Leo Babauta - Zen Habits

Some of Leo's most important sources of inspiration for his writing on "Zen Habits" comes from the following:

• "Getting Things Done" by David Alllen: Leo has written extensively about GTD on his blog, and he modified GTD to create his own productivity system: Zen to Done.


• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People": Leo has adopted several of Stephen Covey's principles and, in particular, the concept of "big rocks" (scheduling the important things first).


• The writings of Elaine St. James on simplicity. Leo's philosophy revolves around simplifying and doing less: spend less, eat less, work less, take on fewer commitments, reduce stress and so on.

These influences--adding, of course, the influence of zen--infuse a lot of Leo's writing.

photo credit: ePi.Longo

In "First Things First", Stephen Covey tells a story that one of his associates heard at a seminar. The seminar presenter pulled out a wide-mouth gallon jar and placed it next to a pile of fist-sized rocks. After filling the jar to the top with rocks, he asked, "Is the jar full?"

The group replied, "Yes."

He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar. The speaker jiggled the jar until the gravel filled the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, "Is the jar full?"

This time, the group replied, "Probably not."

The speaker then added some sand and asked, "Is the jar full?"

"No!" shouted the group.

Finally, the speaker filled the jar to the brim with water and asked the group the point of this illustration.

Someone replied that you could always fit more things into your life if "you really work at it."

"No," countered the speaker. "The point is, if you don't put the big rocks in first, would you ever have gotten any of them in?"

photo credit: shioshvili

"Zen To Done" (ZTD) is Leo's productivity system, and it's based on David Allen's "Getting Things Done", as well as the work of Stephen Covey and others. It's a set of ten habits that will help you get organized, simplify your life, get things under control, and get things done. Instead of trying to implement all 10 habits at once, Leo recommends that you choose one habit at a time and focus on it for 30 days. Then move on to the next one.

In addition, ZTD adds the notion of the plan habit-where you plan your three Most Important Tasks (MIT's) for the day and your Big Rocks for the week--, and the routine habit, where you set daily and weekly routines for yourself. Leo's system also focuses on simplifying-getting rid of the nonessential so that you can focus on what is truly important to you-and is also more goal-oriented than GTD.

That is, ZTD focuses on simplicity, habits, routines, goals and action.

The 10 Habits of ZTD are:

ZTD Habit 1: Collect
ZTD Habit 2: Process - Make Quick Decisions on Things In Your Inbox
ZTD Habit 3: Plan
ZTD Habit 4: Do One Thing at a Time Without Distractions
ZTD Habit 5: Simple, Trusted System
ZTD Habit 6: Everything in Its Place
ZTD Habit 7: Weekly Review
ZTD Habit 8: Simplify
ZTD Habit 9: Routine
ZTD Habit 10: Find Your Passion

photo credit: angela7dreams

ZTD Habit 1: Collect Carry a capture tool with you wherever you go--whether it's a small notebook, a stack of index cards, a PDA or anything else that works for you-and write down tasks, ideas, projects, or other information that pop into your head.

The two keys to the capture habit are to write everything down before you forget, and to empty your notes into your to-do list when you get back to your home or office.

ZTD Habit 2: Process - Make Quick Decisions on Things In Your Inbox: An inbox is any place where you check your messages or read incoming information. The first thing you have to do is minimize your inboxes. List all the ways you receive information, evaluate each to see if it gives you value, and find ways to combine or eliminate inboxes. For example, make sure that all the papers that come into your home get placed in the same inbox. If you have several email addresses can you get them all forwarded to one service?

The next step is to check and process your inboxes once a day; you may need to check some of your inboxes more often, just don't do it obsessively.

Start with the top item on your inbox and work your way down, making immediate decisions as you go along: delete (or trash it), delegate, if it's something you can deal with in 2 minutes or less do it immediately, file it, or add it to your to-do list or calendar to do later. Leave nothing in the inbox.

ZTD Habit 3: Plan: At the beginning of each week list the Big Rocks that you want to accomplish--the 3 to 6 most important things you want to get done that week--and schedule them first. Each day, create a list of 1 to 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks). Do your MIT's early in the day to get them out of the way to ensure that they get done.

ZTD Habit 4: Do One Thing at a Time Without Distractions: Do One Thing at a Time Without Distractions: Select a task and decide that you're going to work on it either until it's done, or for a set amount of time (say 30 minutes). Before you get started declutter your desk and eliminate all distractions: shut off your e-mail and cell phone, get off the internet if possible, and so on. Focus on the task you've selected to the exclusion of everything else during the time that you've allotted to that task.

If you get interrupted or think of something else that needs to be done while you're focusing on a task, write it down and get back to the task.

ZTD Habit 5: Simple, Trusted System: All you need are lists. Instead of getting caught up fiddling with tools and creating complicated systems, concentrate on "doing" and not on the tools. GTD asks you to place your tasks ("next actions") in a series of context lists, such as @work, @phone, @home, @errands, @waiting, etc. Keep simple lists: all you need is one list for each context--which you check daily--and a projects list that you review either daily or weekly.

photo credit: annia316

ZTD Habit 6: Everything in Its Place: Your life can be completely organized with the following two rules: everything you own should have a home, and when you're done using any item, put it back where it belongs.

ZTD Habit 7: Weekly Review: You should have a list of life goals; that is, long-term goals. From those long-term goals, you should have between one and three that you want to accomplish this year. If you choose too many long-term goals to work toward on any one particular year, you will lose focus.

For each long-term goal that choose to work on, choose one medium-term goal that moves you closer to achieving that long-term goal, and which you can accomplish within the next few months. Next, choose one short-term goal that you can accomplish in the next week or so that will move you closer to your medium-term goal. Once you've done this, every week's Weekly Review should be just a review of the progress you've made on those goals, and a refocusing on those goals.

ZTD Habit 8: Simplify: Reduce your goals and tasks to the essentials. Review your task and projects lists and see if you can simplify them. Simplify your commitments and your incoming information stream. Make sure that your projects and tasks lineup with your yearly and life goals.

ZTD Habit 9 - Routine Set and keep routines. A morning routine, for example, could include meditating, going for a run, processing your inboxes, and reviewing your MIT's for the day. Find routines that work for you.

ZTD Habit 10 - Find Your Passion: If you're passionate about your work, your task list will almost seem like a list of rewards.

photo credit: noahg.

In his article "10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It" Leo explains that switching from being a night owl to an early riser was a godsend. He lays out ten benefits of being an early riser, and gives tips to his readers on how to adopt the habit of getting up early.

Among his advice is to start slowly, by waking up just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Then, as you get used to this after a few days, cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.

Other suggestions include: going to bed earlier, even if you don't think you'll sleep; reading while in bed; putting the alarm clock far away from the bed; leaving the room as soon as you turn the alarm clock off; and having something significant to do as soon as you get up, such as devoting that time to your writing.

photo credit: FreeWine

Introduction

PART I: THE PRINCIPLES
1. Why Less is Powerful
2. The Art of Setting Limits
3. Choosing the Essential, and Simplifying
4. Simple Focus
5. Create New Habits, and the Power of Less Challenge
6. Start Small

PART II: IN PRACTICE
7. Simple Goals and Projects
8. Simple Tasks
9. Simple Time Management
10. Simple Email
11. Simple Internet
12. Simple Filing
13. Simple Commitments
14. Simple Daily Routine
15. Declutter Your Work Space
16. Slow Down
17. Simple Health and Fitness
18. On Motivation

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