If you know me even just a little bit, you probably know that I LOVE ClickUp. It is an extremely versatile and powerful system that can do a lot more than just project management. However, I recognize it can be quite overwhelming when you first get started because there is so much you can do with it.
So if you got started with Click Up and it just isn’t working for you, don’t give up just yet! Stick with me and I’ll go over some things you might be missing on your set up and how to fix it!
Your process mapping sucks!
Let’s start from the basics because this is essential. There’s a chance that you think you know what it takes to complete the processes within your business, but you are actually missing some key information. To set up a functional system that will really help you tackle the tasks that need to be completed every day in your business you need to have proper process mapping. This means that when you or someone in your team goes to work on something they know exactly all the steps and they have easy and fast access to all the information they need as well.
For example, if you skip steps or use jargon because you think it is obvious or implicit, that’s a problem. First, consistency is important; if it isn’t written down you might not do it exactly the same every time and there’s more room for error. Second, because your system isn’t ready for you to grow. If you are missing steps and using jargon, when you bring in new people into the team it is going to be much harder to train them and get them up and running.
Without a clear process not only will your ClickUp suck, but your team will suck too! There will be no consistency, things will get lost and communication issues will surely pop up. It might seem time-consuming and daunting, but properly mapping out your processes, recording them, and setting up a clear system is essential to organizing and growing your business.
Your processes are all in your head
When you first start a business It’s all fine and good to know how to do everything yourself but if what you do can’t be duplicated, you are destined to work under a glass ceiling that you created for yourself. If you can’t easily outsource some of what you do for your business your growth will always be stuck at your own capacity. Taking some time off? Forget it. Getting sick? You better not do that…
When someone needs to know how to do it, you will get frustrated at having to “waste time” explaining what is so painfully obvious to you. The lesson here is that if you take just a little extra time to record your process WHILE you are doing them, when someone comes to ask you can simply say “here you go, that’s the process”. Or better yet, if your team knows where to find the processes they don’t even need to ask you!
When you successfully complete the process from your memory, you do realize how many pieces of the process you don’t even consider because they come so easily to you. What is second nature to you now, probably wasn’t when you first learned it and likely won’t be to other team members either. When you start documenting your processes you will see how valuable it actually is.
Your processes are too vague
This is really important. Vague tasks produce vague results. When the steps are too big that is when mistakes happen. If you enter a task into ClickUp that takes a long time or multiple steps to do without breaking it down into smaller more manageable steps you will ignore it and it won’t get done.
For example, if you have a task called “Blog” and right next to it you have a task called “Call customer A about their delivery”. Your blog post isn’t going get done. Like ever. That’s just far too big and too vague of a task. You have to think about what you have to do in order to get started, and that’s enough to make you take way longer than you need or even completely ignore a task.
If you assign tasks to your team that aren’t clear, they will have to ask you far too many questions and you will wonder why you bothered to hire help. “What is the blog about?”, “Where are the references?”, “Oh, I need to make images too?”,” What do you mean by newsletter? That task didn’t say anything about a newsletter…”. Do you see where I am going with this?
Make your process map in minutes
It’s simple, but it requires your time. Now I might have set off half a dozen alerts in your head just by saying the word “time”, however, I can assure you that the time you spend now will spare your future self a lot of headaches and set you on the right path to succeed in your business.
I like mindmaps. ClickUp has mindmaps built right in so that you can easily build each of your processes out and then easily turn them into tasks.
Start with the big task. For example, a blog post.
Then start thinking about all the smaller things that you need to do in order to complete that process.
Now take those smaller ones and break them into even smaller tasks.
Use your process maps as the foundation
Once you have all the steps laid out NOW you can put them into ClickUp. It will be much clearer to you what are the steps necessary, what are the tasks and subtasks and how they relate to each other.
Assign each task and subtask to the appropriate person. And don’t forget the most important part… Every task needs a due date.
From this work now you can create templates, and automations to ensure that each process works the way YOU want it to and you will find that your team members are much more efficient and they don’t need your time nearly as much as they used to!
Do you need help to build your ClickUp system? We will take your processes and build out your templates, create your automations, and ensure that your business is ready to grow!
