So myself and my family are now in lock-down due to the spread of Covid-19. In New Zealand that means that only essential services, food, medical etc can operate.  Unfortunately gas fires are not an essential service other than for spare parts and technical service advice for safety reasons.

It’s pretty grim, we are allowed out only for groceries and exercise for the next 4 weeks and the effect on our economy is going to be pretty bad but I’m trying to stay positive.

Lean is always my go to for fun and feeling like I am moving forwards in any situation so today I’m going to share how lean thinking makes life easier.

You may have read my previous post on my lean desk and 5S. My lean desk makes my life so much easier and I really learned the value of it yesterday when I had to pack it up to bring it home for lock-down. It was so easy. Everything (cables, notepads, stationary) fit into my carry bag and then there was only my monitor and monitor riser to go. One of my lovely colleagues offered to help me and after the first trip he was visibly surprised and said ‘is that it!?’. Yep, that was all there was.

When I got home, my workspace was set up in a matter of minutes. I have taken over a small bench in the kitchen which is perfect. At work, my effective working space is about 1m x 0.7m so my kitchen bench is perfect.

Work Work Space                                Home Work Space

This is great because I don’t need to use the dining table, where we eat and where the kids need to do activities and school work. I also don’t need to kick my student husband out of his study. I have my own little space that no one was really using any way. Even better I was immediately able to resume work as if I’d never left the office, except for the lack of colleagues and actual production.

To keep myself occupied without an operations system to improve I’m going to have to come up with all kinds of improvements and systems in my new working and home environment, it will be fun.

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist