52. SOPs and Workflows: How to Create and Use Them to Improve Productivity

Episode 52

In this episode of Learn and Work Smarter, we’re exploring SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and workflows. We dive into what they are, why they’re important, and how to use them to your advantage.

Whether you’re a student hoping to simplify your study habits or a professional striving for greater efficiency, these tools can help you save time, lower stress, and achieve reliable results every day.

Join me as we break down actionable strategies for creating SOPs and workflows that make managing school and work easier than ever.

🎙️Other Episodes Mentioned

Episode 31: How to Take Notes at Meetings
Episode 46: How to Be Professional

✅Enroll in SchoolHabits University (Curious? Check it out!)

• Get the transcription

  The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉

  
  52 SOPs and Workflows: How to Create and Use Them to Improve Productivity

  ===

  [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the learn and work smarter podcast. This is episode 52, which mathematically speaking means that we have been doing this for 52 weeks or a year. But the one year anniversary, the official one year anniversary of this podcast is technically January 4th. So we are super close to that milestone. 

  Very exciting. If you missed my announcement last week, I let everyone know that starting in January, I'll be adding interview episodes each month. 

  Going forward. I will be interviewing industry experts on all of the topics we talk about here on the show so that you can hear some varying voices and perspectives, which is always good. Now at first glance today's episode might seem like it's more appropriate for working professionals. Workflows SOP. These are words often thrown around in the professional space and not in the student space. 

  And yes, this episode is definitely for my [00:01:00] professional listeners. You're all professional listeners. You know what I mean? But I assure you, this is also a valuable episode for students. 

  And I would like to encourage students to start thinking about and using these systems too. I wish that I had known about some of these things when I was a student. And so I am sharing with you what I wish someone had shared with me. 

  So, of course, if you are a student listening to this right now, get out your pen and paper to take some notes. 

  Or if you know of a student or working professional who is stressed, who's overwhelmed, who's disorganized, who feels like they are running out of time and always scattered on projects, please share this episode with them. The simple way to do that on most platforms is to hit that little arrow and either text or email, this link to someone you care about. All right. 

  So what are we talking about today? We are talking about two concepts that are often interchanged, but they are different. They work together, but they're different. And we'll talk about that. 

  These are two concepts [00:02:00] or tools really that have the potential to save you time in your work or school day, to reduce anxiety around projects and difficult tasks, and to significantly boost your school and work organization. 

  From the title, you can tell that we are talking about workflows and SOP. S O P stands for standard operating procedure. Okay. 

  Throughout this episode and I'm going to just keep saying SOP, but if this is something new to you, we're talking about standard operating procedure. 

  So here's the roadmap for today's episode. 

  First, we're going to talk about SOPs. So we're going to cover what they are when to use them and how to make them. Then we're going to move on to workflows. 

  These are different from SOPs, but they are related. We'll talk about what they are when to use them and how to make them. We have a lot to cover. So let's get started. 

  [00:03:00] Okay. So let's get this clear from the very beginning while an SOP focuses on a single task, a workflow connects multiple SOPs or tasks into a sequence to achieve a larger goal or work process. 

  We are going to go through... If you're in confused, stick with me, we are going to go through many examples today to make sure that you fully understand the distinction and how this could work for you. 

  But for a quick example, an SOP might guide you through how to format a lab report that single task formatting, a lab report, but a workflow would include all of the steps for conducting everything: the experiment, for analyzing [00:04:00] the data, then writing the report, the whole thing from start to finish. 

  Right. Let me paint a scenario that might feel familiar. I'm going to start with working professionals and then, um, I'll move to a scenario that students might find familiar. 

  Let's say you're at work and it's time to submit your TPS reports... A status report, whatever- a task that you only do once a month. You sit down, you open up your computer or your files and you realize that you are not entirely sure like where to start and you like, forgot how you've done it in the past. You can vaguely remember how you did it last month? So you start poking around you to start, you know, trying to piece it together, but then you're like, what spreadsheet do I need? 

