5 Ways to Skyrocket Your Focus Before Easter

How to clear the dusty cobwebs of your mind (part 1)

Apr 07, 2025

Yesterday, as I opened a cupboard in my utility room and a flood of poorly packed garden toys came flurrying out, I knew the time had come for a spring clean.

This time of year is perfect for getting your house and belongings in order. Recycle or upcycle things you don’t need.

But while most people see the value in doing this for their home, there is also tremendous value in looking at the way you work—not only spring cleaning your workspace, but also your work processes.

What’s the best approach to do this?

The answer is two-fold: 5S your workspace and review your processes.

I’ll cover this in two separate articles.

In this first one, it’s time to don your best Marie Kondo outfit and get cracking on sprucing up your workspace.

Not feng shui-style, but rather using the timeless Japanese technique of 5S.

What is 5S?

5S is a powerful method for creating a clean, organized workspace—one that reduces distractions and helps clear your mind, making it easier to focus and be productive. At its core, 5S provides a simple, repeatable structure that can significantly boost efficiency—sometimes even five-fold.

I explore this concept in my upcoming book, drawing from the Lean 5S method, a key component of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The five steps—Seiri, Seiton, Seisō, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke—each play a role in building a streamlined environment. While these Japanese terms have many translations, I prefer a version that’s easy to remember in English: Sift, Sort, Sweep, Standardize, Sustain.

Sift

In Sift, we go through our workspace and sort all of our files, belongings, and equipment so that we only keep out what’s necessary for our work. Items that are not used frequently should be stored elsewhere.

Example: If you’re working on multiple case files or projects, there’s no need to have every file open on your desktop at the same time. That’s unnecessary clutter, and your mind is busy enough without having to sift through everything to find what you’re currently working on.

Sort

Here, our priority is for everything to have a proper home and a system to return items to their place when not in use. If you work digitally, create organized folders on your PC or cloud-based storage. If you work on paper, you might need an extra bookshelf or filing cabinet.

Example: If you’ve ever stepped foot in a factory or garage, you may have seen shadow boards. These allow tools to be stored quickly and easily, and they also act as a built-in quality control mechanism.

Sweep

In Sweep, you ensure your entire working area is consistently clean, tidy, and organized. If you’ve already removed unused and unnecessary items, cleaning becomes quicker and easier—saving time in the long run.

Example: Digitally and on paper, this means regularly reviewing your files so that only final versions remain. Sorting through dozens of draft documents just to find the right one can be a huge time drain.

Standardize

Standardize involves creating a routine that ensures the first three steps happen regularly. This gives you a reliable structure for maintaining an organized workspace.

Example: You might decide to spend five minutes at the end of each day tidying up according to the first three steps. Or, you could set a weekly time slot—like Friday afternoons from 3–4 p.m.—as your dedicated 5S time.

Sustain

In the final step, Sustain, we build these standards into company policies or daily habits. Many organizations with flexible work structures already support hot-desking and clear desk policies.

Example: Having a common way of doing things that everyone follows helps create consistent working practices and builds lasting habits. Maintaining these standards means educating others in your workplace and monitoring how well they’re followed.

Benefits of 5S

Less time wasted looking for things
Clearer thinking in an uncluttered space
More consistent work habits and workflows
Greater accountability through visible standards
Improved focus, since your environment supports your tasks

A clear workspace creates fewer distractions, which in turn creates a clearer mind—helping you focus more easily on the task at hand.

Ready for a practice?

I’ve created a little game to help you practice this concept before applying it to real life. It has 6 levels, and only takes a few minutes to play!

Each level of the game clearly demonstrates the power of 5S, gradually showing how making the workspace more organized helps you process things faster.

Try the game out for yourself, see if you can beat my score!

To sum up

5S is really just a smart way to declutter your workspace and your mind at the same time. Think of it as five simple steps—Sift, Sort, Sweep, Standardize, and Sustain—that work together to transform chaos into calm.

Whether you're organizing physical files or digital documents, this approach (inspired by Toyota's production methods) can dramatically boost your productivity and focus.

By clearing away distractions, finding homes for everything, keeping things tidy, creating routines, and sticking with them, you're setting yourself up for success.

Your environment shapes your mind—make it work for you, not against you!

Next week, we’ll look at how you can quickly look at the way you’re working, and give that a much overdue spring clean too.

Have a great week.

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please let me know by clicking the 🤍 or dropping a comment below.