This is my new favorite thing for time management and organization.

If you work in business, you've probably heard of SOPs — Standard Operating Procedures. It sounds very official, but really, an SOP is just a guide to how you do something.

Step one: Do this.

Step two: Do that.

Step three: Blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea.

Well, I recently discovered that you can use AI to help you write SOPs, and it is a HUGE time saver.

Now, you might not be a huge fan of AI. And that's okay. But this is one place where you might want to give it a try — a test run, as it were.

And SOPs aren't just for big companies.

You can use them at the company where you work, where you're the employee.

You can use them for your side hustle, where suddenly you're the employee, employer, founder, CEO, marketing department and probably the person taking out the trash.

And you can use them at home, where you're the boss.

Or at least you think you're the boss.

If you have kids, they probably have a different opinion.

Go into your favorite AI tool — ChatGPT, Claude, or one of the million others out there — and simply tell it what you want to create.

For example:

"Help me write an SOP for my monthly bank reconciliation."

Or:

"Help me write an SOP for writing and publishing my blog every two weeks."

Or even:

"Help me create an SOP for keeping the house clean, including what we should do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on."

You don't even have to know how to write an SOP yourself. Start by telling the AI what you currently do, even if it's completely disorganized.

Basically, give it a brain dump.

And if you've been hanging around Time Matters for a while, you know I'm a big fan of a good brain dump.

Then let AI help turn that mess of information into an actual step-by-step system you can follow.

How many things do we do over and over again without ever writing down how we do them?

Every month.

Every week.

Sometimes every single day.

We waste time trying to remember the steps, looking for the same information again, or — my personal favorite — wondering, "What did I do last time?"

An SOP gets all of that information out of your head and puts it somewhere you can actually use it.

And once you create it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time.

That's the part I love.

Because good time management isn't always about doing things faster.

Sometimes it's about making sure you only have to figure something out once.

Think about one thing you do over and over again.

Maybe it's paying the bills.

Maybe it's getting everyone out the door in the morning.

Maybe it's grocery shopping, cleaning the house, closing out the books at work, posting to social media, or getting your newsletter out every two weeks.

Pick just one.

Now open your favorite AI tool and try this:

"Help me create a simple SOP for ____________. Ask me questions about how I currently do it, then turn my answers into an easy step-by-step checklist."

That's it.

You don't need to know anything about writing SOPs. You don't need a fancy system. And you definitely don't need to spend three hours organizing your life before you can start organizing your life.

Just start with one thing that you do repeatedly.

Because once you have a system for it, you don't have to keep figuring it out.

• Your morning or evening routine
• Paying monthly bills
• Grocery shopping and meal planning
• Cleaning the house each week
• Writing and publishing a blog post
• Posting to Pinterest or Instagram
• Sending your newsletter
• Monthly bookkeeping
• Preparing for a meeting
• Packing for a trip

And here's the best part: once you've created an SOP, it isn't carved in stone.

Try it. Change it. Add to it. Delete the parts that don't work.

Eventually, you end up with a system that works for you.

And around here, that's what we're looking for.

Not perfect organization.

Not complicated productivity systems.

Just simple ways to make life a little easier and give ourselves some time back.

Now I'm off to see if I can create an SOP that teaches Monarch to feed himself.

I'm not optimistic. 🐈‍⬛

Once you have your SOPs written, you need a place to actually use them. A good planner or productivity notebook keeps your systems visible and in front of you every day — not buried in an app you forget to open.

Browse all my favorite productivity tools at mcdtimesolutions.com/tools — including the planners and organizers I use to keep my own systems running.

I made a simple Turn Anything Into an SOP With AI worksheet to help you get started.

Brain dump what you're doing now, use the included AI prompt, and turn it into a simple step-by-step system you can use again and again.

Grab the free worksheet here →