5 ways to Make more Time

Ever heard of 5S?


5S is a concept used a lot in factories, not enough in offices and even more rarely at home! It's purpose is to reduce waste (effort, material, time) to only what is really needed to do the task.


I wont go into what it all means, where it comes from and how it is rolled out in a company (but if you are interested, let me know!), what is important here is how it can help you generate more time, to spend on what you want!

5S stands for:

• Sort (Deciding what you need the most frequently to do the task in question)





• Straighten (Making sure what you need the most often, is close by)





• Scrub (getting rid of dirt, rubbish, other stuff , tidying, makking sure all works)





• Systemize (finding a way to keep doing the 3 things above!)





• Standardize (developing the habit to keep things sorted, straightened and scrubbed).

Here is an example of how it works..

In the kitchen, we all probably use this technique to some degree. If you think about your stove top, probably, you have thought about what things you use frequently (ladels, knives, herbs, salt/pepper) around the stove top (Sort) and you have located them close to where they are needed (Straighten). The area is also probably free of things that are not used often, is clean and the stove top and the tools you use often all work (Scrub). This is mainained this way (Standardise) as you have found a way (Systemize) to clean the stove top regularly, and wash and store the utensils/herbs etc. back where you found them. You have done this because it saves you time and frustration when you want to cook!

Another example of Straightening is our base ball caps. We now have all our baseball caps on a rack, near our garage door (where we most often exit) so we know where they are and can easily select which one we want and then put it back where it came from easily (Systemizing and Standarizing)! This came out of pain (the missing baseball cap was always the one we wanted to wear...). It is not perfect... a little sorting wouldnt hurt... but it is much better than before.

So, what tasks are you doing that you find are cumbersome, take too long, potentially full of wasted effort and time? What could you apply from 5S in that task that would create more time for you?

If you are interested in organising more time for yourself, have a look at this blog.

EnJOY!