How to Remove These 7 Wastes From Your Life

“Richard, you are not leaving the dinner table until you finish your vegetables! We do not waste in this household, there are people in this world who have nothing to eat! And stop playing with your food!”

Sound familiar? I’m sure I am not the only one who had a Mom that nagged the crap out of me about eating my vegetables so as not to create waste.

You see, there are other ways that we waste other than throwing away food that we haven’t eaten. In fact, there are a bunch of other wastes that Mom could have nagged me about had she known about them!

There are 7 wastes to be exact.

In Business…

One way a company can increase its profits is by increasing the prices it charges for its products and/or services. The problem is that oftentimes the price they charge is often determined by what the market is willing to pay. Meaning that there is only so much you can increase your price to improve your profitability or else customers will leave.

If that is true, then how else can a company become more profitable? The only other way is to decrease costs. While there are many ways to cut costs, we are going to focus on one – which is to decrease the amount of waste.

Without getting too much into the details, the 7 wastes are a part of a type of management called ‘lean management’ which aims to reduce, remove or automate non-value-added steps in a process to lower costs.

Why Remove Waste in My Personal Life?

Because being constipated is not fun! Ok, sorry for the bad joke – that is not the type of waste we are talking about.

As we said above, businesses can only increase prices so much to improve their profitability. The analogy I am going to use regarding our personal lives is time. We simply cannot add hours to our day to get more crap done – 24 is all we have.

The only thing we can do is to better utilize those 24 hours by becoming more productive in terms of how we use our time or getting rid of time that we waste. The cool thing is that by removing waste you will not only save time, you will save money in some situations as well.

Identify then Remove, Reduce, or Automate

One way we can do that is by identifying and then removing, reducing or automating the waste!

As you will see in the examples of the 7 wastes below, waste can be something physical, but it can also be stuff going on in your head or relationships that are wasting your time.

Unfortunately, you cannot always remove the waste from your life, sometimes you can only reduce it, and there are other times where you cannot remove or reduce it, so you simply automate it.

Let’s now look at the 7 wastes…

With some examples of each so that you understand them, and strategies you can employ to remove, reduce or automate them.

(1)  Transport

This type of waste is related to unnecessary motion or movement in your life that adds no value.

Some examples:

  Instead of driving to the mall, you can buy online (automate).

  Another example is living too far from your job:

Remove – move closer to your job if possible
Reduce – use your commute to get stuff done, listen to a podcast, read or do what Phillips Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers does
Automate – work from home and Skype in if possible

(2)  Inventory

This is when you have more stuff in your life than you need, it can cost you time, energy and money.

Some examples:

  Material items – get rid of clutter (remove), then buy what you need when you need it, possibly online (automate).

  Get rid of stuff that is cluttering your brain such as negative thoughts, jealousy, fear of what ‘may’ happen. You can do this by meditating (reduce), journaling (reduce) or seeking professional help (hopefully remove!).

  People in your life who are taking up space:

Remove – cut off ties with those who are most toxic

Reduce – if you must still have ties to them, reduce your contact with them

Automate – use call block or schedule time with them ahead of time

(3)  Motion

Motion is your moving unnecessarily to access or do something.

Some examples:

  Multi-tasking is a perfect example of unnecessary motion. Instead of multi-tasking which reduces productivity by as much as 40%, focus on one thing at a time (remove).

  Wasting time by looking for files on your computer or emails in your inbox – organize your computer and your inbox (reduce).

  Walking back and forth around the kitchen getting stuff as you are cooking. Instead, strategically place stuff to minimize your walking (reduce).

  Running around the house from chore to chore:

Remove: hire a maid

Reduce: utilize batching so you do similar chores together

Automate: buy a Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner

(4)  Waiting

This is the one waste that all of us are very familiar with and probably the most annoyed by!

Some examples:

  If people keep you waiting, then don’t meet them anymore (remove).

  Traffic got your blood boiling, you can stay home (remove) or drive during non-rush hour (reduce).

  Instead of waiting in line at a restaurant, store, coffee shop you can:

Remove – make an appointment

Reduce – order online

Automate – schedule online

(5)  Overproduction

Is making too much of something or buying too much of something that you need.

Some examples:

  Don’t make or buy more food than you need or can eat (remove).

  Consider not buying insurance on every item you buy (remove). Instead, if you are disciplined enough, put that money into a savings account, just in case.

  Saying yes to other people making you take on more than you can possibly handle.

Remove – say no!

Reduce – offer an alternative that takes less time

Automate – delegate it to someone else

 

(6)  Over-processing

This type of waste involves you doing stuff that isn’t necessary wasting valuable time and energy. This is similar to the concept of diminishing returns which says that any benefits gained are negligible or non-existent after a certain point.

Some examples:

  Studying too much, instead, stop once you learn the material (remove).

  Being a perfectionist – for example, stop spending time on a report or project that is already good enough (remove).

  Staying in the sauna more than is beneficial to your health, only stay in for 15 minutes or whatever the recommended time frame is (remove).

  If working out more than necessary, take rest days (reduce) – by the way, too much can cause overtraining.

  Too much time on social media:

Remove – delete social media accounts

Reduce – put your phone on airplane mode at certain times or put it away

Automate – use apps that block you from using social media

(7)  Defects

This has to do with doing things incorrectly and then having to fix your mistake or starting from scratch.

Some examples:

  Doing a half-assed job painting your house will cause you to have to touch it up or re-do the whole thing from scratch. Instead, do it right the first time (remove) or hire someone else to do it (remove).

  Not working out properly and hurting yourself, you can hire a personal trainer to teach you how to work out correctly (remove).

  Constantly doubting yourself and your abilities is a mental defect that you need to correct by working on them yourself (reduce) or seeking professional help (reduce).

  Watching fake news and getting the wrong information:

Remove: stop watching it

Reduce: watch less of it

Automate: subscribe to only worthy sources

That’s it, those are the 7 wastes, and some examples of how you can use them to not only get more time but also save money.

By the way, if you look at the first letter of each of the 7 wastes you will see together they spell TIMWOOD – which is a great way for you to remember the 7 wastes.

Before I Go, I Have an Apology to Make to the Kids of Today…

I apologize if your Mom starts nagging you about these other 7 wastes.

Hopefully, for your sake it makes her forget about the vegetables!

Until next time, eat your damn vegetables, reduce your waste, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use It or Lose It:

To reduce the 7 waste that zap your productivity and steal your time:

  Identify the waste.

  Figure out how to remove it, reduce it or automate it.

When to Use It:

  When you want to make more time for yourself.

What Do You Think?

  Do you have any of the 7 wastes in your life? Do you have any other examples and strategies you use to remove, reduce or automate them? Please share in the comments below!

 

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