Reclaim your Life and Boost Productivity with Kaizen

Kaizen is a work culture that originated in Japan after World War II. To help restore Japanese industries, American occupational forces brought industrial experts to improve productivity. The experts brought about scientific methods to reduce overly hard work, promote innovations in work place and how to spot and eliminate waste processes in business. Later Japanese economist added some of their principles into this technique and Kaizen was born.

Kaizen is derived from two words, Kai- Improvement/Change and Zen-Good/better. Kaizen is used in many industries throughout the world to increase productivity. One of them is the Toyota Corporation and the result is clearly visible to us( Toyota owns a large share in the car industry with new innovations and futuristic designs).

Even though Kaizen is a managerial process aimed at industries, it can also be directed towards achieving an overall development in one's life.

By increasing productivity, personal Kaizen helps remove stress, anxiety and worry which are the main factors related to depression.

Kaizen highlights the following factors for ones overall development with the resources in hand.

• Plan your strategy- Make a list of areas you want to improve in your life. If you are not sure about the list, allocate time table for your day to day activities. This helps reduce wastage of resources ( a core principle in Kaizen). Moreover by creating a time plan, we can set priority for our day to day activities and avoid procrastination.
• One step at a time- We tend to perform abrupt and radical changes all at once, This can bring about unwanted tension and stress into our lifestyle. Kaizen theory advocates small changes/improvements, one at a time. These small changes in turn, tend to add up/ accumulate giving way to better lifestyle . In short, improvement is a life long process and you can take your time to make the necessary changes.
• Be the Jack of all Trades- Never specialize or better still, never stop learning. There is no prescribed age where we can close ourselves to further knowledge. Try out new subjects that interests you and pursue it. This reduces boredom and also increases our knowledge base.
• Always space for change- "If it aint broke, don't fix it " is a common phrase especially used in maintenance works. Kaizen challenges this by stating that there is always room for improvement. Even if a system is providing expected results, it can still be tweaked to obtain a better outcome.
• The environment surrounding us really affects our productivity. Remove unwanted or least used items away and order your workplace. You will see a sudden change within yourself with increased motivation and energy.
• Create your own environment were you can bring out the maximum results. Some people work better in crowded environment while others prefer solitude. Also some times we tend to be more productive, when listening to music, The ideal surrounding varies from person to person. Observe your optimum settings, create it and work better.
• It is human to err. No on can predict the outcomes of a decision and time to time, we all make mistakes at some point of our life. Kaizen, teaches us to accept the mistake and take it as learning opportunity which helps us become more mature and resilient in life.

1. http://www.lifeexcellence.com/archives/2001/LifeExcellence%20-%20Newsletter%20Archives%20-%205-9-01.htm
2. http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/09/personal-kaizen-tips-for-your-continuous-improvement.html
3. http://www.squidoo.com/kaizen-principle