One Easy Way to Beating Procrastination! (How to Do Better Work and Beat Deadlines Too!) - And Some Funny Stuff!

Do you find yourself fighting procrastination? I do everyday of my life. But, I can say, that (I think) I have a reputation for being very quick; for always getting good work done well and on time. I see far too many people who procrastinate all the time and become their own worse enemies. Procrastination causes much stress and I think that stress causes poor work quality in some cases and I know for a fact that stress causes poor health (some special people feed off of stress - weirdos!)

My secret to getting things done; preventing procrastination and alleviating stress? Well, it's not much of a secret, but it's more of following some common sense advice my mom gave me long ago whenever there was a huge job ahead of me. She said, "Whenever there is a big job, if you wait until near the deadline and then sit and decide to do it all at once, it is such a giant undertaking and will cause much stress and worry. Start early, and do it a little by little. Doing so will allow you to take your time and you will do better quality work and be on time. You will greatly lower your stress."

My mom told me this because when I was a student in school, I would never do my summer homework. I got terrible grades. Were you that way too? I'd get an assignment to do over the summer holidays. I'd figure at the start of summer, "I have 3 months. No problem!" I'd do nothing. A month later, I'd think, "I still have 2 months summer holiday left. No problem!" More playing.... The nagging worry would begin in the back of my mind. Still, a month later, "I haven't even started on my home work. Oh well, still 1 month. I'll start next week. No problem!"

That "next week" would be ignored. Then it would be, "Uh, oh, two weeks of summer vacation left. I'd better start." But I'd still be having too much fun. Then one week. Then 6 days. Then the worrying at night, before bedtime, would really kick in...

Then 5 days until school starts. Still no work on the homework. Then 4 days. The pressure is on! Then 3 days! STRESS! FREAKING OUT! TERROR! No homework at all... Then, with only 2 days left, I'd open the assignment and see the mass volume of the task...

"Wow! This is a big assignment. Oh, well. There's only two days left before school starts. There's no way to finish this work!" So, I wouldn't even start!... Did I ever mention that I got bad grades in elementary school? I did? Maybe this procrastination could be one of the reasons why? (If the above few paragraphs make you nervous then I know you can relate!)

Even though my mom had always given me the advice, I didn't listen. That is, until many years later when I started my own business. So now that's what I do. I always start early and do a little by little.

A week ago or so, I had a deadline for a 50 some page business document... Worrying about it was stressing me out! But, well before the deadline, I started and worked on it for a few hours a day, everyday instead of waiting until the last day and having to spend all day and night doing it. As a result, I was one day ahead of the scheduled deadline and was complimented on doing quality work. 

The entire point of this? Folks, waiting and doing poor quality work is all a part of procrastination. Procrastination offers you no benefits whatsoever. It causes worry and stress - and that can't be good for your health. I see sick people at work all the time. Guess what? It seems to me that the people who don't procrastinate are happier and healthier.

I believe there is a connection.

So, take my mom's advice whenever there's a deadline: "Start early, and do it a little by little. Doing so will allow you to take your time and you will do better quality work and be on time."

It does greatly lower your stress!

And, on that note, to help you lower your stress on this workday, here's some funny stuff I found on a wonderful website named Rocket News. The post is entitled: “Procrastinate”? “Calm Under Pressure?” Take a Page from the Pros

Time limit, cutoff, due date. AKA “deadline”. Of course the concept applies to any number of jobs. But let it be said that the real experts on the subject are cartoonists / comic book artists.

These professionals truly know the possibilities of pre-deadline behavior. Today, we present to you 99 ways comic book artists find themselves approaching, or avoiding, their day of reckoning. See if you compare…

*You have flashbacks of elementary school and the day before going back to school after summer break. 

*You know for a scientific fact that the true deadline is 11:59 of that date.

*When your editor calls you for a status update, you tell him “80% done”, but you haven’t even picked up your pen yet. But the math works out because you’ll only put in 20% effort.

*You mutter to yourself, “So, the time has come…” and finally pick up your pen.

*You go on Twitter and Facebook seeking reassurance by checking what your fellow artists are doing at the moment.

*You have a few drinks to see if it’ll help. And discover (again) that it doesn’t.