  What data has to go in which column? You know, how do I format it? So it's easy for, you know, your boss to understand or whatever. You think, was I supposed to use the template from last month? Or am I supposed to start from scratch? You dig through your old emails, trying to find a previous example or instructions. And [00:05:00] even still you're second guessing yourself. By the time you finished, you are exhausted and you're not even confident that you did it right. And so much time was wasted. 

  Now imagine this. 

  Okay. You're a college student. And it's time to submit a lab report for your bio class, a task that you only have to do like a few times a semester. You sit down to work on it, but you can't remember the exact format that your teacher wants. You know, that there is a title page, some data tables and a conclusion. It is more than that, but that's all you remember. But was there a specific way to label your crafts? 

  Are you useless to use APA or MLA or Chicago formatting? Does your professor want the report submitted as a PDF or as a Google doc? 

  You spend half your time hunting through the syllabus, hunting through your emails, the portal, and your notes, trying to find the directions. 

  The clock is ticking. You are stressed. And instead [00:06:00] of focusing on writing the actual report, you are wasting your time getting stuck on the format. 

  In both scenarios in SOP or a standard operating procedure would have saved your bum. 

  If you had a checklist of exactly how to do the status report or exactly how to format the lab report, you could have avoided all of distress and wasted time. 

  A simple step-by-step outline from the last report you completed would have let you jump straight into the work with all of the, without all of the frustration. And the guesswork. All right. 

  So let's dive into SOP first because they are the foundation of efficiency. I'm making that argument. SOPs again, standard operating procedures are essentially a step-by-step instruction, okay, for completing a specific task. 

  And while that might sound formal or something that like only big companies use, they can be [00:07:00] incredibly helpful on a personal productivity level, too. 

  By having an SOP, you're not just saving time you're also freeing up all of the mental energy to focus on the actual work, rather than getting bogged down in the logistics and the how tos of how to even do the task. 

  So let's start with how SOP is work in the professional world. Let's say that you are part of a team and there is a task that everybody needs to complete the same way. Maybe like onboarding a client or preparing a report for an annual meeting. An SOP ensures consistency and accuracy across the board. 

  No one is guessing how the task is done. No one is skipping steps or, you know, doing it wrong. Because the process is laid out step-by-step crystal clear. 

  SOPs are also essential when training someone new. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. If an SOP exists you just hand [00:08:00] them the SOP and assuming they can follow directions, you know that the task is being handled. Now on a personal productivity level, you might create an SOP for tasks that are complex. Um, infrequent or critical to get right. Think of something like organizing your tax documents, right. 

  Or for students formatting a paper according to APA guidelines. These are not tasks that you do every day. And so it's easy to forget the details. 

  Having a pre-made checklist removes the guesswork and is always something that your future self will thank you for so much of what we talk about in the learn and work smarter podcast are things in systems and habits and strategies that we can implement. That might take a little time upfront to create into, put into practice. But our future self will always thank us for them. 

  All right, I'm going to give you an example in my own work where I use or have used SOPs. 

  Back in 2016, when I started my [00:09:00] SchoolHabits YouTube channel, I had no idea how to edit a video. 

  I had never edited or even filmed a video in my entire life. I bought Adobe promo, uh, premiere pro. That is like not a novice program, but okay. I watched every tutorial under the sun to figure out how to do it. And I figured it out as I went- with a steep learning curve. 

  If you have ever seen any of my early videos, you know, that my editing skills were total junk and they're not actually that much better. Today. No, but like w w honestly, whatever, but in those days I actually created SOP for how to do very basic things in premiere pro that were not basic to me. 

  For example, when it came time to export the video at the very end, right. There were so many different steps and settings and it was so overwhelming. I could never remember what those [00:10:00] settings were that I was supposed to follow from video to video. Cause honestly I would put out videos so infrequently that like a month would past. And every time I had to export, I would get stressed that I was doing it wrong. Um, and then I would try to find like the random YouTube video where I watched some guy do it. 

  Right. And I'm like, oh, he's at the video I watched. I seriously so stressful. In really inefficient. So one time. I'm such a genius. Listen, I did not invent this concept of SOP. Okay. I'm just talking about it here. One time when I was expec exporting a video, I wrote down all of the steps and all of the instructions and all of the settings that were required to just export the video, not to edit the video, not to upload it to YouTube, but just to export the file the right way. And from that point on, I never stressed about it again. 

