From UNICEF Business Analyst to Chaotic Solopreneur: How I'm Finally Fixing My Own Workflow
With a boring (but useful) SOP
In a former life, I worked as a business analyst for UNICEF in Thailand and Nepal.
Part of my job was to fly to different country offices across Asia and help them document their workflows after the organization had rolled out out a new system.
Picture me: laptop open, holding meetings with dozens of staff, interviewing people one on one to dig into what the really did, mapping it all out, and translating that into SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).
It'd often be a week of meetings followed by a week or two finalizing the SOPs.
And if I'm being honest?
I knew most of them would never be used.
They'd live on a shared drive, maybe get skimmed once.
And slowly drift into irrelevance, gathering digital dust like abandoned exercise equipment.
So when I left that world and started building my own business, I didn't think much about making SOPs for myself.
I knew they were important, but I kept away.
My first venture was a hotel, and I convinced myself SOPs wouldn't help yet while we were still in the planning and building stages. (Spoiler alert: they absolutely would have.)
Then I went solo as a freelancer.
No team, no department—just me doing things my way.
SOPs felt like overkill.
But now I'm creating content and building something real—albeit a one-dude operation. And keeping track of all that "stuff" has become a special kind of hell.
Because when I sit down to write my How I AI newsletter, I end up:
Hunting for that GPT I built (Wait, did I move it to Poe?)
Trying to remember the workflow I used last week
Frantically searching for links I swear I saved somewhere
Clicking between Notion (where my old notes live), Capacities (where my new notes should be), Beehiiv (where I publish), and back again
None of it's hard.
But holy crap, does it add up.
And more importantly: it gets in the way of starting.
It's that friction that makes me think, "Maybe I'll just check Substack Notes first" (and we all know how that ends).
So I finally did what I've done for all those UNICEF offices but never for myself:
I made an SOP.
But I made it different.
I made it simple.
Not a bloated document that would make me want to cry.
Not a click-heavy template I'd abandon after two uses.
Just a single page with the steps I actually go through, the tools I use, and the links I always need but somehow can't find when I need them.
Now, when I open Capacities, there it is—one click away.
And it's already making the work feel lighter.
Like I removed a small but irritating rock from my shoe.
I'll probably tweak it over time.
That's fine.
It's not meant to be permanent
It's meant to be useful.
Here's what it looks like if you want to copy and use for yourself:
SOP NAME
Last updated: [Date]
🎯 Goal
What is the purpose of this process?
⏳ Time Goal
Total Time Budget:
🧰 Tools Needed
⏱ Frequency
How often is this process repeated?
✅ Step-by-Step Process
x
📋 Final Checklist
x
💡 Notes & Tips
If you're a solopreneur juggling too many tabs, too many tools, too many ideas, this might help.
Not because you need to over-complicate.
But because your brain deserves better than spending its energy remembering where you put that dumb template again.
And you deserve a workflow that doesn't make you want to throw your laptop out the window.
Plus bonus points: if you ever decide to bring on help, you'll already have the playbook ready to go.