Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Check how you live.
いかに生きているか調べよう。

 

We all have a limited time in our life, no matter how we perceive it — either long or short. And probably many of us want to make the most of it.

In the company I used to work for, people were proud of working longer hours. Actually they had to stay in the office for longer hours because of the culture of the company. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they always get more things done. I often saw people filling their time by doing things slowly or doing non-essential things, although they all pretended as if they were working really hard.

If you think that’s not the way you live your life, I agree with you. But even if you think that’s the way you live your life, I wouldn’t argue. Because we all have the right to choose how we live.

No matter how we live, it’s better to revisit how we use our time occasionally. Visualize it whenever possible, so that we would have better understanding of it. You might want to spend your life as you want — because we all have a limited time in our life.

 

 

Don’t just keep it simple.
ただ単にシンプルにしない。

 

We prefer simplicity in our life. But creating something simple is not always easy.

On the other day, I started creating a logo for my client. But in my first attempt, I ended up with an illustration. The graphic I initially created had too many information – the things that might give a wrong perception about what the company is. On my second try, what I created was too simple; it didn’t have enough information that helps people understand what the company is.

Simplicity is NOT for the sake of simplicity; it is for the sake of better awareness, communication, and/or functionality. It is vital that we find the essential to achieve simplification of something, but that’s not enough – we need to ADD the bare minimum needed to help people understand, communicate, or function better.

Just throwing things away won’t help you organize your home or office – it can make an empty space, but that’s probably not the simplicity you want. Figuring out what is essential to you, how they interconnect and how you can make the most of them is the entry point for ideal simplicity.

 

 

Show your appreciation.
感謝の気持ちを表そう。

 

To say thank you is easy. Not to say thank you is also easy. But the outcome is completely different.

Until my mid-thirties, I worked for the company that people at the senior management levels rarely say ‘thank you.’ Well, at least to me. No matter how hard I worked, they just ignored me. They never said anything about my accomplishments. Instead, they often treated me like a criminal and interrogated me as if I always did something wrong. How could I stay motivated and trust higher managements of the company in such situation? Of course not.

It takes just a few seconds to say ‘thank you.’ But it may take years to restore broken relationship and rebuild trust — or after all, we may not be able to do so forever. It’s clear which is better for us.

 

 

Create your focus mode.
自分の「集中モード」を創ろう。

 

If you are employed and work from Monday to Friday, I never suggest working in the office on the weekend — unless it makes you happy. But if you have to, do it as an experiment — to figure out how you can enter the “flow” state.

I didn’t always love my job, but I liked working in the office on the weekend — it can be one of the quietest place in the world. No phone call. No incoming email. No one disturbed me. I was able to try anything to make me stay highly focused and get many things done. My favorite way to get in the zone was to wear headphones and listen to drum and bass mix while working, although I couldn’t do this on weekdays because I worked for very conservative companies as one of the management team.

Once you find the way to get you focused, it will help you for the rest of your life. Because you know how to become highly productive and get things done in a short period of time when needed.