"Zero Second Thinking Power" Master Akabane Yuji taught me intuitive thinking: immediate decision, immediate decision, and immediate execution
This article (opens in a new tab) is written by Ms. Wei Meifeng (opens in a new tab), who is currently a Lecturer on Graphical Thinking (opens in a new tab). Thank you for authorizing the “Practical Guide (opens in a new tab)” website to reprint it.
- How great would it be if you could quickly come up with proposal ideas (opens in a new tab) without spending too much time?
- How great would it be if we could cope with sudden changes and quickly respond and complete decisions?
- How good would it be to get ahead of the market competition, prepare yourself and reduce time (opens in a new tab) waste?
- What if the work procedures could be simplified and optimized to double the speed of work and intelligence collection?
[Introduction to the workshop of “Zero Second Thinking (opens in a new tab)” - compiled by Wei Meifeng
As a note-taking enthusiast (opens in a new tab), I always look forward to participating in the workshops held by Mr. Yuji Akabane (opens in a new tab) in Taiwan!
Able to have face-to-face meetings with the author and understand [the book] through practical guidance (https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vista/products/0010659713?utm_source=vista&utm_med (opens in a new tab) ium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201906), you can always clarify some of the confusions you have when reading. Through questions from others, you can also deepen your understanding of the book and capture different perspectives of thinking.
After participating in a practical workshop organized by Delight Press (opens in a new tab) last year, I learned that I had the opportunity to participate in Akabane’s workshop again this year, and I was even more excited to try it! I’m also curious about how my understanding of the content of this book has changed after a year.
In this workshop, I practiced zero-second thinking notes and decision-making processing framework. After returning, I spent some time reviewing Mr. Akabane’s book (opens in a new tab). I reorganized my own experience and thoughts, made illustrated notes, and wrote this blog article.
[Personal profile of Mr. Akabane Yuuji] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
Akabane Yuji (opens in a new tab) Mr. has an excellent academic background and rich industrial experience. His fourteen years of experience at McKinsey Japan and his great achievements cannot be described in detail. He has assisted large multinational companies such as LG, Panasonic, Sony, Lawson and Uniqlo in management innovation, and is also committed to supporting Japanese high-tech start-ups to go global. As an advocate of Japanese companies, Mr. Akabane is often invited to give speeches at important forums and industry summits, and also assists the Japanese government in formulating policies and action plans.
[Editor’s note: Readers who are not familiar with Japanese can turn on the subtitle function of YouTube and switch to the Chinese (Traditional) language system. 】 We can see from Mr. Akabane Yuji’s many works his rich practical experience in the fields of thinking, management, e-commerce and the Internet. Through powerful brain development techniques and years of practical corporate leadership experience, we assist companies in achieving high-multiple efficiency growth and management practices. Mr. Akabane is also a prolific writer. Currently, he has 20 books in Japan and 16 published overseas, with a global circulation of more than 710,000.
I am lucky enough to consult with the master in person. How could I not seize this rare opportunity?
[Handout of the “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)” workshop]
For each workshop, the organizer will provide a colorful handout of the briefing and an A4 exercise book of practical exercises so that students can practice on different topics.
[Demonstration of the results of the workshop members of “Zero Second Thinking (opens in a new tab)” workshop members]
The advantage of sitting in the front is that it is easy to be seen by the speaker and the results of the implementation. Therefore, my practice results were put on display by Akabane-sensei! Although the writing is quite sloppy, it is very enjoyable.
Comparing the practical experience between last year and this year, I can almost finish what I couldn’t finish last year! Well, it turns out that practice doesn’t lie, there will be a difference if there is a comparison. Of course, if you want to achieve such results, you may have to participate in workshops for two consecutive years, or continue to practice privately, so that you can see such effects. If you just attend a workshop or practice just once… I think that although you can know how Akabane-sensei operates, you may not be able to master “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)》.
[“Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)” Basic skills in brain exercise] – compiled by Wei Meifeng
The operation of “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)” has a most basic core, which is to write with a pen.
It seems very simple, but there is a lot of knowledge in it. This is also a question that many members constantly raised during the implementation process, “Is it really enough to just write it down with a pen?”
With a smile, Teacher Akabane always answered the same answer: “Write with a pen, just start writing!” Each practice time is controlled within 1 to 3 minutes. There are different time settings according to different practice topics. Once the time is up, you have to stop writing.
