No one likes working in a mess. It’s frustrating to waste time looking for a memo, a reference text, or maybe even a pen or pad of Post-It notes. It can be even worse when you’re working from home, because the boundaries between your home mess and your work mess can be blurry!

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All that time you spend hunting through the piles on your desk or the files on your computer desktop is a waste…and that waste is costing you money.

But you can overcome the chaos by following a few simple strategies.

Tidying and organizing your workspace will improve productivity and efficiency, and reduce unnecessary waste in your practice.

Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

Try 5S 

One way to organize, declutter, and restructure your workspace is by implementing 5S, an improvement strategy developed in Japan meant to increase productivity and preserve your sanity. Its name comes from five Japanese words, each of which begins with the letter “S”:

1. Sort (Seiri) 
2. Straighten/Store (Seiton) 
3. Shine/Sweep (Seiso) 
4. Standardize (Seiketsu)
5. Sustain (Shitsuke)

Try the KonMari Approach 

A second way to organize, declutter, and restructure your workspace is through Mari Kondo’s approach. If you haven’t heard of her, she has a book called “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” which emphasizes getting rid of items that don’t “spark joy” in your life. Even if you’re not particularly into “sparking joy,” the KonMari method (as it’s known) can be really useful. Here are two of her more valuable tips:

1. Discard Anything That You Don’t Need

It can seem overwhelming to get rid of all the things you don’t need all at once, but Kondo advises that you should. Do it in categories. Go through your papers or your books or your files and other documents. Ask yourself what will be of further help to you or to your firm. Toss out, shred, recycle or give away everything that is of no value.

You can also do this exercise with your entire team. Working together you’ll be able to make quicker decisions about what should to get rid of. Just imagine how much less stressful things would be for your entire operation if you decluttered the entire office.

2. Clear Digital Clutter 

Think about all the newsletters you subscribe to, and all the pending emails you've never opened. Your digital junk reduces your productivity. By deleting anything that isn’t of value, you’ll make it easier to prioritize client emails.

Also delete lesser-used apps and transfer old digital files to an external hard drive. Tidying up your digital world may also improve the processing speed of your device, which has its own benefits.

This Week's Action Item: Set aside some time this week, even if it’s just a couple of hours, to tidy and organize your office. Whether you decide to apply 5S, the KonMari method, or a blend of both, decluttering will improve your productivity and effectiveness. You’ll get more done in less time and with less stress, and have more time for everything else that’s important to you.

Legal professionals who have an organized work environment deliver more value for themselves, their firm and, most importantly, for their clients. They're much more likely to be recognized as true value-driven professionals.

And that’s this week’s tip. If you want information like this once a week, sign up at LeanLegal.academy/tips so you never miss a Tip of the Week.

Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.