0:03 How is someone meant to balance working
0:06 full-time with constantly learning and
0:09 upskilling while getting enough sleep
0:11 while exercising and taking care of your
0:12 health and then spending time with your
0:14 loved ones and then having free time for
0:18 hobbies? Is that even possible? Yes, it
0:22 is. But only if you think in systems.
0:24 I've spent over a decade coaching
0:26 thousands of professionals to learn
0:28 efficiently and succeed in their careers
0:32 while having enough time and freedom to
0:35 live life. And in my experience,
0:38 thinking in systems is the secret to
0:41 regaining control and freedom so that
0:43 you're not stuck on that hamster wheel
0:46 of constantly feeling busy while at the
0:48 same time not making progress on the
0:49 things that you really care about. So,
0:51 in this video, I'll explain what
0:53 thinking in systems actually means, and
0:55 I'll share with you some simple ways to
0:57 build systems for your own goals
0:59 utilizing the same principles I use when
1:02 I'm coaching clients. So, what does
1:04 thinking in systems
1:13 The point of thinking in systems is that
1:15 you reduce your reliance on thinking in
1:18 terms of willpower
1:21 and motivation. The aim is to reduce
1:24 your dependency on these two things. And
1:27 instead what we do is that we build processes
1:33 that automatically help us to achieve
1:34 the types of results that we're looking
1:36 for. And once you find the processes
1:39 that actually work, you then chain these
1:42 processes together and now you've got a
1:44 system. Most people don't think in
1:47 systems. Most people are operating in
1:49 terms of intentions and tasks. So
1:52 thinking I need to exercise today or I
1:53 need to get more sleep or I need to
1:55 finish that course. But when you're
1:57 busy, it is difficult to turn these
1:59 intentions into reality. Now if you're
2:01 more proactive, you go from these intentions
2:07 And then you turn these intentions into plans.
2:08 plans.
2:11 So for example, it's not just I need to
2:14 read more. It's I'm going to spend an
2:16 hour every evening to dedicate to
2:18 reading. And it's not just I need to
2:20 exercise more. It's okay when I get home
2:22 from work, I'm going to use that time to
2:23 exercise every day. Okay, I've made a
2:25 plan. But what happens if you're too
2:27 tired? What happens if something comes
2:29 up? What happens on day three of your
2:31 plan and then you realize you haven't
2:32 even started yet? At this point, you
2:35 just feel frustrated and disappointed in
2:36 yourself because yet again, your plans
2:38 haven't come to fruition. So, let's look
2:40 at this same problem through the lens of
2:43 thinking in systems. And there are three
2:45 principles that I want you to keep in
2:47 mind whenever you're thinking in
2:48 systems, which will help you to build a
2:50 system for your own goals. The first
2:52 principle when we're thinking in systems
2:59 You look at your intention and then you
3:01 think about all the factors that would
3:04 influence the success of that goal and
3:07 that intention. So you are proactively
3:09 expecting that plan to fail. You're
3:12 expecting to be tired and lazy and for
3:15 things to come up and you're asking
3:18 yourself what can I do about that? And
3:20 so when I'm coaching someone to build
3:22 their own systems, one of the first
3:23 things I'll do is I will ask them about
3:25 all the things they've tried in the past
3:27 and then why that didn't work for them.
3:29 And I'm paying close attention to what
3:32 they did, but also how they responded to
3:33 that obstacle or that challenge. It's
3:35 important that you do this step because
3:38 you need this list of all the possible
3:40 barriers because there's a high chance
3:42 that the system you end up creating is
3:43 going to have to account for all of
3:44 these factors. And this is actually
3:46 directly tied to the second principle,
3:48 which is that you should build your
3:56 You do not want to develop a system of
3:59 doing something that relies on like all
4:02 the stars aligning. You want it to work
4:04 on the worst day. And so if you think
4:06 about your intention and then the plans
4:08 that you have made, you can evaluate
4:10 these plans in terms of how repeatable
4:14 they are on a bad day and ask yourself,
4:17 does it rely on willpower or motivation
4:20 for me to execute on this plan? And for
4:21 the overwhelming majority of the clients
4:23 that I work with, most of the plans that
4:26 are created usually require you to
4:28 inject motivation and willpower to make
4:30 it happen. And that is a violation of
4:32 the second principle which is to build
4:34 for repeatability. You want to make sure
4:37 that there is as little friction as
4:39 possible. And so what happens when we
4:40 work with these two principles and then
4:42 think in systems is that you actually
4:44 end up sort of cycling back and forth
4:47 between these two principles. You figure
4:50 out something that is high effort that
4:52 means that you know you're going to rely
4:53 on this willpower. And then you think
4:56 about ways to avoid that. What are ways
4:58 that I can make it easier? And then you
5:00 go back and ask yourself, okay, well,
5:01 what are the challenges? What are the
5:03 obstacles? What are the other factors
5:05 that might make that plan not work? So,
5:07 for example, there's this accountant
5:08 that I was working with last year who
5:09 was studying for their chartered
5:10 accountancy exams, which is a pretty
5:12 dense exam, and they're working
5:14 full-time as well. And their plan to
5:16 begin with was that they were going to
5:18 do a bit of studying for their CA exams
5:20 every day after work as soon as they got
5:23 home. Now, this plan failed like all the
5:26 time because there's too much traffic
5:27 and sometimes he gets too tired on his
5:29 drive home and then he gets home and
5:31 there's family and he has to, you know,
5:33 prepare dinner and then after dinner
5:34 he's like too tired and too sleepy. He
5:36 just wants to relax. And so, one
5:38 solution to that, which is the common
5:40 one, is to say, okay, well, you just
5:42 need to like dig deep and then try
5:44 harder. You know, forget it if you're
5:45 tired. You know, who cares if you're
5:48 tired? Just do it anyway. And yes, that
5:50 can work for a period of time, but
5:51 personally, I don't believe that that is
5:53 sustainable. And it's also kind of like
5:55 a not a pleasant way to live every day.
