakfast, a high-protein Kreatures Of Habit oatmeal, I noticed that the box was empty. I have plenty more, but they aren’t easily accessible. I store them in a cabinet tucked away behind some bigger bowls.

Originally I had the boxes of oatmeal in the front of the cabinet and the bowls behind it, but every time I needed the bowls (which was multiple times a week) I had to pull the oatmail boxes out to access them. It was an inconvenient process and I realized that if I flipped the way I organized things, bowls in front and boxes in back, that would be more efficient.

But… Only so long as I make another change. I make my oatmeal every day, and instead of opening the box every single time, I decided to pull the individual packets out and put them front and center and easily accessible. What that means is the only times I need to pull out the bowls to access the boxes in the back are when I need to restock packets that I store in the front.

What this did is it turned a daily problem of reorganizing my cabinets into a more coordinated, streamlined system. Every morning I can access my oatmeal easily because there are packets right there in the front… Any time I need a big bowl for my salad it’s right there in the front too. Only every 2 weeks or so do I need to go into the boxes of oatmeal packets in the back.

I share this because underlying everything we do is a system, and what gets output into our life is based on the quality of that system. The more thoughtful, organized, and designed a system is, the more efficiently it helps you generate a certain result.

And the thing about systems is that they take some time and thought upfront to be established. You need to invest now in order for them to produce for you later. But it doesn't need to be too difficult or elaborate - sometimes it can be as simple as looking at a problem, identifying the constraints, and brainstorming a different way of doing things that creates a much more sustainable result.

Let me tie it back to this example in my kitchen:

The problem was that I had to clear the cabinet to get to whatever is in back, which I needed access to often.

The constraint was that I had a tradeoff between making it easy to get into my box of oatmeal, and making it easy to pull out a bowl, and I couldn’t do both.

The new system is to have oatmeal available as packets, to move the bowls in front of the boxes, and every 2 weeks I replenish my access to packets by pulling out the bowls to access the box.

Ridiculous, I know. But insightful? I hope so!