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When you think of Six Sigma methodologies, you think of getting rid of waste and making your work processes more efficient and effective. While this is helpful for your business or company, how could we also use Six Sigma to improve the quality of our personal lives? 

The answer is easy! You use Six Sigma to improve your personal life the same way as you would for business improvements. Apply the DMAIC template for those improvements. Let’s break it down here with the matter of time management:

Define the problem: Let’s say that it is a time management problem you have. You don’t have enough time to spend on writing your novel, so you need to find some time that you are wasting. Include every aspect of why this is important to you, and the end objective or goal for writing this book.

Measure: After finishing the Define phase in its entirety, go through your daily tasks that you do as though they were your work processes. Time yourself: how long does each task take, and so on. Go through your entire day, including work, and write down all the data.

Analyze: Is what you do day in and day out necessary? Are your tasks contributing to your goal? For example, is watching television for five hours contributing to your goals in life? Is it doing anything redeeming? Could you cut down and still have time to write? Is there something else that you could do to relax? 

Improve: Now that you have figured out a new personal day-to-day life process sheet with your new routine, try out the new routine with the time-saving elements built in. Including the designated “new” time to write. See how it feels! Give this new and improved schedule a test run.

Control: Once you have tried out different schedules and have found one you like to keep, monitor it like a hawk. You might have found out that you lacked the discipline in your personal life that you have at work. Now, let’s extend the control phase of the DMAIC to include controlling your mind to be disciplined so that a whole new world will open up once you write your great American novel.

Interested in applying these Lena Six Sigma principles to your company or organization? Visit our class schedule and enroll in a class today!