*The thought occurs to you, “That deadline leaves a lot of room for error, doesn’t it?”

*You stop responding to your editor’s calls with any actual numbers, like “I’ll be done with this page in the blink of a jiffy lamb’s tail”.

*You try chanting, “Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate!”. And 3 seconds later you’re playing with your iPhone.

*You decide to pretend it’s all a bad dream.

*You think to yourself,  ”If I were my editor, I wouldn’t hire me.”

*You procrastinate to the end, and you beat yourself up about it.

*You tell yourself to work nonstop and you’ll be able to finish by 5am, but 20 seconds later you’re surfing the net.

*And you repeat it all again for the next issue.

These are just a few of the hilarious comments from these cartoonists geeks... To see more click here.

Have a great day! It's the weekend so you probably can procrastinate a bit, but, on Monday, GET TO WORK! Have a great weekend!

Japan is Great for Foreigners

I love Japan. If you are a foreigner and you come to Japan and you really make the effort to assimilate and understand the culture and speak the language, Japan can be a great place for you to live. Japanese people are very kind and Japan is a fun and kind of weird (in a good way) place.


Even if the economy has not been the best over these last twenty years or so, I think Japan still offers many opportunities for people to live and grow rich both financially and spiritually. 


Plus it's a fun place that always has something that makes me laugh... Oh, and did I mention that the food is great?


And everyone who comes here doesn't have to teach English. Some can do what they love! 

From Tonoharu. Ninety-nine percent of all 

westerners in Japan can relate to page on the right

The Japan Times has an interesting article about foreigners who came to Japan and are living their dream. They have have capitalized on the Japanese having one of the highest literacy rates in the world and the manga (comic book) boom.   


First off, from Japan Times, let's meet Frederic Boilet:


Frenchman Frederic Boilet was one of the first comic artists to grab the critics' attention when he moved to Japan in 1990 and launched the Nouvelle Manga movement that mixed the local manga sensibility with the Franco-Belgian school. An eclectic artist who even experimented with photography-based comics, Boilet has always based his sometimes erotic graphic novels on real stories, from either his or other people's experiences, always showing a sincere curiosity toward the country in which he lived until 2009.


As he stated in an interview to L'indispensable magazine, "For me, reality is more surprising than fiction. Rather than predictable and stereotypical imagination, I much prefer the complexity of daily life. Through my art I tried to document life the way I lived it, and trap it into my little stories."


Another artist is Dirk Schwieger:

German Dirk Schwieger is another artist who came up with an original approach to comic-making. While he spent only one year in Japan, in 2006, he grabbed a lot of attention when he turned his 24-part "webcomic" into an interactive project.

In his blog he chronicled a year's worth of "assignments" he undertook at the request of readers while living in Tokyo. People from around the world would send him tasks to accomplish — anything from "meeting a traditional sword maker" to "looking for a bosozoku biker gang" — and he would write, illustrate and post a new comic each week based on his experience. 


There's more!

2010 was a particularly productive year for this kind of comic book. First came the latest revised edition of the "Charisma Man" strips. This was followed by works by a couple of relative newcomers — Lars Martinson's "Tonoharu: Part Two" and a couple of "Sundogs" anthologies by Adam Pasion — whose characters might be seen as a sort of anti-Charisma Men in that they present situations unembellished and matter-of-factly.

As the title suggests, "Tonoharu: Part Two" is not Martinson's first foray in the field of expat comics: He self-published the first volume of this four-part saga in 2008 thanks to a grant from the prestigious Xeric Foundation.

Martinson, 33, first arrived in Japan in 2003 to work as an assistant language teacher, and spent the next three years working at a junior high school in a small town in Fukuoka Prefecture. His second stint in this country was in 2008 when he studied East Asian calligraphy under the auspices of a two-year research scholarship from the Japanese government.

"I planned from the start to turn my Japanese experience into a comic," Martinson says, "even though I didn't want it to be a mere autobiographical story. So I chose a 20-something American like me as the protagonist, but added a fictional group of eccentric expatriates living in the same rural Japanese town."

Read more here.

I think these examples just show a glimpse of the charm and fascination that Japan holds for many of us foreigners.

Sometimes Japan is just so cute you could just explode... Other times it is so frustrating that you fear you will explode.

