One common thread among all the really successful and productive people I know is they have a "systems mindset."

As soon as they do the same thing more than a few times, and that thing is not $1,000 per hour work, they start to think about ways to automate or systematize or delegate it so they can focus on something else.

Sometimes this manifests in small ways: I type in my email all the time, so I set up a hotkey in TextExpander to type my email in 3 characters instead of 20.

And it often manifests in big ways: Hiring is the classic example. Assuming you have the revenue to support it, you should hire someone else to do anything they could do 80% as well as you.

One big difference I see in systems mindset awareness is whether or not someone has a salary. Subsisting entirely on a salary puts you in a Fixed Money Mindset. You only get $X per year, so anything that detracts from that which you could do yourself is bad.

People who make money on their own tend to intuitively get the systems mindset better because they know that if they can free up some hours that are going to $10 work, they'll have more time for $100 work.

But if more time doesn't equal more money, there's less incentive to think this way.

That doesn't mean everyone should be an entrepreneur and start a business. But everyone should learn how to make money on their own. That could be freelancing, flipping collectibles on Ebay, doing handiwork, whatever calls you.

Knowing that if you had to, you could scrape out a few grand a month on your own is a massive psychological safety net, and will help you develop the systems mindset.

But how else can you practice the systems mindset? Start by finding one small thing in your life you do on a repeated basis and don't need to do.

If you want any inspiration, check out Zapier's "Automation Inspiration" catalog. They have one of the best tools for automating parts of your life. https://zapier.com/learn/automate-apps-examples/

And get in the habit of asking yourself if a person or tool could do what you're doing 80% as well as you.