  I never thought about it again. I just followed my checklist every time. 

  That is a classic example of an [00:11:00] SOP, a simple step-by-step. Uh, like how to checklist of how to do a single task, not the whole thing. That would be a workflow. And we're going to talk about that later. 

  So, how do we create an SOP? 

  Let's talk about that. First SOPs do not have to be fancy. In fact, they should not be fancy. 

  But, you know what, before I continue actually. I should say that if you are an employee in a company creating an SOP for training purposes or for your team or something like that, Your company may have an SOP template that they expect you to use. 

  Like, this is a thing, right? SOP templates that companies often create or, um, expect their employees to use tend to be a little bit more complex than what I'm talking about here, which is for our own personal use and personal productivity. 

  If you Google SOP template and you go to, you know, Google images, you're going to see what I mean. 

  There's usually some key sections, like who's the [00:12:00] owner of the SOP, what's the purpose, what's the scope, things like that. Company SLPs often include fields like owner of the SOP and scope and all that to clarify accountability and to ensure that tasks aren't missed or accidentally deleted or added by people who don't have the authority to edit the SOP. 

  And while this might seem excessive for personal use, knowing the logic behind that can help us adapt our process if you ever do have to be required to create an SOP for a team, or if you ever create an SOP yourself and you have a colleague who's struggling with the same thing, you might want to share your SOP with her. All right. 

  So SOPs are usually formatted into a list structure. I honestly suggest just using Google docs for this purpose or a word doc, where you list out a number of the steps of how to complete the task. 

  Okay. Nothing fancy. 

  You can write one in under 10 minutes. And in fact, if it takes you longer to create an SOP and you're like, well, I have like 20 steps and it's taking me three hours to make, then [00:13:00] that's not an SOP. It sounds like you're going for a workflow. And that's not what the... That's different and we'll get to that in part two. 

  Okay. So we always start with a clear title. 

  Okay. How to format a biology lab report s O P okay. Or maybe how to send a professional meeting. Follow-up email S O P I always always recommend putting the word SOP in the title of your document. 

  You will likely end up creating multiple SLPs over time. And whenever you need to find one, you can just go into Google drive or one drive and search for SOP and all your SLPs will pop up. So people pop up. Anyway, I just want my pop filter on my, uh, podcast mic, but I it's sitting in a box over there and I haven't even added it yet. Um, it's a bad episode to not have a pop filter. 

  Better yet you can create a digital folder inside Google drive or one drive. And you call it your SOP folder and you store everything in there. 

  And if you do [00:14:00] that, I'm still going to ask that you add SOP in the title of your document itself. And the document itself should begin with how to cause SOPs are how to all right. 

  Let's talk about what goes into the document. 

  So after we title our document, we're going to begin the document with a clear, this is important, starting point and end point. 

  Okay. And this goes right at the top of the document. So start, and then what's the starting criteria and end. Ending criteria. 

  So if you were indeed writing an SOP about how to send a professional. Meeting follow-up email, the starting point would be the meeting is concluded. Okay. And, and do you have notes or action items to share? 

  Okay, so that's the starting point. 

  And the end point is you sending an email to all relevant recipients. That goes right up at the top of the document. Start and end point. Very simple. 

  Next, we essentially just write a step by step process for completing whatever task. We're [00:15:00] writing the SOP for. This is important. An SOP I already said this but I'm going to say it again. And SOP should never be more than like 10 steps max. If an SOP is more than 10 steps, it's. It's likely, you know, you're probably combining multiple tasks that would be better suited as their own SOPs. And I'll talk about how we combine SOPs into workflows and in part two. 

  So let's carry this meeting follow-up email SOP example to the end here. We're just going to, we're going to go with this one. It might be a little hard to follow along, but it's not so much. That you understand, like all the steps of writing this email so much, it is for you to understand the gist of what an, an example SOP could look like. 

  Okay. 

  So step one. Open email platform and click on compose or click on new message. And you would write this SOP as you are actually in your email platform clicking on compose or new message. And depending on what email client you use, yours is going to say compose, or it's going to say new message, [00:16:00] or it's gonna be a plus sign, whatever it is, you write in your SOP, what your email provider says. 

