I’m trying to clean up my home office and get rid of things I have not used in a
long time. My goal is to eliminate the clutter and simplify. It is not easy to make that leap and get rid of things. While I’m not a hoarder, there is a lot of stuff that fits into the “what if” category. Does any of this sound familiar:
- The eBay box – all of that great, out-of-date electronic equipment that you know someone just
has to have and is willing to shell out at least $5 to own. - The books I’ve read over the years – I love that book and I’m sure I’ll read it again
- The box of videos with the converter so I can make my own DVDs
- The 3 desk clocks that vendors have given me as a gift (and only one works)
- The material from the work-related classes I’ve taken, because you never know when I might need to look up how to setup a regression analysis using Minitab v5
We spend a lot of time at work
discussing how we can simplify and how we can streamline processes, and how we can be more productive or more efficient. It seems like we are always in that mode, and while I believe we should be tackling these areas from a Continuous Process Improvement perspective, why does it feel that we are still building poor processes while recognizing and fixing others? I believe some of it is the result of organizational size, and that there is some exponential growth in an organization’s processes as it grows in size (maybe I do need that Minitab refresher); the other side is that it is hard to give up stuff. It is not easy to take an objective, practical view and say that we do not need this review in the process anymore (or to begin with), or that we no longer need specific approvals, or that we can do without a specific product. If it does not add real value or does not contribute to additional risk, then don’t do it. No more checkers of the checkers.
As part of simplifying, I want to get rid of my old personal laptop and my work laptop and combine into a new one that can be used for both. Do I take the leap and spend the big bucks on a Macbook Air? I don’t have any Apple products, I don’t use iTunes. Other suggestions?
Please feel free to leave comments on the blog or through LinkedIn. Thanks for reading.
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Update on past stats: The Blogger stats are not always the easiest to interpret, but I think I’ve had
97 page views of my other two posts. What was most interesting to me was that there were almost 120 LinkedIn views as a result of a short comment I posted for this article “Stop It. Slow Down. Don’t Make a Mistake”. The article by Brian Murray seems to have struck a chord.
97 page views of my other two posts. What was most interesting to me was that there were almost 120 LinkedIn views as a result of a short comment I posted for this article “Stop It. Slow Down. Don’t Make a Mistake”. The article by Brian Murray seems to have struck a chord.
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