My Love Letter to Lean - Lean Is My Seatbelt: Why I Can’t Not Build Leanier
I’ve spent two decades championing Lean, not because it’s trendy, but because it’s the most humane way I know to remove friction and create flow. When I first carried Lean from manufacturing into construction, I saw something bigger than process improvement. I saw calmer days in a more patient and less frustrated me. Cleaner decisions. Kinder teamwork (family relations). Once you’ve tasted that clarity, you can’t unsee it.
This blog is my love letter to Lean: why I’m obsessed, how I use it far beyond industry playbooks, and why it all culminates in Leanier. Here’s the rub: Lean is a bit like the seatbelt when it was invented. Leanier is my current attempt to market a seatbelt to a world that hasn’t yet realised it’s driving without one. No one was asking for it. People didn’t yet realise what it could save…lives, yes, but also sanity, time, energy, money - your quality of life.
That’s precisely why I’m building Leanier. It’s the seatbelt for everyday living across four domains: Fasting, Food & Fitness (FFF), Lean Sustainability (LSus), Personal Organisation & Mindset (POM), and House Organisation & Home Routines (HH). Not a nagging to-do list, but an elegant, behavioural aid that focuses on FLOW & makes it the default.
The Seatbelt Problem (and the Leanier Promise)
Lean is a culture that asks: What truly creates value - by the customer’s definition - and what gets in the way? Then it invites us to remove the obstacles, learn as we go, and respect the people doing the work (including you and me at home).
Why: To maximise value and reduce the everyday friction that steals our time, energy, and joy.
What: A practical mindset and toolkit that eliminates waste and creates flow, at work, at home, on the school run, in your inbox, and even in your head.
How: By seeing the whole system (not just isolated tasks), improving in small steps, and treating people with respect and trust.
Who: Everyone, from a nurse on shift, to a founder wearing eight hats, to a parent juggling sport kits and Zoom calls.
When: Now. Continuous improvement is a present-tense verb.
Lean isn’t about squeezing people. It’s about freeing them. Done right, it creates both calm and performance.
People don’t usually wake up thinking, “I need Lean.” They wake up thinking, “I need less chaos…more time.” Like early seatbelts, Lean can feel invisible until a sudden stop shows you what it prevented. Leanier’s job is to make those quiet saves visible - fewer hassles, fewer do-overs, fewer “where did the day go?” moment, without adding admin.
In FFF: it removes bottlenecks to moving, eating well, and fasting, so consistency wins, not willpower theatre.
In LSus: it prevents overbuying and guilt-fuelled clutter by right-sizing inventory and making “use first” obvious.
In POM: it designs your day for one-touch flow, not ten-tap faff.
In HH: it turns family logistics into a friendly team sport with clear signals and shared standards.
Seatbelts didn’t make driving joyless; they made it safer and freer. Leanier aims to do the same for life.
TIMPWOOD - Why the “Obvious” Wastes Don’t Feel Urgent (until they do)
Most of what follows looks obvious. That’s exactly the trap. We shrug and say “that’s life”, then the drip-drip compounds into lost weeks and strained nerves. But, the moment we recognise and label it waste, it becomes visible…solvable…and perhaps, urgent
Transport – needless shifting of things Example: three trips upstairs each morning fetching scattered kit. What it really costs: 6 minutes a day ≈ 36.5 hours a year. Lean move: co-locate by purpose; create a “launch pad” basket by the door.
Inventory – too much, too soon Example: extra groceries you “might” use due to impulse buy or “no-plan, just plug the gaps” groceries list. What it really costs: even £10/week of expired food ≈ £520/year plus visual clutter tax. Lean move: one-open-one-backup rule, “use-first” shelf, weekly shelf audit (3 minutes).
Motion – excess reaching, clicking, context-switching Example: hunting files across three apps. What it really costs: 10 minutes/day ≈ 60 hours 50 minutes/year; attention residue adds more. Lean move: standard names, favourites bar, single source of truth.
People (unused talent) – not using skills, ideas, or motivation Example: you plan meals alone; your teen would happily own “Taco Tuesdays”. What it really costs: your time + their disengagement. Lean move: involve and rotate roles; small wins grow capability.
Waiting – stalled hand-offs, unclear ownership Example: approvals buried in chats. What it really costs: missed deadlines + trust erosion. Lean move: one intake channel, visible queue, 24-hour service level.
Overproduction – doing more than needed Example: 12-page SOP where a one-page checklist would do. What it really costs: 3–4× creation time, 10× maintenance. Lean move: smallest useful - ship the crib sheet first.
Overprocessing – extra steps that don’t add value Example: exporting photos to edit, re-importing, then renaming. What it really costs: 5 minutes/session ≈ 20–30 hours/year if frequent. Lean move: one-touch cloud edit; set a default pipeline once.
