Practice Exercise: Make a Tooth-Brushing SOP!

Want some practice building SOPs but don’t know what to make one for?

(And you already thought about some of the list-building tasks you’ve been doing and didn’t have ideas?)

Then might as well make one for something simple like brushing your teeth. (Perhaps deceptively simple)

✨ Optional Practice Exercise: Create a Tooth Brushing SOP

For this exercise, you’ll be designing a simple SOP for brushing your teeth. The goal here is to practice developing a detailed, actionable SOP that covers a familiar process. You’ll refine and test this SOP yourself to ensure it’s usable and accurate. Then, we’ll have you reflect on your process to identify areas for improvement.

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Instructions

1. Set up a Notion Page for Your Tooth Brushing SOP
   • Create a new page in Notion called “Tooth Brushing SOP.” Feel free to swipe my Boilerplate Notion SOP Template as a starting point.
   • Include sections for each major step of the process, from preparation to finishing up.
2. Define Your Audience and Outcome
   • Audience: Define if this SOP is for you, a child, a novice tooth-brusher, etc. (This will influence how detailed you need to be.)
   • Outcome: Write a short statement about what a “successfully brushed” result looks like (e.g., “teeth cleaned thoroughly for 2 minutes using circular motions”).
3. Outline the High-Level Steps
   • Draft an outline of major steps (e.g., “Prepare toothbrush,” “Apply toothpaste,” “Brush for 2 minutes”).
   • Add enough detail to ensure you won’t skip any crucial parts (e.g., “Apply pea-sized amount of toothpaste”).
4. Add Sub-Steps for Clarity
   • Break down each step with sub-steps, as needed, to clarify specific actions.
   • Consider including details like brushing technique, motions, time spent on each area, etc.
5. Include Quality Checks
   • Add checkpoints to confirm you’ve completed each step correctly.
   • Examples: “Did I brush all surfaces of each tooth?” “Was each quadrant of the mouth brushed for 30 seconds?”
6. Test the SOP
   • Follow your SOP exactly as written, step by step, to see if it’s possible to brush your teeth as intended.
   • Do not add any actions outside the SOP—if something is missing, note it down.
7. Refine and Re-Test
   • Adjust your SOP to fix any gaps you found during testing.
   • Run through the revised SOP again, following it exactly, until it’s foolproof and you achieve the intended outcome every time.
8. Reflect and Self-Evaluate
   • When you finish, use the following self-evaluation to check if your SOP meets quality standards:
     • Did the SOP enable you to brush your teeth thoroughly and correctly?
     • Did you find any missing steps or unclear instructions?
     • Would someone else be able to follow your SOP successfully with no added context?
     • Rating Scale (1-5): Rate how clear, detailed, and reliable your SOP is based on your testing experience.

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Moving Forward

Once you’ve completed this exercise, mark it as complete and feel free to revisit it to further refine your SOP skills. In future lessons, you’ll be creating SOPs for more complex processes, so this is your chance to build a foundation in SOP precision and detail.