Marie Kondo is an author and organizational consultant with a popular series on Netflix. Kondo has motivated countless numbers of people to downsize and consolidate their households. But her tenets can apply to more than just cleaning the junk out of the house. It can also apply to websites. How much of the content on your website is serving a purpose, let alone sparking joy?
Tidying up a household may be a satisfying task, but it is a crucial concern for a municipality website. Unless each section and list on your municipal site is serving your constituents, compliant with ADA regulations, attracting visitors or commercial interests, what purpose does it serve?
Kondo's six principles for organizing a household are:
In other words, don’t go at this half-heartedly. Set up a workable plan with a definite deadline. Make sure each department in on board with this and stress that they justify the existence of each item. “We’ve always done it like this” is not a path to joy. Put in motion a plan that everyone can work with and implement it.
Imagine your ideal lifestyle
What would be the ideal for your website? What websites seem attractive and robust to you? Take that inspiration and create what you ideally want to see on the screen.
Finish discarding first
Act first by deciding what goes. Perform an exam on your site and decide what content just needs to disappear or just be archived. Once that is done you can upgrade and work closer to your ideal.
Tidy by category, not location
A common mistake in tidying up a house is going room by room. This just results in moving junk from one room to another. Instead, tidy by category. Instead of tackling the entire top menu or left sidebar, go through an entire category. Drill through your records and determine what is required. Do you really need to keep public a subcommittee meeting on picnic tables from 1998? Is there an alternative to storing this off site in an accessible manner? Follow this procedure for each category on the site.
Follow the right order
When Kondo organizes a household she not only categorizes, she does it in a certain order. First, she works with clothes, then books/media, paperwork, miscellaneous detritus, and last, items which are sentimental. So, don’t get hung up on whether the photos from last year’s Winter Carnival should be scrolling on the main page. Start with the content that gets no page views or activity. Be careful as to what items you are required under regulations to keep active and remember that some deletions may affect the way search engines like Google use your site.
Find joy
Keep those old Winter Carnival photos up there if they make everyone smile. Marie Kondo’s most familiar guiding principle is “deciding what to keep and what to discard is whether or not something sparks joy”, This may not be quite applicable to a water treatment district website. Instead, how about civic pride. When you have cleaned up and streamlined your website, take pride in it. Find your inner Leslie Knope, not your Ron Swanson. And if those references escape you, binge a season of Parks and Recreation on a streaming site and find joy!
Tidying up a household may be a satisfying task, but it is a crucial concern for a municipality website. Unless each section and list on your municipal site is serving your constituents, compliant with ADA regulations, attracting visitors or commercial interests, what purpose does it serve?
Kondo's six principles for organizing a household are:
- Commit yourself to tidying up.
- Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
- Finish discarding first.
- Tidy by category, not location.
- Follow the right order.
- Find joy.
In other words, don’t go at this half-heartedly. Set up a workable plan with a definite deadline. Make sure each department in on board with this and stress that they justify the existence of each item. “We’ve always done it like this” is not a path to joy. Put in motion a plan that everyone can work with and implement it.
Imagine your ideal lifestyle
What would be the ideal for your website? What websites seem attractive and robust to you? Take that inspiration and create what you ideally want to see on the screen.
Finish discarding first
Act first by deciding what goes. Perform an exam on your site and decide what content just needs to disappear or just be archived. Once that is done you can upgrade and work closer to your ideal.
Tidy by category, not location
A common mistake in tidying up a house is going room by room. This just results in moving junk from one room to another. Instead, tidy by category. Instead of tackling the entire top menu or left sidebar, go through an entire category. Drill through your records and determine what is required. Do you really need to keep public a subcommittee meeting on picnic tables from 1998? Is there an alternative to storing this off site in an accessible manner? Follow this procedure for each category on the site.
Follow the right order
When Kondo organizes a household she not only categorizes, she does it in a certain order. First, she works with clothes, then books/media, paperwork, miscellaneous detritus, and last, items which are sentimental. So, don’t get hung up on whether the photos from last year’s Winter Carnival should be scrolling on the main page. Start with the content that gets no page views or activity. Be careful as to what items you are required under regulations to keep active and remember that some deletions may affect the way search engines like Google use your site.
Find joy
Keep those old Winter Carnival photos up there if they make everyone smile. Marie Kondo’s most familiar guiding principle is “deciding what to keep and what to discard is whether or not something sparks joy”, This may not be quite applicable to a water treatment district website. Instead, how about civic pride. When you have cleaned up and streamlined your website, take pride in it. Find your inner Leslie Knope, not your Ron Swanson. And if those references escape you, binge a season of Parks and Recreation on a streaming site and find joy!
