What The Japanese Cleaning Traditions Can Teach You About Creating Meaningful Work

The Japanese have a tradition of cleaning their homes at year's end and it reminded me that they also have a practice to clean at the end of each day.

They teach their kindergarteners to clean the school floors. Grade-school kids are instructed to also clean the school bathrooms. My wife and I happen to be Japanese and we clean up the house after our two boys have gone to bed every day.

The cleaning ensures a clean slate for the next day and maintains cleanliness every day of the year.

I've come to appreciate the symbolism of this daily cleaning as it relates to our work.

Daily Is My New Favorite Constraint

The day is the right demarcation for us to repeatedly contribute meaningful work:

• A book is a series of chapters made up of sentences and paragraphs.
• A song is a sequence of melodic phrases.
• Software systems are composed of functions.

All of these various units of work can be accomplished in a day's worth of work.

The day is easy enough to be consistently doable but challenging enough to be meaningful when repeated.

Especially at this time of year, new year's resolutions get us aim to do something over the next 365 days. But I think 365 is too many. You're better off just looking at 1 at a time.

Take note from the cleaning habits of the Japanese and focus on conquering your days instead.

Have enough of the good days and you'll inevitably have a good year.