What do you get when you cross Tenso and Tofugu?
Why, #Tensofugu, of course! The hoopy fish that keeps on giving.

A long time ago, when Tofugu was still just a fledgling blog, Koichi wrote a post. That post introduced readers to a new service known as “Tenso” that lets you buy and ship the things you love from Japan. You could also win a fantastic t-shirt by writing a haiku (no-doubt with traces of Koichi DNA that fetched wild prices at auction).

More than four years have gone by and both Tenso and Tofugu have grown up. Tofugu is now a multi-author Japan blog with almost daily content reaching out into the far corners of the internet. Tenso is now a successful shipping service and recently created sister site “Buyee” so you can bid on Yahoo! Japan Auctions from overseas!

In celebration of this, our past, and the queen, I’ve arranged special giveaway for Tofugu readers. You get the chance to win lots of free goodies from Japan, so long as you play along.

How Tenso Works

First, a brief re-cap. What is Tenso, exactly?

Tenso is a forwarding service that helps you to send the stuff you want from Japan to your home overseas.

All you need to do is sign up with Tenso (this gets you your very own Tenso mailing address in Japan). Afterwards, you use your Tenso address to shop on your favorite Japanese websites, such as Amazon.co.jp, Rakuten Japan, Hello Kitty Japan, DatingMakura.com… etc. You get the picture. Pretty much any Japanese online store you’ve ever dreamed of can ship your goods to your Tenso address. Then, Tenso takes your goods, repackages them, and sends them all to you.

You might wonder why this type of service is even necessary, though. Why not just buy directly from the Japanese store itself and ship it to your own address? Surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly), many Japanese stores do not offer shipping overseas. In addition, if you do a lot of shopping, you’d have to ship each item separately to yourself and that really makes things expensive. Those international shipping charges really add up! Shipping to your Tenso address, however, is very cheap because it’s within Japan (often times places will offer free shipping within Japan as well if you spend enough), and then by bundling your items together before sending it to yourself you’re able to save on shipping. It looks something like this:

After your items arrive at Tenso, you can choose to group them together into one big box. Tenso only charges a small service fee, so the savings can really add up quickly to save loads on international shipping. A few clicks later and your package is on its way to your address overseas.

So what if you have trouble navigating Japanese websites because of the language barrier? Or what if your overseas credit card is not accepted by the Japanese store? Do not fear! Tenso also operates a special buying service to solve this problem.

All you need to do is tell Tenso what you want to buy, the link to the item, the price, and the quantity. Tenso will check to make sure the item is available for purchase and then sends you a bill. You can pay via Paypal and then Tenso does the work of buying and shipping the item to their warehouse for you. Once your item is at the Tenso warehouse, you can pay the international shipping fee and send your item(s) to your address overseas.

It’s a bit like having your own personal friend in Japan, just without the embarrassment of constantly asking them to buy stuff for you.

Getting Those Fabulous Prizes

Okay. That’s enough about how Tenso works. You got the idea, right? Let’s get right down to it – the free stuff! It’s time for the Tenso x Tofugu Giveaway! Now, I (the Gakuranman) had to pull a few strings to get this many prizes available to you all. Koichi kept on saying “no” to this post until I made the prizes way better too.

The Prizes

So here’s what is available to you. Stay tuned for how you actually win these things.

2x 10,000 yen (roughly $100) prize to use for buying things from Japan. Free Tenso fees & Free shipping fees

Two winners will be chosen at the 10,000 yen prize level.

10x 2,000 yen prize (roughly $20) to use for buying things from Japan. Free Tenso fees, Winners pay for international shipping

Ten winners will be chosen at the 2,000 yen prize level.

(Note that, if you win, you can buy items worth more than your prize amount and pay the difference).

Time Limit

You have one week from the date of this Tofugu post to make your submission(s). So basically, Tuesday, November 5 2013, at around 9:00am, PDT.

How To Win

There are 6 ways you can enter the prize draw. That means that you have up to six chances to win one of the 12 prizes.

Step 1: Create an account on Tenso by clicking the big button below. It’s important to use this link to register otherwise we will not be able to contact you (and you won’t be able to win).

Step 2: Do any of the following six actions listed below (don’t forget the #tensofugu hashtag and don’t forget to make your shares public!) If you do everything you will have six chances to win!

1) Share this post on Facebook using the #tensofugu hashtag
Example: [ Share to win free stuff from Japan with Tenso.com! #tensofugu ]

Click to Share on Facebook

(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=404699859590133″;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

2) Share on Twitter using the #tensofugu hashtag
Example: [ Retweet to win free stuff from Japan with Tenso.com! #tensofugu ]

Tweet #tensofugu
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:'https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);

3) Share on Google+ using the #tensofugu hashtag
Example: [ Share to win free stuff from Japan with Tenso.com! #tensofugu ]

(function() {
var po = document.createElement(‘script’); po.type = ‘text/javascript’; po.async = true;
po.src = ‘https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();

4) Write a comment on this Tofugu post
Write a comment in reply to this blog post telling us what you want to buy most from Japan

Example: I want to buy DakiMakura and date one! #tensofugu

5) Bonus Entry: Facebook Like
Click [Like] on the Tenso Facebook page

(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1″;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

6) Bonus Entry: Twitter Follow
[Follow] Tenso on Twitter

Follow @Tensocom
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:'https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);

Step 3: Wait and (hopefully) profit.

