Most of us set goals at the start of the year. Go to the gym. Save money. Spend more time with family.
And then life happens. Two weeks later, nothing has changed.
The problem is not that we are lazy. The problem is that we are depending on motivation and willpower every single day. That is exhausting. And it never works for long.
The people who actually make progress are not more disciplined than you. They just have better systems.
I watched Ali Abdaal's video on this topic and it genuinely hit me. So I wrote it all down for myself. Here it is.
So What Exactly Is a System?
A system is just a set of steps you follow every time to get a result.
Think about a doctor. When a patient comes in, the doctor does not make it up as they go. They follow a proper method. Ask these questions. Check these things. Run these tests. That is a system.
Same with pilots. Before every flight, there is a checklist. Even the most experienced pilot in the world still goes through it. Because when you follow a system, you do not rely on memory or mood.
Now imagine applying that same thinking to your daily life.
- Instead of deciding every morning what to eat, you have a weekly meal plan. (I incorporated this in my life using a nutritional consultant so i have a weekly meal plan)
- Instead of trying to find time to exercise, it is already blocked in your calendar. (I have a personal trainer with fixed time 4 days a week. This solved the workouts)
- Instead of hoping you will save money, your savings are automatically deducted the moment your salary comes in. (I have done this using automated SIP's)
That is what a system does. It removes the guesswork. You decide once and the system does the rest.
1. Have a System for Setting Goals
Most people do goal setting wrong.
They sit down once a year, write some vague things like "get fit" or "be more productive", and forget about it by February.
That is not a system. That is just wishful thinking.
A proper goal setting system forces you to slow down and actually think about what you want from your life. Not what your parents want. Not what society expects. What YOU actually want.
Here is a simple way to do it:
- Once a year, spend a couple of hours thinking about what kind of life you actually want. Write it down.
- Make a rough picture of where you want to be 3 years from now.
- Every 3 months, pick 2 or 3 specific things to focus on. Nothing more.
- Every week, spend 20 minutes reviewing how things are going and making small adjustments.
It sounds like a lot but it really is not. A couple of hours once a year. Thirty minutes every 3 months. Twenty minutes every week. That is all it takes to be intentional about your life instead of just reacting to whatever comes at you.
2. Have a System for Managing Your Time
We all have 168 hours in a week. Take out sleep, eating, and a full-time job and you are left with maybe 40 hours.
Now if you are spending 5 or 6 hours a day on your phone, those 40 hours disappear very quickly.
This is why you feel busy all the time but still feel like nothing is getting done.
The fix is not to work harder. The fix is to be more intentional about where your time goes.
Three things that actually help:
- Put the important things in your calendar first. Gym. Time with family. Creative work. Whatever matters to you. If it is not in the calendar, it will not happen.
- Decide what actually matters this week. You cannot do everything. Pick the most important things and do those first.
- Spend 20 minutes at the end of the week reviewing. Did you spend your time the way you wanted? If not, what needs to change next week?
Ali makes a good point here. He goes to the gym consistently because it is in the calendar. His runs are less consistent because they are not. It is that simple.
3. Have a System for Your Health
There is an old saying. A healthy person has a hundred wishes. A sick person has only one.
When your health is bad, nothing else works properly. Your work suffers. Your relationships suffer. Your mood suffers. So it makes sense to have a proper system for this instead of figuring it out every single day.
Sleep
- Fix a bedtime and a wake up time. Stick to it even on weekends.
- Keep your room cool. Around 19 degrees works well for most people.
- Get some sunlight in the morning. It helps your body know when to sleep and when to wake.
- Keep your phone out of the bedroom. Keep a book on the bedside table instead.
Food
- Plan your meals for the week. Assign simple themes to each day. Tuesday is rice and curry. Thursday is whatever the kids want.
- Cook in bulk on Sunday so you are not deciding every single day what to make.
The goal is to stop making 21 food decisions every week. Make them once and be done with it.
Exercise
- Decide what you will do and when you will do it. Then put it in the calendar.
- Try to get at least 10,000 steps a day. Walk during phone calls. Take the stairs.
You do not need a fancy gym or a personal trainer. You just need a decision and a calendar slot.
4. Have a System for Your Relationships
This one sounds strange at first. Why would you need a system for spending time with people you love?
Because life gets busy. Once you have a job, kids, and responsibilities, finding time to connect with people does not happen on its own anymore.
The people who have good relationships are not luckier. They are more intentional.
- Fix a weekly evening with your partner. Put it in the calendar and treat it like a work meeting you cannot cancel.
- Once a month, have an honest conversation with your partner about how things are going. Just make time for it.
- Book your family holidays at the start of the year before work fills everything up.
- Create a regular meetup with friends. Same time every week or month. Make it easy for people to show up.
- Put birthdays in your calendar with a reminder two weeks before. That gives you enough time to get a card or a small gift.
One of Ali's friends set up a weekly Saturday morning meetup at a local lake. Anyone could join. He did this every week for 4 years. That one small system helped him stay connected with old friends and make new ones without any extra effort.
Small consistent things done regularly beat grand gestures done occasionally every time.
5. Have a System for Your Money
Most people handle money like this. Salary comes in. Spend on whatever. Save whatever is left.
The problem is that nothing is usually left.
The people who actually save and build some financial security do it differently. They decide where the money goes before they even touch it.
The moment your salary comes in:
- A fixed amount goes to savings. Automatically.
- A fixed amount goes to investments. Automatically.
- A fixed amount covers your bills. Automatically.
- If you run your own business, set aside money for taxes. Automatically.
- Whatever is left is yours to spend freely without any guilt.
When you set this up once, you are not relying on yourself to make the right decision every month. You made the decision once and the system takes care of the rest.
We tend to make money decisions based on how we feel that day. Some days we are sensible. Other days we are not. Removing the decision completely is the only way to be consistently sensible about money.
My Takeaway from All This
The real insight from this video is not any one of these five systems. It is the thinking behind them.
Stop making decisions every day that you could make once and let run on its own.
Every time you have to decide whether to exercise today, you are fighting your own mood. Every time you decide what to eat in the moment, you are wasting energy. Every time you rely on motivation to save money, you are setting yourself up to fail.
Build the system once. Let the system do the work.
You will have more energy left for the things that actually need your full attention.