What is "Dandori"? How to use it and how to apply it in your work and personal life.

Everyone has probably felt at least once or twice in their work or daily life that they want to "proceed more systematically and efficiently."

"Dantori" (systematic planning) refers to preparing things in advance to make processes run smoothly.

When planning is poor, you cannot maintain composure in work or personal life, which can lead to mistakes and troubles.

This article introduces the meaning of the word "dantori" and methods to improve your planning skills.

By reading this article, you will understand how to proceed with work smoothly and be able to maintain more ease in your daily life.

If you are troubled by being told that your planning is poor, or if you want to work more efficiently, please use this as a reference.

What is "Dandori" - The Order of Proceeding with Things

Dandori refers to the procedures, sequence, or preparation for proceeding with things.

For example, when preparing for a meeting, the following flow constitutes "dandori":

1. Share materials in advance

2. Decide on presenters

3. Secure time for questions and answers

By organizing dandori, advance preparations are put in place to proceed with things smoothly.

"Dandori hachiban, shigoto niban" means that preparation is important

The proverb "dandori hachiban, shigoto niban" (80% preparation, 20% execution) means that if you prepare thoroughly, the actual work will proceed smoothly.

For example, when trying to secure a contract in sales, if you research information about the client and prepare materials tailored to their needs, the business negotiation will go smoothly.

Conversely, if you go into a business meeting unprepared, you won't be able to handle unexpected questions, which could cause you to lose credibility as the client might think "Can I really trust this person?"

As "dandori hachiban, shigoto niban" indicates, "advance preparation" is crucial for success in work.

Alternative Expressions for "Dandori" and Its Usage in Business Scenarios

"Dandori" has subtle nuances that vary depending on the industry and context of use, so choosing the wrong words can make it difficult to convey your intentions.

Here, we will explain alternative expressions for "dandori" and how it is used in different industries.

Alternative Expressions for Dandori

"Dandori" is often replaced with the following words:

• Preparation: Getting necessary things ready in advance

• Planning: Establishing a path to the goal

• Schedule: Breaking down plans into specific timeframes

• Management: Managing the flow of events on the day

All of these have similar meanings to "dandori," but each has a slightly different impression.

Especially when communicating with people in different positions such as supervisors or business partners, use appropriate expressions to ensure smooth communication without misunderstandings.

Usage of Dandori in Business Scenarios

The word "dandori" has slightly different meanings depending on the industry and usage scenario.

For example, there are the following differences in usage by industry:

As a special example, in manufacturing, there are concepts called "uchi-dandori" (internal setup) and "soto-dandori" (external setup). These are considered important for improving productivity and have the following meanings:

• Uchi-dandori: Preparation performed while machines are stopped

• Soto-dandori: Preparation performed while machines are running

In manufacturing, the key to efficiency and reducing work time is how much internal setup can be converted to external setup.

In this way, "dandori" has slightly different meanings across industries.

However, in all industries, it commonly means "organizing preparations and procedures."

4 Characteristics of People Who Are Called "Poor at Planning"

People who are called "poor at planning" mainly have four characteristics:

• Being unprepared and acting haphazardly

• Unable to set priorities

• Managing tasks only in their head

• Communication becomes reactive

When things don't progress as expected, the cause might lie in how you approach planning.

Reflect on your own actions and check whether you match any of these characteristics.

①Lack of preparation leads to improvisation

When you neglect advance preparation at work, you have no choice but to proceed based on the situation at hand, which can lead to delayed responses or inability to solve problems on the spot.

For example, if you're in charge of facilitating a meeting but haven't familiarized yourself with the materials beforehand, you might not be able to answer unexpected questions and may need to follow up later.

By preparing in advance while considering multiple scenarios with "What if this happens?", you can respond calmly even when unexpected situations arise.

Being able to approach work with composure builds confidence, and naturally leads to higher evaluation from others.

②Unable to Set Priorities

When you cannot determine the priority of tasks that need to be done, the following problems occur:

• You end up starting with low-priority tasks and miss deadlines

• You cannot allocate sufficient time to important tasks and fail to produce results

• All tasks become half-finished, leading to loss of trust and poor evaluation

Simply completing the tasks in front of you will not yield the expected results.

By being conscious of priorities, you can clearly understand "what should be done first" and work efficiently.

Furthermore, since you can distinguish between tasks that can be delegated to others and tasks you should handle yourself, the entire team's work can flow smoothly.

③Managing tasks only in your head

When you try to remember tasks only in your head, mistakes such as scheduling conflicts and missed deadlines will occur.

