6 Japanese Practices That Might Help You Stop Procrastinating
From Kaizen to Ikigai, these Japanese ideas offer some interesting ways to rethink motivation, everyday habits and the pressure to stay productive.
You have a deadline approaching, a growing to-do list and several things you promised yourself you would finish today. Yet somehow, you’re reorganising your playlist, checking Instagram or convincing yourself that another cup of coffee will help you concentrate.
Sound familiar?
We tend to call this laziness. But putting things off can have several explanations. Sometimes a task feels overwhelming. Sometimes we don’t know where to begin. And sometimes, we’re simply tired.
The internet has plenty of advice for these moments. Wake up earlier. Follow a strict routine. Eliminate distractions. Make every hour count.
But what if the answer isn’t another productivity rule?
Several Japanese concepts, drawn from philosophy, everyday language and workplace practices, offer interesting ways to approach effort, habits and personal growth. They weren’t all developed as cures for procrastination, but their ideas can be useful when getting started feels unnecessarily difficult.
Here are six worth exploring.
1. Kaizen: Make the First Step Almost Ridiculously Small
Ever decided to read 30 books in a year, exercise every morning or completely reorganise your life on a Monday?
By Wednesday, the enthusiasm has usually disappeared.
Kaizen is a Japanese approach associated with continuous improvement. It became particularly influential in Japanese manufacturing, where workers were encouraged to identify and make incremental improvements to existing processes.
According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Kaizen refers to continuous problem-solving and improvements in work processes.
The same principle can be adapted to everyday habits.
Instead of committing to reading for an hour, begin with five minutes. If writing an article feels overwhelming, open the document and write a rough introduction. If your inbox has become unmanageable, deal with five emails. The idea is to make progress manageable enough that you can repeat it.
Small improvements won’t magically make every difficult task enjoyable. But they can make starting feel less intimidating, especially when the alternative is doing nothing because you cannot do everything.
2. Shoshin: What If You Approached Something Like a Beginner?
There’s a peculiar frustration that comes with being reasonably good at something.
You know how to do it. You’ve done it countless times. And now you find yourself avoiding it.
Shoshin, a concept associated with Zen Buddhism, refers to a beginner’s mind. It encourages openness and curiosity, even when approaching something familiar.
Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki explored this idea in his well-known book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. In a talk preserved by the San Francisco Zen Center, Suzuki discusses how familiarity and expertise can sometimes narrow our sense of possibility.
Think about how differently we approach something when we’re learning it for the first time. We experiment, ask questions and accept that we won’t get everything right.
Now compare that with a task you’ve performed for years. You may have developed expectations about how quickly it should be completed or how good the result should be.
A beginner’s mindset offers another possibility.
If you’re struggling to write, try a different format. If your usual routine feels dull, change the order in which you do things. If you’re learning something new, allow yourself to be bad at it for a while.
Curiosity can make familiar work feel interesting again.
3. Ganbaru: Some Things Require Persistence
Not every task can be made exciting. There are bills to pay, difficult conversations to have, projects to finish and responsibilities that don’t disappear because we aren’t feeling motivated.
The Japanese word ganbaru is commonly associated with perseverance, determination and doing one’s best. Expressions such as ganbatte are frequently used to encourage someone facing a challenge. It’s an interesting idea because we often expect motivation to arrive before effort.
We wait until we’re in the right mood to begin. But sometimes, beginning is a decision we make despite not feeling particularly enthusiastic.
Ganbaru can be useful when the task is important, achievable and simply requires patience.
However, there’s a limit worth recognising. Constantly telling someone to keep going can become another form of pressure, particularly when they’re exhausted.
Perseverance has its place. So does knowing when to stop, rest or ask for help.
4. The 5S Method: Make Your Environment Easier to Work In
Have you ever sat down to work, only to spend the next twenty minutes looking for a document, clearing your desk or searching through dozens of open tabs? Sometimes the problem begins before the actual task does.
