I'm a senior, but I tried applying 'ECRS' to my daily life

Hello, I'm Hot3DegC (Hot Sand), enjoying my senior life.

Today, I'd like to share my attempt at incorporating a business framework into my daily meal planning and grocery shopping.

The method I introduced is called ECRS (an acronym for Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, and Simplify, pronounced 'E-kuru-su')).

Using this method, I reviewed the process (flow of things) that always gives me a headache, starting with 'What do you want to eat this week?', followed by 'What was I supposed to buy?', then 'What's for dinner tonight?', and finally 'What should I help with?'!!

The result was quite satisfying, and I think I've managed to make grocery shopping and dinner preparation both more efficient and more enjoyable.

What is ECRS?

First of all, ECRS is originally a process improvement method from the manufacturing industry, but by applying it to daily life, you can simplify complicated tasks and use your time effectively.

Since it improves processes (the flow of things) into better ones, it is not limited to the manufacturing industry and can be used for processes in general.

ECRS is a framework for reviewing processes (the flow of things) in four steps: 'Eliminate (Elimination), Combine (Combination), Rearrange (Rearrangement), Simplify (Simplification).

It's like reviewing each step and task within a process (the flow of things) in the order of 'Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify'.

The order of review is also important, and you should start by considering whether there is anything that can be Eliminated (Elimination) above all else.

Trying to make things efficient that could just be eliminated is nothing but a waste

—that's the essence of it!!

It's similar to how to use the SCAMPER framework I introduced before.

Process improvement with ECRS

I used to plan my meals for the following week every weekend while looking at groceries at the supermarket, but I would often forget to buy ingredients or find it troublesome and change the recipes when it came time to cook.

So, I used ECRS to make the following improvements.

Eliminate
Avoid purchasing unnecessary ingredients or seasonings.
Eliminate dishes that are not well-liked.

Combine
Do all the grocery shopping for the week at once.
Plan meals that use similar ingredients a few times a week.

Rearrange
The process (flow of things) of 'Create leftover list -> Shopping -> Consider menu -> Cook'
is rearranged to
'Consider menu -> Create shopping list/recipes -> Shopping -> Cook'.
Rearrange the process.

Simplify
Simplify recipes for dishes I make often.
Use ChatGPT for meal planning.

Creating menus and shopping lists using ChatGPT

As part of my efforts to streamline my meal planning and shopping, I decided to incorporate AI technology.

Specifically, I attempted to automate the process of creating weekly menus, necessary shopping lists, and recipes using ChatGPT.

With just simple instructions, I was able to generate a one-week menu and shopping list that balanced the frequency of meat and fish, mixed Japanese, Western, and Chinese dishes without bias, and stayed within a specified budget, along with recipes divided into preparation and cooking steps.

However, after trying it for about a month and a half, I noticed a bias in the menus with a tendency for similar recipes to be proposed repeatedly, and since it did not take the seasons into account, I decided to change my Simplify strategy.

It was good practice for prompts, but... since it seemed like it would take time to teach it seasonal nuances regarding additional recipes and market prices for ingredients, I decided to Eliminate that wasted effort.

Reconstructing meal planning

I decided to rethink my meal planning method using ChatGPT and look for an app that provides a wider variety of recipes.

I focused on finding features in an app such as:

Abundant recipes
Ability to specify the number of people
Ability to output a shopping list needed for the menu
Ability to swap and re-suggest menus

I searched with these as my main criteria.

Among them, I found an app called me:new.

Features and user experience of the me:new app

me:new is attractive not only because it has a wealth of recipes, but also because it supports Zojirushi automatic cooking pots for home use.

It also offers many other features that make meal planning much easier.

• Abundant recipes
  There is a wide variety of dishes, and it suggests main dishes, side dishes, staples, and soups.

• Support for automatic cooking pots
  There are many recipes that utilize Zojirushi's automatic cooking pots, which can save time and effort in cooking.

• Consideration of family structure
  It suggests recipes based on the user's family structure and the ages of their children.

• Ingredient management
  You can set ingredients you want to use or avoid, and recipes are suggested based on those settings.

• Shopping list compilation and editing
  A shopping list is automatically generated and can also be edited.

• Easy menu swapping
  You can easily swap days, re-suggest, add, or delete main dishes, side dishes, staples, and soups.

There is no doubt that daily meal preparation has become much smoother since I started using this app!!

In particular, the reduction in forgotten purchases and the recipe suggestions that take into account ingredient reuse and allergies have been very helpful.

It's starting to sound like an app introduction, so I'll stop here...

To summarize at the end

In summary, anyone can think of using AI or apps to streamline daily life, but I wanted to say that business frameworks are effective for providing the trigger for that and for finding areas for improvement!!

Frameworks are one of the effective means to obtain the best results for a certain matter, not just in business, so I would be happy if everyone could learn and utilize more frameworks.