produce的其他形式:The Power of LESS

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“BABAUTA HAS BECOME A POWERHOUSE OF ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY FOR GOOD REASON: HIS MANTRA WORKS.”

—TIMOTHY FERRISS, AUTHOR OH THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK

The Power of LESS

the fine art of limiting yourself to the

essential. . . in business and in life

Leo Babauta

CONTENTS

Introduction v

PART I: THE PRINCIPLES

1. Why Less Is Powerful 3

2.The Art of Setting Limits 11

3. Choosing the Essential, and Simplifying 17

4. Simple Focus 25

5. Create New Habits, and the Power

of Less Challenge 33

6. Start Small 39

PART II: IN PRACTICE

7. Simple Goals and Projects 45

8. Simple Tasks 57

9. Simple Time Management 61

CONTENTS

10. Simple E-mail　 71

11. Simple Internet 　 83

12. Simple Filing 91

13. Simple Commitments 99

14. Simple Daily Routine 113

15. Declutter Your Work Space 119

16. Slow Down 131

17. Simple Health and Fitness 143

18. On Motivation 159

Acknowledgments 171

About the Author

Credits

Cover

INTRODUCTION

HERE HAS NEVER BEFORE been an age in which we

could get so much done so quickly. There also has never

before been an age in which we were so overwhelmed

with information and tasks, so overloaded with e-mails and

things to read and watch, so stressed by the incredible demands

of our lives.

For many people these days, work is a constant stream of

e-mails, of news and requests, of phone calls and instant mes-

sages, of papers and notes and files. The day starts with an

in-box full of e-mails, and ends with an in-box just as full,

and each e-mail represents a request for information or for

actions that we don't have time to fulfill. We are drinking

from a fire hose of information, with no idea of how to reduce

the flow.

It's stressful and wasteful. And if we stop to think about it,

it's not how we want to spend our lives.

FINDING CALM IN THE CHAOS

What's the alternative to information and task overload? Must we

follow the example of Thoreau, and build a cabin in the woods,

shutting ourselves off from society and modern technology?

I propose a middle ground: one where we can still enjoy ac-

cess to vast amounts of information, still have instant commu-

nication when we want it, still get things done quickly—but one

in which we choose how much we consume and do. A simpler

life, but one in which we accomplish the things we want to ac-

complish.

The solution lies in setting limits to how much we consume

and do. It lies in making the most of our time by focusing on

the most important things, instead of everything. Picture a life

in which you have a fairly peaceful workday, where stress levels

are minimal, where you're able to focus on your work. Imagine

that you only do a few tasks, but they're chosen so that they have the most impact. You accomplish major goals without the stress of doing everything at once.

It might sound idyllic, but it's definitely achievable. I've done

it using a system that's very easy to implement.

It all comes down to making choices.

SIMPLICITY

I'm a firm believer in simplicity. My life is better when I sim-

plify it, when I cut down on the noise and I'm able to enjoy the

things I love. My work is better when I cut out the distractions

and I'm able to focus. My writing is more powerful when I can

eliminate excess words and use only those words needed to con-

vey my core ideas.

Simplicity means a lot of things in different contexts. For

some, it means going back to using raw materials instead of

manufactured ones, building and making everything yourself

instead of buying it, doing everything yourself instead of rely-

ing on others. While that definition holds a lot of appeal for me,

the simplicity I seek in my life is simplicity in what I do. Do

less, not more, but achieve more because of the choices I make.

Simplicity boils down to two steps:

1. Identify the essential.

2. Eliminate the rest.

In this book, we'll talk about a lot of ways to apply those two

steps to various areas of your work and personal life, but we'll

always come back to those two ideas: Focus on the essential and

allow everything else to drop away.

It'll make you much happier, less stressed, and perhaps sur-

prisingly, more productive.

HOW IT WORKED FOR ME

Only a few years ago, I was over my head in debt, with a work

schedule that rarely allowed me to see my family and had me

stressed to maximum levels every day. I was overweight and

unhealthy, I was eating fried and fatty and salty and greasy

foods every day, I wasn't exercising, and I was a smoker. I was

unhappy at work and going nowhere, fast. My life was compli-

cated, and I didn't have time for the things I loved.

So I made a choice: I decided to simplify. I decided to make

positive changes. It started with quitting smoking—I focused

on that first, and only that. I poured all of my energy into this

one goal, and an amazing thing happened: That focused energy

allowed me to break through the initial barriers of quitting,

which I'd failed at numerous times before.

Beating that barrier helped inspire me to new goals and hab-

its, and I used the same method on each one: I'd focus all of my

energy and attention on that one challenge, and the barriers

would break down. I'd focus on one goal at a time (I call it my

"One Goal") and not try to accomplish everything at once.

Through this method, over the last several years, I've been

able to:

1. Take up running

2. Begin eating healthier

3. Become organized and productive

4. Train for and run two marathons

5. Work two jobs and double my income

6. Become an early riser (I wake at 4 a.m.)

7. Become a vegetarian

8. Complete two triathlons

9. Start a successful blog—Zen Habits

10. Completely eliminate my debt

11. Save a substantial emergency fund for the first time

12. Simplify my life

13. Declutter my home

14. Lose forty-plus pounds

15. Write and sell two successful e-books

16. Write the first draft of a novel

17. Quit my day job and work from home

18. Start a successful second blog, Write To Done, for writers

19. Publish this book

And I've done all of that while raising and making time for

six beautiful kids.

That may sound like a lot, but I accomplished all of this in

small steps, one thing at a time. Again, I used the concept

of One Goal—I focused on only one goal at a time, and put

all of my energy into it.

My blog, Zen Habits, which documents how I've reached

these goals, is now in the top fifty blogs in the world, with more

than sixty thousand subscribers and about two million readers

a month. Many of my readers have asked me how I can do so

much, given that I have the same number of hours in the day as

everyone else. My answer: It's a matter of placing limits, and

focusing on the essential.

THE SIX PRINCIPLES

OF SIMPLE PRODUCTIVITY

Part I of this book will explore the six guiding principles of the

Power of Less—the ideas that will help you to maximize your

productivity while simplifying your life. These Power of Less

Principles will reappear throughout the book:

1. Set limitations.

2. Choose the essential.

3. Simplify.

4. Focus.

5. Create habits.

6. Start small.

In Part II of this book, the Power of Less in Practice, we'll

take a look at practical tips for implementing these principles in

key areas, from your work to your personal life.

WHAT THIS BOOK WILL DO

First, let me tell you what this book won't do: It won't teach you

exactly how to write a novel or run a marathon or quit smoking.

This isn't a how-to manual to do any of that. This is a how-to

manual on how to simplify and focus on the essential. How to

do less while accomplishing more. How to focus and use that

focus to achieve your goals, no matter what they are.

It's about limitations rather than volume.

Each chapter of this book is designed to teach you how to

focus on less and to use that focus to be more powerful in dif-

ferent areas of your life. You'll learn to simplify what you do, to

reduce the volume of your tasks and projects and communica-

tion and information. You'll learn to reduce the clutter in your

life so that you're less stressed and more productive. You'll learn

how simplicity can be extremely powerful and how to use that

to accomplish your goals, one at a time.

You'll learn how to create a more tranquil workday and envi-

ronment, no matter where you work.

This is a book about less, and how focusing on less can transform your life.

And it's not an abstract book, either: It will give you very

practical advice about how to put the concept of less into action,

every day.

Part I

the

PRINCIPLES

one

Why Less Is Powerful

E LIVE IN a world where, more often than not,

more is better. We are after more money, to buy

bigger houses and cars, and more clothes and gad-

gets and furniture. We need bigger shopping malls rather than

the small shops of yesterday. We consume more, and we pro-

duce more, and we do more than ever before.

At some point, however, we run into limits. There is only so

much we can do or consume. There are a finite number of

hours in a day, and once we reach that limit to our production,

we can't do more. Many people see these limits as problems,

while others see them as a challenge: How can I squeeze more

into my day? If I manage my time effectively and learn to be

more productive, can I get more done in the limited number of

hours available to me?

The problem with constantly trying to increase volume is

that it doesn't always produce the best results. Doing a huge

number of things doesn't mean you're getting anything mean-

ingful done. In fact, it's so hit-and-miss that it's almost like

playing a game of roulette: If you do enough tasks, one of them

is bound to pay off big.

It doesn't work that way. Doing more things means you're

likely to do a lot of unimportant things, and you'll be over-

worked and stressed at the same time.

Imagine two reporters working at a newspaper: One goes for

a high volume of articles each week, and the other decides to do

only one. The reporter writing thirty articles a week scans a vast

amount of sources for any little bit of information that's re-

motely interesting, turning each into a short, quick, and fairly

limited article that doesn't get much attention. His editor is

pleased by the amount of work he's doing, and he gets rewarded

with praise.

The second reporter decides that if he's just going to do one

article this week, he'd better make it count. He spends half of

the first day researching and brainstorming and thinking until

he chooses a high-impact story that he knows will knock people's

socks off. It'll be an article that wins awards. He spends two

days researching it and another couple days writing it and

checking facts.

Guess what happens? Not only does he produce the best ar-

ticle of the week, but it becomes an award-winning article, one

that the readers love and that gets him a promotion and long-

term and widespread recognition. From that article, and others

like it, he can build a career. The first reporter was thinking

high-volume, but short-term. The second reporter focused on

less, but it did much more over the long term.

That's the Power of Less.

THE LESSONS OF THE HAIKU

The fairly popular form of Japanese poetry known as the haiku

has a couple of interesting lessons to teach us about why less is

powerful. The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-re-

lated poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines

(five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku

must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea

or image in only that number of syllables. It can be a daunting

task if you have something important to convey.

So the haiku poet has a couple of choices: He can quickly

whip out seventeen syllables and have a completed haiku in a

short amount of time; or he can carefully choose only the essen-

tial words and images needed to convey his idea. And this sec-

ond choice is what creates some of the most powerful poetry in

such a limited form—choosing only the essential. So the les-

sons we can pick up from the haiku are the first two principles

of simple productivity:

Principle 1: By setting limitations, we must choose

the essential.So in everything you do, learn to set

limitations.

Principle 2: By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.

These two lessons form the key to this book. They are the

Power of Less in two sentences. Everything after this is simply

an exploration of these concepts, or practical ways to apply them

to many areas of your life.

CHOOSING THINGS WITH THE MOST IMPACT

In our work lives, we can be like the first reporter in the exam-

ple above, cranking out tasks like crazy, and we'll probably get a

whole lot done and be praised for it. People like to see hard

workers who will handle anything thrown at them.

However, we can make another choice: We can be like the

second reporter and choose to do fewer things, but things with

the most impact. What does that mean, "the most impact"? A

task or project could be "high-impact" in a number of different

ways. It could:

get you long-term recognition;

make you a lot of money in the long run;

be highly beneficial to your company, in terms of revenues, branding, expanding into new areas, etc.;

change your career or have the potential to greatly advance your career;

change your personal life in some important way; or

contribute to society or humanity in general.

These are just some examples—you can probably think of other

ways a task or project can be high-impact.

How can you determine which tasks have the most impact?

There are generally two good ways of doing this.

1. Examine your task list. Take a look at everything on

your list and ask yourself the following questions about each

one: Will this have an impact that will last beyond this week or

this month? How will it change my job, my career, my life?

How will this further a long-term goal of mine? How impor-

tant is that goal? From these answers, you can determine

which items will have the most impact over the long term.

While this sounds like a tedious process, it actually gets very

easy with practice, and soon you'll be able to do it in just a few

minutes.

2.Start with your goals. If you start by identifying the

things you really want to accomplish in the next year, you can

plan your tasks so that you are doing things each day to further

those goals along. Let's say you have three long-term goals—

each day, choose a task from your list that will move you closer

to those goals. This will ensure that you are completing the

tasks with the most impact, because they relate directly to a

long-term goal.

Which of these two methods should you use? Whichever

method works for you. We'll talk more about working with goals

and tasks in later chapters, but for now I just want to point out

that it's not an either/or choice. You can try a combination of

both of the above methods, and in fact, I think that's necessary.

You can do your best to plan for your goals, but even the best of

us has tasks outside of those goals that must be completed. All

your tasks will pile up in a long list (if you're careful to write

them down) and the non-goal tasks can easily push back your

goal tasks. What you'll need to do is do a review of your task list

(method number one above) to choose the high-impact tasks,

instead of trying to tackle everything regardless of how mean-

ingful the tasks are to your life.

APPLYING LIMITATIONS TO

EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE

The lessons of the haiku, of applying limitations in order to

force choices, of choosing the essential and finding the Power

of Less—these are lessons we can apply not only to the tasks on

our to-do lists, but to everything in our lives. If there's any area

of your life that is overwhelming you, and that you'd like to sim-

plify, apply limitations.

Have too many e-mails in your in-box? Apply a limitation:

You'll only check e-mail twice a day, and only respond to five

e-mails each time. You'll be forced to work more effectively, and

only write important e-mails.

Have too many projects? Limit them to three. Have too much

stuff in your house? Limit yourself to two hundred items. You

get the idea.

We'll explore these different areas in more detail and see

how the lessons of the haiku can transform these areas of your

life into something powerful and meaningful, but for now, it

helps to ask yourself the following questions:

Which areas of my life are overwhelming?

What would I like to simplify?

In addition to the tasks I need to accomplish in different

areas, do I want to limit the number of possessions I

have, what information I receive, or what responsibilities

I have?

These are just preliminary questions for now; we'll explore this

in more detail and figure out what's essential and what isn't as

we get into the following chapters.

two

The Art of

Setting Limits

OST OF us lead lives filled with too much stuff, too

much information, too many papers, too much to do,

too much clutter. Unfortunately, our time and space

is limited, and having too much of everything is like trying to

cram a library into a single box: It can't be done, it's hard to en-

joy the books, and sooner or later the box will break.

Our problem is living without limits. It's like going shop-

ping without spending limits—you tend to go overboard and

end up with a bunch of stuff you don't need or really want

much. But if you have a budget (say one hundred dollars), you'll

choose only the things that matter, and you'll end up with much

less junk.

Our entire lives are like this: We live without limits. And

while that freedom can seem fun at first, after a while it gets to

be too much. We don't have enough room for everything. We

can't handle the stress of trying to do everything. We just can't

fit it in our lives, no matter how much we'd like to do so.

It weakens us in so many ways. It dilutes our power and ef-

fectiveness. It spreads us too thin. It tires us out so that we don't

have the energy to handle the important stuff. A life without

limits is taking a cup of red dye and pouring it into the ocean,

and watching the color dilute into nothingness. Limited focus is

putting that same cup of dye into a gallon of water.

Limitless is the pitcher who pitches nine innings every three

days, throwing as many pitches as he can, as hard as he can.

Soon he's too tired to pitch very hard, if at all. The real power is

when that same pitcher comes in for one inning every three

days and can mow down the batters every time.

Limitless is trying to excavate an entire acre of land with a

single shovel. Limited focus is digging with that same shovel in

one spot until you hit water.

Limitless is weak. Learn to focus yourself with limits, and

you'll increase your strength. In this chapter, we'll explore Prin-

ciple 1. Setting Limits.

HOW LIMITS CAN HELP

Going from a limitless life that's overwhelming and not very

effective to a life with limits, focus, and power is an incredible

transformation.

Here are just a few benefits of setting limits on everything

you do:

It simplifies things. Your life becomes more manageable

and less stressful.

It focuses you. Instead of diluting yourself, you focus

your energy on a smaller number of things.

It focuses on what's important. Instead of trying to do

everything and not having enough time for the impor-

tant things in your life, you do only what's important to

you. That's an incredible change for most people.

It helps you achieve. Many times, when we are spread too

thin, we only make incremental progress on important

projects and goals. But if we focus on just a few impor-

tant things, we can actually complete them. You'll achieve

much more by focusing on the essential.

It shows others that your time is important. When we

try to take on everything that comes our way, the people

around us get the message that their time is more im-

portant than ours, that we'll say yes to whatever re-

quests they have. If, however, we have firm limits on

what we do, we send the message that we value our

time and our priorities. Others will value your time in

return.

It makes you more effective. By doing less of the busy-

work, and more of the important work, you are spinning

your wheels less and using your limited time and energy

on something with lasting impact. That helps you make

the best use of your time, and eliminates much of the

nonessential in your life.

WHAT TO SET LIMITS ON

What areas of your life need limits? Everything that you feel is

in any way overloaded. Every area that you'd like to improve.

You don't need to revamp your entire life all at once. That's a

sure recipe for failure, actually. Taking on too much at once is

the antithesis of this book—to succeed at setting limits, you

should start with one area at a time, and preferably an area with

a great likelihood of success.

Where should you start? That can't be prescribed, as each

person's life is different, and you'll need to do what works for

you. Take a few minutes to think about your life—what areas

take up too much time, or seem overloaded? What would you

like to simplify? Some ideas for good places to start:

E-mail

Daily tasks

The amount of time spent on the phone

The number of projects you have on your plate

The number of blogs or other projects you subscribe to

The amount of time you spend reading on the Internet

The number of things on top of your desk

These are just ideas, of course. You'll slowly be expanding into

other areas. Focus on one change at a time until it becomes a

part of your routine, and you're comfortable with the limit.

HOW TO SET LIMITS

When you first set a limit on something, it'll be a fairly arbitrary

number, as it will take some time to see what works for you.

However, setting limits isn't just pulling a random number out

of a hat—it's based on your experience with that type of activity,

and based on what you think your ideal is.

For example, when you first set a limit on the number of

times you plan to check your e-mail, if you just randomly select

a number, it could be well over a thousand. But you know from

experience that that would obviously be too high a limit, so

you'll likely choose from a range that's reasonable based on your

years of experience in checking e-mail. Let's say you normally

check e-mail ten to fifteen times a day, and that seems like too

much for you. You're spending most of your day in e-mail, in-

stead of getting your other work done. So you might choose

from a range of one to five times, as that seems ideal. Maybe

you'll try twice a day—once in the morning and once before you

leave work.

The next step is to test it out, to see if that limit works for

you. Is it a limit you can reasonably stick to? Is it hurting your

communication with others in an appreciable way? Are you able

to get much more work done with this limit?

Think of your first week with that limit as an experiment. If

it doesn't work for you (and there's no single limit that works for

everyone), then adjust it a bit. If twice a day isn't often enough,

try three times a day. If you think you can get by with even less,

try once a day. Then test that new limit out until you find what

works for you, and until you make that limit a part of your daily

routine. Once it's a habit, you can move on to the next area of

your life. So setting limits for anything else will work the same

way:

1. Analyze your current usage levels (how many times do

you do something a day?) and pick a lower limit based on

what you think would be ideal.

2. Test it out for about a week, and then analyze whether

that's working for you.

3. If it doesn't work, adjust to a new level you think might

work better, and test that out for about a week.

4. Continue to adjust until you find the right level and until

you make it a habit.

Once you've learned to set limits, you will then learn to

make the most of those limits—by choosing the essential and

then simplifying. That's when the power of limits can really be

seen: when the limits force you to reduce yourself to only the

essentials. We'll discuss this in the next chapter.

three

Choosing the Essential,

and Simplifying

N THIS CHAPTER, we'll explore Principle 2, Choose the

Essential, and then Principle 3, Simplifying. Choosing the

essential is the key to simplifying—you have to choose

the essential before you simplify, or you're just cutting things

out without ensuring that you're keeping the important things.