The Japanese 5S method became established in workplace management as an approach to organisation and efficiency. The Japan International Cooperation Agency also describes its application in healthcare settings.
Its five principles are commonly translated as:
- Sort: Remove unnecessary items.
- Set in Order: Give essential items a designated place.
- Shine: Keep the area clean.
- Standardise: Establish a practical system.
- Sustain: Maintain the system over time.
Although it is widely associated with workplace management, the underlying approach can be useful at home too.
You could create a designated folder for frequently used files, keep everyday essentials within easy reach or organise your workspace so that you spend less time searching for things.
You don’t need a spotless, aesthetically pleasing desk to be productive. Some people work perfectly well surrounded by books, notes and coffee mugs.
The point is to create an environment that works for you.
5. Hansei: Look Back Before You Try Again
Imagine postponing the same task for three consecutive days.
Your first instinct might be to blame yourself for being lazy. You promise to be more disciplined tomorrow, only to repeat the pattern.
What if you examined what actually went wrong?
Hansei is a Japanese practice of self-reflection, particularly associated with continuous improvement in organisations such as Toyota.
In its explanation of Hansei, Toyota describes the practice as recognising mistakes, reflecting on them and taking appropriate action to prevent their recurrence. The company even conducts reflection meetings after successful projects to identify areas for improvement.
You can borrow this approach for your own habits.
Suppose you planned to finish an assignment in the evening but ended up watching videos instead. Rather than immediately making another ambitious schedule, ask yourself a few questions. Was the task too large for the time available? Were you unsure how to proceed? Did you underestimate how tired you’d be after work? Would an earlier start or a clearer first step have helped?
The answers may reveal something more useful than self-criticism.
Of course, reflection is only helpful when it leads somewhere. Spending hours analysing why you didn’t do something can become another way of avoiding it.
Sometimes a few minutes of thought and one practical adjustment are enough.
6. Ikigai: Does Everything You Do Need to Be Productive?
Of all the Japanese concepts that have become popular internationally, ikigai is probably among the most frequently discussed.
It is often translated as a reason for living or something that makes life feel worthwhile.
Online, the concept is frequently presented through a diagram connecting passion, profession, talent and income. However, this popular interpretation doesn’t fully represent Japanese understandings of ikigai.
A research paper published in Europe’s Journal of Psychology explains that ikigai can come from family relationships, leisure activities and other meaningful experiences, independently of financial rewards.
Your ikigai might involve caring for someone, pursuing a hobby, maintaining friendships, spending time with animals or enjoying an ordinary daily ritual.
How does this relate to procrastination? Sometimes we become so occupied with tasks, targets and responsibilities that we forget to make room for activities we genuinely enjoy. Not every activity needs to improve your career, teach you a skill or produce a measurable result.
Reading a novel for pleasure, gardening or spending an afternoon with friends can be worthwhile simply because you enjoy doing it. And perhaps that is a useful reminder in a culture that frequently treats every free hour as an opportunity for self-improvement.
Maybe Laziness Isn’t Always the Right Word
It’s tempting to believe that sufficiently disciplined people never procrastinate. But even people who enjoy their work lose concentration, avoid difficult tasks and have unproductive days.
These Japanese ideas approach everyday effort from different directions. Kaizen encourages incremental improvement, Shoshin invites curiosity, and Hansei offers a way to learn from unsuccessful attempts. Ganbaru speaks to perseverance, while 5S addresses practical obstacles in our surroundings. Ikigai asks us to consider what makes our lives meaningful beyond our daily responsibilities.
None is a guaranteed solution. Persistent difficulty concentrating or getting things done can also be connected to stress, burnout, sleep problems or health conditions.
You might find one of these practices useful and have no interest in the others. And on some days, the most sensible thing you can do is leave the to-do list alone.
Which of these Japanese practices would you be interested in trying?
