Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Group and one of Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs, is renowned not only for his outstanding business acumen and bold decisions but also for his extraordinary ability to manage time. Despite facing an extremely busy daily schedule, Son efficiently utilizes every minute to achieve both soaring career success and high life quality. How does he manage to “have more time the busier he is”? Behind this lies a rigorous and effective methodology worth exploring and learning from.
1. A Long-Term Life Plan Since His Youth
In his teenage years, Masayoshi Son set a visionary “50-year life plan” for himself:
- In his 20s, build a reputation and lay the foundation for his career;
- In his 30s, accumulate capital and stabilize his financial base;
- In his 40s, stand out in fierce competition and become an industry leader;
- In his 50s, nurture successors to ensure sustainable business development;
- In his 60s, retire and enjoy life.
This plan was not an empty dream but a guiding beacon throughout his life. Son broke down his 50-year life goal into yearly, monthly, and even weekly concrete tasks and schedules. This long-term perspective allowed him to keep a clear direction and avoid getting lost in the distractions of daily trivialities.
2. Time Is Not for “Consumption” but for “Investment”
Son emphasizes that the core of time usage is “investment” rather than mere “consumption.”
- Time consumption refers to activities that bring short-term pleasure but no long-term value, such as scrolling social media, watching short videos, or other pastime entertainment. These may boost immediate happiness but do not contribute to future growth or success.
- Time investment means dedicating time to activities that create intangible assets, such as learning new skills, improving abilities, building networks, and exercising. These investments pay off in the future, bringing greater happiness and success.
Son devotes the vast majority of his time to “investment,” particularly in learning, strategic thinking, and business development, striving to make every minute create maximum value.
3. Managing Time Like Organizing Folders
Son advocates folder-style and directory-style time management, which means:
- Clearly dividing time into work, study, hobbies, and family, avoiding chaotic time leakage;
- Adjusting time allocation according to life stages—for example, focusing on work and study in youth, spending more time with family in middle age, and prioritizing hobbies and socializing in later years;
- Using a scientific approach to evaluate the “return on investment (ROI)” of each time allocation and continuously optimizing time efficiency.
For instance, investing time in learning professional knowledge and gaining experience in one’s 20s is a high-ROI investment; at 30s and 40s, with family responsibilities, the strategy shifts to balancing work and family.
4. Planning Time on a Weekly Basis to Avoid Loss
Son recommends weekly time planning, with specific practices such as:
- Setting yearly goals and breaking them down into weekly objectives;
- Allocating specific hours each week for key activities—for example, committing to 20 hours of English study weekly, about 3 hours daily;
- Using weekly plans to ensure tasks have enough time for implementation and prevent time from being swallowed by urgent but less important matters.
This method helps avoid the common trap of being “busy without achievements,” giving a sense of control over one’s time.
5. Make Decisions Quickly, Spend No More Than 10 Seconds Thinking
“Don’t spend more than 10 seconds thinking!” is Son’s motto.
What he means is: when encountering a problem, do not get stuck in overthinking. If you cannot find a clear direction within 10 seconds, proactively seek external help or others’ opinions. Wasting time on indecision only lowers efficiency.
This reflects Son’s emphasis on efficient decision-making. He knows procrastination and hesitation are enemies of time, and decisive action is key to rapid progress.
6. Time Creation Technique — Buying Time Through “Other People’s Power”
Son excels at leveraging external resources to amplify his time:
- Corporate acquisitions: By acquiring outstanding companies, he quickly obtains new technologies, markets, and talents, saving time on independent R&D and expansion.
- Learning from success cases: He avoids reinventing the wheel by absorbing others’ successful experiences to improve efficiency rapidly.
- Fast PDCA cycles: Plan, Do, Check, Act cycles run at a high speed, almost daily reviewing and adjusting goals, achieving maximum efficiency in minimal time.
7. Execution Details — Dividing Work Time and Improving Efficiency
Son pays close attention to fine-grained division of work time, with secrets including:
- Scheduling tasks in 15-minute blocks, which is a golden scale for time-block management, avoiding wasted time compared to 30-minute or 1-hour blocks;
- Knowing the average time needed for various tasks to arrange schedules reasonably and eliminate redundancy;
- Being aware of his work time limits, such as his maximum continuous work duration being 2 hours—beyond which efficiency drops;
- Minimizing time spent switching work locations to avoid wasting time on frequent transitions;
- Making detailed plans every morning with specific time allocations to ensure efficient and orderly progress;
- Breaking complex work into smaller tasks to complete one by one, reducing procrastination and resistance;
- Leaving no “buffer time” to fully utilize every minute and maintain high efficiency;
- Completing all arrangements on a weekly basis to prevent task delays and accumulation.
8. The Core Wisdom of Masayoshi Son’s Time Management
At its core, Son’s time management philosophy can be summarized as:
- Clear long-term life goals, working backward to formulate concrete plans;
- Treating time as a precious resource, prioritizing “investment” areas with long-term returns;
- Scientifically categorizing time to balance work and life;
- Quick decision-making, avoiding needless hesitation and procrastination;
- Leveraging team and external resources to multiply time;
- Fine division of work time to continually optimize efficiency;
- Weekly task scheduling with firm execution.
Through this scientific and systematic approach, Son not only successfully manages a vast business empire but also maximizes his self-worth. His time management philosophy offers great inspiration to all of us: proper planning, smart resource use, and decisive execution are keys to making time increasingly abundant even as life grows busier.