5:57 So instead, when we think in systems
5:58 holistically and for repeatability, we
6:00 look at that problem and we say, "Okay,
6:03 sure. What can we do about that? Perhaps
6:06 we can uh stay at work for longer after
6:08 work." And then you you beat the
6:09 traffic, you do the work and the study
6:11 that you need to do in your office and
6:13 then you come home after that. So that's
6:15 us trying to reduce the amount of
6:18 effort, tackle some of these barriers
6:19 that come up in terms of feeling too
6:22 tired, not enough energy. And so we go
6:23 back here and think, okay, well, what
6:25 are the reasons why that might not work?
6:27 So in this case, it's if I come home
6:29 that late, then my entire family has to
6:31 push back their dinner time. Could that
6:33 work? Could you have a conversation with
6:34 your family and maybe they're all fine
6:36 with it? Maybe they can just push back
6:38 dinner by an hour and it's no big deal
6:40 and then we've won. So that was one
6:41 option. And we explored another option.
6:43 Okay, could we just study another time
6:44 of the day? Could you study before work
6:47 in the morning? The issue is, well, then
6:48 I'm not going to get enough sleep. Okay,
6:50 so could you sleep earlier to get enough
6:51 sleep? Well, I can't because in the
6:52 evening, whatever. Okay, could you
6:55 change your nighttime routine to make
6:56 that happen? So, you see, we're
6:58 constantly bouncing back and forth
7:00 between looking for that loweffort
7:02 solution and then going back to think
7:04 about all the reasons why it might not
7:06 work until we arrive at this combination
7:09 that allows us to lock in that success.
7:10 And what's really important with this
7:12 process is that you have to think about
7:15 it as a series of problems to solve.
7:18 Just because your first solution isn't
7:19 perfect doesn't mean that there is no
7:23 solution. There is some combination of
7:26 solutions that will work. Your role when
7:28 you're thinking in systems is to look
7:30 for that combination until you figure it
7:32 out. And this is a process that I
7:35 personally repeated hundreds of times,
7:37 which eventually is what allowed me to
7:40 work full-time as a doctor while running
7:43 a business full-time uh and then doing
7:46 my masters full-time while going to the
7:48 gym and having a social life and
7:50 spending time with my family and getting
7:51 8 to nine hours of sleep every night.
7:53 And often one of the biggest things I do
7:55 now when I'm coaching someone is that I
7:59 simply am more committed to looking for
8:01 that solution for longer than they
8:03 normally might. And a lot of the time
8:05 the solution we come to from this
8:07 thinking process involves a certain
8:10 level of discomfort.
8:12 But this is actually fine. In fact, this
8:14 is a good thing. The fact that a
8:17 solution feels uncomfortable means it's
8:19 different than what we're used to doing.
8:22 and getting a different result to what
8:23 we're used to getting is actually the
8:25 whole point of thinking in systems. And
8:27 what I found is that the discomfort of
8:30 making the change and acting on the
8:32 solution is often not as bad as the
8:35 discomfort of not making the change. Or
8:37 it may be uncomfortable to change your
8:39 nighttime routine so that you can sleep
8:41 one or two hours earlier. Yes, that's
8:44 uncomfortable. Sure. But it's not
8:46 uncomfortable versus comfortable. It's
8:48 uncomfortable versus even more
8:50 uncomfortable because if you don't make
8:52 those changes, you have to live with the
8:54 stress and the pressure and the anxiety
8:56 and the disappointment of never being
8:57 able to make meaningful progress on
8:59 these things that matter to you. Now, as
9:02 you do this process and you go back and
9:04 forth between these two principles, you
9:06 will find that your intentions and your
9:08 plans become much clearer and much more
9:10 specific. Your plans are not just
9:12 general statements about the fact that
9:13 you're going to do something at a
9:15 certain time. It covers contingencies.
