What everybody ought to know, about backlog systems ought to know about backlog systems, this is going to be an ongoing challenge for some time, as we've previously discussed, you have to work harder to catch up that even if you get back to one-time speed exactly as you were before the backlog, then you'll never clear the backlog.
And this came up today in an interesting way.
One of my team members is like, Hey, this is not a system.
What we've got is a list of all of the posts that I've done.
And the lack of text on our blog is like, hey, why don't we go back and add the text to all of these blog videos so that, hey, people want to read the text, they want to watch the video at the same time, Google search engine, and like, great idea, looks better, looks more effective.
And it builds their content.
Now, I'm sure that Google has AI transcription of the videos, but they're like, Hey, you, you managed to add text to all of your videos, that's a good thing.
Now, this is not a mission-critical step.
This is not something that's urgent.
But it is a useful clearing of a backlog.
And I'm like, hey when you don't have anything else to do, let's build out this.
He's got 183 of them.
And so what the project board looked like was 183, blog posts, all linked to their correct blog in the backend, and then completed underneath.
And their idea is to drag them down, He came to me said, Hey, Tom, not a system.
Not a system.
I'm like, really, really? I'm okay, that this actually is a system.
And why do I say that? Well, because these steps have to be taken each time that backlog of one is cleared.
It's like, okay, we're going to log in to the backend, we're going to get the copy the transcript of the video, we may edit that video, check for spelling errors, all that sort of stuff.
When we're happy that's effective, then paste that into the backend.
And click Save.
Then finally, test the preview.
Did it work? Does it look good? Repeat.
In fact, before we repeat, drag that one down to the next one that is completed, drag it out of to-do into complete.
Now move to the next one, repeat those same steps, repeat those same steps.
This is a system, it just fell into the typical trap of the number one belief that it is not a system.
And number two, not documenting any of the procedures.
Now, you might say, Hey, this is cool.
This is pretty minor.
We don't need to document the procedures for this.
And I'm going to be great, relatively simple.
Hey, here's where you find the transcript.
Here's how you log into the backend.
Done deal.
Pretty easy.
But as you go along with more complicated systems or complicated backlogs, you may benefit substantially from documenting the procedures, particularly in one particular case.
And that is, hey, I want to throw some more resources at clearing this backlog.
You see, when one person is doing that system, they know what they're doing.
They're hopefully doing pretty similar.
Not ideal.
It's not perfect, can't guarantee perfection.
But they most likely doing pretty similar over and over.
But as soon as you bring in a second person, now you're into Chinese whispers now like the first person tells the second person what to do, rather than shares the instructions.
Can you see the risks here? And it all might be fine.
It might be fine on a simple task like this of adding text to a page.
Fine.
But as you get into more complicated systems, more complicated deliveries, then you'll risk go up.
What about if the first person gets sick, and they're like, we don't even know how to do this at all.
We'll just do our best.
Okay, well, we'll kind of reverse engineering.
Okay, we can see what it looks like at the final one.
And we can see what it looks like it started let's build it in reverse engineering and you can do that.
Just know that it will not be as quick as if it was just done at the beginning.
It's like okay, hey, this is what we're going to do.
This will be important in terms of clearing backlogs.
You want to make the effort to actually define the work of clearing the backlogs and then you can bring more people in 234 Your project management system will cope with this.
Perhaps you have the to-do list of all of the ones that need to be done.
And then you have the names of the three people working on it, and they drag one down into the one that they're working on so that you don't end up with conflicts.
And that might be an added step.
As you add more people in you have to add that step and say drag the one you're working on to your name, or assign yourself to it.
If you've got that option, which you probably do if any of the more Excel-based off style one’s Monday Asana click up, just click your name, and then they will know that you that it's taken that you're looking after that.
And when it's done, drag it down, mark it done.
This should be a documented step.
Why? Because it eliminates confusion.
Perhaps you had not even thought to have a who's assigned to this.
And you're like, Okay, well, we'll just assume that people will know which one they're working on.
This is not true, particularly if you've got remote locations.
If you've got people in multiple locations that are not in an office space, they need to know from the project management system who's working on work.
And as soon as they mark in and great, if not that one's taken.
I'll take the next one.
And when you've got documented procedures, and you've got clarity on who's doing what, then you can clear the backlog quickly and effectively.
That's all I got for you today.
I hope you are having an awesome day.
I hope your mind is opening up to the power of systems to actually get your work done effectively.
We are going to need to know how to clear backlogs we have an extensive worldwide backlog, post-COVID.
And the ability to clear these we'll give businesses a massive advantage.
If you know how to clear a backlog and you're now up.
5x speed compared to everyone else still struggling with the backlog.
This will open up a massive strategic advantage for you.
You want some help with that then head over to systemio.dev.
I look forward to seeing you on tomorrow's episode as we continue this journey into the power of systems to create results.
I'll see you then.
