38. Order is Progress

DISORDER is a way of wasting time and space.

It’s very likely that many of your tasks become complicated because you start working on them without being ready.

Every task has, at the very least, three stages:

1. Start: Prepare the necessary materials and space for the “Development” of the task.
2. Development: Work until achieving the task’s goal and reaching the “End”.
3. End: Clean and organize to not hinder the next “Start”.

Usually, we start working directly and that’s it. We finish, and move on to another task.

The illusion of finding “Order in disorder” is a lie we tell ourselves to justify disorder.

Toyota developed the 5S method to optimize this issue:

1. Seiri (Sort): separate necessary items from unnecessary ones.
2. Seiton (Set in Order): define the best place for each necessary item.
3. Seiso (Shine): maintain a clean and safe environment, to facilitate the quick detection of foreign elements.
4. Seiketsu (Standardize): make the previous 3S part of the routine.
5. Shitsuke (Sustain): turn the previous 4S into a habit, meaning: incorporate them with minimal conscious effort.

No, we are not talking only about the physical space.

We are talking about that folder with multiple versions of the same file, that endless email chain, that computer full of things you never use.

If you decide to invest time later to organize the disorder, you are wasting time and resources today.

We also talk about that menu with dozens of options that continues to accumulate features and functionalities. ❤️️