When asking questions after practice, people always ask, “What should I do if I can’t finish writing?”, “Can I go back and make up for it?”, “Can I extend the time?”, “Can I just write vocabulary?”
Write a piece of A4 paper in one minute, write 4-6 lines each time, a complete sentence of 15-20 words per line, and use your spare time to write 10-20 pieces every day. Such conditions may seem harsh, but they have always been the standard implemented by Teacher Akabane.
What may seem like a difficult condition to achieve at first glance is actually the simple key to fully unleashing your mental potential:
- [One minute] → Because the time is short, there is no time to think too much. *【A4 Paper】→ Because the paper is large enough, there is plenty of space for writing.
- 【Lines 4-6】→ Because the amount of information is sufficient, subsequent analysis can be done.
- [Complete sentence of 15-20 words] → Because it needs to be described in detail, there will be more details that can be associated with it.
- [10-20 photos]→ Because of a lot of practice, you can accumulate materials in all aspects, and quantitative changes can lead to qualitative changes.
With continuous writing practice, for at least a few weeks, you will be able to clearly see the results of your practice, and your brain will move faster.
(opens in a new tab)
[Handout of the “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)” workshop]
After completing the practice content, I re-checked the lecture notes compiled by Mr. Yuji Akabane and found that the problem setting has simple rules, as shown in the figure below. Roughly speaking, it is to follow the structure of the WHAT-WHY-HOW question, select four aspects that are often discussed, and conduct thinking exercises.
I slightly adjusted the order to a clockwise pattern, and then made a diagram, and you can see several messages:
- 【WHAT】 → Use the influence of things to discover scenes or facts that already exist.
- 【WHY】 → From the causes, explore the factors behind what it is now.
- [HOW] → From further optimization, think about what else can be changed or improved.
- [HOW] → From the perspective of risk reduction, implement risk management and control that cannot be ignored in actual scenarios.
Of course, there is no need to follow the order in this writing process. Just write whatever comes to mind first! These four thinking points are not static. The classification and thinking angle will depend on the summary of notes taken every day.
[Faxiang MEMO: Faxiang Framework]
I wrote three A4 papers in succession. At first glance, the questions on the three papers were very similar: “When do you think your decision-making is slow?”, “When do you think your decision-making is fast?”, “How do you maintain fast decision-making?”.
[In-depth thinking exercise for making quick decisions: three rounds of writing] – compiled by Wei Meifeng
But in fact, it happens to belong to three thinking angles, namely:
- [Negative]: “When do you think your decision-making is slow?” → Is it to clarify what the real problem is? Real questions are often packaged in words, but real answers are often hidden in execution.
- [Positive]: “When do you think your decision-making is quick?” → The purpose is to focus on the key to success and find common principles or unchanging key points from past successful experiences, so that more success can be replicated.
- [Method]: “How do you maintain quick decision-making?” → It is to be able to think of more strategies or possibilities. Some solutions or techniques may be hidden in the details of the description.
[Decision Template: Thinking and Sorting] – Wei Meifeng
Thinking from three different angles can help us establish a holistic view of thinking. In the fourth grid, I combined the exercises of the next link with this unit to create a 2X2 thinking template, which can also be used as an SOP.
(opens in a new tab)
[In-depth thinking exercises for making quick decisions: the perspective of problem thinking] – compiled by Wei Meifeng
Put the three angles into four tables respectively as titles.
[In-depth thinking exercises for making quick decisions: Holistic view 1] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
Put the four elements of thinking into the table as a thinking framework to enrich the content.
[In-depth thinking exercise for making quick decisions: Holistic View 2] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
Combined with the 2X2 framework, we use a two-dimensional thinking perspective to measure priorities. Of course, this standard is defined by the content and your own needs. What we commonly see is the time management matrix (opens in a new tab), which is important/unimportant, urgent/not urgent. In the handout, Mr. Akabane said it was highly important/moderately important, and highly urgent/moderately urgent. I changed it to the following format:
- [Important/Less Important] → Place your reflections on the improvement of the current situation, future growth, and the past in the appropriate columns based on their importance.
- [Urgent/Less Urgent] → Consider the urgency, threat, consequences, and extended impact of things.
