How to Build Systems to Actually Achieve Your Goals

The Problem With Motivation and Willpower

How is someone meant to balance working full-time

with constantly learning, upskilling, getting enough sleep, exercising,

taking care of their health, spending time with loved ones,

and having free time for hobbies?

It is possible, but only if you think in systems.

Thinking in systems is the secret to regaining control

and freedom so that you’re not stuck on a hamster wheel

of constantly feeling busy while failing to make progress

on the things you care about.

The point of thinking in systems is to reduce your reliance

on willpower and motivation.

Most people operate in terms of intentions and tasks

(e.g., “I need to exercise today” or “I need to get more sleep”).

Even proactive people who turn these intentions into plans

(e.g., “I will exercise every day after work”) eventually fail

when they get too tired, when something unexpected comes up,

or when they lose motivation.

When plans rely on you digging deep and trying harder,

they are not sustainable.

Instead of depending on willpower,

the goal is to build processes that automatically help you

achieve the results you are looking for.

Once you find processes that actually work,

you chain them together to create a reliable system.

Principle 1: Think Holistically

The first principle of building a system is to think about

your goals holistically.

You must look at your intention and consider all the factors

that would influence the success of that goal.

Proactively expect your plan to fail.

Expect to be tired, expect to be lazy, and expect things to come up.

Ask yourself, “What can I do about that?”

When building your own systems, look closely at everything

you’ve tried in the past and identify exactly why it didn’t work.

Pay attention not only to what happened

but to how you responded to the obstacles.

You need this list of possible barriers

because your system must account for all of these factors.

Principle 2: Build for Repeatability

You do not want to develop a system that relies on all the

stars aligning; you want a system that works on your worst day.

Evaluate your plans in terms of how repeatable they are on a bad day.

If a plan requires you to inject motivation

and willpower to make it happen,

it violates the principle of repeatability.

You want to make sure there is as little friction as possible.

When thinking in systems, you will constantly cycle back

and forth between thinking holistically and building for repeatability:

• Identify a plan that requires high effort and willpower.
• Find a way to make it easier and lower the friction.
• Ask yourself what new challenges or obstacles might make this new, easier plan fail.
• Adjust the plan to bypass those new obstacles.
• Repeat this process until you arrive at a combination of solutions that allows you to lock in success.

Your first solution doesn’t have to be perfect.

You must view this as a series of problems to solve.

There is a combination of solutions that will work,

and your role is to keep looking until you figure it out.

The Role of Discomfort

Often, the solution you arrive at involves a certain level of discomfort.

This is actually a good thing.

The fact that a solution feels uncomfortable simply means

it is different from what you are used to doing.

Getting a different result requires doing something differently.

The discomfort of making the change is often much less painful

than the long-term discomfort of never making meaningful progress

on the things that matter to you.

As you go back and forth between these two principles,

your plans will become much clearer and more specific.

They will cover contingencies

(e.g., “If I am tired, I will do this; if I am not tired, I will do that”).

Your approach will become fluid and dynamic,

adapting to the unexpected challenges of life rather than relying

on a rigid approach held up by wavering willpower.

Principle 3: Peel the Band-Aids

If you apply the first two principles,

each iteration of your system will get better

until you have no obstacles left.

However, the final principle is what allows the system to stay

with you and evolve for life.

The first system you build will likely be full of “band-aid” solutions.

For example, if you are always too tired to focus,

your first system might include taking a nap during the day

and using a timer to force focus.

These are band-aid solutions because they help you in the

short term without addressing the underlying issues—namely,

that you aren’t getting enough sleep at night

and your baseline attention span is terrible.

While band-aid solutions provide an immediate benefit,

they should be temporary.

If you leave them in place forever, your system becomes bloated

with limitations and conditions.

If you don’t have time for a nap or don’t have a timer,

your plan for the day fails.

You must work on solving the underlying problems,

which usually involve changing your core habits.

Unlearning and retraining habits takes time.

Therefore, the act of changing your habits so that

you can eventually remove the band-aid solutions should become

a new intention plugged directly into your system.

By addressing the root causes over time,

the system you create will be highly effective in both the short term

and the long term.