  Okay. Cause this SOP is for you. Step two, you'd write the subject line, follow up from and then the meeting name. On meeting date. Okay. So that's what you would put in your SOP is a standard email subject line every time you write that kind of email. So it could be something like: follow up email from status meeting on December 4th. 

  Okay. So every time you go to write a status meeting email follow up, you're not like, oh, what do I put as my subject line? It's the same every time because you follow your SOP. What step are we on three step three, step three. You add the recipients. Add all the relevant attendees and stakeholders to the To or the CC fields. 

  And double-check for correct email us up addresses. If it's always the same people you're sending an email to, you can honestly just add those or like list out those email addresses in your [00:17:00] SOP for you to copy and paste. Every time you write this kind of email. All right. It's at four draft the body of the email. 

  And under that in bullet points, you might write out the following micro steps. Okay. You can have micro steps in your SOP, right? The greeting, something like, hi everyone. 

  Next, thank them for their time. During the meeting, you can just even write thank you for your time and participation at the meeting today. 

  And that can be something that you write inside your SOP, that you copy and paste into your email every time. 

  Okay. Next, um, summarize the key points discussed, uh, or maybe decisions made, list any action items that you guys talked about. Um, any tasks that were assigned next steps with deadlines, if there's deadlines. And then offer to clarify any questions that they may have. 

  So essentially the body of the email is a greeting, um, thanking them for their time and attention, a summary of the key points, list of action items. And offer to clarify any questions. 

  And that is the body structure of every email that you send out like this. 

  [00:18:00] And then step five. You may or may not have this one: attach any necessary files or documents. This might be where you upload the meeting notes, slides, whatever, double check that everything's, you know, properly attached to whatever. And then step six, proofread your email. Step seven. Send the email. 

  Now I know that some of you might be thinking. Uh, listening to this and thinking like, I know how to write an email, Katie. I don't need a checklist for how to do that. And sure. Fair enough. Okay. But if there is a particular kind of email that you send out on a semi-regular basis, it would be a professional move if you structure that email with the same subject line in the same sort of body template every time. We talk all about professionalism in episode 46, that is called how to be a professional. All right, it's a good one. 

  Um, this also makes your job so much easier because you don't have to think like, okay, How do I start this? 

  What's my subject line. What am I including here? How do I end it? Am I, am I. You know, including too much, [00:19:00] is it right? You just follow the steps in your checklist. And you're done. 

  Let's talk about a few Pro tips to make the SOP process a little bit easier. Um, one, if it's a digital task that you're doing, you can record yourself doing the task once. Just literally hit record on your screen or your phone, and then you can transcribe it into a step-by-step guide. 

  So the SOP includes the video and a written description. Um, loom LOOM and QuickTime are two programs that you can use to do a screen recording on your computer. 

  If you're doing it on your phone, you could just use this. Native screen recording function on your phone. You can even include screenshots or diagrams, if that makes things clearer and you don't need a video. 

  Um, another pro tip create the SOP while you're doing the task. This way, you're capturing the exact process in real time. 

  And you're seeing exactly where things are and what they're labeled. If you need to click on the green button in the top left hand corner, [00:20:00] you need to write in your SOP click on the green button in the top left-hand corner. 

  Another thing to remember, SOPs are living documents. They are not set in stone. And as you find better ways to do the task or, you know, the requirements change, we update the SOP. The mantra here is use and improve. And someday you might not even need the SOP anymore. As you master the task, it will become second nature. But until that happens, having a trustworthy and clear guide in place can save you time, reduce frustration, and it can make your work professional or academic so much easier. 

  Okay, let's talk about workflows. 

  Sometimes this is also called process mapping. So workflow or process map. All the same thing. This probably like a third name for two, but I'm calling it workflows. While SOP is or about step-by-step directions for a single task, workflows are about seeing, you know, how multiple tasks or [00:21:00] steps connect to create a larger process. 

  So think of a workflow as the big picture. And SOP is the individual puzzle pieces that make up that big picture. Workflows, this is a good way to think of it... I should've led with this, are kind of like flow tarps. All right. There are highly visual, uh, visual with graphical representations of different steps of particular processes. 