That totals six possible entries per person. Remember, make sure to include the #tensofugu hashtag when you share the link on Facebook, Twitter and Google +, or your entry will not be counted!

Once the week is over, I will tally all the entries and draw twelve random winners. Afterwards I’ll contact you to let you know that you’ve won and how to claim your prize. That’s all there is to it!

Koichi’s Notes:

I like Tenso and have used them in the past with good experiences, which is why we’re going ahead and doing this giveaway (I know, we don’t usually do these!). It’s definitely nice to have a way to ship things to myself from Japan when a store doesn’t ship overseas. And sadly, I’m not getting any bribes or kickbacks for putting up this post, so hopefully you guys can enjoy this giveaway for me. Back to normal posting schedule tomorrow.

**********

This campaign has ended and the winners have been contacted. Please check your Facebook/Twitter/Google+/Email account to see if you received a message!

Recap Of John’s Productivity Post

Just a quick list with some commentary that is my own.

• Time Blocking Schedule: I love time blocking. I don’t do it to nearly the same extent as John, but I do time block “hard to deal with repetitive tasks” (also known as “emails”). In a day I usually only have 1-2 hours time blocked, and the rest of the time is free to do the things I’ve deemed most important of the day (more on that later).
• Don’t Put Things Off: I am so bad at this. Good advice, though.
• Eliminate Waste and Prioritize: I like this, and I think it relates to time boxing in a way. It also allows you to appreciate everything just a little bit more.
• Consolidating: Some good stuff here. I’d add “make it a tradition” as well.

Alright, now to move on to my own personal list life efficiency. Let’s start with one that will help you to waste less time reading all these time-wasting Tofugu articles.

Read Faster:

The trick here is to get faster at reading while not losing retention. In college, being a liberal arts major unprepared for the real world, I at least had to learn to do one thing right: read. Reading is great and fun and educational, but it takes a friggin’ long time especially when your teacher wants you to read a novel a night. One thing I wished that I had done was learn to speed read… or at the very least, read much faster.

While I haven’t put in the effort to truly speed read (I’m a pretty slow reader compared to others, to be honest) I’m now a lot faster than I was previously. The problem is that people tend to reach a point where their reading speed is “good enough” and once they hit that point they never feel the need to get faster. It’s painful to try to read faster than you’re used to, in fact, so you actually have to work hard at it, kind of like when you were a child learning to read for the first time. Just imagine, though: think of all the articles, book pages, etc., that you read right now. What if you could read them 3x as fast? What if you could read them 10x as fast? You’d have a lot more time. Or, you’d be able to read a lot more. Either is great in my opinion.

To get started with speed reading, this article is a good place to begin: Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes

Type Faster

While you’re learning to read faster, you should learn to write faster too. Since most writing happens on keyboards nowadays, learning to type faster makes a lot of sense. Yet (just like with reading) people get to a point where they’re “good enough” at typing and then just stop getting better. If you don’t purposely push yourself to type faster (and make typing mistakes while you do it) you’ll never get faster at typing. It’s uncomfortable but it’s going to save you a lot of time in the long run. A few minutes saved a day (or maybe a lot more) over many years will gain you a lot of productive time… or at the very least give you more time to rest. No matter what, learning to type faster is something great you can do for your productivity.

First, you should see how fast you can type. Now you have a number to measure and work off of when you get started. Here are some possible options:

1. Just make yourself type faster: If you consciously try to type faster you’ll type a little faster. You’ll also start to make mistakes with your typing, but this is good. Take note of one or two mistakes you make often when you’re typing faster than normal (maybe you type “ofc ourse” instead of “of course” consistently) and then focus on fixing that one thing. Continue pushing yourself to type faster and fix one of the errors. Once that is comfortable, either push yourself to type even faster or move to another common error you have to fix. Whatever you do, the main thing is that you focus on typing faster than you’re comfortable with. Uncomfortable = good in this situation.
2. Play typing games: I find this typing game by Notch (Minecraft creator) to be particularly challenging. There are many more out there. Main thing is to be sure you’re able to measure your speed and improvement over time. Put it in a spreadsheet to keep track of the data and see your progression. If you’re not making any, you should probably change something.
3. Try other keyboard layouts: While this may be more work than it’s worth, I’ve dabbled in this once or twice but never really got into it. Some people find a lot of success moving away from the traditional keyboard layout (which isn’t good for typing, but good for preventing typewriters from getting stuck). The best and most common alternative method is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard. It’s supposed to help with wrist pain and hand cramps as well, I hear. Problem is that you’re learning a completely new way to type, so expect a lot of growing pains if you try it.

The overall lesson here is that you should consciously try to get better at typing. Even if you’re an adult and no longer “learning to type” it’s a really helpful thing that for some reason people don’t realize that they can do. I’m at around 100wpm right now, and I’ve grown “comfortable” with it. I imagine I could get this up a bit higher if I actually tried but I’m stuck at that “good enough” stage right now. Maybe I will force myself to type faster now that I’ve written this article. 50% more words in the same amount of time sounds really nice, actually.

Shortcut Keys Galore

This sort of has to do with typing faster but in a different way. The gist is this: The more shortcut keys you’re fluent in, the more you’ll be able to get done in a shorter amount of time. Keep your hands on the keyboard and away from your mouse. A mouse feels faster, but it’s not. Most things have a keyboard equivalent, and every time you can use the keyboard and not reach for your mouse, move it, and then click, you’re saving a few seconds. Depending on how much you use your mouse, you may be saving yourself a lot of time over your lifetime.