How do you know what's essential? That's the key question.

Once you know that, the rest is easy.

Once you know what's essential, you can reduce your proj-

ects, your tasks, your stream of incoming information, your

commitments, your clutter. You just have to eliminate every-

thing that's not essential.

It's like the old joke: how do you carve a statue of an elephant?

Just chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.

Well, first you have to know what the elephant looks like.

PUT THE HORSE BEFORE THE CART

Many productivity systems will tell you to do things in reverse:

They'll tell you how to do things quickly, without trying to fig-

ure out what things you should be doing. They'll tell you how to

get the urgent tasks done, and how to handle a mass of assign-

ments and information coming at you, but these systems don't

do a good job of discriminating between what's important and

what's not, and you end up doing everything that's thrown at

you. That puts you at the mercy of the flow of tasks and infor-

mation coming at you—in other words, at the mercy of anyone's

whim or requests.

Instead, you must ask yourself in everything you do, what is

essential? Whether that's asking yourself what you want to do

today, or this week, or this year, or in your life in general, ask

yourself what is essential. Whether that be deciding which

e-mails to reply to, what you can buy this month with your lim-

ited budget, how to declutter your desk or your house—ask

yourself what the essentials are.

That puts the horse before the cart, instead of after it—you're

identifying the essential, and then accomplishing those essen-

tials.

CHOOSING THE ESSENTIAL:

A SERIES OF QUESTIONS

In everything you do, use these questions to guide you to

choose the essential, especially if you have problems deciding.

Once you get the hang of it, you won't need these questions

anymore—they'll become automatic.

1. What are your values? Values are simply knowing what

things are most important to you. Think about the things that

really matter to you, the qualities you want to have, the principles

you want to live your life by. Once you've identified these values,

everything you do and choose should follow from those.

2. What are your goals? What do you want to achieve in

life? How about over the next year? How about this month? And

today? If you know what you're trying to achieve, you can deter-

mine if an action or item will help you achieve it.

3. What do you love? Think about what you love, who you

love to spend time with, what you love doing.

4. What is important to you? Along the same lines, make

a list of the most important things in your life, in your work, or

in whatever area you're thinking about.

5. What has the biggest impact? If you have a choice to

make between a list of projects or tasks, think about which proj-

ect or task will make the biggest difference in your life or career.

What will have the biggest effect on everything else? For exam-

ple, if you have a choice between making some calls, having a

meeting, and writing a report, think about the impact each task

will have: the calls are to clients who spend perhaps one hun-

dred dollars each on your company, the meeting is with a client

who will bring in ten thousand dollars in business if you can

close the deal, and the report is something that might not even

be read. The meeting, in this example, has the biggest impact,

and is therefore the most essential.

6. What has the most long-term impact? There's a differ-

ence between the size of an impact and its long-term value. For

example, a meeting with a client might bring in ten thousand

dollars next week, but a long-term marketing campaign might

bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next year.

The impact doesn't have to be in terms of money—it could be

anything that's valuable to you.

7. Needs vs. wants. This is a good criteria to use when you're

trying to decide whether to spend on certain items: Which items

do you actually need, and which ones are just things you want?

If you can identify needs, you can eliminate most of the wants,

which are nonessential.

8. Eliminate the nonessential. Sometimes it's useful to

work backward, if you're having trouble figuring out the essen-

tials. If you have a list of things to do, for example, start by

crossing off the nonessential items. You know that washing

your car, for example, isn't as important as paying your bills or

fixing that leak that is costing you hundreds of dollars on your

water bill. Once you eliminate some of the nonessential stuff,

you are left with the more essential things on the list.

9. Continual editing process. Most of the time you don't

pare things all the way down to the essentials on your first try.

You eliminate some of the nonessentials and give the remain-

ing things a try. Then you take another look at it in a week or

two and eliminate more things. Continue that process until you

are happy that you can't eliminate anything else.

HOW TO APPLY THE QUESTIONS

The list of questions above is a good way to determine which

things are essential to you if you're having difficulties, no mat-

ter what area of your life you're examining. From your work

projects and tasks, to e-mails, to finances, to goals, to your com-

mitments in life, to the clutter in your home and on your desk,

identifying the essentials is the first and most important step in

simplifying things so that you can be more effective.

The key is to take a few moments (or hours, or days, if neces-

sary) to stop what you're doing and think about it in a broader

perspective. Are you focusing on the essentials? What are the

essentials? Can you eliminate the nonessentials? Take the time

to ask yourself the questions above and you'll do a much better

job of honing in on what you really need to do, and really want

to do—a better job of focusing on what's important, and on get-

ting the important things done. That'll cut back on the time you

spend doing things that aren't important, that you don't love do-

ing, that don't lead to the accomplishment of your goals.

Here are some ways you can apply the essentials questions

(with more detail in the following chapters on these topics):

Life commitments: What commitments in your life are es-

sential? Apply the questions above, especially those about

values and goals and the things you love, to reduce your

nonessential commitments.

Yearly goals: At the beginning of each year, we are often

filled with the desire to accomplish many goals. It doesn't

always turn out the way we wanted at the beginning of

the year, and one of the main reasons for that is having

too many goals. Pick one or two goals for the year and

focus on those. Learn to use the essentials questions to

decide which goals are the most essential. You can al-

ways get to the less essential goals later.

Work projects and tasks: If you have a long list of projects

and tasks, you need to simplify—use the essentials ques-

tions to decide what your priorities are. What project will

you focus on this week? What tasks will you focus on to-

day? Eliminate as many nonessential projects and tasks

as possible. The essentials questions regarding your

goals, and the impact of each project and task, are the

most relevant.

E-mails: If you have twenty e-mails to answer, use the

essentials questions to pick the three to five e-mails

you're actually going to answer today. Worry about the

nonessential ones tomorrow—or if you dare, just elimi-

nate them.

Finances: The needs vs. wants question is important here,

but so are the questions about goals and values. If you

align your spending with your goals and values, you'll

eliminate a lot of nonessential spending, and your fi-

nances will be better off.

Clutter: Eliminate clutter by starting with the needs vs.

wants question, by eliminating the nonessential and us-

ing a continual editing process. Eventually you'll weed

out the junk and get down to what is truly necessary and

the things you truly love and use.

Regular review: Choosing the essential is almost never a

one-time decision. It's something you have to revisit reg-

ularly, as new things accumulate, as your values and goals

change, as you learn that you can live with less and less.

If you go through an area of your life and eliminate

many of the nonessentials, mark a date in your calendar

to revisit that area, and continue the editing process over

and over. And learn to enjoy the process, not to strive for

a certain destination.

Simplifying isn't meant to leave your life empty—it's meant

to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know

what those things are before you start simplifying.

Principle 3: Simplifying—Eliminating the Nonessential

Once you've identified the essential, the task of simplifying is

theoretically easy—you just have to eliminate all the nonessen-

tial. However, in practice this isn't always easy, although it does

get less difficult the more you do it.

Let's say you have a task list, for example, and you've identified

the top three things you need to do on that list. To simplify the

list, you'd want to eliminate as many of the nonessential things

on the list as possible—everything that's not identified as es-

sential. So you start by crossing off the things that aren't really

important, then delegating other tasks that can be done by co-

workers, and finally postponing assignments that you do need

to get done but that don't need to be done today.

The hard part comes when others want you to get something

done, but you don't think it's essential. In that case, you'll have

to learn to say "no." We'll talk more about this in the chapter on

Simple Commitments, but for now it's useful to understand

that saying "no" is simply a commitment to sticking to the es-

sentials. If that means telling people you don't have time to do

more, then that's what the commitment means. And saying

"no" gets easier with practice, especially as you gain confidence

that sticking to the essential is something that will have great

benefits to you in the long term. Additionally, others will start

to respect you for being honest about what commitments you

can take on without overloading yourself, and they will start to

respect your time if you respect it first.

four

Simple Focus

" With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with

the future. I live now"

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

RINCIPLE 4 of the Power of Less is that your focus is

your most important tool. Focus on less to become more ef-

fective. Focus on One Goal in order to achieve it (more on

this later). Focus on the task at hand instead of multitasking, and

you'll be more productive. Focus on the present, to reduce anxiety

and stress.

Principle 4: Focus is your most important tool in

becoming more effective.

HOW TO USE FOCUS TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Let's first look at how to use the power of focus in different

ways:

Focus on a goal. Focus is the most important factor in

determining whether you'll achieve a goal or stick to cre-

ating a new habit. Not self-discipline, not rewards, not

sheer willpower, not even motivation (though this is also

an important ingredient). If you can maintain your focus

on a goal or habit, you will more often than not achieve

that goal or create that habit. If you can't maintain your

focus, you won't achieve the goal, unless it's such an easy

goal that it would have happened anyway. It's that sim-

ple.

Focus on now. Focusing on the present can do a lot for

you. It helps reduce stress, it helps you enjoy life to the

fullest, and it can increase your effectiveness. Focusing

on now, rather than the past or the future, isn't easy, and

takes a lot of practice. We'll explore how to do this in the

next section.

Focus on the task at hand. Have you ever completely lost

yourself in a task, so that the world around you disap-

pears? You lose track of time and are completely caught

up in what you're doing. That's the popular concept of

"flow" (see page 63), and it's an important ingredient in

finding happiness—having work and leisure that gets

you in this state of flow will almost undoubtedly lead to

it. People find their greatest enjoyment not when they're

passively mindless, but when they're absorbed in a mind-

ful challenge. The first step is to find work that you're

passionate about. Next, you need to clear away distrac-

tions and focus completely on the task you set before

yourself.

Focus on the positive. One of the key skills I've learned is

how to be aware of my negative thoughts, and to replace

them with positive thoughts. I learned this through quit-

ting smoking and running—there are many times when

you feel like giving up, and if you don't catch these nega-

tive thoughts in time, they'll fester and grow until you

actually do give up. Instead, learn to focus on the posi-

tive. Think about how great you feel. Think about how

other people have done this, and that you can too. Think

about how good it will feel when you accomplish what

you're trying to do. Also, learn to see the positive in just

about any situation. In my experience, this results in

happiness, as you don't focus on the difficult or negative

parts of your life, but on the good things. Be thankful for

what you've been given.

FOCUSING ON ONE TASK (SINGLE-TASKING)

We live in a multitasking world. You're working on two projects

at once when your boss places two new demands on your desk.

You're on the phone when three new e-mails come in. You're

trying to get out the door on time so you can pick up a few gro-

ceries for dinner on the way home. Your BlackBerry is going off

and so is your cell phone. Your coworker stops by with a request

for info and your Google Reader is filled with more than a hun-

dred articles to read.

You've learned to juggle tasks at high speed, worthy of this

age of the Internet.

In these days of instant technology, we are bombarded with

an overload of information and demands of our time. But we're

not designed to handle this kind of overload: Soon we are so

overwhelmed with things to do that our system begins to fall

apart.

Instead, I advocate single-tasking, focusing on one task at a

time and working as simply as possible to preserve your mental

health and to improve your effectiveness. Here are a few quick

reasons not to multitask:

1. Multitasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch

gears for each new task and then switch back again.

2. Multitasking is more complicated, and thus leaves you

more prone to stress and errors.

3. Multitasking can be crazy-making, and in this already

chaotic world, we need to rein in the terror and find a

little oasis of sanity and calm.

Here's how to single-task instead:

1. First thing in the morning, work on your Most Impor-

tant Task. Don't do anything else until this is done. Give

yourself a short break, then start on your next Most Im-

portant Task. If you can get two to three of these done in

the morning, the rest of the day is gravy.

2. When you are working on a task in a time block, turn off

all other distractions. Shut off e-mail and the entire

Internet if possible. Shut off your cell phone. Try not to

answer your phone, if possible. Focus on that one task,

and try to get it done without worrying about other

stuff.

3. If you feel the urge to check your e-mail or switch to an-

other task, stop yourself. Breathe deeply. Refocus your-

self. Get back to the task at hand.

4. If other things come in while you're working, put them

in your in-box, or take note of them in a small notebook

or on a text file on your computer. Get back to the task at

hand.

5. Every now and then, when you've completed the task at

hand, process your notes and in-box, adding the tasks to

your to-do lists and refiguring your schedule if neces-

sary. Process your e-mail and other in-boxes at regular

and predetermined intervals.

6. There are times when an interruption is so urgent that

you cannot put it off until you're done with the task at

hand. In that case, try to make a note of where you are

(writing down notes if you have time) with the task at

hand, and put all the documents or notes for that task

together and aside (perhaps in an "action" folder or proj-

ect folder). Then, when you come back to that task, you

can pull out your folder and look at your notes to see

where you left off.

7. Take deep breaths, stretch, and take breaks now and then.

Enjoy life. Go outside, and appreciate nature. Keep your-

self sane.

HOW TO FOCUS ON THE PRESENT

Similar to single-tasking, you can learn to focus on the present,

instead of the past or future, in order to stay calm, productive,

effective, and sane.

The only way to learn to focus on the present is to practice.

This might be hard to do at first. Your mind will wander, or

you'll do a lot of "meta-thinking," which is just thinking about

what you're thinking, and whether you're thinking it the right

way, and whether there is a right way . .. and so on, until you're

no longer in the present. That's normal. We all do that.

Don't beat yourself up about that. Don't get discouraged. Just

practice. Practice in the morning. Practice while eating lunch.

Practice during your evening jog or walk. Practice while wash-

ing dishes after dinner. Every opportunity you get, practice.

And you'll get better. I promise.

Here are some of the best ways to practice focusing on the

present:

1. When you eat, just eat. The best way to think about be-

ing present is this: Do just one thing at a time. When you are

eating, don't read or think about something else or iron your

clothes (especially if you're eating something that might splat-

ter on the clothes). Just eat. Pay attention to what you're eating.

Really experience it—the taste, the texture. Do it slowly. Same

thing with anything else: washing dishes, taking a shower, driv-

ing, working, playing. Don't do multiple things at once—just do

what you're doing now, and nothing else.

2. Be aware. Another important step is to become more

aware of your thoughts. You will inevitably think about the past

and future. That's OK. Just become aware of those thoughts.

Awareness will bring change.

3. Be gentle. If you think about the past or future, do not

beat yourself up about it! Don't try to force those thoughts out of

your head. Just be aware of them and gently allow them to leave.

Then bring yourself back to the present.

4. Exercise. Exercise is my meditation. I run, and try to only

run. I focus on my running, on my breathing, on my body, on

nothing but the present. It's great practice.

5.Daily routines. Anything can be your meditation. When

you wash dishes, this is practice. This is your meditation. When

you walk, focus on walking. Make anything you do become

practice.

6. Put up reminders. A reminder on your fridge or com-

puter desktop, or on your wall, is a good thing. Or use a reminder

service to send you a daily e-mail. Whatever it takes to keep your

focus on practicing being present.

7. There is no failure. You will mess up, but that's OK, be-

cause it is impossible to mess up. The only thing that matters is

that you practice, and over time, if you keep doing it, you will

learn to focus on the present more often than you do now. You

cannot fail, even if you stop doing it for a while. Doing it at all is

success. Celebrate every little success.

8. Keep practicing. When you get frustrated, just take a

deep breath. When you ask yourself, "What should I do now.

Self?", the answer is "Keep practicing."

five

Create New Habits, and the Power of Less Challenge

RINCIPLE 5, Create New Habits, is the secret to mak-

ing lasting changes that will actually improve your life.

There is a series of habit changes recommended in every

chapter of this book, but if you attempt to master all of them at

once, you'll be overwhelmed and your focus will be spread out

too thin. And in a matter of weeks, the changes you attempt will

be for naught.

Principle 5: Create new habits to make

long-lasting improvements.

Instead, the only way you'll form long-lasting habits is by ap-

plying the Power of Less: Focus on one habit at a time, one

month at a time, so that you'll be able to focus all your energy on

creating that one habit.

The tool that you'll use to form each habit is an extremely

powerful one: the Power of Less Challenge, a thirty-day chal-

lenge that has proven very effective in forming habits for thou-

sands of readers of my Zen Habits blog.

Here's how it works:

1. Select one habit for the Challenge. Only one habit per

month. You can choose any habit—whatever you think will

have the biggest impact on your life.

2. Write down your plan. You will need to specifically state

what your goal will be each day, when you'll do it, what your "trig-

ger" will be (the event that will immediately precede the habit

that's already a part of your routine—such as exercising right af-

ter you brush your teeth), and who you will report to (see below).

3. Post your goal publicly. Tell as many people as possible

that you are trying to form your new habit. I suggest an online

forum, but you could e-mail it to coworkers and family and

friends or otherwise get the word out to a large group.

4. Report on your progress daily. Each day, tell the same

group of people whether or not you succeeded at your goal.

5. Celebrate your new habit! After thirty days, you will

have a new habit. You will still need to make sure you do the

habit each day, but it'll be fairly well entrenched if you were con-

sistent all month.

WHY IT WORKS

This thirty-day Challenge is one of the best ways to form a

habit, and it has worked repeatedly for several reasons:

Commitment. Just the act of committing to the Chal-

lenge, and setting a measurable goal, and declaring it to

a bunch of others, is a huge step toward making the

habit change a success.

Accountability. The daily check-in makes you want to do

your daily habit, so you can report your success to others.

There is a very positive feeling (reward) you get when

you report that you did your habit today.

Encouragement. There is also value in reporting your

struggles. For example, during one challenge, when I got

sick for a few days, I asked my group to motivate me.

They were extremely encouraging, and I got back into my

habit.

Inspiration. When you see everyone else doing so great,

it's inspiring. If they can do it, so can you! And there are

always some really inspiring people in each group of

challengers.

Now, you don't need to join the Monthly Challenge on the

Zen Habits forums to achieve a positive habit change, but I

highly recommend you find a group—online or off—to help

you stick to your habit change. There are plenty of online fo-

rums and community groups to help with these kinds of

things—the power of a group can help leverage your power to

change a habit.

THE RULES

There are only a few rules you need to follow to make this Chal-

lenge a success. If you follow these rules, it would be hard for

you not to form a new habit by the end of the thirty days.

Do only one habit at a time. Do not break this rule, be-

cause I assure you that if you do multiple habits at once,

you will be much less likely to succeed. Trust me—I've

tried both ways many times, and in my experience there

is a 100 percent rate of failure for forming multiple hab-

its at once, and a 50 to 80 percent rate of success if you do

just one habit at a time—depending on whether you fol-

low the rest of these rules.

Choose an easy goal. Don't decide to do something really

hard, at least for now. Later, when you're good at habit

changes, you can choose something harder. But for now,

do something you know you can do every day. In fact,

choose something easier than you think you can do every

day. If you think you can exercise for thirty minutes

a day, choose ten minutes—making it super easy is one

of the best ways to ensure you'll succeed.

Choose something measurable. You should be able to

say, definitively, whether you were successful or not to-

day. If you choose exercise, set a number of minutes or

something similar (twenty minutes of exercise daily, for

example). Whatever your goal, have a measurement.

Be consistent. You want to do your habit change at the

same time every day, if possible. If you're going to exer-

cise, do it at 7 a.m. (or 6 p.m.) every day. for example.

This makes it more likely to become a habit.

Report daily. You could check in every two or three days,

but you'll be more likely to succeed if you report daily.

