How to use this
Make your own copy, then work through the tabs as you make each home, field, connection, and retirement decision.
Work with your completed Tool Sprawl Audit open beside you. The audit told you where things live. This worksheet is where you decide where they should live.
Fill it in the order it appears. Part 1 forces the naming and home decisions. Part 2 defines what each record minimally contains and connects to. Part 3 lists what gets retired. Do not skip to Part 3 because it feels productive. The retirement list only makes sense after the homes are chosen.
Part 1: Name and home
One row per object. Your name for it is whatever you actually call it out loud. The official home is one tool, not two.
| Object | Your name for it | Where it lives today | Official home going forward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idea | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Content | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Campaign | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Offer | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Lead | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Client | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Task | Write here | Write here | Write here |
| Asset | Write here | Write here | Write here |
Where the two right-hand columns differ, that row is a migration. Mark it. Every marked row shows up again in Part 3.
Start with your hero object from the audit, the row that had marks everywhere. Its home decision is the hardest and the most valuable, and making it first makes every other row feel easy.
Part 2: Fields and connections
For each object, confirm or edit the minimum fields, then list what it must link to. Cross out what you do not need. Add sparingly.
Idea
Fields: the idea itself · source · status
Connects to: the content or offer it becomes
Content
Fields: title · format · channel · status · publish date
Connects to: originating idea · campaign · offer it sells · assets it uses
Campaign
Fields: goal · date range · status
Connects to: content inside it · offer it promotes · leads it generates
Offer
Fields: name · price · what is included · who it is for
Connects to: campaigns that promote it · content that sells it · clients who bought it
Lead
Fields: name · contact · source · stage · next action
Connects to: campaign that produced them · offer they are considering · client record they become
Client
Fields: contact · active offers · status · key dates
Connects to: origin lead · purchases · active work · content made for them
Task
Fields: what · who · when · status
Connects to: the object the work is for
Asset
Fields: what it is · file location · usage notes
Connects to: content and offers that use it
Part 3: The retirement list
Every place an object lives outside its official home goes on this list with a verdict.
- Sync means the tool keeps displaying the object, but edits only happen at the home.
- Freeze means it stays as a read-only archive and nothing new goes in.
- Delete means it goes away.
| Object | Duplicate location | Verdict | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete | |
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete | |
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete | |
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete | |
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete | |
| Write here | Write here | Sync, freeze, or delete |
Pull these straight from your audit’s duplication grid. Every mark that is not the official home earns a row here. If a row sits without a verdict for more than a day, the honest verdict is usually freeze. Deciding to decide later is how shadow databases are born.
A worked example
Here is what a finished Part 1 looks like for a solo brand strategist who sells a course and one-to-one consulting. Her stack: HubSpot, Kit, Notion, Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Asana. Yours will differ. The shape should not.
| Object | Her name for it | Where it lived | Official home going forward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idea | Sparks | Apple Notes, Notion, voice memos | Notion |
| Content | Posts | Notion, Google Drive, Kit | Notion |
| Campaign | Launches | Kit, Google Sheets | Notion |
| Offer | Offers | Proposals in Drive, her memory | Notion |
| Lead | Prospects | HubSpot, Kit, a Sheets export | HubSpot |
| Client | Clients | HubSpot, Drive folders | HubSpot |
| Task | To-dos | Asana, sticky notes | Asana |
| Asset | Library | Drive, her desktop | Google Drive |
Notice the pattern. She did not buy anything new. Notion became the home for the objects she creates, HubSpot for the objects that are people, Asana for work, and Drive for files. Four homes, eight objects, zero new subscriptions.
And here is a slice of her Part 3, pulled straight from that middle column.
| Object | Duplicate location | Verdict | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | Kit | Sync — Kit displays prospects; edits happen in HubSpot | ✓ |
| Lead | Sheets export from that event | Freeze — imported once, then read-only | ✓ |
| Content | Google Drive | Sync — files live in Drive; the record lives in Notion | ✓ |
| Offer | Her memory | Delete — replaced by a written record | ✓ |
| Idea | Apple Notes | Freeze — new sparks go to Notion; old notes stay put |
The offer row is the one to sit with. Her offers were never written down anywhere, which means her memory was the source of truth and every proposal was a fresh reconstruction. Writing the record did not just retire a duplicate. It retired a job.
Completion check
You are done when all four are true.
- Every object in Part 1 has exactly one official home written down. Not a favorite and a backup. One.
- Every object in Part 2 has a field list you actually trimmed. If all eight still show every suggestion untouched, you copied instead of decided.
- Every duplicate from your audit appears in Part 3 with a verdict, and the verdicts are underway.
- You can answer “where does a lead live?” in one word without checking.
When all four hold, your object model exists. Take it into your first module and build against it.