9:17 If I'm tired, I'm going to do this. If
9:18 I'm not tired, I'm going to do this. You
9:21 will learn so much about yourself and
9:23 how you respond to different challenges
9:25 that you will also learn how you can
9:28 make it easier for yourself to just do
9:30 the things that you need to do. The way
9:32 you follow your plans and create habits
9:34 and achieve your goals becomes much more
9:38 fluid and dynamic, adapting to the
9:40 unexpected challenges of life rather
9:42 than having this rigid approach which
9:44 constantly butts up against it and the
9:46 only thing holding it up is your
9:50 unwavering willpower which will waver.
9:52 Now, this is something that I've been
9:53 doing for years, and I've been helping
9:55 people to build their own systems for
9:57 years as well, and I've picked up a lot
9:59 of little tips and tricks that make it
10:02 easier to build systems for certain
10:04 goals and overcome certain obstacles.
10:05 Now, some of these things I share on
10:07 YouTube, but another place that I share
10:09 them is in my free weekly newsletter.
10:11 These are emails, newsletters that I
10:15 write up with my fingers myself. You not
10:17 chat GPT generated uh where I think
10:20 about what are the things that I wish I
10:21 had known when I was first building my
10:23 systems and learning to learn
10:24 effectively and manage my time more
10:26 effectively. What are the biggest needle
10:28 movers that allowed me to learn
10:31 effectively and advance my career while
10:33 maintaining that balance in life? And I
10:35 summarize those in these emails and I
10:37 send them to you for free every single
10:38 week. So, if you're interested in
10:39 getting some of those insights, then
10:41 I'll leave a link for you to sign up in
10:42 the description below. Now, on to the
10:45 final principle. At this point, if
10:48 you're just doing the first two, you
10:50 will succeed. Each iteration of your
10:52 plan and your system will just get
10:53 better and better until you just don't
10:55 have any obstacles left. But this final
10:57 principle is what will allow that system
11:00 to stay with you and evolve for life.
11:02 And it makes it much easier to just
11:05 maintain this system. And so I call this
11:08 peeling the band-aid. So peel the band-aids.
11:11 band-aids.
11:13 Your first system that you build from
11:16 this process is going to be full of
11:17 band-aids. So for example, let's say
11:20 that a problem you have uh with carrying
11:21 out your plan is that you always feel
11:25 too tired and you struggle to focus. So
11:27 the first solution might be to take a
11:30 nap during the day and to use a timer
11:31 when you're working to try to increase
11:34 your focus. These are band-aid solutions
11:35 because they help you right now in the
11:37 short term without addressing the
11:38 underlying issue. The reason you're
11:39 tired is because you're not getting
11:42 enough sleep. The reason that you can't
11:44 focus is because your attention span is
11:46 terrible. And the reason we want to
11:48 remove band-aid solutions even though
11:51 they can serve us in the short term is
11:53 because it just overbloatates our
11:56 system. And if possible, we want to
11:59 remove the limitations and conditions
12:01 for us to succeed. You know what? If you
12:03 don't have time for a nap, what if you
12:04 don't have a timer available for you?
12:06 Well, in that case, your just plan just
12:08 fails for that day. So, while these
12:11 band-aid solutions do give us a benefit
12:14 right now, they should be a temporary
12:16 solution while we work on solving the
12:19 underlying problems. And often uh
12:21 working on these underlying issues
12:28 which means because it involves
12:30 unlearning and retraining your habits,
12:33 it's going to take time. And so the very
12:37 act of changing your habits so that you
12:39 can one day remove these band-aid
12:42 solutions should actually be part of
12:45 your system. And so this changing habits
12:47 actually ends up becoming another
12:49 intention and then we plug that into our
12:52 system. So for example, yes, we might
12:54 have figured out that taking a nap and
12:56 using a timer is helpful for us right
12:59 now. We can use that. But then at the
13:02 same time, we think about how we can
13:05 improve our sleep habits and how we can
13:08 train our attention span. That becomes
13:10 our new goal. And then we go through to
13:14 these first two steps again to work that
13:17 into our system. And by doing this, it
13:19 means that the system we create ends up
13:21 being effective for us not only in the
13:23 short term but also in the long term. So
13:25 these are the three principles for
13:27 thinking in systems. And it may seem
13:30 like a lot of work and a lot of thinking
13:32 and you know all very complicated to
13:34 create this system. But the crucial
13:37 thing you have to understand is that it
13:40 is the exact same amount of effort. It's
13:44 the same amount or less discomfort. All
13:45 we're saying is that there is a
13:48 different way that you can direct that
13:50 time and effort which is much more
13:54 likely to help you achieve your goal and
13:56 finally feel like you have a bit more
13:58 time and freedom in your life. Now, if
13:59 you're a busy professional with lots to
14:02 learn and the time spent learning is
14:03 sucking away that time and freedom from
14:05 your life, then you might want to check
14:07 out this video where I teach you how to
14:10 create a learning system so that you can
14:13 develop deep, meaningful knowledge for