This has been proven over and over again in the Chal-

lenges.

Keep a positive attitude! Expect setbacks now and then,

but just note them and move on. No embarrassment in

this challenge.

12 KEY HABITS TO START WITH

You can choose any habits in this book that you think will help

you most, at work and in the rest of your life. But if I had to recom-

mend twelve habits to start with (one each month for a year), these

are the twelve I think could make the most difference in the lives

of the average person (more on each habit in later chapters):

1. Set your 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks) each morning.

2. Single-task. When you work on a task, don't switch to

other tasks.

3. Process your in-box to empty.

4. Check e-mail just twice a day.

5. Exercise five to ten minutes a day.

6. Work while disconnected, with no distractions.

7. Follow a morning routine.

8. Eat more fruits and veggies every day.

9. Keep your desk decluttered.

10. Say no to commitments and requests that aren't on your

Short List (see Chapter 13, Simple Commitments).

11. Declutter your house for fifteen minutes a day.

12. Stick to a five-sentence limit for e-mails.

six

Start Small

HILE YOU WOULD do just fine if you only fol-

lowed the first five principles of this book, Princi-

ple 6, Start Small, is simply a way to ensure the

greatest likelihood of success for the rest of the changes.

Principle 6: Start new habits in small increments to

ensure success.

Oftentimes people are enthusiastic about making changes—

whether it's about implementing a new productivity system or

starting a new exercise program—so they start out with big

ambitions.

The problem is that that enthusiasm often runs out of

steam after a week or two, and the goal comes to failure. That's

what happens with almost every New Year's resolution—peo-

ple start out with a lot of enthusiasm but it dies down by the

end of January.

The solution is Principle 6: Start Small. Follow this principle

with everything you do: with any goal, with any habit change,

with any change in your life.

I've proven this principle over and over again in my life

changes. When I start an exercise program, I will start with one

that's as easy as possible, even if I know I can do more. When I

start with a new habit, I start with just a tiny habit change, even

when I think I can handle more. When I decided to start wak-

ing earlier, I started by waking only fifteen minutes earlier.

WHY STARTING SMALL WORKS

People often skip Principle 6, because they don't really under-

stand why it's so important. Here are some of the main reasons

that Starting Small works so well:

It narrows your focus. Focus, as we discussed in the sec-

tion on Principle 4, is incredibly important in getting

anything done. If you start an enterprise or life change

trying to tackle a lot at once, you spread your focus and

decrease your effectiveness. But by starting small, you

keep your focus narrowed, and therefore increase your

power.

It keeps your energy and enthusiasm going for longer. By

starting out doing less than you can actually handle, you

build up energy and enthusiasm, kind of like water build-

ing up behind a dam. That built-up energy and enthusi-

asm ensures that you don't run out of steam early on, but

can keep going for much longer.

It's easier to handle. Easier is better, especially in the be-

ginning. If the change you're making is hard to stick to,

you are making it more likely that you'll fail.

You ensure success. Choose something so small that

success is almost guaranteed. Sure, a small success is

not as satisfying as a big success, but it's only small in

the short term. If you start out with a small success, you

can build upon it, get another small success, and build

upon that, and so on—until you have a series of small

successes that add up to a very large success. And that's

much better than a large failure.

Gradual change is longer-lasting. Think of dieting—

when you go on a severe, drastic diet and you lose forty

pounds in two months, it feels pretty great, but more of-

ten than not those forty pounds will come back, and

then some. But if you do small changes—perhaps one to

two pounds a week—those pounds are much more likely

to stay off. This has been proven repeatedly in weight

loss studies and it works with any kind of change. Make

gradual changes, in a series of small steps over time, and

you're more likely to stick to those changes than if you

attempt a big change all at once.

HOW TO APPLY STARTING SMALL

So when and with what do you start small? Always, and with

anything. Any habit change you undertake, any exercise or pro-

ductivity or life change, any goal or project or task—start small.

Here are but a few examples:

Exercise: Start with five to ten minutes a day, instead of

thirty.

Waking early: Start by waking fifteen minutes earlier,

instead of an hour or two.

Productivity: Start by trying to focus on the task at hand

for five to ten minutes at a time.

E-mail effectiveness: Start by limiting yourself to check-

ing e-mail just a couple fewer times a day.

Healthy eating: Start by making just one change to your

diet, instead of doing a major diet overhaul.

A major project: Start with just one small task from the

project, instead of trying to tackle everything at once.

Then go to the next small task, and so on.

Decluttering: Start with just one drawer, instead of try-

ing to declutter your entire office or home.

Part II

PRACTICE

seven

Simple Goals

and Projects

'M AS AMBITIOUS in setting goals as anyone I know—I

often have several goals I'd like to achieve at work, along

with self-improvement goals that can range from learning a

new language to running a marathon. And while I've always

been enthusiastic about setting and starting new goals, my list

of things I want to achieve seems to grow faster than I progress

on any of those goals.

It's easy to set goals, but extremely difficult to achieve them

if they're goals worth achieving.

Tackling a goal takes energy and focus and motivation, three

things that are in limited supply in any person, no matter how

driven. Taking on many goals at once spreads out your available

energy and focus and motivation, so that you often run out of

steam after the initial couple weeks of enthusiasm. Then the

goals sit there on your list, gathering dust, while you feel guilty

about not achieving any of them.

The Power of Less is perfect for achieving goals: Limit your-

self to fewer goals, and you'll achieve more.

At the same time, we'll look at ways to narrow your focus on

your projects, so that you can complete them more effectively

and move forward on your goals. We'll apply limitations to our

projects to increase our effectiveness.

THE ONE GOAL SYSTEM

The One Goal System is simple—you focus on one goal at a time

to increase your effectiveness with that goal. To break the goal

into concrete steps, you will focus on one sub-goal at a time.

1. Choose a goal. Make a list of things you'd like to accom-

plish over the next few years. This list might have ten things on

it, or maybe twenty. Now, you could try to tackle all those goals

at once, or take on as many as possible. But that will dilute your

effectiveness. Instead, choose just one, and focus completely on

that goal until you can check it off the list.

I'd recommend that you choose a goal that you really want to

accomplish—the stronger your desire, the more likely you are to

actually stick with that goal until you're finished. It's not enough

to say, "It would be nice to achieve this goal." You need to want

it so deeply that you'll make it your top priority for months to

come.

I also recommend that you choose a goal that will take about

six months to a year to complete. Any longer than a year, and

you will have problems maintaining your focus, and might be-

come overwhelmed. If it's much shorter than six months, it

might not be something worthy of your efforts.

What if you really want to achieve it, but it'll take two years

or more? Break it down into sub-goals, so that your first sub-

goal will take about a year. For example, if you want to become a

lawyer, you have to get in to law school, and then complete three

years of school, and then pass the bar exam. Make your first

goal simply to be accepted into a decent law school—that'll take

six months to a year.

2. Break it down to a sub-goal. Once you've decided on

your One Goal, the next step is to focus on a smaller sub-goal

that you can accomplish in the next month or two. In the law

school example above, you might decide that your sub-goal will

be to do research into some of the top law schools in the areas

you prefer, to choose five schools, and to gather the essential

information about each school. To shorten that, you might call

this sub-goal something like, "Complete research on Top 5

schools."

The reason for a sub-goal is to create shorter steps that are

more immediately achievable than a larger, yearlong goal might

be. If you don't break a goal into smaller steps, you can become

overwhelmed by such a large and vague goal. You can't sit down

today, for example, and get accepted into a law school. It's not

something that's doable. So you have to break it into more do-

able steps.

3. Weekly goal. Each week, create a weekly goal that will

move you closer to your sub-goal. So this week, using the ex-

ample above, you might just want to find all the decent law

schools in the areas you prefer, find their Web sites, and start

reading about them. That would be your weekly goal.

4.Daily action. Then each day, choose one action that will

move you closer to your weekly goal. Make this action your most

important task for the day. Do it first, before you do anything

else. This will help keep you focused on your One Goal, instead

of pushing it back when other, more pressing things come up.

This might sound complicated, but in action, it's fairly sim-

ple. You set a One Goal for the year (it can be set at any time—

you don't have to wait for January). You set a sub-goal that will

take a month or two to complete. Each week you set a weekly

goal. Each day you choose a task that will move you to that

weekly goal, and make that your most important task of the day.

This One Goal system will keep you focused on achieving

your goal, moving closer to it each day. It will keep you from

spreading yourself too thin, and will allow you to focus all your

energy on completing this goal.

THE SIMPLE PROJECTS LIST

If you don't already have a projects list, I suggest you make a

quick-and-dirty one right now. List all the projects you have go-

ing on in your life, including all your work projects, any per-

sonal and home projects, projects with civic organizations, and

so on. Anything that would take a day or more to complete, to

use a rough guideline. If you can do it in an hour or two, you

can still list it if you like_a project is usually something that

takes several tasks to complete.

How many items are on this list? If you're like most people,

you probably have ten to twenty projects on this list. If you're an

overachiever or extremely busy, you might even have more. This

isn't a good thing. Too many projects leads to ineffectiveness.

Now I'm going to ask you to do something that might be a

bit difficult for some of you: Choose just the top three projects

on your list. Don't choose three from each area of your life_

just choose three altogether.

This list of three projects is your Simple Projects List. Every-

thing else goes on a second list, which we'll call the "On Deck

List." You'll probably still get to these projects on your On Deck

List, but you won't be working on them right now. They're on

hold until you complete the three projects on your Simple Proj-

ects List.

Let me make this point clear: In this system I'm recom-

mending, you don't move a project from the On Deck List to the

Simple Projects List until you finish all three projects on your

Simple Projects List. Not just one, but all three. Why? Because

this will ensure that you don't leave one of the top three projects

sitting uncompleted while you keep moving new projects onto

your active list. It will ensure that you focus on completion of all

of your top three projects, not just one or two.

The top three projects on your Simple Projects List will be

your entire focus until you finish all three, and then the next

three projects you move onto this active list will be your focus.

This ensures that you aren't spreading your focus too thin, and

that you're completing your projects.

I recommend that, at all times, you have at least one of

your top three projects be related to your One Goal so that you

are always moving that goal forward. Of the other two projects

on your active list, you can choose another work-related goal

and a personal goal (if you like). Whatever works best for your

situation.

Why not have just one project? If limiting yourself to three

projects makes you more effective, why not limit yourself to one

project to make yourself even more effective? You'd think this

would be logical, especially as I recommended having just One

Goal. However, the reality is that almost every project is held up

as you wait for information, for other people to get back to you,

for others to complete tasks, for vendors or clients to do some-

thing. It's rare that you can start a project and work on it until

it's finished, without any waiting. If this is possible, I suggest

you do exactly that: Start a project and don't work on anything

else until the project is completed.

Unfortunately, that's often not the case: We must wait for

tasks or information or other things to be completed before we

can move on to the next step. And so we multitask, but not on

the task level_we multitask only on the project level. While one

project is on hold for an hour or a day or a few days, we can be

working on another. I've found that three projects works best

for this type of project-level multitasking any more than three,

and you begin to lose effectiveness.

For this system to work, a project should take no more than

a month to complete, and preferably only a week or two. If a

project takes a year to complete (for example), then you will

not be able to work on any other projects for a year. That's too

long to put the rest of your life on hold. Instead, break long-

term projects into smaller projects that can be completed in a

month or less. If you want to launch a magazine, for example,

focus first on the project of coming up with a design, then on

putting together a team, then on finding financial backing,

and so on.

FOCUS ON COMPLETION

Many of us lose focus of what's important when it comes to

project management. We might get caught up in organizing the

project, in laying out a task list and timeline, and assigning

tasks to different team members. We might get caught up in

meetings about our projects, in sending e-mails, and in instant-

messaging people about the project. We might get caught up in

the technology of it.

But the real focus of any project should be in getting it done.

Completion. Each day, put your focus on moving your project

forward to completion. Put aside distractions, and put all of

your energy into one project at a time_you can switch to an-

other of your three active projects when necessary, but at any

given moment, just focus on one project. And move it closer to

completion, until you're done.

Here are a few more tips to help you get to completion:

Have an outcome in mind. How will you know when

your project is complete? You should have a clearly de-

fined outcome. Visualize what the project will look like

when you're done. Then write this down in a sentence or

two, next to the project title on your Simple Projects List.

This is what you're working toward.

Move from projects to tasks. You can't actually do projects.

You can only do tasks. One of the first steps in any proj-

ect, after writing out your desired outcome, is to list the

tasks required to get the project to the desired outcome.

Then you take this task list, choose the very next task

that needs to be done, and focus on completing that task.

Once that's done, focus on the next task, and so on, until

you're done. One task at a time.

Each day, choose a task to move you to completion. When

you start your day, choose three Most Important Tasks

(also known as MITs_more on this in later chapters) to

complete that day. Whatever else you complete, if you

complete these three MITs, you will have had a good day.

At least one of those MITs should be related to one of

your projects, and preferably all three should be project-

related. This method will help you move your projects

closer to completion each day.

Reassess your progress. It's easy to get sidetracked with a

project, to focus too much on organizing or communicat-

ing or technology or people. To keep yourself on track,

once a week, review your projects and see how much closer

you are to completion, and what still needs to be done. If

you notice that you're focusing on something that's not

getting you closer to completion, refocus yourself.

WHAT IF I DON'T CONTROL

MY PROJECTS LIST?

If you're lucky, you have complete control over your projects

list_you choose what projects to work on and the number of

projects you're working on at any given time. Unfortunately,

we're not all that lucky. I know the frustrations of working un-

der a boss, where your boss dictates (sometimes to a micro-

scopic level) what you're supposed to be working on. Sometimes

bosses can be real control freaks, which might help them com-

plete projects but isn't ideal for you.

And while you might want to limit your projects to just your

top three projects in order to increase effectiveness, that's not

always up to you. You might choose three projects, and then

your boss might pile a few more of them on your plate and de-

mand that they get done right away.

Fortunately, there are a few strategies you can use to limit

the number of projects you're working on, even if you don't have

complete control over your projects list. Not all of these strate-

gies will work for you, but choose the one that you think will

work best and give it a try:

1. Make your own projects list. Sometimes it's better to

ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. That means just

do what you think is right, and let your boss know about it later,

after you've made it a success. This strategy works best if your

boss isn't a super control freak, and doesn't demand constant

progress updates. If you can work on your own for at least a few

days, and preferably a week, this strategy might work. Just

choose your top three projects and focus on them completely.

When you've knocked them out and completed them, you can

show your boss your system and point to it as your reason for

success. Or don't even mention it, but keep doing it. Your boss

might not care how you're completing the projects, but will

probably just be happy that they're getting done.

2. Delay. If your boss insists that you work on more than

three projects at once, and is constantly asking for progress up-

dates, you might be successful with delay tactics. That means

that you still focus on your top three projects, and try to com-

plete them as quickly as possible_but for any others that he

insists you still work on at the same time, you just delay until

you can complete your top three projects. Ask for extensions,

put certain tasks in other people's laps so that the project is de-

layed for a day or two, or just say (truthfully) that you didn't get

to the project today because you were working on your other

projects. I'm not suggesting dishonesty, but just honest delays.

3. Talk to your boss about your system. This is actually

the best strategy on this list, in my opinion, and if you can pull

it off, I highly recommend it. How it works: Sit down with your

boss and tell him (or her) about your system_the Simple Proj-

ects List. Tell him that it will make you more effective, and that

you will be better at completing projects because of this system

of limitations. Be sure that you follow through with this prom-

ise, however_your boss won't be happy if you limit yourself to

three projects and then sit on them. If necessary, show your

boss this book and let him read it. If that's not enough, show

him my Web site (zenhabits.net) and give him my e-mail ad-

dress (it's on the About page of my site). I'll talk to him.

4. Ask your boss to choose. If none of the above strategies

work, and your boss insists on adding projects to your list and

insists that you work on all of them, all the time, then you need

to be honest and up-front with your boss_you only have a lim-

ited amount of time, and you can't do everything at once. Talk to

your boss about this, and tell him that if he doesn't want you to

choose what projects to work on, then let him choose for you.

Show him the projects he's given to you, and all the items on

your projects list and to-do list, and tell him you only have time

to work on three projects at the moment. Let him choose which

projects those will be, and tell him you will put all of your focus

on completing those three projects, and that when you're done,

you'll let him choose the next three, and so on. If your boss

doesn't acknowledge that you have limited time, and that you

can only work on so many projects at once, then you might con-

sider looking into other job options_your boss is demanding

more than is humanly possible from you.

eight

Simple Tasks

F YOU'VE SIMPLIFIED your goals and projects (in the

previous chapter), you've made great headway toward doing

less but becoming more effective and more powerful. How-

ever, it's not until you get to the level of tasks that you can ac-

tually accomplish anything. You're not doing anything until

you're doing tasks.

On a practical level, simplifying your tasks can be the most

important step you take. As always, in this chapter we'll focus

on doing less, but doing it more effectively and, in effect, ac-

complishing more while reducing stress.

We do that with limitations, by focusing on one thing at a

time, and by focusing on small things rather than large

ones.

MOST IMPORTANT TASKS (MITS)

The power of limitations works on the task level by choosing

only three Most Important Tasks (MITs) that will become the

focus of your day.

It's very simple: Your MITs are the tasks you most want or need

to get done today. In my case, I choose three MITs each day, but

you might find that only two MITs work better, or perhaps four. I

suggest starting with three and seeing if that works for you.

Do I get a lot more done than three things? Of course. But

the idea is that no matter what else I do today, these are the

things I want to be sure of doing. So, the MIT is the first thing

I do each day, right after I have a glass of water to wake me up.

What about the other things I need to do today? They're usu-

ally smaller things, not as important, but tasks or errands that

need to get done anyway. Here's the beauty of MITs: Usually, the

small, unimportant tasks that we need to get done every day

(e-mail, phone calls, paperwork, errands, meetings, Internet

browsing, etc.) will get in the way of our important, longer-term

tasks_but if you make your MITs your first priority each day,

the important stuff will get done instead of the unimportant.

Once I'm done with my MITs, I will do the smaller tasks in

batches (I call them "batch tasks"_more on this in the next

chapter).

The key to the MITs for me: At least one of the MITs should

be related to one of my goals. While the other two can be work

stuff (and usually are), one must be a goal action. This ensures

that I am doing something to move my goals forward that day.

That makes all the difference in the world. Each day, I've

done something to make my dreams come true. It's built into

my morning routine: Set a task to accomplish for one of my

goals. And so it happens each day, automatically.

Another key: Do your MITs first thing in the morning, ei-

ther at home or when you first get to work. If you put them off

till later, you will get busy and run out of time to do them. Get

them out of the way, and the rest of the day, anything you ac-

complish is extra.

It's such a small thing to implement, and yet for most people

it's a huge revelation. Sometimes small things can make big

differences.

The keys to making MITs work for you:

Set them first thing in the morning.

Limit yourself to three.

Ensure that one MIT is goal-related, or related to one of

your top three projects.

Focus on accomplishing these tasks above all others.

Do your MITs early in the day, before you do anything

else.

When you do one of your MITs, be sure to single-task_

focus on that task only (see Principle 4).

SMALL TASKS

Focusing on fewer but more critical tasks is important, but to

really simplify our tasks we must talk about the size of the tasks

as well. We can focus on just one task today, but if it's a huge

and intimidating task, we can become overwhelmed and not

actually do the task. Limiting our tasks doesn't get anything

done if those tasks are too big.

