Although I am a third year student, I still find myself struggling to determine and practice good study habits that fit my learning style. It seems like every semester I try changing many different things in order to find how studying works best for me, but every semester feel as if I still fall short. Whether it’s not achieving the top grade for the class or the feeling that the time I spent studying was not spent using maximum productivity, whatever I was doing never seemed to work. That is, until I was introduced to Lean and Continuous Improvement. I then realized the tools I use at work every day could also be applied to my school and home life. After I started to use the various Lean tools available to me at work I began to see how they could be very valuable to me in my academics. I started to think about what to work on and improve in my school life and the first thing that came to mind was making my studying more effective and efficient. This is when I found that an A3 would be great tool to use to pinpoint the root problem with my studying habits.
Normally when people hear the term A3 they think of the stand size 11″ x 17″ piece of paper. The A3 lean tool refers to this sized piece of paper that is used as a template for a problem solving report. The template is comprised of six different topics or steps to help you analyze the problem and attempt to find a viable solution. These steps include purpose statement, objectives, current state, future state, implementation plan, and outcome/metrics. This template focuses on planning in order to guide you through the problem solving process using the PCDA Method (Plan, Do, Check, Act). A basic template for an A3 can be seen below.
I am currently in the process of creating and revising my A3 for my study habits, but after multiple revisions and zeroing in on the root problem, I can already tell how much using the A3 helped. This is just one example of how I use Lean tools in my everyday life. There are many tools out there, some of which you probably already use without knowing it, that can really assist you in your everyday life. So take advantage of the Lean culture, I know I do!