Defects – errors and rework Example: returns from wrong sizes because you guessed. What it really costs: 30–60 minutes per return + shipping friction. Lean move: keep a personal size chart and a £3 tape measure in your bag.
If it feels “inevitable”, it’s a design problem. Lean gives us the right to fix it.
Drip…Drip…Convinced yet? Here’s more!
The two-minute search tax Household of three spends 2 minutes/day/person looking for stuff. That’s 6 minutes/day → 36.5 hours/year. Lean move: 5S for “hot items” (keys, chargers, glasses), shadow outlines, one hook per person. Payback: immediate.
The email micro-drag Five extra seconds per message - finding the right label or folder - across 100 emails (or whatever relevant)/day. That’s 500 seconds/day → 30–35 hours/year (220–250 workdays). Lean move: 3 folders + search, rules for routing, pinned “next actions” list. You’ll never out-file a good query.
The meal plan rework loop Scrapping and re-planning dinner at 5 p.m. three times a week. Even 15 minutes of faff × 3 = 45 minutes/week → 39 hours/year. Lean move: 7-meal “capsule menu”, rotate weekly, shop to the plan, “use-first” shelf.
The fitness setup bottleneck The issue isn’t discipline; it’s setup. 4 minutes of setup friction kills the session. Two misses/week → 100+ sessions/year lost. Lean move: kit staged, pre-chosen programme, 3-minute “pre-flight”; default to a tiny “win” set if time-poor.
The sustainability guilt spiral Bulk buys turn into waste. £5/week binned is £260/year plus mental clutter. Lean move: right-size par levels, decant into visible containers, run a 10-minute weekly “expiry sweep”.
How Lean Really Differs (beyond the slogans)
Behaviour before tooling. Many systems add templates. Lean designs the path of least resistance so the right behaviour is easiest.
Flow over local speed. We don’t “optimise the island”; we smooth the river. One slow, clear path beats three fast dead-ends.
Pull, not push. Work enters only when there’s capacity or real demand. That’s true for features, meetings, and pantry stock.
Small batches, fast learning. We ship the smallest useful outcome and improve it. It reduces risk and reveals truth.
Respect for people. We design around human limits, not against them - clear signals, realistic WIP, humane cadences.
Visible management. If it takes more than three seconds to see status, the system is hiding problems. We bring them to light kindly.
Whole-system optimisation. Lean aligns goals across roles and spaces; home, work, community, so improvements don’t cancel each other out.
That’s why Lean isn’t just another framework. It’s a way of building environments where good days happen more often.
Who I’m Designing For (and how Lean helps)
Employees as individuals Pains: context-switching, invisible work, calendar chaos. Lean moves: visible WIP limits, “deep-work” blocks, one intake channel for requests. Micro-change: a daily “Vital 3” + 60-second midday check. Typical win: reclaim 45–90 minutes/day.
Employees thinking about their organisation Pains: firefighting, unclear priorities, hand-off lag. Lean moves: value stream mapping, shared backlog, 24-hour service levels. Micro-change: one shared intake form replaces side-door asks; lead time drops in weeks, not quarters.
Solopreneurs & micro-orgs Pains: feast-or-famine workload, overbuilding, scattered tools. Lean moves: weekly PDCA cadence, smallest-useful offers, one source of truth. Micro-change: ship a one-pager this week; scale only on pull. Result: more revenue with less rework.
Households & life admin Pains: “Where is it?”, chore resentment, weekend wipe-out. Lean moves: 5S hotspots, rotating roles, 30-minute flow sprints. Micro-change: family “launch pad” + Sunday 15-minute reset saves 30–60 minutes/day and lowers friction.
From Principles to Practice: Why Leanier (and why now)
Asking people to “be Lean” is like selling seatbelts in the 1950s - noble, but abstract. Leanier grounds it in behaviour:
Bottleneck Radar™ spots where you’re actually stuck (setup, clarity, capacity), not where you think you are.
LeanLoops™ helps you keep tiny promises to yourself until they become identity, not effort.
LeanFlow™ sequences actions to reduce changeovers and interruptions.
Lean Behaviour Index™ shows progress without shame - momentum, not merit badges.
If a good seatbelt is one you forget you’re wearing, Leanier aims to be exactly that - quietly preventing the day from throwing you through the windscreen.
A simple invitation
Bring your real constraints - time, budget, energy. I’ll bring Leanier. Together we’ll design a kinder path of least resistance across FFF, LSus, POM, and HH. Not to cram in more, but to get more life back.
Want to be a pioneering Beta-Tester? Sign up for early access!