Instead, break things down into small tasks that can be ac-

complished in an hour or less_even better would be twenty to

thirty minutes, or even ten to fifteen minutes. The smaller, the

better, because then we're more likely to actually get them done.

Let's say we have a huge task staring us in the face: "Write

Annual Report." We look at that task, and we stare at it, and

we know we should do it, but we stare at it some more. Then

we check e-mail, or check our bank account ("My balance is still

negative?"), or log on to a forum or site we enjoy, or call a friend

or coworker. The large task doesn't get done.

Instead, beat that procrastination hurdle by making the task

smaller. "Outline report" or "brainstorm report topics" or "write

first section of report" are much better, because they're things

we can do in a shorter amount of time. They're less intimidat-

ing. We can get started on them and get them done in ten to

twenty minutes.

Anytime you find yourself procrastinating on an important

task, see if you can break it into something smaller. Then just

get started. Don't procrastinate, but just get started. Once you've

gotten started, you will gain momentum, and will have broken

through the initial resistance barrier, and you'll be much more

likely to continue to the next small task and the next one until

the large task is completed.

Small tasks are always better than large ones.

nine

Simple Time

Management

HERE ARE THE super-organized among us_those

who schedule every minute and stick to the plan to the

letter_and then there's the rest of us. We plan our

schedules, but our days don't usually resemble the plan very

much.

Of course, that's because things change, and we have to be

able to go with the flow. Time management, especially for the

more fluid work arrangements of many people these days,

doesn't have to be a rigid or time-consuming process.

Keep time management simple and avoid rigidity or compli-

cated schedules.

AN OPEN APPROACH

For those who are overwhelmed by a schedule, and would like

to take a more open approach, I suggest minimalist time man-

agement. Instead of allowing your life to be ruled by your calen-

dar, let your life be ruled by the moment.

How can you do that? First, don't schedule appointments.

This will be a radical departure for many people, but it's not a

new idea and it's worked for others. If someone requests an ap-

pointment, tell them that you don't schedule appointments. In-

stead, ask them to call you a little before they'd like to meet to

see if you can make it. If you're free, take the meeting. I suggest

keeping your meetings to a bare minimum if you want to get a

lot of work done. Now, there will be some things you'll want to

note on a calendar (I use Google Calendar, accessible from any-

where). These are events that you'd like to have on your calen-

dar, but you don't necessarily have to go to them. The calendar,

then, serves as a way for you to see what your options are, but

not as a tool to rule your life. I suggest not keeping too much on

the calendar, though.

What do you do instead of keeping a schedule? Know your

priorities (see the next section) and from moment to moment,

decide what you should be doing based on your priorities, how

much time you have available, and your energy level.

Learn to be in the moment, focusing on one task at a time,

and immersing yourself completely in that task. If you aren't

finding yourself passionate about a certain task, allow yourself

to move on to something you're more passionate about. The

more passionate you are about a task or project, the more energy

you'll put into it, and the better you'll do with it.

Immersing yourself in a task, completely, is a phenomenon

called "flow." Flow has gotten a lot of attention recently, in both

the scientific world and the world of productivity, because peo-

ple have discovered that the state of flow can lead to increased

productivity and happiness. Basically, flow is a state of mind

that occurs when you lose yourself in a task, and the world

around you disappears. You lose track of time. We've all experi-

enced this from time to time_the trick is learning how to pur-

posefully get yourself into flow.

The way to get into flow:

1. Choose a task you're passionate about. If it's something

you don't care about, you won't find flow.

2. Choose a task that's challenging. But not too challenging—

if it's too difficult, you'll have a hard time getting into

flow. If it's too easy, you'll get bored.

3. Eliminate distractions. The less you think about other

things, the better. You want to focus completely on this

task. Get rid of distractions such as phones, e-mail notifi-

cations, instant-messaging, clutter on your desk or com-

puter desktop, etc.

4. Immerse yourself in the task. Just start on the task, and

focus completely on it. Forget about everything else, and let

the world melt away. Get excited about the task and have

fun. Warning: You may lose track of time and be late for

your next appointment_which is why it's a bad idea to

schedule too many appointments.

KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES

If you have an open schedule, how do you know what you should

be working on at any given moment? Priorities. See the last

chapter on Most Important Tasks (MITs)_basically, you should

decide first thing in the morning what you want to accomplish

each day. Make a short list of three things you'd really like to ac-

complish. Your three most important things. You can have a

short list of other small tasks you'd like to do in a batch (save

them for later in the day), but the focus of your day should be

the list of three important things. Let this list, and not your

schedule, be the ruler of your day.

Once you've set your priorities, the trick is finding focus. I

highly recommend that you focus on one thing at a time. To get

your short list of three important tasks completed, you'll need to

focus on each one of those tasks in turn, and try to focus on

them to completion. This will also be a radical departure for the

multitasker in all of us. But single-tasking is not only more pro-

ductive, it's more relaxing as well.

It will take a little while for you to get used to single-tasking,

if you are used to jumping from one thing to another and back.

That's OK. Just gently bring yourself back to your task every

time you feel yourself being pulled away. Keep at it and you'll

soon be knocking off your most important tasks easily.

While you're working on your task, you'll think of other

things you need to do, or be interrupted by a coworker with a

request, or an idea will pop into your head. You can't let those

ideas and requests rule your life. Instead of switching tasks, just

make a note of other tasks or ideas as they come up, to consider

for later. Have a sheet of paper or a small notebook or a text file

on your computer (or wherever you write your list of three im-

portant tasks), and get back to the task you were working on.

When you're done with that task, you can take a look at your list

to see what you should be working on next.

REDUCE YOUR TASKS

The fewer tasks you have, the less you have to do to organize

them. If you focus only on those tasks that give you the most

return on your time investment, then you will become more

productive and have less to do. You will need only the simplest

tools and system, and you will be much less stressed. I think

that's a winning combination.

With task management, as with any type of organization,

my philosophy is to reduce before you organize. If you only have

three things to organize, instead of twenty, you actually don't

need to organize. With time management, that means you should

reduce what you need to do. You can eliminate tasks, delegate

them, postpone them, get out of commitments. Focus always

on simplifying, reducing, eliminating. And keep your focus on

what's important. Everything else is easy.

BATCH PROCESSING

Aside from your three Most Important Tasks, there are always

smaller tasks you need to complete each day. The trick is 1) not

to let these smaller tasks take priority over your Most Important

Tasks, and 2) to do them in batches as much as possible to save

time. Computer programmers call this last trick "batch process-

ing" or "batching"_you save similar tasks and then do them all

at once. It saves the time it costs to switch between tasks, be-

cause instead of switching from important tasks to phone calls

to e-mails to meetings to projects to phone calls again, you do

all the important tasks first, then phone calls at once, all the

e-mails at once, etc. Less switching means fewer complications,

less time wasted, and a simpler schedule.

Make a note of these types of "batch tasks" on your to-do list,

below your list of three MITs. You can group the batch tasks

into different categories ("calls", "e-mails", etc.) or just have a

list of "batch tasks." I highly recommend that you wait until

later in the day to process these batch tasks, instead of doing

them early in the day. Save the mornings for your important

tasks, get them out of the way, then focus on knocking out your

batch tasks as quickly as possible.

What kinds of tasks work well for batching? Here are some

ideas:

Phone calls. Instead of making calls throughout the day,

just make a note of the calls you need to make, and do

them all at once. I often reserve about thirty minutes for

calls, but your needs may vary. You might also consider

only receiving phone calls during a certain time_route

everything to voice mail during the times you're unavail-

able. This will allow you to concentrate on the important

tasks, rather than being interrupted every time someone

feels like calling you.

E-mails. This is a huge issue for most of us these days_

e-mail has become so important that it can rule our

lives if we let it. I'll expand on this topic in the next

chapter, but basically, to batch your e-mails, just check

and process e-mails at certain predetermined times

throughout the day. I suggest twice a day_perhaps at

10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or whatever works best for you.

Avoid doing it first thing in the morning, or you'll get so

caught up in your e-mail that you'll push back your im-

portant tasks.

Errands. Do all your errands at once to save the time it

takes for you to go out of the home or office. You might

do them at the end of the day, or save one day as your Er-

rands Day.

Paperwork. I don't have a lot of paperwork these days

(I've gone paperless), but that's not a luxury for most of-

fices. If you have a lot of paperwork you have to process

or fill out or review, do that all at once rather than

throughout the day.

In-box processing. Similar to e-mail processing once or

twice a day, in-box processing is going through the pa-

pers in your physical in-box to determine what action, if

any, is required for each document. If you do this as pa-

pers come into your in-box, you'll be ruled by that, in-

stead of being in control of your schedule. Instead, set a

certain time to process your entire in-box to empty.

Meetings. You might not be in control of meetings, but if

you are, I recommend that you do them all at once, at a

certain time, and set a very defined purpose and time

limit for each meeting. It helps to batch meetings be-

cause then you have a larger part of your workday open for

important tasks. If possible, avoid meetings altogether_

they're most often a waste of time.

Different Web sites. If you're like me, there are certain

Web sites that you check regularly. Instead of letting

these sites interrupt your important tasks, set a certain

time to check them and do them all at once.

Research. Some jobs require that you do research or

reading in preparation for writing. Do this all at once if

possible.

Maintenance. There are little tasks that we must do as

maintenance for our jobs_for bloggers like me, those

are things like checking reader comments, checking or

tweaking our ad systems, doing HTML code tweaks, and

so on. For other jobs, there are other maintenance

tasks_not your important projects or tasks, but little

things that still need to be done. Batch these at the end

of your day, if possible.

SIMPLE TIME MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Time management wouldn't be simple if you had too many

tools, or tools that were too complicated, to manage the system.

If you've followed the simple time management philosophy out-

lined above, you won't need a lot of tools.

Here are some simple tools you might use:

Calendar. Instead of using a hefty organizer, or a compli-

cated computer program, I recommend that you keep it

as simple as possible. If you have few appointments, you

might try a simple paper wall calendar_basically just

boxes where you can note one or two appointments or

events each day. If you have other things that need to be

noted, such as your kids' soccer schedules and parent-

teacher organization meetings, you might use an online

calendar_I highly recommend Google Calendar, as it is

simple, quick, and easy, and accessible from any com-

puter with an Internet connection. The paper calendar

or Google Calendar can also be used as a "tickler file" to

mark reminders for things you want to remember later.

Paper notebook or text file. I recommend a simple pocket

notebook, and that's all. You can use this notebook to

capture everything as you think of it, to write down your

MITs and batch process tasks for today, and to write

down your One Goal. If you only have one tool, you don't

need to worry about it too much. If you'd prefer to use

the computer to write down your tasks, I recommend

just using a simple text file. That's my current setup: I

have a to-do text file, and pop it open when I need to

write down a task or idea. At the top of the text file are

my MITs for the day, and below that are my batch tasks,

and below that are other notes or ideas that might come

up. I process it once a day.

ten

Simple E-mail

OR MANY OF us, e-mail has become one of our stan-

dard modes of working. We live in our e-mail in-box, do-

ing everything from personal communication with

family and friends to carrying out complete projects through

e-mail.

Unfortunately, e-mail has also come to overwhelm us, tak-

ing us away from more important tasks, threatening to take

over our lives.

There's a better way than living in your e-mail in-box. Mini-

mize your time spent doing e-mail, transform your e-mail ef-

fectiveness by setting limitations, and become an e-mail master

by getting your in-box to empty.

It's possible to do all these things, by setting limits and by

learning to process e-mail quickly with simple rules and habits.

You can get out of e-mail and back to doing things that are im-

portant_your One Goal, for example, or your top three proj-

ects, or your Most Important Tasks.

The way to e-mail nirvana is by applying the Power of Less_

simplify, set limits, and find yourself becoming more powerful

with e-mail.

LIMIT YOUR IN-BOXES

How many different ways do you get information? Some people

might have six different kinds of communications to answer_

text messages, voice mails, paper documents, regular mail, blog

posts, messages on different online services (MySpace, Face-

book, AOL, et al). Each of these is a type of in-box, and each

must be processed on a continuous basis. It's an endless pro-

cess, but it doesn't have to be exhausting or stressful.

Getting your information management down to a more

manageable level and into a productive zone starts by minimiz-

ing the number of in-boxes you have. Every place you have to go

to check your messages or to read your incoming information is

an in-box, and the more you have, the harder it is to manage

everything. Cut the number of in-boxes you have down to the

smallest number possible for you still to function in the ways

you need to.

Here's how:

1. List all the ways you receive information. You might

forget a few at first, but as you remember new ways, add them to

the list. The list should include digital and analog information_

paper and computer.

2. Evaluate each to see if it gives you value. Sometimes

we continue to check certain in-boxes, even if it's not adding

anything to our lives. It's just more stuff to check. Have a pager

when you also have a cell phone? Maybe the pager isn't any use

to you anymore.

3. Find ways to combine or eliminate in-boxes. If some-

thing's not giving you value, consider eliminating it from your

life. See if you can go a week without missing it. For all the

rest, see if you can combine multiple information streams into

one in-box. For example, how many places in your home do

incoming papers get placed? Have one in-box at home for all

mail, papers from work, school papers, phone notes, computer

printouts, schedules, and more. Have four e-mail services?

See if you can forward them all to one service. Get voice mails

from a couple of different services? Try forwarding them to

one service, or use an Internet service to deliver them to your

e-mail in-box. At work, have one in-box for all incoming paper-

work. Read a lot of blogs? Put them all into a feed-reader, in a

single stream of posts, instead of having to check twenty-five

different in-boxes. The fewer in-boxes you have, the better.

Aim for four to seven in-boxes if possible; one or two would be

ideal.

LIMIT YOUR TIME IN E-MAIL

If you spend all of your day in e-mail, or going back to e-mail

and checking for new messages, you'll never get much else

done. Instead, make the decision to only check e-mail at prede-

termined times, and leave it alone for the rest of the day_that

will allow you to work on more important stuff.

I recommend that you decide, in advance, how many times

you'll check e-mail, and at what times. Here are some tips:

Number of times per day. How many times you check

e-mail per day is a function of the kind of work you do. If

you can get away with checking e-mail just once per day,

that would be ideal_you'd have very few e-mail inter-

ruptions and your e-mail habits would be most efficient.

However, for many people, twice a day is probably more

realistic. Others, who need to be able to get e-mail more

often because their job orders are sent through e-mail

(customer service, for example), might want to limit their

e-mail checking to once per hour (perhaps ten minutes

at the top of the hour). Still others might be able to get

away with checking e-mail less than once a day_every

other day, twice a week, or even once a week. If you can

count yourself among these people, take advantage of

this and limit yourself to the bare minimum.

The best times. I've found that if you check twice a

day_10 a.m. and 4 p.m. are good times_that lets you

get a mid-morning feel for what urgent e-mails you have

and then allows you to finish up your e-mail before you

leave for the day. However, each person's workday is dif-

ferent_you should take a look at your work habits, your

usual schedule, and your needs, and decide what times

are best for you. Then stick to those times.

Not first thing in the morning. A common productivity tip

is not to check e-mail first thing in the morning, and it's

good advice. By checking e-mail in the morning, you're

allowing e-mail to dictate the rest of your day, instead of

deciding for yourself what your Most Important Tasks

will be for that day. You're putting yourself in danger of

getting stuck in your e-mail and not getting out of it.

Many people, however, have a hard time sticking with

this rule of not checking e-mail first thing in the morn-

ing, because they're addicted to e-mail. While this is a

common problem, it can be beat. The first step is to be

more aware of your e-mail usage_pause and give some

thought before actually opening up e-mail. The next step

is to make it a more conscious decision_think about

whether you would rather check your e-mail, or achieve

your goals. If you can focus on getting your important

projects done, and advancing your One Goal, instead of

checking e-mail, you will be that much closer to achiev-

ing your dreams.

Turn off e-mail notifications. Most e-mail programs have

a way to give you an alert (through a sound or a pop-up

message or a blinking icon) that lets you know you've re-

ceived a new e-mail. If you use such an alert, I highly

recommend that you turn it off. It interrupts whatever

you're working on, and draws you back to e-mail based

on the schedule of anyone who chooses to e-mail you,

not at a time you determine. Instead, turn off alerts and

only check e-mail at predetermined times. You'll get a lot

more done this way.

How to stick to this habit. It's easy to say that you should

only check e-mail twice a day, but much harder to stick

with it when constantly checking e-mail is an ingrained

habit. How do you stick to the habit of checking e-mail

less? You make it a priority for a week or two. Put up a

sign with the rule: NO E-MAIL EXCEPT FOR 10 A.M. AND 4

P.M.! (or whatever schedule you choose). Every time you

find yourself habitually switching to e-mail, stop your-

self. Breathe. And then focus on your work instead. Your

reward: You'll get a lot more done.

REDUCE YOUR INCOMING STREAM

One of the most important parts of any e-mail strategy is to stop

any unnecessary e-mail from getting into your in-box in the

first place. Although I get hundreds of e-mails a day, most of

those e-mails never make it to the in-box. They go straight to

the spam folder or the trash. You only want the essential e-mails

in your in-box, or you'll be overwhelmed.

Here are some essential ways to reduce your incoming

stream of e-mails:

1. Junk. I recommend using Gmail, as it has the best spam

filter possible. I get zero spam in my in-box. That's a huge im-

provement over my previous accounts at Yahoo, Outlook, and

Hotmail, where I'd have to tediously mark dozens of e-mails as

spam.

2. Notifications. I often get notifications from the many

online services I use, from Amazon to WordPress to PayPal

and many more. As soon as I notice those types of notifications

filling up my in-box, I create a filter (or "rule" if you use Mail,

app or Outlook) that will automatically put these into a folder

and mark them as read, or trash them, as appropriate. So for

my PayPal notifications, I can always go and check on them

in my "payments" folder if I like, but they never clutter my

in-box.

3. Batch work. I get certain e-mails throughout the day that

require quick action (like ten to fifteen seconds each). As I know

these e-mails pretty well, I created filters that send them into a

"batch" folder to be processed once a day. It takes a couple min-

utes to process the whole folder, and I don't have to see them in

my in-box.

4. Stupid joke e-mails. If you have friends and family who

send you chain e-mails and joke e-mails and the like, e-mail

them and let them know that you are trying to lessen the huge

amount of e-mail you have to deal with, and while you appreci-

ate them thinking of you, you'd rather not receive those kinds

of messages. Some people will be hurt. They'll get over it. Oth-

ers will continue to send the e-mails. I create a filter for them

that sends them straight into the trash. Basically, they're on

my kill-file. If they ever send an important e-mail (which is

rare), they'll call me eventually and ask why I haven't re-

sponded. I tell them that their e-mail must be in my spam

folder.

5. Set expectations and publish policies. A great strategy

for reducing e-mails is to pre-empt them by letting people

know not to send you certain types of e-mails, and telling

them where to go for commonly requested information. As

most people who e-mail me get my contact info from my Web

site, I've created a set of policies published on my site that are

designed to pre-empt the most common e-mails. If people fol-

low my policies, I will get very little e-mail. For example, in-

stead of e-mailing me to ask for a link, they can save the link

for me in a popular bookmarking service. For suggestions or

comments or questions, they can post them on a couple of

pages that I created for that purpose. I'm also planning on

creating a Frequently Asked Questions page for more com-

mon questions and issues. These policies remove the burden

on me to respond to every request_I still read the comments

and questions, but I only respond if I have time. My in-box has

been under a much lighter burden these days. For people who

don't have Web sites, they can still establish policies and a Fre-

quently Asked Questions page by e-mailing them to other

people, publishing them on the Web, or sending out a memo

to coworkers.