  There are actually universal shapes and symbols used in classic workflows. 

  You can Google that. It's a rectangle for steps, diamonds for decision like a little pill shape for start and stop, whatever you can Google that. But I am always the first to tell you that you can do whatever the heck you want. As long as it works for you. Just another heads up though. If you are a manager and you're creating workflows for your company or for your team, then you will probably be advised to, or should use these universal shapes and symbols. 

  But [00:22:00] if you are making a personalized workflow just for you for school or for work, And you're the only person using it you are free to design it however you want. All right. 

  So let's say that you are managing a project at work. That workflow might include gathering initial data, analyzing it presenting the results to, you know, um, uh, decision maker, maybe getting feedback from your team. Each of these steps might have its own SOP, but the workflow shows how all of the steps fit together in a sequence chronologically, so nothing gets missed and then you can track your progress along the way. 

  In school, a workflow might look like this. 

  Let's say that you're preparing for final exams. Your workflow could include figuring out what's on the test, gathering your materials, creating your flashcards, scheduling your study sessions into your calendar and taking practice tests. Right? Each of those tasks could actually have its own SOP, but the [00:23:00] workflow gives you the roadmap for how to tackle the entire process and the order of each step. 

  So let's use an example of writing an SOP for that status meeting follow up email. 

  Remember that that was like, A minute ago. That single SOP could be part of a larger workflow that involves everything required to plan, run, and conclude a successful meeting. 

  So just like an SOP, a workflow is going to have a clear start and end point. For the case of our meeting, the start point is, well, you know, meeting is scheduled. 

  Okay. The end point would be that all action items from the meeting are documented and tracked for completion. Okay. Clear start. Clear end point. 

  So step one of this you know, meeting workflow might be to prepare for the meeting. Okay. You might actually have an SOP for preparing for meetings that might include creating, uh, an agenda, things like that. [00:24:00] 

  Step two of the workflow- I want you picturing a flow chart, right? 

  So step flute, two of the workflow is to attend the meeting. This step might include taking notes during the meeting. I have a whole episode on how to take notes during meetings. That is episode 31. Whatever links I mentioned, you guys know it's like down in the show notes or whatever. Um, or if you're watching this on YouTube, it's in the description box, blah, blah, blah. The next step of this workflow would be to draft and send the followup email. 

  This is when you would refer to the SOP that you created about writing this email. Right? See how these things work together. 

  The next step. 1, 2, 3, 4, we are in 4, it might be to handle the action items that were assigned to you or that were created, generated whatever at the meeting. This might include adding tasks to your task management system. 

  It might mean scheduling time in your calendar to work on these tasks, things like that. And each of these steps would essentially look like a shape, usually a rectangle if you're using the, you know, universal [00:25:00] shape for workflows. Again, you can Google that. Remember, creating a workflow is kind of like creating a flow chart. 

  First, you do this and then you do this and then you do this and you do this, this, and in each of those steps, you may actually have to refer to individual SOPs. 

  Let me give you an example of a workflow for a typical student task. Let's talk about writing a research paper, which is something every college student is familiar with. 

  
  You would start by reviewing the assignment guidelines carefully. 

  Um, what's the topic? How long does the paper need to be? When is it due? That gives you a clear sense of the expectations, right? That is your starting point. That is step one. Next you'd move on to step two, which is probably brainstorming and selecting your topic, making sure it fits the assignment criteria. 

  And it's something that you can reasonably, you know, research and write about given in a given timeframe. That makes sense. 

  Step three would be the research phase. This is where you gather your sources, your books, your articles, your journals. Anything [00:26:00] credible that would help you build your argument or support your thesis. And as you're researching, remember, you're not just collecting information, but you're also organizing it. 

  
  You might create an outline, maybe a quick list of key points where they'll go in the paper. And then comes the drafting phase. 

  Step four, I think. If I messed up my counting don't judge me. Okay. But this is where you just put all of your thoughts on the page without worrying about it being perfect, because you can trust your workflow and you know that the next step will be to edit it. You have worked that into your workflow. To be honest, you may even have an SOP for the drafting phase. 

