Organize anything using the LASR method

Where is that thing? Why can’t I find it? There’s too much stuff!

And I’m not just talking about your desk. Maybe your closet is a mess too. Or home. Or the files on your laptop. Or even the documents in Confluence.

The story seems to be the same wherever you look: piles of random stuff, duplicates everywhere. You don’t even remember what things are called — and other people are confused too.

Wouldn’t you like a better way? … Maybe LASR-focused clarity?

One way to organize them all

I like to learn “one cool trick” and keep using it forever, and this method works on many situations you might come across. The payoff is that your life gets better and it lets other people help: they can know how they can work with you and improve the system!

I call it LASR: Locate, Arrange, Store, Report.

It is part scope management, part KonMari, part teaching. It can sustain itself, it can help things evolve. It works on physical things, it works on documents, it works on processes, it works on team structures.

Why LASR works

It digs down to the essence of why clutter happens: the human mind gets overwhelmed by too much stimulus and breaks chunking. You give up. You don’t make time to clean up.

LASR works well in bite-sized bits, one activity at a time, and taking breaks in between. After you finish, you can even go back and repeat activities. As long as you know which of the 4 activities you’re doing you’ll know what you need to do to move to the next step.

Let’s get started!

L) Locate

The first step is to find all the things you think should be together. Like all the kitchen things. Or all the office paperwork. Or all the documents. Or even the teammates with certain skills. This creates a scope or a boundary around the problem.

We humans work best when we can see the edges of the problem. Sometimes the boundaries are well-defined like the walls of a house or a bookshelf: physical constraints. Sometimes you have a limited time window or a target date: temporal constraints.

Sometimes boundaries are fuzzy, as in the case of virtual file systems or organizational structures. Still, you must contain the problem by determining what’s fair game to be organized! Decide what is in and what is out, and don’t get hung up on decision paralysis since you can repeat LASR any time.

Talk to knowledgeable people to ensure you know where all the things are. Take note of their size and shape. Note any requirements like things that need power, sunlight, hangers, organizational dependencies. Sometimes the start time is a factor and you might have to wait for the best time window.

A) Arrange

Rough-sort by quickly moving things into piles: e.g. books go here, DVDs go there; clothes go here, shoes go there; design stuff goes here, engineering stuff goes there. Create piles in corners of the room or places in the hallway. The rapid pass is just to begin to test out the categorization. Tip: it’s ok to have a “I don’t know what this is” pile!

Add a label to each pile: a sticky note, a Gmail label, name the folder, a dotted line around the org chart. Now that you have these named piles, you’ve reduced the problem to manageable bites!

Now within each pile sort the things: group like with like, pick an ordering that makes sense. Maybe alphabetical works, maybe size, maybe color. Maybe role type, maybe initiative, maybe team.

Delete duplicates is the next step. It might be hard to let go of certain things, but know that the less you keep around the more clarity you bring to a situation. Make the most out the least stuff, avoid “unitaskers” that can’t be used in multiple situations! Plus, all the extra space lets you grow or invest your energy in new ways.

S) Store

This is both store as a verb and as a noun.

Place your sorted piles in their cabinets, bookshelves, folders, or org charts. You now have sets of things that share related properties and they are in sensible places. Now a search engine can work with this. You can make maps. You can make an index.

If you are working in product development, now you can make toolkits of these chunks. For digital systems, you can convert items into multiple formats: slideshows can be stored in PowerPoint and Keynote; spreadsheets can be in Excel and CSV; images can be in SVG and PNG. These become resources that allow you to multiply the value of the things your curated. It gives you and your team a way to update things in one place. (Pssst! Design systems, anyone?)

You now have a physical store. When you go sections within the store you know what you will find. Your expectations will be set. You save time because you can go directly to the section that has what you need. You can use your toolkits again and again. Other people can visit your store and find what they need. Other people can give suggestions on how to improve the store.

R) Report

What good is a store if no one knows about it? A good store advertises! You must report to others what’s gone on. Publish and tell people about what you have. You must tell people how to use your store.

Keep tabs on how people use your store. Add things that are useful. Add signs and documentation that point to it. Hold training sessions. Announce changes. Listen to feedback and learn how things can be better.

“R” can also stand for “repeat”. You can repeat LASR in the future to keep things fresh, get rid of unused things, and better categorize your store. Return to any one of the previous activities and proceed to the next step.

Away you go!

LASR helps keep the momentum going because with every step you get closer to your goal of making your space clear and purposeful.

Let me know how it works for you. Best wishes!

This article originally appeared on my Medium article.

Thank you to my processes coach, Kariz Matic , for your advice. Kariz consults and teaches about systems and process improvement at: https://the-matic.com/

#tidying #tidyingup #processimprovement #processmanagement #designsystems #sorting #systemsthinking #cleaning