PROCESS TO EMPTY

So now that only the essential e-mails come into your in-box,

the question is how to get it empty in the least amount of time

necessary. I'm usually able to empty my in-box in about twenty

minutes, although your processing time may differ, depending

on how practiced you are at the following methods, and how

much e-mail you get, and how focused you keep yourself. How-

ever, in any case, you should be able to get your in-box empty in

a minimal amount of time using these methods.

1. Temporary folder. If you have a very full in-box (hun-

dreds or thousands of messages), you should create a temporary

folder ("to be filed") and get to them later, processing them per-

haps thirty minutes at a time until they've all been taken care

of. Start with an empty in-box, and use the following techniques

to keep it empty, in as little time as possible.

2. Have an external to-do system. Many times the reason

an e-mail is lingering in our in-box is because there is an ac-

tion required in order to process it. Instead of leaving it in your

in-box, and using the in-box as a de facto to-do list, make a note

of the task required by the e-mail in your to-do system ... a

notebook, an online to-do program, a planner, whatever. Get

the task out of your in-box. Make a reference to the e-mail if

necessary. Then archive the e-mail and be done with it. This

will get rid of a lot of the e-mail in your in-box very quickly. You

still have to do the task, but at least it's now on a legitimate to-

do list and not keeping your in-box full.

3. Process quickly. Work your way from top to bottom, one

e-mail at a time. Open each e-mail and dispose of it immedi-

ately. Your choices: delete, archive (for later reference), reply

quickly (and archive or delete the message), put on your to-do

list (and archive or delete), do the task immediately (if it requires

two minutes or less_then archive or delete), or forward (and

archive or delete). Notice that for each option, the e-mail is ulti-

mately archived or deleted. Get it out of the in-box. Never leave

it sitting there. And do this quickly, moving on to the next

e-mail. If you practice this enough, you can plow through a

couple dozen messages very quickly.

4. Be liberal with the delete key. Too often we feel like we

need to reply to every e-mail. But we don't. Ask yourself, "What's

the worst that will happen if I delete this?" If the answer isn't

too bad, just delete it and move on. You can't reply to everything.

Just choose the most important ones and reply to them. If you

limit the e-mails you actually reply to or take action on, you get

the most important stuff done in the least amount of time. The

eighty-twenty rule at work.

5. Process to done. When you open your in-box, process it

until you're done. Don't just look at an e-mail and leave it sitting

in your in-box. Get it out of there, and empty that in-box. Make

it a rule: Don't leave the in-box with e-mails hanging around.

Now your in-box should be empty and clean. Ahhh!

WRITE LESS

Another key to spending less time in e-mail but making the

most of every e-mail you send is to write short but powerful

e-mails. So after all the screening and spam filters, you've cho-

sen the few e-mails you're actually going to respond to . . . now

don't blow it by writing a novel-length response to each one. I

limit myself to five sentences for each reply (at the maximum_

many replies are even shorter). That forces me to be concise and

to choose only the essentials of what I want to say, and limits

the time I spend replying to e-mail.

Your limit might be different_perhaps a seven-sentence

limit works better for you. Experiment with your limit for a few

days to find your ideal length, and then do your best to stick to

the limit. The key is in limitations: They force you to convey

only the key concepts while limiting the amount of time you

spend writing e-mails.

eleven

Simple Internet

HE INTERNET: it's not only where we get our infor-

mation these days, it's where many of us live. It's where

we buy things, where we meet people, where we com-

municate, where we play and work, where we go to waste time,

where we go to do research.

With so many functions, it's no wonder we can go on the

Internet to do a work task and get caught up in a dozen other

sites, often wasting an hour or two before realizing it. The In-

ternet can be a black hole of productivity, and if we let it, it can

take over our lives. Apply the Power of Less to your Internet us-

age: Set limitations and use the Internet more powerfully. With

limitations and simplicity, you can get more done both on and

off the Internet.

AWARENESS: TRACK YOUR USAGE

Try this challenge: Track your Internet usage for three days.

Use a tool likeToggl (www.toggl.com/), yaTimer (www.nbdtech

.com/yaTimer/) or Tick (www.tickspot.com/) to track your In-

ternet usage time, and you'll get a good picture of how you actu-

ally spend your time.

This first step helps you increase your awareness, and that's

an important part of the process of getting your Internet usage

under control. To simplify anything, you must first become

more aware of it. And sometimes it can be an eye-opening pro-

cess_we might spend a lot more time in e-mail, or at a certain

site, or on the Internet in general, than we think we do.

Once you've tracked your Internet usage, you can take a look

at which sites are time-wasters for you_you spend a lot of time

there, but they're not helping you get to your goals. These are

the sites you need to limit.

CONSCIOUSNESS: MAKE A PLAN

After awareness comes consciousness. You want to consciously

plan your use of the Internet, instead of jumping on anytime

you feel like it and getting carried away without thinking. Con-

scious use means setting limits and having a purpose to your

use. That doesn't mean you can't ever use the Internet for fun,

or for browsing, but you should be doing this consciously_

when you need to work, work, and when you have time to play,

allow yourself to play.

Your Internet plan will be different from mine, as it really

depends on your needs, but here are some things to consider:

What are your real needs? What Internet uses are critical

to your work? When do you need to use these sites and

how often?

What are your fun sites? You can still use them, but limit

your time on these sites. Use them as rewards for doing

your work.

When do you need to do serious, uninterrupted work,

and when can you afford to browse the Internet and get

distracted?

I suggest that you set blocks of your day for doing uninter-

rupted work (without the Internet), for doing communication

like e-mail or instant messaging, for doing research and other

work-related Internet activities, and for doing fun stuff or just

browsing. This will allow you to be more conscious and smarter

about how you use the Internet, and will allow you to get more

work done.

FOCUS: LEARNING TO WORK

WHILE DISCONNECTED

One of the best things I've ever done to increase my productiv-

ity is to disconnect from the Internet when I want to get fo-

cused, uninterrupted, serious work done. While I'm writing

this book, for example, my Internet is disconnected. While this

might sound a bit drastic to many of you who are used to being

connected all the time, it's actually quite relaxing and enjoyable

to be disconnected for good chunks of time, once you're used

to it.

Let's say you set your three Most Important Tasks (MITs) for

the day, and the first one is writing a report or a paper or an ar-

ticle. You might first need to do some research on the Internet,

so you go on with a specific time frame (let's say thirty minutes)

and a specific purpose (retrieve all the relevant info on rain for-

ests). After you do the research, you disconnect from the Inter-

net to write your paper or report.

Many of us have tasks like this that require research or com-

munication on the Internet, but don't require the Internet for

the main part of the task, such as writing or drawing or editing

or even reading. If you do these tasks while connected to the

Internet, distractions will crop up every few minutes_you think

of an e-mail you need to send, or a book you want to look up, or

a song you want to download. Temptations to go check on your

favorite sites are constant. It's hard to stay focused on your task

when the lure of the Internet is there all the time.

Disconnecting allows you to put these distractions in the

background. It means you have one task to do and one task only,

and it means that you'll get a lot more work done. Some tips on

working while disconnected:

Do your Internet research first, so you don't need to

reconnect once you get started.

Clear all other distractions and disconnect from the

Internet so you can focus on your task.

Set a timer and try to really focus on the task for a certain

amount of time.

When you think of something you need to do on the

Internet, write it down. You can do it later. It will wait.

Consider having an "offline hour" each day when you

regularly work while disconnected. Or even an "offline

day" if you think you can do it.

If necessary, actually unplug the Internet so that you

can't just reconnect with a couple clicks of the mouse.

If really necessary, give the cord that connects you to the

Internet to someone else to hold for an hour or so. Or go

somewhere quiet with your laptop that doesn't have

wireless Internet.

Reward yourself for finishing your task by allowing

yourself to go to some site you enjoy, but only when

you're done.

You'll be amazed at how much work you'll get done.

DISCIPLINE: HOW TO STAY AWAY

FROM DISTRACTIONS

The Internet, for many people, is an addiction like any other,

even if we don't realize it. That means that if you try to work while

disconnected, you might have a really tough time_tougher

than you think. In fact, you might not even want to consider

working without a connection, if you're addicted.

Like any addiction, the urge to go on the Internet can be

beaten. It takes focus and energy, but it can be done. Here's

how:

Focus on breaking the addiction for at least one week. A

month would be better, but I know you have other things

to do. During this week, make it your goal to break free

from the Internet and be able to work in disconnected

mode when needed.

Set rules for using the Internet and stick to them. Rules

could include "No e-mail except at 10 and 4" or "No In-

ternet from 9 to 10 a.m." or "No Internet in the morn-

ings." Make up the rules based on what will be optimal

for your working situation, but stick to them.

When you get an urge to go on the Internet, let it pass.

Every urge is like a wave_it builds up, then it goes away.

Another wave will come, but just ride that one out too.

Every urge will pass if you just wait a few minutes.

Apply positive public pressure to yourself. Ask family,

friends, and coworkers to encourage you to stay away

from the Internet during the times you designate_to

help you follow your own rules. Tell them to keep an eye

on you, and report to them each day. This positive public

pressure will help you break your addiction.

Reward yourself. If you successfully stay away from the

Internet for the time you set, give yourself a little reward_

a treat, or some time checking e-mail, or whatever will

help motivate you.

Use delay strategies that work for any addiction, such as

deep breathing, drinking water, self-massage, and walk-

ing around. Do these things and the urge will pass.

Give it some time. It takes getting used to. But the more

you practice being disconnected, the better you'll get. It's

a great feeling.

twelve

Simple Filing

'VE WORKED IN several offices where people's desks were

stacked with papers_one pile after another. I've had co-

workers claim that the stacks are their form of organization,

and yet I've seen them sifting through the piles to find a docu-

ment they were sure was there. In fact, they spend so much

time going through stacks that I wonder why they don't come

up with a better way.

Stacking might work for some people, but for others, it's just

a disorganized mess that stresses us out and creates headaches

and wasted time. What is stacking, at its most basic level? It's

the failure on our parts to do two things:

1. Create a simple system for organizing paperwork; and

2. Get into the habit of using that system, immediately and

routinely.

Today my desk is clean and clear, simple and Zen-like_

there's nothing on my desk but a phone, my iMac, and a small

notebook_because I've learned to do these two basic things.

Let's take a look at each one in turn.

CREATING A SIMPLE FILING SYSTEM

The key to having a usable filing system is to keep it simple. If

the system is complicated or hard to use, you'll resist using it

after a while. Here's how to set up your system:

1. Reduce before organizing. The first rule to organizing

is that you should eliminate the unnecessary before organizing

at all. If you've got a filing drawer that's overflowing, or stacks

of paper that need filing, it'll take forever to organize_and

even then, it'll be hard to find things. To simplify:

Put everything in one big pile. If it can't all go in one

pile, make more than one, but look at them as continua-

tions of the first pile. If you have folders that are a mess,

take them out and add them to the stack. I recently did

this with my home filing system and reduced the files by

two thirds. It took about an hour.

Go through them, one at a time. Pick up each document

or folder and decide what needs to be done with it. If you

can't see yourself needing it in a couple of months, toss it.

Default to toss (or shred, or recycle). Get rid of as much as

you can. I've never regretted tossing a document.

Route. If you can't toss something, and it would be better

to have that item done or read by someone else, route it to

that person to get it off your desk.

File. If a document is absolutely critical, and you're sure

you'll need it again, then it needs to be filed. Let's take a

look at how to set up a simple system for doing that.

2. Simple filing. All you need is a simple, alphabetical filing

system. Just use plain manila folders with labels (you can buy a

label maker if you like), creating a file for each client, vendor,

and/or project. I believe that most people only need one drawer

for filing. There are some jobs that require much more than

this, but for the average employee (or self-employed person),

one drawer is all you need. And if you limit yourself to one

drawer, you force yourself to toss out unnecessary files when

the drawer gets full. Don't overthink this. Just create a file, and

file it alphabetically. Keep it simple.

3. File immediately. The key to keeping your filing system

up to date is to file things right away. When you're processing

your in-box and you run across something that doesn't require

action but that you might need to file later, don't put it in a pile

to be filed later. Don't put it in a folder labeled TO FILE or

MISCELLANEOUS.

Just open your filing drawer (it should be close at hand), pull

out the appropriate folder, put the document in it, and file it.

That takes about five seconds, and then you're done. If you don't

do it now, it will start to pile up, and stacking just doesn't work.

Why stacking doesn't work: It just piles up, and then the pile

gets a little intimidating, and then before you know it you've got

a huge pile that you never want to go through. Then you can't

find anything when you need it, and now you no longer have a

filing system. I know some people think that their piles are or-

ganized into a kind of system, but piles are inefficient because

you constantly have to re-factor what pile is for what and which

documents are in each pile, and when you need a document, it

takes too long to find it. Plus, it clutters up your desk, distract-

ing you from your work.

4. Have materials on hand. Always have a big supply of

manila folders and labels on hand. If you have a document that

needs to be filed for future reference but no file exists for it yet,

you will put the filing off until later if you don't have the materi-

als at hand. You don't feel like getting up to get a manila folder

or label every time you need to file something, so you'll put it

off. And that will create piles.

So instead, just have the materials in a drawer, for easy ac-

cess. When you need to make a new file, just put a label on,

stick the document in, and file it alphabetically.

5. Reduce your needs over time. Over the last year or so,

I've consciously been reducing my filing needs so that I now

barely use my filing drawer. Sure, at least once a week I'll pull

open the drawer to look at a file, but I file many fewer docu-

ments than I used to. I recommend that you do the same, slowly

and consciously reducing your filing needs. Here are a few tips

for doing that:

Store reference information online. Now when I need to

look something up, I press a hot-key combination (I use

AutoHotkey to open Web sites and documents) and the

appropriate document opens up with all the info I need.

Contacts, budget information, ideas, logs, and much more

are all online, so I no longer need hard copies of them

and don't need to file them.

Reduce incoming paper. Ask people to e-mail you instead

of faxing or sending a document by post. In this age, ev-

erything is created on a computer, and sending hard cop-

ies is outdated. Insist on digital. Also take steps to stop

paper versions of newsletters, magazines, and other such

regular documents.

Stop printing stuff. Lots of people still print out e-mail or

documents they receive, or even documents they create

themselves. But then you have two copies of it, you're

killing trees, and you now have to file the paper version

as well as the digital. And it's much easier to search for

digital information when you need it.

Analyze other incoming docs. Every time you file some-

thing, ask yourself if you really need a hard copy version of

it. Is it available online? Does it really need to be sent to

you? Is it better to scan it and store it digitally? Is there any

way to eliminate the need for this document? And slowly,

one by one, reduce your need for all the incoming stuff.

HOME PAPERWORK TIPS

The five steps above can apply to both an office workplace and

your paperwork at home, but here are home-specific tips for or-

ganizing all the papers in your personal life:

1. Create one "mail center" in your home for dealing

with your mail and incoming paperwork. This should in-

clude an in-box for all incoming papers, a wastebasket (the sim-

plifier's most important tool!), a small filing system (just some

manila folders in a drawer or file case is fine), and something to

hold envelopes, stamps, your checkbook, pens, and other needed

tools.

2. Home in-box. All incoming mail, school papers, and

other paperwork goes straight into your in-box. Don't toss them

on a counter or the kitchen table or a desk. Put them in one

place only: the in-box. It's best if you remove the mail from the

envelope right away, toss the envelopes and any junk flyers, and

toss junk mail and catalogs right away_but even if you don't, at

least toss everything in the in-box.

3. Pay bills immediately. While you're processing your

mail and paperwork, you can put all bills in a folder to be paid at

a certain date (you might have two dates a month when you pay

bills, for example, or maybe you need one day each week). But

another alternative is to just pay the bill on the spot, as soon as

you're done processing your in-box. Either write a check and put

the bill and check in an envelope to be dropped in the mailbox

tomorrow, or go to your computer and pay the bills online. Either

way, the bill is taken care of and off your mind.

4. Enter stuff into your to-do lists or calendar. For pa-

pers that contain tasks or appointments or schedules, you'll

want to enter the tasks on your to-do list immediately, and enter

any dates into your calendar immediately (I use Gcal). I even

enter all my kids' soccer games, school events, and other activi-

ties in Gcal, and then just file the school papers or schedules in

a "school papers" folder so I can refer to it later if necessary.

5. File immediately. Once you've paid a bill or taken action

on a piece of paper, you should file it immediately (unless

you can toss it). Don't let it sit on your counter, or pile up in a

"to be filed" pile or folder, or go back into your in-box. File it

right away. Set up a simple filing system with manila enve-

lopes, labeled with the name of the billing company or utility,

along with folders for other important documents in your life,

and use a simple alphabetical filing system so you can find

things immediately. Always have a stack of manila folders and

labels on hand (some people even recommend a handy Brother

label-maker) so you can create a new folder quickly if you need

it. The trick to filing is to do it right away and not let it pile

up.

That's it. No papers should ever be anywhere except the in-

box or in your filing system. It's simple and efficient. The trick

is to make this a habit, and stick to it like a routine. Have set

times of the day or week when you process your in-box and pay

your bills. Create a simple system like this, and you eliminate

the clutter and the worry.

thirteen

Simple Commitments

F THERE'S ONE change that you could make today that

would have the biggest impact on your life in terms of pro-

ductivity, effectiveness, and being able to do the things you

want to do, it would be to reduce the commitments in your

life.

With that one change, you could free up the time you need

to focus on the important work and to achieve the things you

want to achieve. With that simple change, you could free up

time to pursue things you're passionate about, to exercise, to

read, to find quiet time, or to spend time with loved ones.

I'm not going to lie to you: Reducing your commitments

isn't easy. It takes determination, it takes a willingness to say

"no," and it can take time. But it will pay off in so many ways,

for the rest of your life.

THE DEMANDS OF COMMITMENTS

Most of us have lives that are overloaded with commitments.

We have multiple commitments at work_besides the core du-

ties of our job, which is already a multitude of commitments,

we might also serve on different committees, have to go to dif-

ferent meetings, have commitments to various projects, have to

go to conferences and clinics, have regular meetings with cli-

ents, or serve on boards in our industry.

Then there are civic commitments, family commitments,

hobbies, stuff we have to do at home, online commitments, reli-

gious commitments, extra jobs, sports, exercise, other social

groups, and more.

It's possible to have multiple commitments in all of these

areas, until we have no spare time in our lives and we are worn

down by the time and energy demands of each of these commit-

ments.

Each time someone makes a request of you and you agree to

that request, you're making a commitment that will take up a

part of your life.

The curious thing is that we don't ever decide to do them all

at once. They are added to our lives, one at a time_and viewed

individually, none of them ever seems like too much work. But

cumulatively, these commitments add up, so that eventually they

can consume your entire life, and your life no longer belongs

to you.

Cut back on those commitments, one at a time, leaving your-

self with the time you need for the things that are important

to you.

TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR COMMITMENTS

In order to get a handle on your commitments, you first have to

take inventory, so you know what you have on your plate. Take

an inventory of the commitments in your life right now. Here

are some common ones (though you may have more):

Work: We have multiple commitments at our jobs. List

them all.

Side work: Some of us do freelance work or do odd jobs

to take in money.

Family: We may play a role as husband, wife, father,

mother, son, daughter. These roles come with many

commitments.

Kids: My kids have had soccer, choir, Academic Chal-

lenge Bowl, National Junior Honor Society, basketball,

spelling bee, science fair, guitar lessons, and more. Each

of your kids' commitments is yours too.

Civic: We may volunteer for different organizations, or be

a board member or officer on a nonprofit organization.

Religious: Many of us are very involved with our

churches, or are part of a church organization. Or per-

haps we are committed to going to service once a week.

Hobbies: Perhaps you are a runner or a cyclist, or you

build models, or are part of a secret underground comic

book organization. These come with commitments.

Home: Aside from regular family stuff, there's the stuff

you have to do at home.

Online: We may be a regular on a forum or mailing list

or Google group. These are online communities that

come with commitments too.

You might have other categories. List everything. The more

honest and complete your list, the better.

MAKE A SHORT LIST

Now take a close look at each thing on the list and ask your-

self: How does this give my life value? How important is it to

me? Is it in line with my life priorities and values? How would

it affect my life if I dropped out? Does this further my life

goals?

Then make a "Short List" of your four to five most important

commitments. What are the things you love to do most, the

things that are most important to you? Your list can include

whatever you like, but here's mine:

1. Spending time with my wife and kids

2. Writing

3. Running

4. Reading

That's my entire list. It might take some soul-searching to

cut your list down to four to five things. Once you've created

your Short List, I suggest you go over your list of commitments

and decide which of those commitments fit on your Short List

and which don't. The commitments that align with your Short

List are the essential commitments. For example, writing posts

for my blog, Zen Habits, is one of my commitments. It falls un-

der one of my Short List priorities_writing_so it is an essen-

tial commitment in my mind.

What are your essential commitments?

BEGIN ELIMINATING THE NONESSENTIAL

Everything on your commitment list that isn't essential is, by

definition, nonessential. They're all on the chopping block.

Eliminating the nonessential commitments is crucial, as it

will free up a lot of your time, leave you with less stress, and

allow you to focus on the essential. Never have enough time

for the truly important projects, or your family, or your pas-

sion in life? Now you will, if you eliminate the nonessentials

and use the freed-up time for the essentials on your Short List.

Here's how to eliminate the nonessential commitments on

your list:

1. Start with something small. Don't try to eliminate ev-

erything at once. Maybe find something on the list that will be

easy to eliminate. That's your first target. Look for the thing

that gives you the least return for your invested time and effort.

The thing that's least in line with your life values and priorities

and goals. Cut it out, at least for a couple of weeks, and see if you

can get along without it.

2. Call or e-mail to send your regrets. Explain that you

have too much on your plate right now and you simply don't

have the time to fulfill the commitment. Apologize, but be

firm, and don't leave any room for negotiation.

3. Eliminate the commitment from your appointment,

and instead fill that time with something from your Short List.

Don't just use that time to watch TV_use it wisely.

4. Repeat this process with the other nonessential com-

mitments, one at a time, until you're done. Strive to eliminate

all nonessential commitments from your list. This might take a

while, especially with some commitments where you'll need to

find a replacement or some other solution. But don't stop until

you've eliminated all of them.

Each time you cut a commitment, it may give you a feeling

of guilt, because others want you to keep that commitment. But

it's also a huge relief, not having to keep that commitment each

day or week or month. It frees up a lot of your time, and while

others may be disappointed, you have to keep what's important

to you in mind, not what's important to everyone else. If we

committed to what everyone else wanted all the time, we would

never have any time left for ourselves.

LEARN TO SAY "NO"

Your list of commitments didn't become overloaded by itself.

Those commitments were added to your life, one by one, be-

cause you accepted them. Someone made a request and you said

"yes," one commitment at a time.

Now that you're in the process of eliminating your nones-

sential commitments and freeing up time for your Short List,

keep your list short by not adding new commitments, if at all

possible. Sometimes, adding a commitment is a good thing, if

it's something you love, and if you make time for it by dropping

something you don't love as much. But most of the time, new

commitments just add to your load and take time and energy

away from more important or enjoyable pursuits.

So avoid new commitments by learning to say "no" to new

requests. These requests come in all the time, at home and

work, via phone or e-mail, when you run into someone at the

supermarket. Learn to recognize them as requests for new com-

mitments, and learn to turn them down.

This is very difficult for many people, who feel a sense of

obligation to say "yes," who are uncomfortable turning people

down, who think that they have no good reason to say no to a

simple request by a friend or coworker or loved one in need.

But you do have a good reason to say "no"_a great reason, in

fact: Your time is limited and precious.

You might think you have all the time in the world, and that

a one-hour commitment won't matter much. But most people

only have a couple hours of free time each day, when you factor

in sleep and getting ready and eating time and commuting time

and work and chores. Protect your time_it's your most valu-

able commodity. Guard it with your life.

If you have difficulty saying "no" to requests, here are some

tips:

First, be aware. Learn to recognize requests for what they

are_demands on your time. And be aware that your

time is extremely limited, and that you want to fill that

limited time with the things that are important to you.

Consider your Short List. Is the request in line with the

four to five priorities you wrote out in your Short List? If

not, the commitment is nonessential. Don't allow it to

come into your life.

Be honest. Tell the person that you're trying to cut back

on your commitments because you've been overloaded.

Tell the person that you are trying to focus and can't

commit to anything new right now. Most likely, they'll

understand. If not, be assured that at least you are doing

what is right for you.

Be firm. Say, "I just can't right now" and make it clear

that you're not open to negotiation or persuasion. If you

don't make that clear, they might pester you until you

give in.

I wish I could. Often I will honestly tell the person, "I re-

ally wish I could. It sounds great. But I just don't have

the time right now." It validates the person's request but

makes it clear that you are unable to fulfill the commit-

ment.

Don't be sorry. Even if the person is insistent that you're

needed for this project, don't worry_they'll find another

person to fill the need. Nothing in this world has failed

because one person said "no" to a request_if the need

was great enough, another person filled it. So while

there's a temptation to feel guilty that you're ruining

something good for someone you care about, don't. That

person will still get it done without you.

MAKING THE TIME FOR WHAT WE LOVE

The same concepts that you use to reduce commitments in your

work life can be used to make time for what you love in your

personal life.

How can we create a life where we have time to do all the

things we wish we could do? Where we live a more enjoyable,

relaxed life away from work? It's fairly simple, though it takes

an effort to implement such a plan:

1. First, make a list of the things you truly want to do. The

things you love to do. The things you want to spend your

precious time doing. Shorten it to four to five things, if

possible_this is your Short List, the things that are most

important.

2. Eliminate as much of the rest of the stuff as possible

from your private life.

3. Schedule your free time so that you're doing the things

on your Short List.

It really is that simple. When I decided I wanted to spend

more time with my family, it was simply a matter of making

that time a priority. I would turn down invitations to social en-

gagements, say no to friends who wanted to go out, and cancel

previous commitments_just because they weren't as high a

priority as spending time with my family. When I decided to

run a marathon, that meant I had to get up early to run before I

had to get the kids ready for school and myself ready for work.

Waking earlier meant going to sleep earlier, which meant cut-

ting back on television. No problem_running was more im-

portant to me than television. I canceled my cable TV.

When I decided to write this book, I had to cut back on other

work projects, because they weren't as important. I made the

time, and dedicated that time to writing. If you make the com-

mitment to make time for the things you love by cutting out the

things that are of lower priority, you can create the life you want

to live. It just takes a commitment to your Short List.

TIPS FOR SIMPLIFYING YOUR PERSONAL LIFE

While creating the simple life is as simple as the three steps I

outlined above, you'll get use out of the tips below. I suggest you

take a weekend out of your life to examine these issues, to plan

how you're going to simplify your life, and to start making

changes to your schedule.

What's important. First, take a step back and think about

what's important to you. What do you really want to be

doing? Who do you want to spend your time with? What

do you want to accomplish with your work? Make a Short

List of four to five things you love doing.

Examine your commitments. A big part of the problem is

that our lives are way too full. We can't possibly do every-

thing we have committed to doing, and we certainly can't

enjoy it if we're trying to do everything. Accept that you

can't do everything, know that you want to do what's im-

portant to you, and try to eliminate the commitments

that aren't as important.

Do less during your days. Don't fill your day up with things

to do. You will end up rushing to do them all. If you nor-

mally try (and fail) to do seven to ten things, do three

important ones instead (with three more smaller items

to do if you get those three done). This will give you time

to do what you need to do, and not rush.

Leave space between tasks or appointments. Another

mistake is trying to schedule things back-to-back. This

leaves no cushion in case things take longer than we

planned (which they always do), and it also gives us a

feeling of being rushed and stressed throughout the day.

Instead, leave a good-sized gap between your appoint-

ments or tasks, allowing you to focus more on each one,

and have a transition time between them.

Eliminate as much as possible from your to-do list. You

can't do everything on your to-do list. Even if you could.

more things will come up. Simplify your to-do list down

to the essentials as much as you can. This allows you to

rush less and focus more on what's important.

Now, slow down and enjoy every task. This is the most

important tip in this chapter. Read it twice. Whatever

you're doing, whether it's a work task or taking a shower

or brushing your teeth or cooking dinner or driving to

work, slow down. Try to enjoy whatever you're doing. Try

to pay attention, instead of thinking about other things.

Be in the moment. This isn't easy, as you will often for-

get. But find a way to remind yourself. Unless the task

involves actual pain, there isn't anything that can't be

enjoyable if you give it the proper attention.

Single-task. This is kind of a mantra of mine. Do one

thing at a time, and do it well.

Eliminate stress. Find the stressors in your life, and find

ways to eliminate them.

Create time for solitude. In addition to slowing down and

enjoying the tasks we do, and doing less of them, it's also

important to just have some time to yourself.

Do nothing. Sometimes, it's good to forget about doing

things, and do nothing. Don't be afraid to be lazy some-

times.

Sprinkle simple pleasures throughout your day. Knowing

what your simple pleasures are, and putting a few of

them in each day, can go a long way to making life more

enjoyable.

Practice being present. You can practice being in the mo-

ment at any time during the day. Simply focus on what

you're doing right now, not on the past or the future.

Free up time. Simplifying your life in general is a way to

free up time to do the stuff you want to do. Unfortu-

nately, it can be hard to find time to even think about

how to simplify your life. If that's the case, free up at

least thirty minutes a day for thinking about simplify-

ing. Or alternatively, free up a weekend and think about

it then. How can you free up thirty minutes a day? Just a

few ideas: Wake earlier, watch less TV, eat lunch at your

desk, take a walk for lunch, disconnect from the Inter-

net, do e-mail only once today, shut off your phones, do

one fewer thing each day.

fourteen

Simple Daily Routine

VER THE LAST couple of years I've discovered the

power of having simple routines, especially in the morn-

ing and evening. Having these routines can super-

charge your day while simultaneously creating a sense of calm

and sanity in your life.

I highly recommend that you think about your mornings

and evenings, as they are two key times in your day, and they

can do so much to change your life. You can skip this chapter

and still get a lot out of this book, but examining your daily rou-

tines is worth considering.

THE POWER OF A MORNING ROUTINE

One of the most rewarding changes in my life has been finding

peace with a morning routine. I've made it a habit to wake be-

fore most others, at about 4:30 a.m., and just enjoy the quiet and

solitude.

It has made all the difference in the world.

I sit quietly with a cup of coffee, and enjoy the silence. I go

for a morning run, which relieves stress and is perfect for con-

templation. I use the quiet time before my family awakes to

write something each morning. And I read, because a good

novel is one of my favorite companions.

Now, not everyone is a morning person, of course. But that

doesn't mean you can't create your own routine, one that incorpo-

rates something that gives you solitude, quiet, or stress release.

If you haven't yet, I recommend that you create your own

calming routine. Give it a couple of weeks to become a habit, fo-

cus on doing it every day, and soon you will not want to miss it.

With a well-planned morning routine:

You can prepare for your day and set your goals;

You can get in exercise, reading, writing, or other things

you normally don't have time for;

You can do something enjoyable, calming, and relaxing.

There are other things you can do with a morning routine, but

those three things alone make the morning routine a very power-

ful tool in transforming your life.

MORNING ROUTINE IDEAS

Choose four to six of the following ideas for your morning rou-

tine_or add activities of your own. These are just ideas to help

get you started. Remember to keep your routine simple. More

than six things will probably be too rushed, or you won't have

enough time for all of them. Test out your new routine for a few

days, and make adjustments as needed. Sometimes the routine

won't go as you hoped, or it will take longer than you expected.

That's OK_just make adjustments.

Some ideas for your morning routine:

Have coffee or tea.

Watch the sunrise.

Exercise.

Shower.

Take a bath.

Read.

Eat breakfast.

Do yoga.

Meditate.

Take a walk in nature.

Prepare lunch or lunches.

Write.

Journal.

Choose your three Most Important Tasks

for the day.

Review your goals.

Have a gratitude session (say thanks for all that you're

thankful for).

Notice that "check e-mail" and other work-related activities

aren't on this list. I suggest you wait until after your morning

routine to get started on these types of things, otherwise you

might get so caught up in e-mail that you run out of time for

the rest.

SUPERCHARGE TOMORROW

WITH AN EVENING ROUTINE

If the mornings are a great time for me, the evenings are just as

wonderful. Planning a calming evening routine, especially one

where you prepare for the next day, can make a huge difference

to your mornings.

An evening routine can take as little as ten to thirty minutes,

or as long as a few hours, depending on your goals. Some com-

mon goals of an evening routine include:

Prepare for the next day.

Unwind from a long day.

Review your day.

Keep your house clean.

Calm yourself before bed.

Spend quality time with loved ones.

Log, journal, write, or exercise.

EVENING ROUTINE IDEAS

Pick four to six of the following activities for your evening rou-

tine, or add ideas of your own. And again, remember to keep the

routine simple, try it out for a few days, and adjust as needed.

Some ideas for your evening routine:

Cook dinner.

Eat dinner.

Shower/take a bath.

Brush your teeth/floss.

Journal.

Write.

Read.

Exercise.

Prepare clothes/lunch for tomorrow.

Meditate.

Do your log.

Review your day.

Give yourself a facial treatment.

Read to your kids.

Clean up.

Have a conversation with your partner.

Notice there's no "check e-mail" or work-related activities

here either. Use the evening to relax and prepare for the next

day, if possible.

HOW TO ESTABLISH ROUTINES

It might sound easy to establish simple routines, but it's just as

easy to fall out of them. You want to make them a habit that will

stick.

The key steps to establishing routines are to:

1. Focus on them. Keep your routine as your foremost goal

for one month, focusing on nothing else. Having too many hab-

its at once spreads your focus too thin, and makes success less

likely.

2. Make them rewarding. If you establish a calming rou-

tine, the routine itself is your reward. Include enjoyable activi-

ties in the morning to start your day off right, so that you're not

rushed when you begin work. In the evening, quietly prepare

for the next day, review your day, and have some quiet time.

Satisfying routines like that will make you look forward to do-

ing them.

3. Log your progress. Reporting your progress every day on

an online forum is a great way to log progress, but you could

also do it in a journal or some other type of log, or put a big "X"

on a wall calendar. The key is to keep track of it and see how

well you've done over the course of a month.

fifteen

Declutter Your

Work Space

CLEAN DESK ALLOWS you to focus on the task at

hand, which is the key to being effective in whatever

you're trying to do.

We looked at a simple system that will keep all your papers

in place. But what if your desk is already piled with papers_and

not only papers, but knickknacks, little sticky notes, photos,

mementos, tools, equipment, and more? How do you clear your

desk from under the chaos? Where do you begin?

In this chapter, we'll take a look at how to begin decluttering

your main work space, which is most likely your desk. We'll then

look at how to use the same technique to declutter other areas of

your life, including your home.

THE BENEFITS OF A CLEAN DESK

What's so great about a decluttered desk? In my experience a

clean and decluttered desk has two extremely important bene-

fits:

1. It allows you to focus. I've mentioned a number of times

the importance of being able to focus, of clearing your desk and

your mind so that you can focus on the task at hand. If you can't

do that, you're losing effectiveness. And if you are working

with decreased efficiency, you're wasting precious time. A clut-

tered desk is full of visual distractions_if you're trying to fo-

cus on one task, but glance at a pile or folder or note that

reminds you of something else, you'll switch focus, at least for a

few seconds. But if you clear your desk of distractions, then

your mind has no choice but to focus on what you're supposed

to be doing.

2.It gives you a Zen-like sense of calm. My clear desk helps get

me into a more serene state of mind. Too much visual

clutter can be stressful, even if you don't realize it. But once you

clear your desk and surroundings from clutter, that stress level

drops.

Given that calm and focus are two keys to this book, I think

any chance to improve them is worth the effort. And if you find

that you don't like this style of working, you can always go back

to your old system.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Getting started is the hardest part for most people_if there are

huge piles of things all over your desk (not to mention in the

dark recesses of all your drawers), it's extremely intimidating.

So intimidating that you never want to start.

And once you get started, you'll probably discover that it's

not that hard, and for some of you it may even be fun. (It was for

me.) The first step is the hardest_everything else is easy.

Here's how to get started:

1. Set aside a little time. You don't need to block off the

whole day (though you can if you like). An hour is a good start,

if you can manage it, or thirty minutes will also suffice if your

day is busy. Put it on your calendar for today and don't push it

back.

2. Take all the paperwork off the top of your desk and

put it in a big pile. You'll tackle that soon.

3. Clear everything off your desk except your computer,

phone, in-box, and other essential equipment. Everything else

goes, at least for now. Put it next to the pile of papers.

4. Start with the pile of papers—take a chunk and start

processing it from the top down. Never re-sort, never skip a

single piece of paper, never put a piece of paper back on the pile.

Do what needs to be done with that paper, and then move on to

the next in the pile. The options: Trash it, delegate it, file it, do

it, or put it on a list to do later. In that order of preference. If you

can't trash, delegate, or file it, then put it on a list of to-dos.

5. Work for as long as you can, then schedule another

block of time when you can do another chunk of papers or

other items (or when you can finish the piles, if possible).

GETTING DOWN TO THE ESSENTIALS

Once you've gotten through the piles of papers and other items

that were on your desktop, it's time to ask yourself: What's es-

sential? What do you really need to do your job? What do

you use often, and what is just cluttering your work space and

drawers?

Start with the top of your desk: What do you really need

there on top of the desk? Ideally, this is just your working

space_the stuff you need to do the task at hand, right now, not

things you need later. For most people, the real essentials are a

computer, a phone, an in-box (for incoming papers only), and

perhaps a notebook and pen if you're like me and like to note

things that need to be done later. Other than that, only the pa-

pers or folders you're using for the task at hand should be on the

desktop_and when you're done with them, they go back in a

folder in a drawer.

Here are some other tips for getting your work space down

to the essentials:

If you've got folders or stacks of paper on or around your

desk, process them and put them away as in the previous

section_listing them on your projects or actions lists,

and filing them out of sight.

