Most of us go to work with one goal in mind: get things done. But what if you could complete today’s tasks in a way that makes tomorrow’s work easier, faster, and even unnecessary?
This isn’t about making more work for yourself now. It’s not about putting off today’s tasks in search of some perfect system. It’s about doing what needs to be done right now, but in a way that makes it easier next time. Small, practical improvements that add up over time.
Think of it as two levels of action: Remedy and Reimagine. The remedy is solving the immediate problem. The reimagination is tweaking the process so you – or anyone else – doesn’t have to keep solving the same problem over and over.
Let’s say you’re asked to pull a report. You could extract the data (remedy), or you could set up a simple template that makes it faster next time (reimagine). If you fix a bug in a system, you could just patch it (remedy), or you could also improve how similar issues are tracked and flagged early (reimagine). If you keep answering the same client question every month, you could type out the response again (remedy), or you could create a short FAQ that saves you both time (reimagine).
This isn’t about reinventing the wheel with every task. It’s about making small, repeatable improvements. Over time, these tiny tweaks compound into real efficiency.
And here’s where it gets interesting: working this way doesn’t just make your job easier – it also lays the groundwork for AI and automation. The more structured and repeatable your work becomes, the easier it is to hand over routine tasks to machines. As someone who has created a mountain of repeatable, predictable processes, I have been able to get the outstanding results out of AI. The briefs are solid, robust, consistent and I can also share examples of tens of version of the output for the AI to train on. Done well, this won’t replace me (or you) – it frees me up to focus on bigger problems, to get stuff done quicker and better.
So next time you tackle a task, ask yourself: Am I just solving this once, or making sure I never have to solve it again? The smartest teams and businesses aren’t just working harder – they’re working in a way that builds momentum.
Help your future self. It’s a small habit that makes a compounding difference.