  
  Maybe you're a student who gets really flustered and overwhelmed with the writing process. And you often don't know how to start where to begin. Right. So you can create an SOP for how to write an intro paragraph. And then you can create an SOP for how to write a body paragraph, and then you can write an SOP for how to write a conclusion, paragraph. 

  But we do not create an SOP for the [00:27:00] entire research paper as a whole, because if you remember from part one of this episode in SOP is only for a single task. Okay, but in one step of a workflow like this drafting phase, we can have one or more SOPs to help us move to the next step of the workflow. 

  
  Okay. Once the draft is done, then we shift into the revision state. 

  
  Honestly, I forget what step we're on, but whatever. This is where you tighten your arguments, where you refine your sentences, where you check for clarity and flow. When you check for your grammar and you make sure that you followed all the formatting guidelines and citations in the correct font size, and you might have an SOP that helps you check for, you know, proper MLA or APA formatting. And then finally you submit the paper. Ah, But even after hitting submit, there is one last step in the workflow. 

  There is one last step in every workflow that you create. Reflecting on the process. What worked well? What could you improve for next time? Do you need to adjust anything? Was it clunky? Did it make sense? Was [00:28:00] it in the right order? If so, make those changes. 

  So the workflow starts with understanding the assignment. It flows through research and drafting and revision, and it wraps up with submission and reflection. 

  By breaking it down into these smaller steps, writing your research paper feels a lot less overwhelming and much more manageable. Now, honestly, creating workflows can be fun. It's not just me. Like I, when I work with my adult clients we'll often create workflows too and they kind of get excited. Well, it depends if you're like visual and artsy and creative or whatever, but some of my clients get excited about actually the tech and making the workflow or whatever, but some of them get excited at the idea of what it can do for them. Like, oh my gosh. 

  Every single time, like, I always forget how to do this thing. Now I have a how to do it thing that they made. 

  You can use tools like whiteboards, sticky notes, Canva, you can just draw it on paper. You can use PowerPoint to map out your workflow. You draw shapes for each step; you connect them with arrows and you make sure that the flow is clear in [00:29:00] logical. 

  Workflows are especially helpful with tasks involve dependencies. 

  This is where one thing can't be done before another thing is finished. Like if you're waiting on feedback or something. Seeing everything laid out visually helps you spot bottlenecks, um, prioritize tasks and make sure that everything gets done in the right order and systematically right across teams and across the company, or just for yourself. 

  And just like SOP is workflows aren't set in stone. They can evolve as you find better ways to work or as your responsibilities change. 

  Okay. So here's the takeaway. SOP is help us master the how of individual tasks and workflows help us master the why and the when by putting those tasks into a larger context in a particular order. 

  Together they are powerful tools for learning and working smarter, whether you are in a classroom, or an office. 

  If you are brand new to SOP and workflows, I [00:30:00] suggest you start with creating just one SOP to get the feel of it. Think of one task that you do on a regular basis that you sometimes fumble with. 

  Sometimes you forget what step is first, where to find the materials, you know, some detail that you always end up finding the answer to, but it takes you longer than it should. And it stresses you out more than you want to. That is a great place to start creating your first SOP. All right. 

  So once you have this single task in mind, Now, what I want you to do is open up a Google doc. And also at the same time, I want you to begin the task. And as you go through the task, I want you documenting each step. Be clear and specific enough that your future self looking back at your directions will know exactly what you are talking about. 

  
  Step by step, document yourself, going through the motions of the task. Give your document that proper title. It should begin with how to XYZ and then end with SOP. I mean, you could start with SOP and then how to, whatever it doesn't matter, [00:31:00] they should just be in the title. And then boom, your first SOP is created. 

  You're amazing. If you're feeling good about it and want to create another one, go ahead. Do that. That's awesome. Or you can just sit with your single SOP for a while and use it the next time you have to do that task and then tweak it if you need to. 

  I hope this episode was helpful. I hope it inspired you to think about the processes you do on a regular basis, and you get excited about finding ways to optimize your tasks with SOPs and workflows. 

  Thank you for your time. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your support. I will see you in the next episode. But until then, never stop learning.