Zen To Done Review

Zen to Done Habits 

The 10 Habits of Zen to Done

1. Collect. Habit: ubiquitous capture. Carry a small notebook (or whatever capture tool works for you) and write down any tasks, ideas, projects, or other information that pop into your head. Get it out of your head and onto paper, so you don't forget it.
2. Process. Habit: make quick decisions on things in your inbox, do not put them off. Letting stuff pile up is procrastinating on making decisions. Process your inboxes (email, physical, voicemail, notebook) at least once a day, and more frequently if needed.
3. Plan. Habit: set MITs for week, day. Each week, list the Big Rocks that you want to accomplish, and schedule them first. Each day, create a list of 1-3 MITs (basically your Big Rocks for the day) and be sure to accomplish them.
4. Do (focus). Habit: do one task at a time, without distractions. This is one of the most important habits in ZTD. You must select a task (preferably one of your MITs) and focus on it to the exclusion of all else.
5. Simple trusted system. Habit: keep simple lists, check daily. Basically the same as GTD - have context lists, such as @work, @phone, @home, @errands, @waiting, etc. ZTD suggests that you keep your lists as simple as possible.
6. Organize. Habit: a place for everything. All incoming stuff goes in your inbox. From there, it goes on your context lists and an action folder, or in a file in your filing system, in your outbox if you're going to delegate it, or in the trash. Put things where they belong, right away, instead of piling them up to sort later.
7. Review. Habit: review your system & goals weekly. GTD's weekly review is great, and ZTD incorporates it almost exactly, but with more of a focus on reviewing your goals each week. This is already in GTD, but isn't emphasized.
8. Simplify. Habit: reduce your goals & tasks to essentials. One of the problems with GTD is that it attempts to tackle all incoming tasks. But this can overload us, and leave us without the necessary focus on the important tasks (MITs). So instead, ZTD asks you to review your task and project lists, and see if you can simplify them.
9. Routine. Habit: set and keep routines. GTD is very unstructured, which can be both a strength and a weakness. It's a weakness for some people because they need more structure. Try the habit of creating routines to see if it works better for you.
10. Find your passion. Habit: seek work for which you're passionate. This could be your last habit, but at the same time your most important. GTD is great for managing the tasks in your life, and trying not to procrastinate on them. But if you're passionate about your work, you won't procrastinate - you'll love doing it, and want to do more.