The 5s Method: an organizational way to the Peace of Mind
Paraphrasing the latin say "mens sana in corpore sano" (healthy mind in a healthy body), this is an exercise in "Essential Creativity in an Essential Workspace"
Ciao!
This is the story of a journey in search of a system to organize my workspace with the ultimate goal of improving my life too.
Minimalism, KonMari or Swedish Death Cleaning (this last is a bit frightening), I tried them all but, after a (short) while, I gave up. Those methods weren’t for me, while I didn’t get the boost I was expecting, what I felt was frustration.
The energy required to “follow the system” and keeping my work environment up to the standards consumed more energy than I normally need for doing the actual work.
As long as I’m creating and I’m comfortable with my working space… who cares? I use to say “I thrive in my Creative Mess” and I keep telling myself this story.
In reality, is not true at all. Particularly at work!
My office desk has to be a kind of “Sacred Space”. It must be:
The place where I can do what I do at my best
The place where I feel safe when the shit-storm hits hard
I decided to give it another try! I embraced the 5s’ Method and started with my desk at office.
Even if it looks a rather small and overly easy project, if I were to write the entire story as I would like, with all the reflections and researches i did, this newsletter would become a novel.
I'll stick to the essentials, avoiding lengthy explanations, but I'll include some links I found useful for further exploring the concepts.
What is 5s Method
From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Lean Thinking and Methods - 5S :
5S is a system to reduce waste and optimize productivity through maintaining an orderly workplace and using visual cues to achieve more consistent operational results.
Later on I learned that “visual” plays a big part in this method.
Looks super simple, right? Simple doesn’t not necessarily means “automagic” or immediate, though. After applying the method I can give you some suggestions.
As I said, I started with my desk. Here it is the before and after.
I took a deep breath and I started the journey!
Applying the Method
These are a few tips and tricks I learned along the way.
Step 1: Sort
This was the look of my desk at the end of each working day while working on the "Sort” step.
Here a few interesting points about this step:
I loved the feeling of cleanliness that the look of my desk made me feel arriving at office every day
In just a few days became natural to put on the desk only the items I needed for my work
I kept going with this Step for more than 2 weeks
Step 2: Set in order
This step was equally interesting and definitely intertwined with Step 3 (Shine), at least for how I conducted the experiment.
This is my desk configuration during the working day.
I was able to define the “Necessary Items Cluster” and… it was “okay”, meaning, good but not yet what I was looking for.
It was not “visually pleasing” enough. Let me use a big word and say, I was looking for “shibui”.
Step 3: Shine
In this step I realized that having the right cluster of tools is not enough, it definitely lacked that “visual” part that I highlighted above.
I’m not talking about mere embellishments, I am talking about knowing that everything is “right” at the first glance and, more important, immediately identifying the “deviations” just by looking.
Besides cleaning everything (btw: when is the last time you cleaned your keyboards, the screens or the power cords?), in this step I focused on identifying what makes me waste time (even if fractions of seconds) in finding where an item is, getting it or figuring out which item I need.
I found that knolling is tremendously helpful in this.
This is the final look of my desk during the day.
Step 4 and 5: Standardize and Sustain
Here is where this kind of projects fail, most of the time.
Again, it is indeed very simple and it needs just a little awareness and consistency.
Until this point, it took me 2 months. The process was fun and so enjoyable and I can truly say that, so far, it works:
I have a clear idea of what makes an item necessary
I can measure the effectiveness of my desk configuration
I decided that “this is how things must be done”
I can immediately say if something is “off”
I am committed in keeping the standards and, in case, immediately apply remediations
I feel less nervous
I don’t forgot things at office anymore
My workflow is smoother and very often I complete my tasks more quickly
What do you think? Are you considering to try it yourself? Let me know!
A few links you may find interesting
This Is What Swedish Death Cleaning Taught Me About Life: this post do not describe the method but is a narration of how John P. Weiss applied it to manage his Dad stuff after he died. I love the intimacy and the poetry of this post.
Hell Yeah, or Nah: Minimalism & Writing Routines with Derek Sivers : I’m a big fan of Derek and I find this post particularly “juicy”.
Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life: when it comes to minimalism and zen living, Leo Babauta and his Zen Habits blog is definitely the resource of choice.
That’s it for this month!
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Until next time, take care and be happy!
Mauro
PS: a kind of Colophon
Just a few words about where you can find some of the things I do/did:
I love the level of detail you've put into this! It made me remember when I started working. One day I had to stay a bit later and saw a person of the cleaning staff having to move people's clutter around to be able to be able to clean the desks. I must confess I had not given this any thought before. But I realised I had no right to make other people's work harder out of sheer laziness. I've cleared my desk ever since. I think it was a powerful "WHY". However, I'm not as disciplined with my home office desk. It's pretty neat... but there's always a pile a papers that somehow cluster together! I will give the s's a try 😀
This is brilliant!! I so need this. I am a person who can’t work in a mess, but! I work from home, my workspace is also my bedroom and a place where my children leave everything lying around. It drives me crazy! I think trying this may not only help me be at my creative best, but also soothe my anxiety as I work through the steps. I will let you know……