A Week for Ceilings
Lots of Tacklebox founders have built internal systems.
They’ve got SOPs for things they do repetitively, maybe PARA or something similar in Notion, etc. A few even have virtual assistants.
I love this, and building systems to get rid of repetitive tasks is helpful. But, it comes with two caveats:
1
If you get good at something, it happens more.
If you get really good at responding to emails, through a system or an admin, guess what? You get way more emails and you end up needing a better system. If the goal is “get lots of emails,” great. But if not…
2
Automating “Floor Tasks” sometimes comes at the expense of “Ceiling Tasks”
If you build systems for the repetitive, annoying, predictable stuff — like email, social media posts, etc. you’ll get good at doing that and look for more opportunities to do it. This usually comes at the expense of the harder (and more important) type of systems — the ones for Ceiling Tasks.
I think of most things you do as an entrepreneur as either Floor or Ceiling Tasks. Floor Tasks solve problems that make it less likely horrible things will happen. Ceiling Tasks make it more likely incredible things will happen.
Humans naturally spend way more time on Floor Tasks. I believe this is generally not a great way to live, but it’s catastrophic for entrepreneurs. We need the asymmetric stuff to survive. We need to hit on a few of low probability, massive upside bets to be successful. We don’t have the resources to survive without those.
So, you need to make sure you build systems for Ceiling Tasks, too.
And the way to think about that is scale. Opportunities are a numbers game. You go after 100 things with a 1% chance of changing your life and you’ll be in good shape.
For example, if you’re trying to start an expert network and you want to send 15 cold emails that are all personalized to experts, how can you make that 150 emails while keeping the same thoughtfulness and personalized approach?
Systems for thinking up, and executing on, Ceiling Tasks is critical.
So, how can you build systems for your ceiling?
Schedule time to think about and identify Ceiling Tasks: What activities have the potential to dramatically improve your business or life?
Scale thoughtfully and aggressively: How can you massively increase volume without sacrificing quality? What tools or resources can help?
Review and adjust: Regularly assess your systems to ensure they're serving your long-term goals, not just short-term efficiency.
Efficiency is a goal, but it’s not the only goal. Startups need to benefit from asymmetric opportunities to be successful — so, build systems to make it more likely you get them.