5S, 43 folders, containerizing and S.H.E.D.

Fairly or unfairly, organizational skills and financial skills go hand in hand. Now, it seems some companies are exploring the link between an organized office and an employee's productivity. A few months ago, the WSJ reported on Kyocera's "5S" strategy -- sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain -- and how one of the side effects is that people can more easily operate in a colleague's work environment. ("Neatness Counts at Kyocera," Oct 27, 08) Less adjustment = more efficient use of time.

The "5S" thing prompted a meditation on why we like smartly-nicknamed systems for imposing order on chaos like S.H.E.D. ("Separate, Heave, Embrace, Drive Forward") or the 43 folders with its "tickler" file system. Easy answer: because they're confidence-inspiring. They offer a theoretical framework which is supposedly expansive enough to contain your multitudes, yet structured enough to guarantee that your multitudes are easily accessible. You wouldn't be as confident with an organizational gimmick that started off with "Look, I don't know how your brain works! Why can't you just throw that out?"

I suspect that as this recession lingers, more and more people will be casting about for easy ways to get and stay organized. We'll see more blog posts advising you on the best times to buy anything, if not websites that promise to send reminders of what to buy when. We'll see more blog posts like "Why You Should Inventory Your Food Supply," if not blogs devoted to retro-appeal household skills in which organization is a bedrock skill from whence all else springs.

For the organized among us, there may be a real opportunity to make money off this recession. See what I mean about organizational skills and financial skills going hand in hand?

Comments

[Becky]

You wouldn't be as confident with an organizational gimmick that started off with "Look, I don't know how your brain works! Why can't you just throw that out?"

And yet, about half of the fights that my husband and I have about clutter start with this line.

[Lisa S.]

Do they end with you all decluttering? Then perhaps there IS a successful organizing strategy there and I just haven't perceived it yet!

[Becky]

It does work pretty well, because it forces us to actually think about whether something is worth saving.

[Lisa S.]

Hah! You could call it the A.G.R.E.E. strategy: Accuse, Get Defensive, Rage a while, Evaluate, Evict.