Computer Shortcuts

The most basic kind of shortcut is your operating system’s keyboard shortcuts. Basics like ctrl+c, ctrl+v, and ctrl+s are just icing on the cake (cmd if you’re a Mac user, of course). There are a ton more worth learning as well. For some tasks I feel like a modern, less talented version of Franz Liszt. I think I would be the next great pianist if I played piano as much as I type. Oh well.

It wasn’t always this way for me, though. I thought keyboard shortcuts ended at the basics. Little did I realize that there was a keyboard shortcut for just about everything. When you run out of these, you can install applications that allow you to expand your ability to use shortcut keys. It’s a deep rabbit hole indeed.

One way to get better at using shortcut keys is to make it harder to use your mouse. You could put your mouse far away from you, forcing yourself to go get it, plug it in, and then put it back away from you when you’re done. Or, you could change the settings on your computer to disallow using your trackpad, if you have one. Basic idea is that if you make it harder to use your mouse than it is to not use your mouse, you’ll learn how to use your keyboard. If you don’t know how to do something, look it up (using shortcuts, of course). After a few days or a week of this, you’ll be a shortcut key master.

Just a warning: doing this will hurt productivity a ton for a while.

Quicksilver / Alfred

One way to increase the number of things you can do with just your keyboard is to install something like Quicksilver or Alfred (there are Windows alternatives out there as well, I believe). This allows you to set up a shortcut to open an application that lets you type in something to perform an action.

For example, I type in cmd+spacebar and Alfred opens up. Then, I can type in an application name to open it, control iTunes, quick search the web, make calculations, put my computer to sleep, open documents, get access to my passwords from 1Password, send an email, and much, much, much more, all from a few keystrokes. Combine that with the ability to type fast and you’ll be getting things done in no time.

Seriously, this app is probably one of my favorite things ever and I still probably only use 10% of its features.

TextExpander

Speaking of most favorite things ever, I talked about this application on BoingBoing’s podcast, Gweek, and absolutely love it. The premise is this: You can assign an abbreviation to something that you type a lot, and whenever you type it somewhere on your computer Textexpander knows notices this and expands it to the “full version” for you. For example, you could create the abbreviation “//sig” that spits out your email / forum signature. You are typing in five characters instead of 100. That’s a great trade, productivity-wise.

It only starts there, though. Maybe you’re a programmer and have a snippet of code you type a lot. Or, maybe you’re writing mnemonics for WaniKani and have to write the same thing over and over again for certain vocabulary / kanji / etc. Or better yet, maybe you have to write similar email responses to the same kinds of questions over and over again (I’m looking at you people who keep emailing me to ask why さ/ち/ふ/そ/etc is written in different ways). The possibilities really are endless. Go take a look at examples of people’s TextExpander workflows to gain some inspiration. My favorite thing is to add kaomoji to TextExpander whenever I can.

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ (when I type //ktable this appears!)

After a month or two, take a look at your statistics. I save around 10 hours a month using TextExpander (based on typing speed and characters saved). I could probably save a lot more if I added more email-related abbreviations. That’s a lot of real time saved, though. TextExpander is really, really amazing.

Take Naps

If there’s one thing that helps me with productivity, it’s to take a nap. I could sit around not really getting anything done for two hours or I could take a 20-30 minute nap and get a lot done in the remaining hour and a half. Just be sure to never go beyond the 30 minute mark or you’ll feel groggy. 20 is even better, I think.

While you’re at it, get enough sleep at night. While there was a time when I thought sleep was a waste of time (oh to be young again), getting enough sleep really does help a lot. Use an eye cover for better sleep and make sure your room is cold, if possible. You’ll feel better for it and get more done overall.

Organization & To-dos

To stay productive, it really does help to be organized. That being said, there are different ways to be organized. For me, I just try to put everything someplace that’s searchable. Once it’s in that magic place I can forget and not worry about it anymore. It’s there if I need it. This way, I can keep the “important” things in my brain simple and I find myself getting way less distracted. In general, here’s how I do it, though it won’t be the best way for everyone.

Evernote

We’ve mentioned Evernote quite a bit on Tofugu. It’s obvious we love the application and use it for a lot of things, including organization. Anything I don’t want to forget I put into here, from pics of bottles of wine I liked, to gifs I use (I have a whole gif notebook, sadly), to Tofugu company docs (we use Evernote for Business as well), to trip itineraries, to things I’m studying, to shopping lists, to articles I want to save, to pics of my kendo notes after every practice, to run on sentences like this one… Main purpose is to get these things out of my head and somewhere safe. I can access them on the web, on my phone, or on my computer. It even takes my text notes and makes them searchable. I have an offline version of everything as well. Now I don’t need to worry about all the little things. I just put it in Evernote and forget about it until I need to remember again.

To-Do Lists

I don’t really use to-do lists like most people. My to-do lists tend to be very disposable and short. I’ve gone back and forth on how to use to-do lists though, and this is the method I’ve found to be most productive (for me).

