I bought some Microsoft software online today. But when the order arrived, there was no button to download it. Just instructions that said, “Download your software.” Thirty minutes of clicking, searching, and FAQing later, I finally sent a note to the help desk—they’re getting back to me “within 2 business days.” In the meantime, they have my money, but I have no software.
My IQ doesn’t break the bank, but I can’t be the lone user to struggle with this. How many people have to write the help desk before they fix the problem and just make it easier?
Whether you’re running a business, a school, a counseling office, or a high school French Club, you can make a noticeable impact if you regularly just ask, “How could we make this easier next time?” Maybe it becomes easier for you. Maybe it becomes easier for the next guy. But either way, making it easier creates more room to actually do a better job.
Before I left for college in 1989, I wrote up a guideline for my younger brother that told him everything I’d wished someone had told me about applying to college. In less than an hour of typing time, I shared everything I learned through four years of successes and mistakes. I didn’t need it—I was done applying to college. But I thought it might make things easier for him (it must have worked a little, because three years later, he got into Harvard).
If you planned your junior prom, or your baseball team’s car wash fundraiser, or last summer's training workouts for the cross country team, what could you do to make it easier on the next person? Why not take 30 minutes and write down a list of everything you learned, what worked, and what you would do differently next time? That 30 minutes of work will have years of lasting impact. And imagine how much better each of those events will be in the future.
If you’re a counselor and you're routinely asked the same 5-6 questions from students or less experienced colleagues, how could you make it easier on them and you? Every time an employee asked entrepreneur Derek Sivers a question he’d heard repeatedly, he developed a system to make sure that everyone knew the answer in the future.
If you’re a college tour guide and more than a dozen families have arrived late to your tours because they couldn’t find the parking lot, why not make things easier? Write your own directions. Create your own map. Then give them to the appropriate office, explain why you made them, and ask if they’ll give your new-and-improved guide a try.
And here’s a key distinction—more direction is better than more directions. Don’t give me a longer manual to read, or more complex instructions to weed through. That doesn’t make it easier. Instead, give me more direction. Say things like, “You’ll need three forms in front of you to do this next step—here’s exactly where to get them before you start.”
Want to develop a great reputation? Be the person who finds a way to make things easier for everyone else. Teams, offices, organizations and colleges love having those people around.