Get rid of distracting knickknacks, posters, pictures, etc.

A few photos of your family is fine, but if you've got a lot

of other stuff, it's probably distracting.

Take everything out of a shelf or drawer at once. Focus

on one drawer or shelf at a time, and empty it completely.

Then clean that shelf or drawer. Then, take the pile and

sort it (see next tip), and put back just what you want to

keep. Then tackle the next shelf or drawer.

Sort through your pile, one item at a time, and make

quick decisions. Have a trash bag and a giveaway box

handy. When you pull everything out of a shelf or drawer,

sort through the pile one item at a time. Pick up an item,

and make a decision: Trash, give away, or keep. Don't put

it back in the pile. Do this with the entire pile, and soon

you'll be done. If you keep sorting through the pile, and

re-sorting, it'll take forever. Put back only what you want

to keep, and arrange it nicely.

Papers? Be ruthless, unless it's important. Magazines,

catalogs, junk mail, bills more than a year old, notes to

yourself, notes from others, old work stuff... toss it! The

only exception is with tax-related stuff and other impor-

tant documents like warranties, birth and death and mar-

riage certificates, insurance, wills, and so on. But you'll

know those when you see them. Otherwise, toss.

If you are on the fence with a lot of things, create a

"maybe" box. If you can't bear to toss something because

you might need it later, put it in the box, then close the

box, label it, and put it in storage (garage, attic, closet),

out of sight. Most likely, you'll never open that box again.

If that's the case, pull it out after six months or a year

and toss it or give it away.

Celebrate when you're done! Always celebrate your accom-

plishments, no matter how small. Even if you just decluttered

one drawer, that's great. Treat yourself to something delicious.

Open that drawer (or closet, or whatever), and admire its sim-

plicity. Breathe deeply and know that you have done a good

thing. Bask in your peacefulness.

A SYSTEM TO KEEP THINGS DECLUTTERED

Once you've gotten your work-space clutter to a minimum, and

have created a distraction-free zone, the challenge is to keep it

that way. If you go back to your old habits, it won't be long

before your desk is cluttered again (usually only takes a few

days).

So create a simple system and develop just a couple key hab-

its to keep the system in place. Here's what I suggest:

1. Keep an in-box for incoming papers. Don't let anything

get put on your desk_always put papers in the in-box, includ-

ing notes and phone messages.

2. Once a day, process the in-box to empty using the sys-

tem described in the section above_trash, forward, file, or

make a note on your action list for later. Always process to

empty.

3. Have a place for each item and type of paper. Don't al-

low things to pile on the desk or randomly in drawers. When

you're done with something, put it in its place immediately.

Just focus on those three habits for a week_putting stuff

in the in-box, processing to empty, and putting things imme-

diately where they belong_and your new, clean desk will re-

main that way for months to come. It takes time to learn these

habits. You'll slip. Just remind yourself, and then do it. Soon

you'll have habits that will be hard to break. And trust me,

once you're used to your desk being clear, you won't want to go

back.

One of the things that gives me the most peace in my life is hav-

ing a clean, simple home. When I wake in the morning and

walk out into a living room that has been decluttered, that has a

minimalist look, and where there isn't junk lying around, I start

my day with calm and joy. When, on the other hand, I walk out

into a living room cluttered with toys and books and extra things

all over the place, my mind is chaos.

I've been a simplifier and a declutterer for years now, and

I've discovered that a clean, simple home without a lot of clutter

makes a big difference when it comes to your state of mind,

your productivity, and your happiness. If you've got a cluttered

disorganized home, we'll look at some ways for you to conquer

that clutter and keep things as simple as possible, whether

you've got just a few problem areas or a huge, intimidating pile

of junk.

A SIMPLE HOME

Once you've decluttered your desk, you might want to declutter

your home as well. You can use the same techniques as above

to declutter your living space. Just a few benefits of a simple

home:

1. Less stressful. Clutter is a form of visual distraction, and

everything in our vision pulls at our attention. The less clutter,

the less visual stress we have. A simple home is calming.

2. More appealing. Think about photos of homes that are

cluttered and photos of simple homes. The ones with almost

nothing in them except some beautiful furniture, some nice

artwork, and a very few pretty decorations are the ones that ap-

peal to most of us. You can make your home more appealing by

decluttering.

3. Easier to clean. It's hard to clean a whole bunch of ob-

jects, or to sweep or vacuum around a bunch of furniture. The

more things you have, the more you have to keep clean, and the

more complicated it is to clean. Think about how easy it is to

clean an empty room compared to one with fifty objects in it.

That's an extreme example, of course, as I wouldn't recommend

you have an empty room, but it's just to illustrate the difference.

To declutter your home, use the same steps you used above

to declutter your desk, but focus on one room at a time, and

within that room, focus on one drawer or shelf or other space

at a time. Take everything out of the shelf or drawer, sort

through it mercilessly, and just keep the essential stuff. Get

rid of the rest. Then designate a home for the essential stuff

you're keeping.

Set aside some time for decluttering each day_even ten to

twenty minutes will do_and during that time just declutter

one small area. Alternatively, you could schedule a weekend and

do the entire house.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR HOME SIMPLE

Once you've gotten your house fairly decluttered, you'll want to

create a system to stop clutter from accumulating. There's a

reason you have tall stacks of papers all over the place, and big

piles of toys and books and clothes. It's because you don't have a

regular system to keep things in their place, and to get rid of

stuff you don't need. You'll never get to perfect, but if you think

more intelligently about how your house got cluttered, perhaps

you can find ways to stop it from happening again.

Here are some suggestions for keeping the clutter from ac-

cumulating again:

Designate a home for everything, and be fanatic. When

you find stuff on flat surfaces, or draped over a chair, it

might be because you don't have a designated spot for

that kind of thing. If you don't, designate a spot for it im-

mediately. If stuff doesn't have a home in your home,

you need to get rid of it, or it will forever wander around

the house. The other problem might be that you have al-

ready designated a spot for it, but you're just not good at

putting it away. In that case, take a month to build up the

habit of putting things where they belong immediately.

It'll make a huge difference.

Schedule regular decluttering sessions. Put them in your

calendar. Even the best of us need to declutter regularly.

If you've decluttered your home, things might be great

now, but you'll need to do clutter maintenance. Put it in

your calendar: perhaps once a month, once a week, or

once every few months. Experiment to see what interval

works for your life.

Reduce your desires for more. If clutter is coming into

your life at a rate that's too great for you to handle, you

might need to look at your buying habits. Do you go

shopping for clothes or gadgets or shoes or books every

week (or more)? Are you always buying stuff online? If

so, is it out of real necessity, or do you just like to buy

stuff? It's important that you take a look at these desires,

and see if you can address them. Reducing your desires

will go a long way to reducing your need to fight clutter.

Thirty-day list. This is really a way to control the desires

mentioned above. Make a list: Anytime you want to buy

something (other than absolute necessities), put it on the

list with the date you added it. Then, don't allow yourself

to buy the item until it's been on the list for thirty days.

By then, your desire for that item might have passed. It's

a great way to control that impulse to buy.

Change your habits. Clutter didn't create itself. It's there

because you put it there. What habits do you have that

created the clutter? There may be many of them, some of

them already mentioned above: You buy a lot, you don't

designate a home for things, you don't put things away,

you buy but don't remove things ... You may have other

habits that create clutter. Change those habits, one at a

time. Take thirty days and focus on the clutter habit, and

see if you can create a new habit that will reduce your

clutter.

sixteen

Slow Down

HESE DAYS WE consume information, food, and me-

dia at a breakneck pace that was unimagined even two

hundred years ago. We have every minute of our sched-

ules packed with errands and tasks and chores, we rush from

one place to another, we rush to get ready in the morning, and

then collapse into bed at the end of a long, rushed day.

The problem is that we were not made to function this way.

Our bodies and minds were made for a slower-paced life_per-

haps we can handle the huge stress of being chased by a preda-

tor, but we can't handle the stresses of constant overload, and a

constant hectic pace for every waking moment. As a result, we

become stressed out, burned out, and unhappy. Learn to move

at a slower pace and you will be happier, and just as importantly,

you will become more effective and productive.

You won't learn to do more in less time, but you'll learn to do

things better, and to do the right things. This simple combina-

tion can have a wondrous impact on your effectiveness, and how

much you accomplish. In the meantime, no matter what you

accomplish, you will be better off.

SLOW ATTENTION

Our attention is one of our most important assets. What we fo-

cus our attention on becomes our reality. The projects we focus

on are the projects that get completed.

Unfortunately, with the hectic pace of our lives, our atten-

tion is pulled in a million different directions all the time. We

switch our attention from one thing to the next and back again,

and then back to another thing, then to a new thing. As a result,

nothing gets enough attention.

Learn, instead, to focus your attention, to move it from one

thing to the next more reluctantly, more slowly, at a more re-

laxed pace. As a result, things will start getting done. You'll

start to notice things more. You'll be less stressed.

Here's how to do it:

Pick a simple task to start with. Try to keep your attention

on this task without switching. This could be something

like eating, gardening, washing dishes, ironing, or cook-

ing. Every time you switch your attention, take note of it.

After you become more aware of your attention, learn to

stop yourself when you begin to switch your attention.

Practice this method throughout your day, no matter

what you're doing. If you're showering, focus on your

showering. If you're eating, focus on your eating (see

below for more). Stop yourself when your attention wan-

dors.

If you'd like to try a very restful morning practice, try a

simple meditation technique (no chanting or anything

like that). Simply sit somewhere comfortable, early in the

morning, and close your eyes (don't fall asleep!). Then

focus your attention on your breathing. If your attention

wanders, simply become aware of it, acknowledge the

thoughts that come into your head, and return your at-

tention to your breathing. Feel your breath as it comes

into your body, and then as it exits. Keep your attention

on your breathing for as long as possible. It takes prac-

tice, but you'll get better at it.

SLOW WORKING

Along the same lines, working at a slower pace can be more

productive, as contradictory as that might sound. If you can fo-

cus on the important tasks and projects, and keep your focus on

those tasks, you will accomplish important things.

In contrast, someone can work frantically for twelve hours a

day, doing as many tasks as possible, and yet not accomplish

anything important. That's not just theory_many people do it

all the time. They work hard at a fast pace, and yet wonder why

they don't get anywhere, and nothing seems to get done. They

multitask and work as quickly as possible, getting stressed out

the whole time. It's not the most effective way to work.

Instead, try this method:

1. Choose work you love. If you dread a task, you'll have a

hard time losing yourself in it. If your job is made up of stuff

you hate, you might want to consider finding another job. Or

consider seeking projects you love to do within your current job.

At any rate, be sure that whatever task you choose is something

you can be passionate about.

2. Choose an important task. There's work you love that's

easy and unimportant, and then there's work you love that will

make a long-term impact on your career and life. Choose the

latter, as it will be a much better use of your time.

3. Make sure it's challenging, but not too hard. If a task

is too easy, you will be able to complete it without much thought

or effort. A task should be challenging enough to require your

full concentration. However, if it is too hard, you will find it dif-

ficult to lose yourself in it, as you will spend most of your con-

centration just trying to figure out how to do it_either that or

you'll end up discouraged. It may take some trial and error to

find tasks of the appropriate level of difficulty.

4. Find your quiet, peak time. This is actually two steps

grouped into one. First, you'll want to find a time that's quiet, or

you'll never be able to focus. For me, that's mornings, before the

hustle of everyday life builds to a dull roar. That might be early

morning, when you just wake, or early in the workday, when

most people haven't arrived yet or are still getting their coffee

and settling down. Or you might try the lunch hour, when peo-

ple are usually out of the office. Evenings also work well for

many people. Or, if you're lucky, you can do it at any time of the

day if you can find a quiet spot to work in. Whatever time you

choose, it should also be a peak energy time for you. Some peo-

ple get tired after lunch_that's not a good time for this method.

Find a time when you have lots of energy and can concentrate.

5. Clear away distractions, and focus. Aside from finding

a quiet time and place to work, you'll want to clear away all other

distractions. That means turning off distracting music (unless

you find music that helps you focus), turning off phones, e-mail,

and IM notifications, and anything else that might pop up or

make noise to interrupt your thoughts. Then learn to focus on

that task for as long as possible.

6. Enjoy yourself. Losing yourself in a task is an amazing

thing, in my experience. It feels great to be able to really pour

yourself into something worthwhile, to make great progress on

a project or important task, to do something you're passionate

about. Take the time to appreciate this feeling.

7. Keep practicing. Again, this takes practice. Each step

will take some practice, from finding a quiet, peak time for

yourself, to clearing distractions, to choosing the right task.

And especially keeping your focus on a task for a long time. But

each time you fail, try to learn from it. Each time you succeed,

you should also learn from it_what did you do right? And the

more you practice, the better you'll get.

8. Reap the rewards. Aside from the pleasure of immers-

ing yourself in a task, you'll also be happier with your work in

general. You'll get important projects done. You'll complete

tasks more often, rather than starting and stopping frequently.

All of this is hugely satisfying and rewarding. Take the time to

appreciate this, and to continue to practice it every day.

SLOW EATING

Many of us rush through the day, with no time for anything .. .

and when we have time to get a bite to eat, we gobble it down.

That leads to stressful, unhealthy living.

With the simple but powerful act of eating more slowly, we

can begin to reverse that lifestyle immediately. How hard is it?

You take smaller bites, you chew each bite slower and longer,

and you enjoy your meal longer. It takes only a few extra min-

utes each meal, and yet it can have profound effects.

Some good reasons you should consider the simple act of

eating more slowly:

1. Lose weight. A growing number of studies confirm that

just by eating more slowly, you'll consume fewer calories_in

fact, enough to lose twenty pounds a year without doing any-

thing different or eating anything different. The reason is that

it takes about twenty minutes for our brains to register that we're

full. If we eat quickly, we can continue eating past the point

where we're full. If we eat slowly, we have time to realize we're

full, and stop on time. Now, I still recommend that you eat

healthier foods, but if you're looking to lose weight, eating slowly

should also be a part of your new lifestyle.

2. Enjoy your food. This reason is just as powerful. It's hard

to enjoy your food if it goes by too quickly. In fact, I think it's fine

to eat sinful foods, if you eat a small amount slowly. Think about

it: You want to eat sinful foods (desserts, fried foods, pizza, etc.)

because they taste good. But if you eat them fast, what's the

point? If you eat them slowly, you can get the same amount of

great taste, but with less going straight into your stomach. That's

math that works for me. And that argument aside, I think you

are just happier by tasting great food and enjoying it fully_by

eating slowly. Make your meals a gastronomic pleasure, not a

thing you do in a rushed way, between stressful events.

3. Better digestion. If you eat slowly, you'll chew your food

better, which leads to better digestion. Digestion actually starts

in the mouth, so the more work you do up there, the less you'll

have to do in your stomach. This can help lead to fewer diges-

tive problems.

4. Less stress. Eating slowly, and paying attention to our

eating, can be a great form of mindfulness exercise. Be in the

moment, rather than rushing through a meal thinking about

what you need to do next. When you eat, you should eat. This

kind of mindfulness will lead to a less stressful life, and long-

term happiness. Give it a try.

5. Rebel against fast food and fast life. Our hectic, fast-

paced, stressful, chaotic lives_the fast life_leads to eating fast

food, and eating it quickly. This is a lifestyle that is dehuman-

izing us, making us unhealthy, stressed out, and unhappy. We

rush through our day, doing one mindless task after another,

without taking the time to live life, to enjoy life, to relate to each

other, to be human. That's not a good thing in my book. In-

stead, rebel against that entire lifestyle and philosophy .. . with

the small act of eating slowly. Don't eat fast food. Eat at a good

restaurant, or better yet, cook your own food and enjoy it fully.

Taste life itself.

SLOW DRIVING

I drive more slowly these days. While I used to be a bit of a driv-

ing maniac (ask my wife), passing everybody and stepping hard

on my accelerator, I would also get increasingly frustrated when

people would drive slowly and keep me from driving fast, or cut

me off. Driving was a stressful experience.

Not anymore. These days, driving is a much more calm, se-

rene experience, and I enjoy it much more.

I look around at other drivers and wonder whether they really

need to get to where they're going so fast, and whether they'll

slow down when they get there. I wonder if it's really worth

burning all that gas and getting so angry and risking so many

lives. And then I think about other things, because driving for

me has become a time of contemplation. I heartily recommend

driving more slowly_for many reasons, but one of the best rea-

sons is that it has made me a much happier person. It's such a

simple step to take, but it makes an incredibly big difference.

Here are just five reasons to drive slower:

1. Save gas. The best ways to save gas (besides driving less

or driving a fuel-efficient vehicle) are to avoid excessive idling,

to do more gradual accelerating and decelerating, and to drive

more slowly. With gas prices so high these days, wasting gas by

driving unnecessarily fast is something we can't afford.

2. Save lives. Driving fast can kill people (including the

driver). Two stats: Traffic accidents are the biggest single killer

of twelve- to sixteen-year-olds. Surprisingly, at thirty-five miles

per hour you are twice as likely to kill someone you hit as at

thirty miles per hour. Faster driving gives you a shorter amount

of time to respond to something in your path, and even a frac-

tion of a second can mean the difference between life and death.

Drive more slowly for your safety and that of those around

you ... and especially drive slowly around runners, cyclists,

schools, and neighborhoods with kids on the streets.

3. Save time? While you think you're saving time by driving

faster, it's not a lot of time. And that small amount of time

you're saving isn't worth it when you consider the other factors

on this list. Better yet, start out a few minutes early and you'll

arrive at the same time as someone who drove faster but started

later_and you'll arrive much happier than that person, to

boot.

4. Save your sanity. The above three reasons are very im-

portant ones, but for me the most noticeable difference has

been the huge drop in my stress level when I drive. Far from

being a crazy experience, driving is now actually a relaxing and

pleasant experience. I no longer get road rage, because I simply

don't care whether other drivers are going slowly or cutting

me off.

5. Simplify your life. This is related to the point above, but

expanded. In addition to improving your stress levels, driving

more slowly can reduce many other complications_the head-

ache of accidents and speeding tickets, for one; going to the gas

station too often, for another. It can also improve the hectic pace

of life. Why must we rush through life? Slow down and enjoy it

more. If we're always in a hurry to get places, when will we get

to our destination and finally be happy? Life is a journey—

make it a pleasant one.

Here are some of the slow-driving tips that have worked

for me:

Play relaxing music. Anything that relaxes you is good.

Ignore other drivers. This was my problem before. I cared

so much about what the other drivers were doing that it

would stress me out. At times, it would cause me to drive

faster to spite other drivers (awful, I know). Now I just

ignore them.

Leave early. If you speed because you're running late, make

it a habit of getting ready early and leaving early. This

way you don't have to worry about being late, and you can

enjoy the ride.

Brainstorm. I like to use my driving time for contempla-

tion. I come up with ideas for things to write about, I

think about my day (either the day to come or the day in

review), I think about my life as a whole and where I

want to go.

Keep to the right. If you drive slower than the other crazy

drivers out there, it's wise to keep out of their way if pos-

sible and keep to the right. While I tend to ignore other

drivers who might get mad at me for driving slow (I don't

care about them anymore), it's good to be polite.