Specifically, the following cases can be expected:

• Unable to manage schedules properly, resulting in multiple appointments conflicting with each other

• Forgetting work that was put off, leading to missing deadlines

The more tasks you have, the more difficult it becomes to manage them in your head alone, leading to increased oversights and mistakes.

To stabilize work performance, it is recommended to visualize tasks by utilizing memos and task management tools.

④Communication becomes reactive

When reports and communications are delayed, it affects not only yourself but also the other party's schedule.

For example, if you know you'll miss a deadline but only inform them at the last minute, the other party will be forced to reorganize their schedule, causing inconvenience.

When you're concerned about the other party's reaction, you tend to want to postpone communication.

However, by communicating early, you give the other party room to make adjustments, allowing you to avoid damaging the relationship.

Make it a habit to communicate in advance, considering not just "your own convenience" but also "the other party's convenience."

5 Ways to Improve Your Setup and Organization

The five key points to keep in mind for improving your setup and organization are:

• Clarify your goals and plan backwards

• Break down tasks and prioritize them

• Estimate time requirements and secure buffer time

• Utilize checklists and tools

• Do what you can ahead of schedule

The purpose of all these methods is to "prepare and create breathing room."

Try incorporating the methods you can implement to create more space and comfort in your work and daily life.

①Clarify your goals and plan by working backwards

First, clarify your goal (the objective you want to achieve).

Once your goal is determined, you can plan the necessary actions by working backwards from the achievement, allowing you to proceed with work efficiently.

For example, if you set a goal of "finishing the next internal meeting within 30 minutes," the following planning and actions would be necessary:

• Narrow down the agenda items

• Share materials in advance

• Decide each presenter's time allocation beforehand

• Confirm anticipated questions and the flow of proceedings in advance

By organizing your preparations by working backwards from your goal, you'll be able to proceed with daily tasks efficiently.

② Break down tasks and prioritize them

When tasks remain large, you'll find yourself wondering where to start. Therefore, it's important to break down tasks until you can clearly see what needs to be done right now.

For example, if you have a task called "creating materials," break it down as follows:

• Gather necessary information (data research, interviews, etc.)

• Decide on the structure (chapter organization, story design)

• Complete the writing

• Create charts and images

• Final check and revisions

When working through the broken-down tasks, spend extra time on the "preparation" aspects of material creation, particularly information gathering and structure building.

By establishing a solid foundation, the subsequent work will flow smoothly, and as a result, your work will progress in an organized manner.

③ Estimate Time and Secure Buffers

To work efficiently, it's important to estimate in advance how much time tasks will take and secure margins (buffers).

For example, try writing out the time needed for each task as follows:

• Document preparation: 3 hours

• Meeting with business partners: 2 hours

• Phone calls to sales prospects: 1 hour

By visualizing the required time, it becomes clear when you should start and finish each task.

When you're assigned new work, you can immediately share your current resources, making it easier to negotiate deadlines and adjust priorities.

④ Utilize Checklists and Tools

To improve your organization, it's important to make your tasks visible.

To make tasks visible, checklists and task management tools are helpful.

For example, easy-to-use check tools for smartphones include the following:

• iPhone's memo function

• Google TO DO list

• Notion

With iPhone's memo function, you can manage task progress by adding checkmarks to bulleted lists as shown below.

Additionally, "Google To Do List" can be integrated with Google Calendar and Gmail, while "Notion" allows you to share tasks with groups.

Since different apps offer various benefits, please try using tools that suit your purpose.

⑤ Do what you can ahead of schedule

To proceed with work efficiently, it's also important to tackle what you can do ahead of schedule.

This is because by advancing tasks that can be completed early, you create more time and resource flexibility.

For example, if you complete preliminary research for materials ahead of schedule, you can allocate time for detailed checking and revisions during the final stages, resulting in highly accurate materials with fewer mistakes.

Developing the habit of completing what you can ahead of schedule creates flexibility in your work style, which increases trust and evaluation from those around you, leading to opportunities for future work.

3 Benefits of Developing Planning Skills

When you become able to proceed with things in a well-organized manner, you will gain the following benefits:

• Work becomes more manageable and mistakes are reduced

• You are evaluated as a trustworthy talent

• You can enhance team performance

First, your own work will proceed smoothly, and as a result, the performance of your surroundings and the entire organization will also improve.

①Work becomes more manageable and mistakes are reduced

When you focus on planning and prepare your arrangements and plans in advance, you create more time and mental space.

Having this extra capacity allows you to dedicate time to checking and making corrections, making it easier to prevent simple mistakes caused by rushing.

