Every business needs a reset at some point. A common decluttering method is called the “Core 4” method, involving the 4 C’s of decluttering: Clear Out, Categorize, Cut Out and Contain. We’ll walk you through how to use this method to declutter your business operations and show you how they can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your company.
Why decluttering is essential for your business
Decluttering your business operations has many benefits, including increasing your company’s efficiency and productivity. Organizing your office, removing unnecessary tasks and streamlining workflows ensure you and your team can give other processes the attention they need. In doing so, this will speed up your operations and improve the quality of work that is done.
You may find that employee morale improves as a direct result of decluttering
Physical clutter is often directly tied to mental clutter, which can leave employees feeling overwhelmed and anxious at work. Whether it’s because of a tidier workspace, organized digital files or more clearly laid out tasks, your team is likely to feel more at ease, more motivated and more focused.
Assess and prioritize your current operations
Your first step in decluttering your business should be to conduct a business operations audit. This means taking a long look at how your business is running and how employees are working, evaluating which areas are operating successfully and which ones need attention. This evaluation can be done through observation, interviews, surveys and data analysis.
Your goal when conducting a business operations audit is to identify bottlenecks. These are points of congestion in a workflow, involving anything from limited staffing and inefficient processes to outdated technology. When you discover these inefficiencies in your business, this will tell you the areas you need to focus on.
Once you’ve identified the issues in your business operations, consider writing down each issue, listing them in order of importance. Their importance is up to you; it may be determined by how detrimental the issue is to the business or by how long it will take to solve it. Either way, this will help you visualize what needs to be done and show you which items to start addressing first.
Clean out your physical workspace
You may be surprised just how much your cluttered workspace is affecting how your business runs. Studies show visual chaos, whether it’s in a home, car or office, can increase stress and the brain’s ability to focus on tasks. Messiness is especially harmful if it’s in your workspace, where concentration is imperative.
If following the “Core 4” method, you should start by clearing out everything in your office, leaving you with a clean slate and removing the chance of you overlooking anything. Then you can begin to sort through everything, putting similar items into whatever categories you see fit.
Now look through each category you’ve created and take out items you want to get rid of, whether that means putting them in a different room, throwing them out, donating them or selling them. After you’ve minimized your belongings, you can put everything back. To keep each category of items together, consider using containers, drawer dividers and labels.
Organize your digital workspace
This process can be used for your digital workspace as well, but it will look different. Take a look at all of the files on your desktop, get rid of the ones you don’t need and categorize the ones left into folders with specific names. Consider including the date, project and client in the folder name, to make it easier to find each file. You should also follow the same method for organizing your emails.
There are also many cloud-based platforms, like SharePoint or Google Drive, that will automatically backup your files and keep them in a stable place for you. These platforms encrypt your files to keep them safe, make them accessible from any location with an internet connection and allow multiple users to work on them at the same time.
The organization of your digital workspace isn’t just a one-time thing, but a process you should repeat regularly. Deleting and categorizing your files each week or month will help keep your desktop, email and cloud storage decluttered, and make it easier to pull up the files you do need.
Automate repetitive tasksIn today’s world, another outcome of decluttering a business is the increased use of automation. This is the use of technology to complete repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoicing, email marketing, client onboarding and appointment scheduling. As you simplify your operations, look out for which tasks can be automated. You’ll find this moves your workday along much quicker.
There are many tools that can help you with automation. One is Microsoft Power Automate, a cloud-based service that automates processes across nearly all systems, desktop apps and websites. Another is Zapier, which connects with thousands of apps, incorporating AI and helping users move data between them.
It may take a few attempts for you to figure out what automation tools work for you, and which tasks you’d prefer to automate. Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of each option, treating the incorporation of automation as an ongoing process and updating it when necessary. At California Bank & Trust, we’re committed to helping business owners improve their companies. Schedule a business review with your banker to make sure you're maximizing banking services to help their business.