And then, there's other times that Japan just can't stop making me laugh especially on anything to do with foreigners. In fact, in many ways, the best parodies on foreigners in japan are made by those same foreigners themselves. For example check out below. This is how the above article was featured on an English news site called News on Japan. 

Look at it and then look at the article that is featured just below it:

Feb 05

The comic life of expats in Japan

Tales of expat life in Japan all too often get blown out of proportion and quickly become picaresque adventures that little resemble real life. For some reason, many writers can't resist the temptation to exaggerate things. In their stories - be them fiction or memoir - weird, exotic details abound, turning this country into a sort of Wonderland that, depending on the witness, alternate between sleaziness and the Theater of the Absurd.(Japan Times)

Feb 05

Over 700,000 condoms stolen while transported to Japan

A major manufacturer in Japan has complained after their products were stolen while it was transported from Malaysia towards Japan. According to Sagami Rubber Industries, their 726,000 condoms were stolen, which came from their factory in Malaysia and should be taken to the company's main plant in Japan. When the shipment arrived in Japan, the container van was empty and the lock was changed before leaving Malaysia. The said condoms are 14 percent more thinner than the ordinary condom. (allvoices.com)

It says on the top article "The comic life of expats in Japan... Tales of expat life in Japan all too often get blown out of proportion and quickly become picaresque adventures that little resemble real life." 

Then, right below it, it says, "Over 700,000 condoms stolen while transported to Japan." (The last sentence also says, "The said condoms are 14 percent more thinner than the ordinary condom." 14 percent more thinner!? Did I mention that Japan also has very funny English even in sites supposedly run and edited by foreigners? Chuckle.)

I dunno. Is it just me or does this strike anyone else as funny? I mean a quote about things getting "blown out of proportion" just above a headline about 700,000 condoms getting stolen is just too funny.

I know you think they did this on purpose... But did they? I wonder.

Japan is a real-life Fark. I love it here and I wouldn't have it any other way nor would I change a thing!

Thanks to News on Japan for the funny headlines

Marketing Japan: Japan Sunday Bizarreness! Darth Vader & Giant Squid on Train!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers!

Great ideas come from getting out of the rut and going out and seeing and doing things that widen your horizons. That's why, today, I'm starting a new Sunday series called, "Japan Sunday Bizarreness!" It's just going to be short tidbits of weird stuff I've found in Japan that I hope you get a kick out of. Hopefully, they can help you to think of good ways to promote or market your product or service.

Two guys were riding a train and they were going to work to do some sort of promotion. Who knows what? But they decided to have some fun and one guy crouched behind the giant squid while the other took his photo. Maybe a possible good idea for a promotion? Hmmm? 

This was a while back, but I just found it. They had a kids night at baseball to get youngsters more interested in the sport. I hear that young kids no longer are interested in Star Wars (tell that to my 6-year-old!) and are into Poke-Mon, but this is an interesting idea too...

Okay, while we're at it... for all you Star Wars fans... This one about Darth Vader in Japan is pretty funny.

This next photo is at a McDonald's in Japan. It looks like these kids are between, or before, a performance for school or something. Interesting...

It's definitely fall or winter... You could never wear that mask during summer in Japan! Too hot!

Finally! I found a great place to study Japanese for free and it's on Youtube of all places! Youtube has an entire section of old Japanese fairy tales that you can watch. Studying animations on TV was how I learned to speak Japanese. I think it is a great way.  Here's how:

1) Watch the videos over and over.

2) Record the sound to your MP3 player or cassette. Listen repeatedly.

3) Write down the entire text in a notebook.

4) Get a Japanese speaker to help you learn the text by heart.

The Youtube site is called  まんが日本昔ばなし (Manga, Japan's Ancient Stories). The Youtube site is here. The level is easy so it's a great place to start. I've embedded one here for your enjoyment.

This great site was introduced to me by my good friend Leon Tsunehiro Yu-Tsu Tai. Thanks Leon!

Have a great weekend! Comment or write to me sometime!

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Keywords, Star Wars, Darth Vader, Mike Rogers, Squid, McDonald's, Marketing, Marketing Japan, Manga, Youtube, photos, Manga, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Manga, Japan's Ancient Stories, Ancient stories