Additionally, being able to advance your work ahead of schedule is an advantage because it allows you to focus on the quality of your deliverables.

People who work quickly while maintaining high quality achieve results precisely because they handle their work with good planning and organization.

②Being valued as a trustworthy person

People who are good at organizing and planning can consistently produce results, making it easier to gain trust from those around them.

However, simply being able to handle work efficiently is not enough to become a trusted person.

Specifically, it's important to accumulate the following basic practices:

• Meeting deadlines and keeping promises

• Providing reports, communication, and consultation at appropriate times

• Maintaining smooth communication with those around you

By reliably practicing these fundamentals, you can gain trust from others and become someone who can be entrusted with work with confidence.

③ Improve Team Performance

When you can efficiently manage your own tasks, you create room to help other members.

By supporting colleagues and subordinates who are struggling, the entire team's workflow becomes smoother, and the following effects can be expected:

• Improved coordination between team members

• Team members can collaborate to handle troubles when they arise

• Better overall team atmosphere

As individual organizational skills improve, a collaborative system is established across the entire team, leading to increased productivity.

Planning skills are useful beyond work

Planning skills are helpful not only in business, but also in daily life such as housework and travel.

• Smoothly managing housework and childcare

• Planning and enjoying events and trips

• Efficiently continuing hobbies and learning

When you can demonstrate planning skills in everyday situations, you create more breathing room in your overall life and can spend more fulfilling time.

①Making Household Chores and Childcare Run Smoothly

Household chores and childcare involve many daily tasks.

When managing things like laundry, cleaning, and picking up and dropping off children only in your head, you tend to experience oversights and time losses.

However, by deciding priorities in advance and taking care of things that can be done ahead of schedule, you can reduce your daily burden.

As a result, you can secure time for your children and yourself, and since you'll have more mental space, you can spend your days more peacefully.

② Enjoying Events and Travel in a Planned Way

The purpose of travel and events is to "have fun," but poor preparation tends to make things hectic when you're out and about.

For example, preparing the following in advance will make the day's flow smoother:

• Research tourist spots and restaurant options beforehand

• Check transportation methods and travel times in advance

• Look up famous souvenirs and where to buy them

By organizing information to some extent beforehand, you can reduce time spent being indecisive on the day itself, and enjoy the trip or event with peace of mind.

③ Efficiently Continuing Hobbies and Learning

For busy people with work and household chores to engage in hobbies and learning, it's important to not only have motivation but also secure dedicated time blocks.

To create time, try the following approaches:

• Use commuting time for learning

• Read for just 30 minutes before bedtime

• Always reserve weekend mornings as personal time, etc.

It's also recommended to predetermine time for hobbies and learning and make it part of your daily routine.

By skillfully managing limited time, you can create rhythm in your life and efficiently continue your hobbies and learning.

Practice "Dandori" with Rimo Voice

The ability to organize tasks efficiently is useful in all aspects of work and daily life, and meeting facilitation is one of the situations where organizational skills are put to the test.

Meetings require organizing agenda items and reaching conclusions within limited time, so inadequate preparation or poor record-keeping can lead to being perceived as having "poor organizational skills."

The AI meeting minutes creation tool 'Rimo Voice' not only streamlines the creation of meeting minutes but also includes features that support meeting facilitation.

• Real-time transcription allows you to check text even if you miss something during the conversation

• AI Bot notifies 5 minutes before the meeting ends and helps organize decisions made

• After the meeting ends, AI summary enables immediate creation and sharing of meeting minutes

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'Rimo Voice' offers a 7-day free trial. Registration requires either Google/Microsoft account integration or an email address.

No credit card registration is required, and the service automatically cancels after the trial period ends, so please feel free to try it out.

Related article: What is Efficient Meeting Management? Explaining Basic Flow and Tips for Smooth Proceedings

Understanding the Power of Planning and Applying It to Work and Daily Life

Planning refers to organizing procedures and preparations to make things proceed smoothly.

As the saying goes, "Planning is 80%, execution is 20%," advance preparation greatly influences subsequent results.

By improving your planning skills, you can gain the following benefits:

• Create more breathing room in work and reduce mistakes

• Be evaluated as a trusted and reliable person

• Enhance the overall performance of your team

Additionally, the ability to organize plans effectively is useful in private situations such as household chores, travel, hobbies, and learning.

For those who want to conduct meetings efficiently, please consider using Rimo Voice as well.

To have more breathing room in work and daily life, start by organizing your approach to things and putting effort into preparation.

最終更新日: 2025 / 9 / 23