Operations isn’t just for systems and spreadsheets—it’s also the stuff of everyday life. From how we manage our time to how we make small decisions that smooth out the week, it’s all connected.
This monthly series, Ops in Everyday, highlights the tiny process tweaks and small shifts that help things run more easily—whether at work, at home, or somewhere in between. These aren’t big, dramatic changes. They’re the kind of wins that make you think, “Oh… that actually worked better.”
Here are two from my own life this April:
Friday Takeout = Saturday Sanity
We had a quick weekend trip planned with both kids. Friday was packed—literally. Between getting our bags ready, wrapping up work and school, and doing our usual weekend house-prep (because we’d be coming home late Sunday and heading straight into a new week), things felt tight.
Instead of trying to squeeze more into less time, we just adjusted how we got it all done. We still needed to eat, but we didn’t need to cook or clean.
So we ordered takeout Friday night—and made sure it was enough to double as lunch before we hit the road on Saturday. That one small shift meant:
- Less mess, less clean-up
- No scrambling to run the dishwasher before leaving
- No extra stop for food once we were packed up and moving
It gave us more breathing room and less stress—and it helped us roll into the next week without feeling behind.
Whiteboard Wins: Close the Loop, Don’t Erase It
We keep a dry erase board on our fridge where we jot down reminders, questions, or updates about school or family life. Recently, my husband wrote “order yearbook?” on it—a task that doesn’t exactly fit neatly into one person’s “lane.”
I’d already taken care of it, and my first instinct was to erase the message. But instead, I wrote back: “Yes, ordered.” That gave him the chance to erase the note once he saw the update—closing the loop without needing a conversation or follow-up.
Such a small detail, but it made a big difference. It’s an easy way to stay in sync without things slipping through the cracks—or one person wondering if something got done weeks later. This is an easy way to avoid getting eight yearbooks, or worse, none. Thank me later.
Want more tiny-but-powerful wins like these?
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Missed last month’s edition? April is our first month of this new series, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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