Stacking Success: Lessons from my Woodpile

Earlier this year, a giant Spruce tree at our vacation home died. And having no desire for it to fall on anything or anyone, my awesome brother-in-law saved the day and took care of it a couple of weeks ago. He even cut up the wood for campfires while he was at it 🪓🔥. Unfortunately, he ran out of time to move the wood to its final resting place for winter storage.

Fast forward to last week, I headed down there for a solo getaway while virtually attending Jordan Gill’s Make Your Mark Live™ conference. 🏡💻 And guess what I did after the conference wrapped up on day one?

Yep, I took on the challenge of stacking and cleaning up that pile of freshly cut wood.

Now, as you can see in the video above, I started out by schlepping 3-4 pieces of sticky, sappy wood uphill at a time. Oh, the smell of freshly cut wood - amazing right? 🌲 But after a few rounds of that, I realized my system-loving brain never really takes a break.

I knew there was a better way to leverage the tools available and stack that wood more efficiently. Soon after, I thought to myself “I guess my inner efficiency mind is always at work.”

Here’s what I had to work with: a wheelbarrow and a trusty 4x12ish board. First I laid down the board alongside the three pesky steps standing between the wood and the top of the driveway - a trick I’d learned from my dad and grandpa who ran a house-moving business.

Then, I loaded up the wheelbarrow with as much wood as it could handle (way more than my arms could manage), and I pushed it up the ramp, through the driveway, and right over to the wood pile.

Now, in the serene solitude of wood-stacking, it hit me - this whole process mirrors how we run our businesses more effectively. Check out these lessons from my wood-stacking adventure:

1. Start with the manual process - understand what’s needed

2. After some hands-on experience, identify the opportunity to use tools

3. Create a plan for tool implementation

4. Measure the improvement and make adjustments

5. Sure, you can stick with the manual way, but adopting the right tools can save time and effort

So, where’s your business in its wood-stacking journey? 🌲🪵🪓

Do you have someone who evaluates your processes and sees potential for efficiency gains?

If not, let’s chat and see how I can help you level up your game?

Ready to stack the odds in your favor?