1. At the end of each day, write your to-do list for the next day. Only one day, not any longer.
2. To-do list should contain only a few things at the most. 2-3 is usually good. If you finish that list, you feel good and then can work on something else (or not feel guilty stopping for the day, maybe).
3. At the end of the day, throw away your to-do list (or delete it). I actually hand write my list out on small pieces of paper. It’s one of the few things I hand write these days. Post-it notes are good due to their small size as it forces you to not write too many things down.
4. When it’s the end of your day write your to-do list for the next day. Rinse and repeat.

That’s how my to-do list method goes. It prevents your lists from getting too long (and eventually demoralizing and impossible to complete). As for other long-term things I want to “do” — I put them into Evernote as “ideas.” They’re not “to-dos” this way, which makes me feel less distracted. Occasionally I’ll go through them and pull the things that are applicable to the moment. The more to-dos you have the more that’s on your mind and the less you’re able to focus. Lack of focus = lack of productivity. I think it’s important to keep things simple.

30-30 Method

This method is very nice if you’re feeling particularly unproductive or unmotivated. Idea is simple: Just work for 30 minutes and play for 30 minutes. Forcing yourself to play after 30 minutes makes you want to work (reverse psychology on yourself!). Plus, it makes you focus during those 30 minutes that you’re working, and a focused 30 minutes is better than an unfocused two hours, in my opinion. Important thing here is to stay strict on yourself (you must play the 30 minutes for this to work) and make adjustments where necessary (maybe you’d be better with the 10-10 method or the 60-60 method). Figure out what works for you, though I recommend starting with 30-30 as it seems to work for the most people and gives you enough time to actually do something, but not so much that tasks get big and unwieldy.

Automation

And, if the methods above weren’t efficient enough for you, here’s the most efficient thing of all: automation. With automation, once everything’s all set up you don’t have to do anything. You just sit back, relax, and watch your world spin. The more you can automate the more time you’ll have for something less soul sucking. How nice!

Gmail Filters

I can barely keep up with emails as it is, so this is an absolute must for me. Basically, anything that isn’t from a person sending something directly to me gets filtered using Gmail’s “filters” feature. Is it a Tofugu Comment notification? Automatically get it out of the inbox and into the “comments” label so I can look at them at my leisure some other time. Is it a mailing list I haven’t been able to unsubscribe from (I’m looking at you, Gamestop / JCrew)? Automatically delete it and mark it as spam, please! Is it from a relative, friend, or someone that I deem important in my life? Better star it and mark it as important so it goes to the top of my email list.

One neat thing I did with filters before I went to Taiwan / Japan / other places last month was to set up an auto-responder that would respond to anyone not on the “secret list” telling them that I was on  vacation and that they should email the support Tofugu/TextFugu/WaniKani email address instead, because their email just got archived and I wouldn’t be reading it. Then, just like the threat explained, their email was archived and I didn’t feel bad about not reading it. True vacation! Now, I hate vacation responders as much as the next person, but I can tell you that this felt really, really good to do. Depending on how things go the next couple weeks this may become a permanent feature in my inbox :p It has saved me a ton of time, and would allow me to focus more.

Learn about and use Gmail filters if you’re not already. It will make your life so much more worth living.

Boomerang / Mailbox

Speaking of emails, there’s a couple of other things I do in order to stay sane. Boomerang is something you can install on your Gmail inbox that let’s you do a few things. First, it can hide emails when you don’t want to see them and then makes them reappear when you do. Second (and the feature I like the best) you can schedule when your written emails get sent out. For example, even though I’m writing my emails every day from 12p-1p (time boxing!), I can have some of those emails send at 2am the following morning. I find that if I do this, I have fewer people responding right away and I can get to inbox zero a lot more easily. This helps me to stay on task and focused.

Another app that I like which is iOS only right now is Mailbox. I use it to move things out of my inbox that I don’t want to see right now. With a quick left-swipe I can tell the app to make an email (or all my emails) reappear in a few hours, a week, the next day, or any other time that I specify. Out of sight, out of mind… and when something is out of your mind it’s not nagging at you or taking away any of your focus. It’s kind of a cheaters way to gain inbox zero, but it doesn’t feel like I’m cheating on my end. Give it a try to see what I mean.

IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a fun and useful web app that lets you automate the internet to your benefit (or amusement). Here’s some examples of things I do myself, using IFTTT (though there’s so much more you can do, personalized to your wants and needs).

• If it’s the day before a payday day, I get a text message reminding me to pay people their hard earned Fugu Dollars (what Tofugu employees are compensated in).
• If I post an image on Instagram, I automatically back it up to Dropbox.
• If I post something to Instagram, it will automatically get posted on the Koichi Facebook Page, which is nice because Instagram only lets you associate one Facebook thing to your Instagram account.
• If I post something to Instagram, it automatically emails the photo and subtitle to my mom, who doesn’t use Facebook or Instagram, but does use email. Here’s another picture of a kaiju, mom!
• If I favorite a tweet, it gets saved to Evernote.
• If I go somewhere on Foursquare, it gets added to my UP stream so I have a better idea of why my walk data spiked (or didn’t spike).
• If I add a contact to my phone, it gets backed up to a Google Spreadsheet.
• If I’m tagged in a photo on Facebook it gets downloaded to Dropbox.

There’s an amazingly large amount of other automated tasks you can run using IFTTT, but these are some of the ones that I like for myself. You can see how a lot of these tasks save me time (or just do things I wouldn’t normally do, automatically). You can browse a ton of “recipes” on the site as well to find out what others are doing.

