I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Read books in the morning, check emails later
Psychiatrist offers tips on time management to maximize performance
By Kang Hyun-kyung
"God's Tactics for Time Management: Working 4 Hours, Resting 8 Hours" by Shion Kabasawa
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Shion Kabasawa, a psychiatrist and author of dozens of books, is one of the busiest Japanese intellectuals.
Besides his day job as a psychiatrist and founder of the psychology research institute, over the past seven years, he has published three books every year, uploaded daily posts on his blog, Facebook and YouTube to educate some 400,000 subscribers about brain activities and mental health.
He takes part in seminars or gives lectures two or three times a month.
Despite the busy schedule, he manages to spare enough time to do something good for himself.
Kabasawa, 53, exercises regularly ― four or five times at a fitness club. He reads 20 books per month. He watches two movies a week. He hangs out with his friends, alumni or teammates and has dinner with them every other day. He is overseas for 30 days or more every year.
Despite his hectic schedule, the psychiatrist, author, lecturer and social media influencer says he has never been burned out. Rather, he says his multi-tasking is enjoyable and he has enough time to rest while working under several different capacities.
His extremely productive life remains a mystery to many people ― how has he been able to find time to do so many things during the given 24 hours?
Kabasawa, author of the latest book, tentatively titled “God's Tactics for Time Management: Working 4 Hours, Resting 8 Hours” published by Korean publisher Leaders' Books, says his wise time management helps him lead an effective, productive, prolific life.
He says the way people use their time makes or breaks their career, encouraging his readers to think about how they can use their 24 hours strategically.
He depicts the first two to three hours after waking up in the morning as the “Golden Time” for the human brain and their performance and alertness are in their best conditions in those hours.
“During these hours, people should focus on things that require a great deal of concentration, such as writing books or articles or learning a foreign language,” he says in his book. “One hour of time in the morning equals to four hours at night, in terms of productivity.”
Ordinary people spend time commuting from home to their workplace during those hours. Kabasawa encourages them to read books or newspapers, rather than wasting time reading or exchanging meaningless text messages with their friends on their smartphones.
“Most salaried workers begin their work by checking or responding to emails they received. This shows an ineffective use of the precious morning hours because every hour in the morning is equivalent to four hours at night. So they can put aside checking or answering emails and do them in the afternoon when their performance and alertness are lower than the morning hours. This is because work like checking emails doesn't require a considerable level of concentration.”
He says people's performance and alertness also significantly improve once they have a proper rest, or an hour or so before they leave their office, or a day before the deadline of their work, and thus they should realign work that needs a considerable level of concentration into these hours.
Kabasawa says taking a nap for 30 minutes or so can also improve productivity significantly.
Citing a NASA survey, he says naps can restore alertness and enhance performance. The survey on sleepy military pilots and astronauts showed that an adequate nap (40 minutes) improved performance by 34 percent and alertness by 100 percent.
Kabasawa says he takes a nap for 30 minutes after lunch and it helps him restore his alertness and combat fatigue. He says sipping a cup of tea or coffee before taking a nap helps people wake up 30 minutes later thanks to caffeine.
But he warns of taking a nap for one hour or more, saying it works against concentration and productivity.
“A study finds that a 30-minute nap helps reduce risks of Alzheimer's disease by 20 percent. But taking a nap for an hour or more, contrastingly, increases risks of the disease twofold,” his book reads.