[In-depth thinking exercise for making quick decisions: 2×2 structure method for classification] – compiled by Wei Meifeng So, I started from “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)》, I sorted out my own more suitable version of the module, and made illustrations as blog material.
[Sequence of deep thinking exercises to make quick decisions] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
Of course, Mr. Akabane also leads everyone to set up the framework and explore and measure options. This part is described in Mr. Akabane’s book “[Zero Second Thinking Power-Action: Instant Execution of Instant Decision, Instant Decision, and Instant Implementation]” (https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vis (opens in a new tab) There is a more detailed explanation in ta/products/0010742733?utm_source=vista&utm_medium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201906). I will write another article to explain this part if I have the chance, so I won’t go into details here!
The content of the exercises in this workshop is actually a bit difficult. I think for people who are new to it, there may be a lot of confusion in their minds. Because in addition to these skills, I think the reason why Teacher Akabane is able to execute such exercises perfectly and achieve smooth flow is mainly because he has a good cycle of internal decision-making patterns behind him. Of course, this decision-making model was not mentioned in this workshop, but the image reflected by this model can be seen in Mr. Akabane’s many writings, words and deeds.
I am just briefly compiling here an internal decision-making model for immediate decision-making, immediate decision-making, and immediate execution. You know, everyone is more or less different, but even if you have such an ideal decision-making model, if there is no good circulation support, it will cause delays and errors in transaction processing. Many times, efficiency cannot be improved or things processing encounters obstacles (opens in a new tab), which often comes from insufficiently optimized internal decision-making patterns.
[Simplified version of internal decision-making model] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
Therefore, I will make a simple summary of the above content: These three basic perspectives should influence each other. The practice of each link is preparing and optimizing for the next link, and it must be immediate, decisive and executed. It is not just an outburst of thinking thoughts, but also a complete internal decision-making model as a processing standard in order to make the best decision.
[Lecture listening, book reading and personal understanding and digestion output] – compiled by Wei Meifeng
The above content is a revised version with illustrations. I hope that through this explanation, everyone can understand the basic operations of “Zero Second Thinking Power (opens in a new tab)”! Of course, this content is not entirely the original idea of Mr. Yuji Akabane (opens in a new tab). If you want to better understand the core essence of Mr. Akabane, you can go to the online bookstore to find these books that have been published in Taiwan. There are more detailed explanations in them!
Of course, you will be happier if you understand Japanese. There are 20 books you can read! Below, I will help you sort out the books that Mr. Akabane has published in Taiwan. You are welcome to refer to and purchase:
- “Zero Second Thinking: The World’s Simplest Brain Exercise (opens in a new tab)”
- “Zero-second thinking power-Practice: Speed can solve everything at work (opens in a new tab)”
- “Zero-second thinking power - action chapter: instant execution ability of instant decision, instant decision and instant execution (opens in a new tab)”
- “Zero Second Thinking: The World’s Simplest A4 Mental Organizing Technique (opens in a new tab)”
- “Zero-second reaction ability: Even if your mind is blank, you can answer quickly (opens in a new tab)”
- “McKinsey’s zero-second logical thinking: 1 A4 X 7 essentials, the world’s first logical note-taking technique to solve all problems in one minute (opens in a new tab)”
- “McKinsey’s strongest management skills: Use 10 forms and 30 amazing good habits to bring out efficient, error-free subordinates (opens in a new tab)”
[Mr. Akabane Yuuji’s works released in Taiwan] – Compiled by Wei Meifeng
[Editor’s note: Readers who are not familiar with Japanese can turn on the subtitle function of YouTube and switch to the Chinese (Traditional) language system. 】
💡The third issue of “Vista Writing Companion Program” (opens in a new tab) is open for registration! Get the early bird price now!
💡 Do you want to write copy that will get more people to like it? Take “Read slowly and understand in seconds (opens in a new tab)” quickly.
💡 Want to learn content production and management? Come and sign up for the online course “Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands (opens in a new tab)”.
💡 Photo Credit: Fachy Marín (opens in a new tab)
Further reading
- I read “First-class people read, where do they draw the line?” : Deep Thinking Techniques for Elite Reading: Don’t draw lines on existing beliefs, but absorb the unknown
- Input, review and output: Three steps to help you think about key issues
- How to take lecture notes: Please start recording the unknown and interesting parts first
Next step
Bring this topic to your team
Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