Fancy Hands, Mechanical Turk, Task Rabbit, And More

This is the one section that I don’t really do myself but really want to get into. Automation via other people’s time in exchange for your $$$ seems like a nice enough trade, though it’s going to take me a little getting used to when I finally do get around to it. I have “issues” with letting other people do things for me sometimes…

Fancy Hands

I have a friend who uses this a lot, and I’ve seen the time-savings in action. One day he had them call Comcast (ugghhh) and cancel his old account since he just moved. They told Comcast all the info they could, then put Comcast on hold (ha!) and called my friend to get the last details that they needed to get the account canceled. Then they went back to the Comast call to get everything closed out and canceled. My friend didn’t have to wait on hold, didn’t have to talk to Comcast, and only had to answer a couple quick questions for the Fancy Hands representative. Usually they don’t call you at all, though this time some specific information was needed.

You can have them do any task that takes around 15 minutes to complete, and depending on your plan you have 5, 25, or more tasks at your disposal. Essentially it’s around $5/task, which isn’t all that bad of a trade to me. If I get an extra 1:15 per month for $25 that’s a trade I’d be willing to make. It gets more economical the more you are able to use it. Plus, the ability to not have to talk to Comcast’s BS is priceless. HOW DO YOU PUT A VALUE ON THAT?

Mechanical Turk

I’ve used Mechanical Turk a little bit in the past, mostly to transcribe audio to text. It’s useful for repetitive tasks that you can’t automate using a computer (though that’s becoming less and less common these days). The best part is you can break up spreadsheets into many tasks that many people do. For example, maybe you have a lot of pictures that you want to sort through. You need to know if there is a person in each picture. Put them all in a spreadsheet and have one person on Mechanical Turk do one picture. With thousands of people, this gets done very quickly. Suddenly you know what pictures have people in them, and you can organize them as such. At (I’m guessing based on past experience) one or two cents a picture, that’s very economical.

TaskRabbit

Along with Fancy Hands, this is one I want to try and use. I almost used it to get an In-n-Out Burger delivered to me during a flight layover in SFO (but ended up being a bit too expensive to justify). There are more uses than that, though. Say I don’t want to go grocery shopping, or maybe I want a wall painted, or perhaps I’m too lazy to go buy office supplies… TaskRabbit will allow you to put up a job and pay someone else to do that for you in an efficient and timely manner. You could do this on Craigslist as well, but TaskRabbit is going to be more reliable (more expensive, though). I have a feeling that once I start to use Task Rabbit I’ll never stop. Sounds like a really promising way to save time to me. Plus, I hate grocery shopping.

And More…

There are other options within this pay-to-be-productive realm as well. You can hire a (virtual) personal assistant for quite cheap these days, for example. There are other services that are like the ones I’ve listed above, too. It all depends on where you are and what you want to get done.

Relax A Little

There’s always more ways to become more productive in life, but sometimes it becomes too much and too stressful. Take it a little bit at a time, and work these tips into your life over a long period. If you do it all at once it’ll probably kill you. And, if you’re getting too overwhelmed, take a break. Sometimes a little rest is the best thing of all for your productivity. You’ll feel ready to go when you get back from your break and get a lot done before something/someone vile crushes all your hopes and dreams again. If this happens just rest again! You’ll get there eventually.

Hope something in this super-long post helped you. See, if you had taken my advice and learned to speed read you’d have been through this post way faster. Ha! Let me know some of your productivity tips in the comments below. We can all lose some productivity together by reading about productivity, you dig?

I think a lot of people don’t manage their time all that well. Many people probably don’t even realize it. If you could be more productive and have more free time to boot, wouldn’t you take that opportunity? Think of how much more Japanese you could study! Well, you could apply time management to any aspect of your life and use the benefits for any reason, but we’ll be focusing mostly on applying it to Japanese here. Let’s begin.

Time Blocking

I wrote about it a little bit before, but scheduling my time/blocking off my time has been and still is a great help to me getting everything done that I want to get done. Currently, I don’t use this technique every day, but I used to.

Since I used to schedule my time every day, I got very used to blocking off time and effectively scheduling days in my head. I still use the technique, but mostly I use it now on the weekends or when I have a lot more to accomplish in one day than usual.

Basically the idea behind this is that when you plan out your day you can see all the things you have to get done and knowing what time to start and stop the activities keeps you on track and keeps you from getting distracted. See below for an example schedule of a week.

Knowing that you have to study Japanese from this time to this time every day develops a habit and keeps you on track. And since I schedule things in 30 minute blocks, I usually have 5-10 minutes of “free time” in between activities. I use this “free time” to check Facebook, emails, YouTube, whatever. It works for me.

I also try not to schedule anything for longer than an hour (unless it’s an activity out of the house, like going out with friends, seeing a movie, or something like that). For me, I feel that if I play a game or study or read for longer than an hour or so I start to enjoy it less.

When I limit my activities to an hour or less and break them up with other activities, I find that I get more excited about coming back to said activity and really get more out of it in the end.

I have a full-time day job, I work for Tofugu, and I work out for about an hour every day. And yet, I still feel like I have plenty of time to play video games, read books, study Japanese, watch movies, hang out with friends, and catch up on Breaking Bad.

