Everyday productivity
Map a simple process
You will have a one-page map of a single process, built from a real example.
Before you start
- One task you repeat, such as the one you chose in “Choose a useful task to improve”
- A notes app, a document or a piece of paper
- No paid tool or account is needed
Why map a process at all
Most of what we do on repeat lives in our heads. That works until we are busy, away or handing the task to someone else. A map gets the steps out of your head and onto a page where you can spot what is missing.
A map is not a flowchart tool or a diagram. It is five short headings and a few lines under each. You can draw it later if you like.
Start from one real example
Open the last time you did the task: the email thread, the document or the booking. Mapping from a real case keeps you honest about what actually happens, rather than what you wish happened.
Write a title for the process as a verb phrase, such as “Send a quote after a site visit”.
Fill in the five headings
Copy these headings onto your page and answer each one in a line or two.
- Trigger: what tells you the task needs doing?
- Inputs: what do you need in front of you before you can start?
- Actions: what do you do, in order?
- Decisions: where do you choose between two paths, and what decides it?
- Output: what exists at the end, and who gets it?
Write actions as short verb phrases. “Check calendar” is better than “I usually look at my calendar to see what is free”.
Mark the decisions and the exceptions
Decisions are where processes quietly go wrong. Next to each decision, write the question and the two answers. Then add one line for what happens when something is missing or late.
If [question], then [action A]. Otherwise [action B]. If [thing] is missing, [what I do instead].
Worked example
Sam runs a small garden maintenance business. This is a made-up example. Here is the map for “Send a quote after a site visit”.
- Trigger: a site visit finishes.
- Inputs: photos from the visit, my notes, the price list.
- Actions: list the jobs, price each job, add travel, write the email, read it once, send.
- Decisions: if the job is over a day, add a deposit line. Otherwise leave it out.
- Output: a quote email to the customer, copied into the customer folder.
Writing it down showed Sam that nothing in the process said when to follow up. That gap became a new final action.
Read it back and fix the gaps
Read your map as if you had never done the task. Where would you get stuck? Fix those lines. If the map runs past about eight actions, group related ones under a single heading.
Keep the map somewhere you will find it. The workflow linked below turns it into a routine and tests it on a second example.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Mapping what should happen instead of what really happened last time
- Writing long sentences instead of short verb phrases
- Leaving out the decisions, so the map only works on easy cases
- Mapping a whole job when you only need one repeated task
- Skipping the read-back, so gaps stay hidden
Final checklist
- I started from one real example
- I filled in trigger, inputs, actions, decisions and output
- I marked at least one decision and one exception
- I read the map as if I were new to the task
- I saved the map where I can find it again