After you have spent time leaning out your physical workspace, the second step is to lean out your digital workspace. The digital workspace often gets forgotten about, but now that we're quarantining at home, this is the perfect time to get organized and set yourself up for success.
Anything you can simplify in your business is a form of eliminating waste, and as we know, time = money! So, let's look at how to apply lean concepts to your digital workspace.
Here are a few questions to consider before you start leaning out your digital workspace:
When you get on your device(s), is it easy or difficult to:
- Find and access the files and content you are looking for?
- Know which tools to leverage for which activities/content?
- Share and collaborate on projects?
Is your workspace set up for maximum productivity or maximum distraction?
- Things organized and structured or all over the place?
- Notifications turned on alerting you to new emails and messages or a silent notification-free zone?
- Browser default to a “blank” google landing page or a noisy news site?
How does your digital workspace make you feel?
- Focused and motivated, or distracted and overwhelmed?
The little things that slow us down are not only a time waster, but they're a productivity and motivation killer. With so much going on, it's easier to get distracted. So, taking the time to eliminate anything stopping you from achieving your goals will make a huge impact on your business.
In our last post, we introduced the concept of 5S, a workplace organization method. Although originally intended for physical workspaces, primarily in the manufacturing space, we love to apply the concepts to your digital workspace as well.
Here's how to apply 5S to your digital workspace:
Start with solving for your biggest pain points and the things you and your team use the most often. After that, delete anything you no longer need , and simplify, organize, and systematize the rest.
Success tips:
- Get clear on your pain points
- Focus on quick wins to start
- Take an incremental approach to leaning out your digital workspace – it should feel manageable & inspiring, not overwhelming & stressful
- Make it easy to maintain what you create and ensure your team knows what to do and where to find things
Bonus Tips:
External – Your Digital Footprint
- Audit your online presence
- Simplify wherever you can
- Ensure everything is on-brand, consistent, and reflective of your next level
We'd love to celebrate your progress with you - share your experience leaning out your digital workspace with us in the Lean Out Circle Facebook group!
Once you've finished leaning out your digital workspace, what's next?
Keep the positive momentum going and move from physical and digital to the systems you have in place. Stay tuned for part 3 in the series where we walk you through how to lean out your systems.
As always, you can catch the replay of our live video reviewing your digital workspace right here in the Lean Out Circle Facebook group.
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