Don’t Put Things Off

Which brings me to my next point. If someone gives me really short notice on wanting to hang out some evening, going out to a party some night, or even an impromptu camping trip this weekend – most often I have no problem just going ahead and doing that. Why? Because I’ve already got most, if not all, of my things taken care of beforehand. Since I’m so productive every day, it’s relatively easy for me to make time for fun things and friends when they suddenly come up.

If I put everything off until the last minute all the time, I’d miss out. But since I schedule my time and spread my responsibilities out, I can afford to drop everything to do something fun. I know that I’ve already accomplished a lot that week and I know that I’ll be able to effectively manage my time to finish up anything remaining when I need to.

Of course, you can’t just drop everything all the time – otherwise you won’t get anything done! You need to learn to prioritize. You need to find that healthy balance between work and play. It is most definitely achievable. I think I’ve done it, and I know you can too.

Eliminate Waste and Prioritize

Are you aware of how much time you waste each day? If yes, stop doing those wasteful things. If you’re not aware of how much time you’re wasting every day, I’d recommend figuring out what those things are, and then getting rid of them.

Do you spend too much time on the internet? Surfing YouTube, Reddit, or Facebook? Do you really need to do those things? Are they that important to you? Well, maybe they are.

But if there are other things that are also important to you, then you need to prioritize. Have you ever heard someone say that “they didn’t have time” for something? Truth is, they had plenty of time for whatever it was, it just wasn’t a priority. You gotta prioritize.

If you find yourself lying in bed at the end of the day wishing that you’d studied more Japanese, feeling guilty about how you spent your time – do something about it. Would you feel guilty if you spent less time on Facebook or playing Candy Crush? No, probably not.

What things are most important for you to accomplish? If the three most important things for you are studying Japanese, playing video games, and hanging out with your significant other, make time for those things first. Put those things into your daily schedule first and then fill in the blanks with things of lesser importance around them.

If you do things each day that are important to you, you’ll feel more accomplished and less guilty for anything that you didn’t fit in come the end of the day. It’s a great feeling and it’s something I enjoy every day.

Consolidating

Another great way to save time is by doing two things at once. Do you drive to and from work or school? Do you exercise? Run? Cook? You could be doing other things at the same time. The first thing that comes to mind is passive Japanese study. I’ve touched on this a little bit before.

Let’s say in a normal day you drive to and from work and it takes you 15 minutes each way. Then in the evening you spend 30 minutes cooking dinner and another 30 minutes going for a run. If you just listened to Japanese (TV shows, audiobooks, language learning tapes) during that time, you’d have 1.5 hours of passive study taken care of that day without adding any extra time for it.

If you can find things like this during your day that you can effectively combine – you’re essentially putting more hours into your day. If you don’t consolidate time like in the previous paragraph’s example, you’d be spending a full 1.5 hours of your precious evening studying Japanese when you didn’t have to.

Of course when you consolidate, it’s important to do it intelligently. Passively studying Japanese while driving to and from work is a smart idea. Reading a book while you are driving is not. It’s up to you to determine what activities of yours make the most sense to consolidate without sacrificing anything (efficiency, safety, etc).

Assignment

So here’s what I want you to try. Like I said, if you already know what you do that isn’t productive – stop doing those things or at least do them less. That’s a good start. If you don’t know (and even if you think you do, you might be surprised), it might be a good idea to record how you spend your time one day, or even a handful of days to get a better feel for how you actually spend your time in a given week.

Record what time you wake up, how long you take for breakfast, shower, school, work, games, studies, etc. Basically just make a schedule like I talked about before, except you’re just using it to record your day. Then when the day is over, you can look back at everything you did and exactly how much time you spent doing things.

For some of you, this might be a real eye opener. You might not have realized that you spend 2 hours each day just farting around on the internet not actually accomplishing anything. You might not have realized that over a full week you spend less time studying Japanese than you spend bathing. Who knows? It’s worth taking the time to find out.

Once you have a good idea of how much time you actually spend on everything, you can see where cuts can be made. You can see what activities can be consolidated. Do you really need to spend 2 hours on Facebook each day? Of course not. Allocate an hour of that to studying Japanese, 30 minutes of that to playing video games, and the other 30 minutes can still be used for Facebook. Or something. Do what you need to do. Prioritize and organize your life.

After you do this, just try and schedule one day. At least one day – a week if you can, just to see how much more productive you really can be. I usually schedule my day in the morning or shortly after getting back from work, but do what works for you. If you feel more productive and accomplished by the end of the week/day, you’ll know that it’s working.

How many hours of Japanese do you want to study each week? Schedule that many blocked hours into your week and stick to it. It’s all laid out in front of you and at specific times. If you miss one block, reschedule it for later. If your initial goal is too much or too little, adjust it until you’re comfortable. This is your personal schedule, so you’re in total control here.

Stay Positive

A lot of this comes down to your attitude too. If you’re positive and open minded about things, it’s a lot easier to be motivated. This kind of fits in with the “Assignment” section, but I’m making this its own header to really drive home how important I think this is.

I’ve read a lot of books that have reinforced my positive attitude and really motivated me. The most recent book I’ve read about positive thinking was “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen. It was first published in 1902, but it’s not difficult to read at all. It’s only about 60 pages long and it’s a super easy read. I really enjoyed it, and I think anyone could get something out of it.

All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts.

