Research shows that clutter and chaos have a negative effect on your brain and your body – and that has an effect on your business. In this article, we’ll look into why and how chaos and clutter affect your brain, why moving from chaos to order is a smart move to grow your business, and how you can move from chaos to order.
What do chaos and clutter do to us?
Research suggests:
“Clearing clutter from the home and work environment resulted in a better ability to focus and process information, as well as increased productivity.”
That is a hugely important fact when you consider that Increased productivity directly translates into more revenue. It’s not only about losing time when searching for tools or spare parts but also about working smarter, more effectively, and efficiently.
How can order make you work smarter?
We can all remember a workday from hell. Waking up too late, rushing to your van without coffee or breakfast, and driving off in a haste. 30 minutes on the road, you get stuck in traffic and start worrying whether you brought all the tools and spare parts that you need on the job with you.
And because you can’t check while driving, all you can do is think about it and get more and more stressed. When you finally arrive, you already feel exhausted and find out that you did leave the spare parts behind…
I don’t need to go through the whole day, but you know how this day is going to play out. Needless to say, by the end of the day, the stress you have been experiencing has exhausted you and you have lost valuable time by stocking up at the nearest builder’s supply shop and being unable to fully focus on the job at hand.
There are two things how you could have avoided your day from hell:
• Having work processes in place that ensure that your van is always stocked up and ready for the next day’s jobs.
• Having a tidy and organised mobile workshop (aka your van’s fitout) where you never have to search for tools and spare parts because your workshop is easy to organise and stock up.
Instead of feeling stressed or anxious, and unable to fully focus on the job at hand, a well-organised van fitout makes you feel at ease and gives you the headspace to think through your day and fully focus on doing a good job.
At the end of the day, that will leave you with the feeling of a job well done, being relaxed because you can trust your system to get your van ready for the next day, and with enough energy to spend quality time with your family or hitting the gym.
It is not surprising to learn that:
“…our physical environments influence our cognition, emotions and subsequent behaviours, including our relationships with others.”
Whereas a messy and disorganised van can lead to a chaotic workday and customers question whom they have hired for the job. A well-organized fitout positively influences your customer relationships – because you leave a more professional impression and can really listen and focus on your customers – giving them a positive customer experience.
You can do a better job by being able to pay full attention and having peace of mind that you have everything in your van that you need to carry out the job at hand with the necessary attention to detail. And we know that happy customers make referrals.
To summarize – being organised takes you…
• From frustration to being in control
• From anxiety to calmness
• From stressed to fully focused
• From panicked to confident that everything is in order
• From improvisation to carrying out the job to perfection
But there’s more…
Order can save you money
Structure and order don’t only make you feel better – they can also improve your profits.
How?
Through efficiency!
Being organised allows you to:
• Cover more jobs with one run
• Saving petrol on lower mileage
• Reducing the wear and tear of your vehicle
• Improve back-office processes and fleet workflows
• Reduce time at the base
• Run a tighter appointment schedule
Especially when you’re running a fleet, well-organised vehicles allow your drivers to swap vehicles without wasting time on checking their stock and searching for misplaced tools. They can trust that each vehicle is maintained well, organised in the same way, and ready to go.
When you’re running your own vehicle, keeping your vehicle organised helps you to stay on track and you can better look after your vehicle and fitout, have the time for maintenance, and reduce the wear and tear through the efficiencies that you create. That not only saves you money, but it allows you to earn MORE money because you are on the road to serve more customers in the same amount of time.
Whether you run a fleet or only one vehicle – better work processes lead to better vehicle and fitout maintenance which results in less downtime and lower maintenance costs. These are very tangible results that you can measure and track. However, there are also intangible results that are harder to measure but no less significant…
How order can build your brand
A job well done and a good first (or second and third…) impression makes it more likely that your happy customers keep you in mind for any upcoming work. Whether it is jobs that they need to be done or jobs that people in their network need to be done.
The impression you leave with your customer has a direct impact on how they talk about you. Every interaction with your customer contributes to how they perceive you and your brand. When you carry out a job, you are building your brand. Every single time!
Your vehicle and fitout are your advertising space. A messy van leaves a poor impression that sticks in your customer’s mind. A tidy, organised, and well-maintained vehicle leaves your customer impressed and gives them the confidence that you take the same care with the job that you are doing for them as you routinely do with your fitout and your equipment.
The image that you present to your customers, stays in their minds. And being able to consistently leave a good impression – visually and through a job well done – builds your reputation over time. Your reputation is your brand. And a good brand generates a lot of value. With the impression that you leave with your vehicle and your services you can transform customers into your own free marketing team!
An AutoTransform fitout is the perfect solution for creating a brand that stands for professionalism and quality work. But let’s take a step further and imagine taking the order, the new-found headspace and its benefits into your daily life…
What happens when order expands into your life?
The human mind desires order and free mental space.
Just think about it – it’s much easier to relax in a calm and tidy atmosphere. When the evening is over, kids are in bed, no dishes piling up, no toys or clothes cluttering your view…
Research has shown that clutter can affect our anxiety levels, sleep, and ability to focus. That’s not surprising when every piece of clutter is a reminder that you still have something to do. That you’re not finished for the day. Research also found that “the stress hormone cortisol was higher in mothers whose home environment was cluttered.”
Order relieves stress.
And that refers to physical order (of items that should be cleared up) or mental order of knowing that there are no unfinished tasks left to be done (like finishing the GST for the month or sending out invoices etc.).
When being organised becomes a habit, it can lead to a lifestyle that allows you to be more relaxed, more efficient, more in control and on top of things.
There’s a lot in your life that you cannot control – but order is one of the things that you can control!
Yes, we know, that we have made a big leap from storage systems to how order affects your life in general – but we are so passionate about this because we know how order can improve our quality of life.
And that is something that we want to share with you because we care about transforming lives for the better.
