Systems, Who Needs ‘Em?

It’s kind of funny to me that I am now known as the “systems guy” at the office. This is not my natural inclination. Trust me, if you saw my closet at home – and that would be just a little creepy – you would not consider me the “systems guy” either.

It’s just a mis-mash of clothes. Some on hangers. Some on the floor. Some in a pile on the shelves with absolutely no sense of sorting or folding. And that is perfectly fine with me. Until…I’m looking for that sweet, Ed Hardy t-shirt that I feel like has another summer season in it. Then it’s a 2 hour session filled with bowling words and clothes tossing, until I finally remember that it had a rip and Jenny made me throw it away.

If only I had a good clothes system, I could save a lot of time and pain every new season. Luckily, I have worked hard to develop systems in other parts of my life to help me and the initiatives that I lead be more productive. Andy Stanley says that systems create behaviors. The systems that leaders create will drive the organization more than the missions statement.

I am going to dive into some of the systems that I use in more depth next week, but here are a few of the tools that help keep me on track:

- Spiraled notebooks. I still write it with a pen first.
- Evernote. It organizes everything digital for me.
- Google Docs. Great for collaborating.
- Dropbox. Can’t imagine not having it.
- CalenGoo. iPhone calendar app.
- Square app. For credit card transactions and inventory.
- WordPress app. iPad blogging app.
- Google Reader. For reading blogs.
- Angry Birds. For sanity.

What are some of your tools to keep you on track?