As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

So if you have some free time – read this book. Seriously. It’s such a short book and you can read it for free online. There’s no reason not to check it out. Maybe you won’t like it as much as I did, but I really hope that you do. It really gets you pumped and inspired about everything. Your attitude towards life is incredibly important.

It’s Not For Everyone

Now, I know scheduling your life is not for everyone. I know some people who are diametrically opposed to blocking off time every day or doing anything similar to what I do. That’s fine. I understand. But if you want to get more out of every day and really feel accomplished each night when you go to bed, I think trying to incorporate some if not all of these ideas would be a great help.

And it’s not like the daily schedules are carved in stone. You’re the one making these schedules for yourself. You can change them. You can adjust them. It’s all up to you. If you possess self-control and discipline, you can accomplish everything you need to do and still have the time and flexibility to live your life. If I can do it, you can too.

So tell me, do any of you do anything remotely similar to what I do? What do you find works best for you and what would you suggest to others trying to make the most of their time (studying Japanese or otherwise)? Share your thoughts and advice down in the comments!

And if you took the time to read “As A Man Thinketh” (well done!), let me know what you thought of it.

P.S. Want more productivity tips? Read Part 2, this time from Koichi’s perspective.

That’s why I love documentaries about Japan so much. They give you a look into some of the most interesting things happening in Japan without having to buy a plane ticket there.

Cruising around YouTube, you can find a lot of documentaries about Japan that you can watch for free that cover lots of different subjects and angles. Here are some of the most interesting ones I’ve found:

Children Full of Life (2003)

Japanese school children consistently score incredibly high in virtually every subject compared to children in the rest of the world. Some of that it’s because the Japanese method of teaching is very different from, say, the American way of teaching.

Sometimes though, children thrive not because of the teaching methods, but because of their enthusiastic and dedicated teacher. Such is the case with Children Full of Life, which follows Japanese school teacher Toshiro Kanamori and his students.

Kanamori’s methods are unorthodox, even in Japan, but his results are evident. The children clearly love Kanamori, and learn empathy, openness, and other life lessons that usually aren’t found in school curricula.

Children Full of Life is an emotional, touching documentary and an incredible look into the world of a Japanese child.

Suicide Forest in Japan (2012)

You might have read our post about Aokigahara: the infamous suicide forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji, but have you seen it for yourself? Vice, a magazine that does a lot of bizarre documentaries (including a great series on North Korea), visited Aokigahara and talked to Azusa Hayano, a man who’s ventured into the infamous forest for decades.

It’s a disturbing documentary for sure, but also incredibly eye-opening. If you’ve ever wondered about what the depths of Japan’s infamous suicide forest looks like, then be sure to check this out.

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987)

For better or worse, many people still think about WWII when they think about Japan. You’ve probably learned a bit about Japan’s takeover of Asia, its bombing and defeat, and its occupation and reconstruction.

But in between all of that big picture stuff, things fall between the cracks. One of those lost stories is of Kenzo Okuzaki, a former soldier in Japan’s imperial army who’s come to repent for his former life and rebel against a system with which he’s become so disillusioned.

He went to prison for crimes such as murder, slandering the emperor, and shooting a slingshot at the Imperial Palace. Okuzaki’s car is plastered with political messages (and a beginner’s sticker), and he’s incredibly aggressive in his everyday life about his message.

Okuzaki’s story is a microcosm of post-war regret, shame, and anger that most people outside of Japan aren’t really aware of. Japan did horrible things during WWII, and Okuzaki’s story is just one of the most extreme examples of the country’s post-war introspection.

A Normal Life: Chronicle Of A Sumo Wrestler (2009)

Sumo wrestling is one of the most readily identifiable Japanese things out there; ask people around the world what they think about when they think of Japan, and no doubt sumo is one of the top subjects.

A Normal Life is a French documentary that follows the beginning of a career in sumo through the eyes of Takuya Ogushi, a young man from Hokkaido. You get to see his first nine months at a Tokyo sumo stable, learning the basics, dealing with homesickness, and bulking the hell up. Gotta put on mass!

It’s nice to have a look at sumo in a modern-day context, seeing all of the ins and outs of the sport, rather than relying on old images and stereotypes. And you really start to feel for Ogushi, who quickly realizes he’s in over his head.

Interview with a Cannibal (2012)

We’ve written before about Japan’s most famous cannibal, Issei Sagawa, but the difference between reading about him and listening to him speak is massive, and disturbing.

It goes without saying that this interview is unsettling and a bit graphic, so be prepared before watching this upsetting video.

Baby Drain (2013)

It’s no secret that Japan’s population has been slowly, but steadily shrinking for decades now, but the practical effects of smaller population aren’t always talked about.

The short documentary Baby Drain takes a look at one of the most visible effects of the shrinking population. The results may seem obvious in retrospect, but it’s not until you see the effects first-hand that they really stick.

Baby Drain looks at schools with class sizes of one, hospitals that care for the elderly, and the fantasical future of robotic care.

The movie is a little alarmist (the narrator claims a few times that the Japanese could go extinct) and, coming in at a mere 17 minutes, Baby Drain isn’t a typical, feature-length documentary; but it’s still incredibly insightful.

The Japanese Version (1991)

If you’ve studied Japanese culture, The Japanese Version can come across as almost laughably naïve. The documentary opens up with astounding revelations like Japanese people “take off their shoes indoors” and “they eat strange things.”

But this early 90^s American documentary shot by two guys who basically know nothing about Japan is valuable not for the deep insights that it provides, but for the perspective it’s made from.

The fact that the filmmakers have no clue about Japan means that you get to see the country and the culture through a different set of eyes. The Japanese Version is almost less about Japanese culture and more about the filmmakers’ own biases and preconceptions.

The Japanese Version is dated, focuses a little too much on “weird Japan,” and there are some inaccuracies/simplifications (“the whole [Japanese] language comes from China”); but it’s still an interesting and educational snapshot, if you understand the context.

Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail (2012)

We wrote about Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail at length last year, so I won’t talk too much about it; but it’s definitely worth a mention here.

Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail is refereshing because, unlike a lot of documentaries about Japan, it doesn’t deal with the very basics of Japanese culture, nor does it go for the “weird Japan” angle.

You can read our full write up and find all five parts here.

Bonus!

Check out some wallpaper-sized and animated GIF versions of the header image of this post, courtesy of our hard-working illustrator, Aya!

Animated GIF (1280×800)

Wallpaper (2560×1440)

People say that nothing in life is free, that everything has a price. But you know what? Those people are wrong. Every once in a while, life gives you a break and presents you with an awesome opportunity. How does a free trip to Japan sound?

In an effort to combat the slump in tourism that followed the 3/11 disaster, Japan’s Tourism Ministry is planning to give away 10,000 plane tickets to foreigners to come to Japan with a program called Fly to Japan. That’s right, 10,000 lucky foreigners will ride to Japan in style courtesy of the Japanese government. Think of it like Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket times a thousand.

Of course, the Japanese government won’t be giving these plane tickets to just anybody. To get a ticket, you’ll have to fill out an online application asking why you want to visit Japan, where you want to go, and what you think about Japan since 3/11. And after your trip, you’ll be asked to write a report about your visit that will be published online.

In a nutshell, this is a big PR campaign for Japan to convince people that post-3/11 Japan is still a safe place, and the government hopes that the people who win the tickets will spread a word-of-mouth message that Japan’s an awesome place to visit.

Not all of the details have been finalized yet, so the application isn’t available online at the moment. But by all reports, Japan’s Tourism Ministry is dead serious about Fly to Japan and plans to give away the tickets sometime in 2012. Look for updates on the Japan National Tourism Organization’s website here.

Now to be clear, this will just cover airfare to Japan. Once you get off of the plane, you’re completely on your own. Still, this is a huge opportunity. Getting a free flight to Japan? That’s pretty amazing. This is seriously a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so if you’ve ever had an interest in visiting Japan, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on Fly to Japan. This could be life-changing.

P.S. Where would you go in Japan? Tell me on Twitter!
P.S.S. What would you want to do there? Let me know on Facebook!

I put it up on the Japanese Resources page around a week ago (and it’s been on TextFugu a bit before that), but thought I should share it all with you here, since I think it will help a lot of you out. Being able to conjugate nouns, adjectives, and verbs isn’t terribly difficult, but it does require some nasty memorization for beginners … and I’ve never been a fan of memorization when I can help it (much better to memorize things other ways, I think. Stuffing your brain with repetition doesn’t do the trick for most people, even when they think it does). In order to help with this I came up with a Japanese Conjugation Cheatsheet. There was some thinking behind it, too, if you want to know why the cheatsheet is set up the way it is.

Simple And Not A Crutch

The whole goal was to make something that wouldn’t be too much of a crutch. The thing I worry about the most with cheatsheets is that people are using them instead of actually learning things. I’ve made sure the cheatsheet was set up in a way that won’t actually teach you about conjugating nouns, adjectives, and verbs. This cheatsheet is for people who have already learned it, but don’t know everything off the top of their head. Still, if you’re using this cheatsheet, it’s a good idea to be able to do all this (for the most part) on your own.

Really, the minimal amount of information is present. There’s information on:

• Neutral/Formal Nouns
• Neutral/Formal Adjectives
• Neutral/Formal Verbs
• A small reminder on how to convert from ます form to Dictionary Form
• Casual Nouns
• Casual Adjectives
• Casual Verbs

It will tell you how to do present/future, past, negative, and past negative tenses. Beyond that, there’s nothing else. It doesn’t cover the billion other things it could cover, because I wanted to keep things simple. Besides, if you don’t know the things on the cheatsheet, it’s really hard to learn anything else, so think of this cheatsheet as a cheatsheet for the foundations you need to learn to be awesome.

Formal vs. Informal

Another thing I wanted to do is make sure there was a way for people to visually see the difference between formal and informal, since I think the difference between the two are really important when learning Japanese. Both of them are good to know, so I’ve put them both on the cheatsheet. I didn’t include any of the super informal stuff, or the super formal stuff – only the stuff that’s going to be useful 90%+ of the time.

The cheatsheet positions the formal / informal conjugations in a vertical fashion, where formal is on top, and as you go down it gets more informal. Anyways, it’s pretty obvious when you actually look at the conjugation cheatsheet :)

Download It!

You can download it for free right here – Definitely share it with your Japanese-learning friends, classmates, teachers, etc. Might be helpful. If you use it and like it, please “recommend” it on the Japanese Resources page. Really appreciate it!

Download Page

Also, if you’re into this kind of thing, there’s the somewhat similar and possibly even more useful “Japanese Particles Cheatsheet.” Enjoy!

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