Enjoy the drive. Most of all, make your drive a pleasant

experience_whether that's through music or contem-

plation or however you want to enjoy the ride, remember

that the ride is just as important as the destination.

seventeen

Simple Health

and Fitness

HE BENEFITS OF exercise and better fitness and

health are many, but among the best of these benefits is

greater energy and productivity. A good workout, for ex-

ample, can leave you feeling energetic all day, and put you in a

great frame of mind for achieving a lot at work. But while so

many of us want to get in shape and to live healthier lifestyles,

it's such an uphill struggle for so many people that they often

give up in disappointment and frustration, or don't even try in

the first place.

The recipe for getting lean and fit and healthy is simple, of

course, and everyone knows it: Eat healthily and exercise regu-

larly. But while those basics are well known, how to actually ac-

complish them, with all the difficulties we face in our everyday

lives, is much more complicated.

Or at least it seems complicated if you haven't already fig-

ured it out. It doesn't have to be. In this chapter we'll first take

a quick look at some of the difficulties we all face with fitness,

then look at a simple fitness plan, and how to stay motivated to

stick to that plan. And as healthy eating is inextricably linked

to fitness, we'll look at some good ways to eat healthier as

well.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF FITNESS

Let's start with why it's so hard to eat healthy for most people,

and why they often fail after a week or two. From these reasons,

we'll be able to come up with some simple solutions.

Some of the more common reasons:

Their diets are too restrictive and they find it too hard to

stay on such a strict diet for long.

They starve themselves and then get so hungry they go

on binges.

They think they're eating healthily but often eat or drink

lots of "hidden" empty calories, such as those in sodas or

other drinks, high-fat dressings or toppings, and so on.

The lure of junk food and fast food is too tempting,

especially when they're on the road, busy at work, or

otherwise in a hurry.

Social situations, such as office parties, family get-

togethers, nights out with friends, anniversary dinners,

and the like often sabotage an otherwise healthy diet.

Those five reasons alone will cause almost anyone to stray

from healthy eating if they don't properly prepare themselves

and come up with a plan that can survive everyday life for lon-

ger than a month or two.

Sticking to an exercise program can be just as difficult, and

a good program will take into account these difficulties. Here

are some of the more common reasons people have trouble with

exercise:

They start out with a very challenging program or

increase the difficulty of their workouts rapidly, and then

burn out quickly or get injured.

They don't see results after a week or two and lose

motivation.

Life gets in the way, and they don't find time to work out

for a few days, and fall out of the habit.

Now let's use these difficulties to create our simple fitness

plan.

A SIMPLE FITNESS PLAN

What we want is a plan that isn't difficult to adopt, and even

more importantly, is something you can stick with for years. It

might not get you instant results, but those aren't the results

you want anyway. Any plan that gets you dramatic results within

a short time is a bad plan, because it is too drastic, and no one

can stick with a drastic plan for very long. Soon, you fall off

such a drastic plan, and those dramatic results you achieved are

reversed in just as dramatic a fashion.

Real health and fitness come over a period of months and

years. Lasting change is made gradually, in small increments,

in a way that you can sustain for life. And so our plan will be

something that will start out slowly, but will be sustainable for

much longer than more drastic plans.

Conventional wisdom says that diet is about 80 percent of

weight loss, and to a large extent that's true, because you can lose

weight with a good diet and no exercise, but it's really hard to

lose weight on a bad diet with exercise. But we're going to turn

that on its head for two reasons: 1)We're not just looking to lose

weight, but to get fit and in good shape, and for that you need

both exercise and diet; and 2) If you start out with exercise, the

diet will eventually follow. It's hard to exercise without at least

wanting to eat right, so we're going to start with exercise.

So our simple fitness plan is this:

1. Use the first month to focus exclusively on forming the

exercise habit. Don't worry about the diet at this point,

although you can start eating healthier foods if you like.

But the habit of exercise is our focus: We want to make it

as regular and as important as brushing our teeth. We

will start small and focus on making it a regular thing,

rather than going all out this first month.

2. The second month, while continuing the exercise habit,

we'll focus on making gradual, healthy changes to our

diet.

3. Every month thereafter, we will set short-term goals for

gradual improvements in our exercise and diet plans. We

will reward ourselves each month for our progress, and

stay accountable to others for our fitness plan.

STEP 1: FORMING THE EXERCISE HABIT

Forming the exercise habit doesn't have to be a monumental

task. It's like forming any other habit_you just need to be con-

sistent about it. The Spanish have a proverb, that habits start out

as cobwebs and grow to be cables. So we will start out by laying

thin strings, and gradually add to those strings until we have

cables.

Of course, if you have any health risks, such as heart or lung

problems or serious illness or pregnancy, please check with a

doctor before starting any exercise program.

Here's the plan:

1. Start light. Start your workout plan as easy as possible

until you've learned to stick to it. You can gradually increase

your exercise later, but at first it is vitally important that you

hold yourself back. The first week, just do five to ten minutes of

cardio_fast walking, running, cycling, or swimming. Only

five to ten minutes, and no more. You will want to do more,

most likely, but don't. The next week, increase your time by five

minutes, and do that every week for the first month, so that by

the end of the month you're doing twenty to twenty-five min-

utes each workout. If this seems like too little to you, don't

worry; after it becomes a habit you can do more. Focus on form-

ing the habit first.

2. Schedule your workout time. This is crucial_figure

out a time when you will be able to exercise, when nothing will

interfere. For most people, morning is the best time, because

evening workouts are often canceled due to social engagements

or other obligations. But for some people, working out right af-

ter work is best, and for others, a lunchtime workout works well.

Choose the time that works best for you, and create space in

your schedule for your workouts. The first week, you just need

to schedule three workouts_give yourself thirty minutes, as

the workout appointment always takes longer than the workout

itself. The second and third weeks, schedule four workouts,

and the fourth week, schedule five workouts. Try to stay with

five workouts a week from then on, as this is the best way to

get in good shape. This is important: Treat these workout ap-

pointments as your most important appointments of the day.

Don't let anything get in the way of them.

3. Don't allow yourself to miss a day. Just about the only

good reasons to miss a workout are sickness or injury. Other-

wise, don't let yourself skip a workout. These workouts are so

light, in the beginning, that they shouldn't be tiring you out too

much. If you're tired from a long day's work, just start the

workout_you'll be glad you did. If you start skipping workouts,

you will soon make a habit of not exercising, instead of the

other way around. When forming a habit, it's very important

that you be consistent. Remember, it's just like brushing your

teeth_do it for your health, do it regularly, and just do it.

4. Don't give up. Even more important than not missing a

day is sticking with the program. If for some reason you do

miss a day or two, don't stop. Get back on the program. If you

miss more than a couple of days, back up the program a week or

two and start working on forming the habit again. If you get

discouraged and stop, motivate yourself and start again. Failure

is not as important as starting again after you fail, and sticking

with it for the long term.

5. Get a partner if you can. This isn't mandatory, but if you

can find a reliable partner, it makes it a bit easier. First, having

someone to talk to while you exercise makes the time go by

much more quickly. Second, if you make an appointment to

meet that person for your workout, you're more likely to stick

to the appointment rather than wimp out.

6.Be accountable to others. This is how you motivate yourself

to stick with the program_no one wants to look bad in

front of others. Commit publicly, to your friends or to the entire

world via a blog, to stick with the program. Keep a strict work-

out and eating log, and make it public. Share it with as many

people as possible. Let the light shine where once there was

darkness, and that accountability will motivate you.

7. Enjoy yourself. Very mandatory. If you don't enjoy your-

self, you'll never stick with it. So try to have as much fun as pos-

sible. Enjoy getting fit and healthy! Enjoy burning off your fat!

Enjoy the sweat! Enjoy the relaxation of burning off stress! Exer-

cise should be fun, not torture.

That's the plan to form the exercise habit. It's pretty simple

actually_create the time to work out, start easy, and stick with

it without fail. Soon, exercise will become such a regular part

of your life you'll never want to go back to being sedentary

again.

STEP 2: MAKING GRADUAL

HEALTHY DIET CHANGES

After your month of forming the exercise habit, it's time to start

focusing on your eating habits. If you already eat fairly healthily,

you can modify this to suit your needs, and try to make further

improvements in your diet gradually. If you don't eat too health-

ily now, you don't want to make drastic changes_small, grad-

ual changes over time are better and more sustainable.

Here's your plan:

1. Eat when you're lightly hungry. Not when you're raven-

ous. That means eating every three to four hours and paying

more attention to your hunger. If you're getting hungry, eat. Ac-

tion steps: Plan meals every three to four hours, be more aware

of your hunger, pack snacks or meals for on the road. This is

your plan for the first week_don't worry about the next steps

until after the first week.

2.Eat light foods. Nothing too heavy, except cheat meals

(schedule this once a week). Lots of fruits and veggies, whole

grains, beans, and nuts. Fresh food much better than processed.

Action steps: Make a list of healthy meals and snacks with real,

whole foods_things you like that are healthy. Turn them into

meal plans_several days' worth of meals and snacks. You'll

start on this the second week, but don't change your entire diet

overnight. This week, just try eating more fruits and veggies, or

cut out sodas and other sweet drinks. The next week, make an-

other change, perhaps eliminating some junk food you eat reg-

ularly, or cooking a healthier dinner. Aim to gradually have a

diet that consists of very little junk food or fast food, and mostly

combinations of the following: fruits and veggies, beans, nuts,

whole grains, low-fat dairy or soy milk products, and lean pro-

tein (lean meat, chicken, fish, tofu, or other vegetable protein).

Be sure to find foods you enjoy eating, or you'll have a difficult

time_this is very important.

3. Eat slowly. Savor the food. Don't cram it down. Eating

slowly will help you not to get overfull, and will help you enjoy

your food more. Focus on this step in the third week while con-

tinuing the first two steps.

4. Eat until you're lightly full. Not stuffed. Stop before

you're really full, and wait ten minutes to see if you're really still

hungry. This is a crucial step, and you'll focus on it in the

fourth week while continuing the progress you've made in the

first few weeks.

No dieting, no restricted foods, all good stuff. This plan is

really about learning how to eat healthier, and to feel lighter all

the time. Remember to take it one step at a time!

STEP 3: CONTINUATION, SHORT-TERM GOALS

AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Now that you've gotten started with the habits of exercise and

healthy eating, you'll want to continue the program and gradu-

ally improve both areas. This can be a dangerous time for many

people, as they lose motivation if they don't see big results. So to

keep you from losing motivation, and to keep you sticking to the

program to see the long-term results, we'll do the following:

1. Continue to gradually increase exercise, adding vari-

ety. Crank it up, but only slowly. Once you've gotten used to exer-

cise, you'll want to first lengthen your workouts to thirty to forty

minutes, and then do some higher intensity ones for better fit-

ness and fat-burning. For example, instead of running slowly and

steadily, for a long time, try doing shorter bursts of fast running,

with periods of rest in between. You can do this for any exercise.

Higher intensity increases the calorie burn, and improves perfor-

mance. But you can't do it as long, and you shouldn't do it every

workout. Mix it in with endurance workouts. Also try signing up

for a 5K or other type of short race_it adds motivation and fun.

2. Continue to eat healthier, also adding variety and

flavor. Each week, make one healthy change to your diet. Try

out a new healthy recipe. Pack healthy snacks for work. Pack

healthy lunches for work. Eat a healthier breakfast. Eat out less

and cook more. Pack healthy snacks when you go out on the

road. Drink more water. Cut out some type of unhealthy food.

One by one, change your eating habits to healthier ones. Doing

it gradually like this makes it much easier and much more

likely to stick. To add variety, be sure to try out new recipes and

new fruits and veggies and snacks, and when you find ones you

like, add them to your regular rotation. Never stop trying new

healthy foods and recipes!

3. Set short-term goals. Real, lasting change only happens

over a long period of time_months and years. But it's hard to

stay motivated for something that long. Instead, set a short-

term goal or two each month. Maybe set a goal each week if that

helps. Some examples of short-term goals: Increase your work-

outs by five minutes each day this week. Lose a pound a week.

Lose an inch off your waist. Run a 5K. Get your total workout

time to two-and-a-half hours this week. Do a long run of five

miles on Saturday. As you can see, the possibilities for short-

term goals are almost endless. Set one every week or two to

keep yourself motivated. Share your goals with others.

4. Hold yourself accountable. Log your eating and ex-

ercise daily. This is the key habit. If you can log your workout,

you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to

keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away.

Don't put it off and say you'll do it before you go to bed. As soon

as you're done working out, log it. No exceptions. And don't

make the log complicated_that will only make you resist doing

the log. Just the date, time, and what you did. This is also im-

portant: Put your log online, on a blog or through one of many

online logs available, so that others can see what you've been

doing. Give the address of your log to as many people as you

can, and encourage them to check on it and leave comments.

The accountability will keep you motivated to keep going.

5. Reward yourself. Rewards are best if they are frequent

in the beginning. Be self-indulgent! Even sweets are good re-

wards_get into the habit of exercise, and weight loss will come

eventually. Celebrate every little success.

30 EXERCISE MOTIVATIONS

There are a million ways to motivate yourself to exercise, actu-

ally, but these are a few that seem to work very well.

1. How you feel after a workout. A good workout is an

amazing feeling. Remember that feeling and let it motivate you

before your next workout.

2. Time for you. While many people make time to take care

of others (kids, spouse, other family, coworkers, boss), they

don't often make time to take care of themselves. Instead, make

your "you" time a priority, and don't miss that exercise appoint-

ment.

3. Calories burned. If you count calories (and it's really one

of the most effective ways to lose weight), you know that the

more you exercise, the more calories you burn_and the bigger

your calorie deficit.

4. Having fun. Exercise should be fun. If it isn't, try a differ-

ent kind of activity that you enjoy. As long as you're moving, it's

good for you.

5. How you're going to look. Imagine a slimmer, fitter you.

Now let that visualization drive you.

6. Magazines. It's very motivational to read fitness maga-

zines. When you read about something, you want to do it.

7. Cover models. Sure, they're genetically freaky, and prob-

ably Photoshopped to look perfect. But for some reason, looking

at how good a cover model looks helps motivate people to work

harder.

8.Blogs. It's fun to read blogs about people who are into ex-

ercising, or losing weight. It can show the ups and downs they

go through, and you can learn from their experiences.

9.Success stories. The success stories of others are incredibly

inspirational. If a fitness Web site has success stories, make

it a point to read them.

10. Forums. Do the monthly challenge on the Zen Habits

forums (http://zenhabits.net/forums/), or join another forum

full of like-minded peopled. Check in daily. It really helps.

11. Fitting into new clothes. Want to look good in a smaller

size? Work out!

12. Being attractive. That's always a good motivator, as we

all know.

13. Adrenaline rush. There is a rush when you exercise.

Ride that rush to complete the workout.

14. Stress relief. Wound up after a long day at the office?

Get out and work off that stress. It makes a world of differ-

ence.

15. Time for contemplation. The quiet time of exercise is

perfect for thinking about anything going on in your life.

16. A workout partner. One of the best motivators ever.

17. An exercise class. Sign up for a class, perhaps with a

friend, and you'll be motivated to get there and work out.

18. A coach or trainer. Worth the money, just for the moti-

vation.

19. An exercise log/graph. For some reason, writing it

down is extremely important. Do it for a week and you'll see the

power of the log.

20.Your before picture. You often don't realize how far

you've come. Take pictures.

21. A 5K race or triathlon. Just sign up for one and you'll

be motivated to train.

22. The dread of feeling "yuck" from not exercising. I

hate how I feel after not exercising. So I remind myself of that

when I feel tired.

23. Living long enough to see your grandkids ... and play

with them.

24. The scale. It's not motivating to weigh yourself every

day, as your weight fluctuates. But if you weigh yourself once a

week, you'll be motivated to have it keep going down, instead of

up. Combine the scale with the measuring tape, and measure

your waist.

25. Reaching a goal. Set a goal for weight, or your waist

measurement, or a number of days to work out, or a number of

miles to run this week. Setting and tracking a goal helps moti-

vate you to complete that goal. Make it easily achievable.

26. Posting it on your blog. Tell people you're going to lose

weight or exercise daily, and report to them. You'll make it hap-

pen.

27. Motivational quotes. Print out your favorite motiva-

tional quotes or put them on your computer desktop.

28. Books. Buy fitness or healthy cookbooks as a reward.

You'll get a renewed sense of purpose.

29. Others commenting on how good you look. When

someone notices the changes in your body, it feels good. And it

makes you want to work out more.

30. An upcoming day at the beach, or a reunion. You

can't help but want to look good.

eighteen

On Motivation

NE OF THE biggest challenges in meeting any goal,

whether it be related to productivity, waking early,

changing a habit, exercising, or just becoming happier,

is finding the motivation to stick with it. This chapter is de-

signed to help you meet the goals and build the habits of the

rest of this book_look at it as a keystone to all the other princi-

ples presented here.

If you can stick with a goal long enough, you'll get there. It

just takes patience and motivation.

Motivation is the key, but it's not always easy, day in and day

out, to find that motivation. What follows is a guide to motiva-

tion for anything you try to achieve using this book, because

there will always be points along your journey to success where

your motivation will falter, and you'll feel like giving up. Don't

quit. Sticking with something for the long term is the true path

to anything worthwhile.

HOW DOES MOTIVATION WORK?

Before we get into specific methods, it's useful to examine what

motivation is, what it does, and how it works.

Motivation is what drives you toward a goal, what keeps you

going when things get tough, the reason you get up early to ex-

ercise or work late to finish a project. There are all kinds of

motivations, of course, from positive to negative. Having a boss

threaten to fire you is motivation_you're likely to work harder

to complete a project with that kind of pressure. But I find that

positive motivation works better.

So motivation, in its best form, is a way for you to want to do

something. There may be times, for example, when you don't

feel like getting up early, and in those times you may just want

to sleep in (not that there's anything wrong with that). But if you

have a reason to want to get up early, something you really want

to do, you'll jump up out of bed with excitement.

The best kind of motivation, then, is for you to really want

something, to get excited about it, to be passionate about it. Re-

member that, as there are many other types of motivation (espe-

cially negative), but in my experience, this is the kind that works

the best. There is only so long that you can go on trying to mo-

tivate yourself to do something you don't like to do, something

you don't want to do. But if you find ways to really want to do

something, you can sustain your effort for long enough to

achieve your goal.

8 WAYS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF

FROM THE BEGINNING

It's important to start out with the right motivation, because a

good start can build momentum that you can sustain for a long

time. If you start out right, you have a much better chance of

succeeding. Here are some tips for starting out:

1. Start small. I've said this before, but that's because it's

one of the most important tips in motivating yourself toward a

goal. Don't start out big! Start out with a ridiculously easy goal,

and then grow from there.

2. One goal. Too many people start with too many goals at

once, and try to do too much. And it saps energy and motivation.

It's probably the most common mistake that people make. You

have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely.

3. Examine your motivation. Know your reasons. Give

them some thought... and write them down. If you have loved

ones, and you are doing it for them, that is more powerful than

just doing it for self-interest. Doing it for yourself is good too,

but you should do it for something that you really want to hap-

pen, for really good reasons.

4. Really, really want it. This is essentially the same as the

above tip, but I want to emphasize it: It's not enough to think it

would be cool to achieve something. It has to be something

you're passionate about, something you're super excited about,

something you want deeply. Make sure that your goal meets

these criteria, or you won't stick with it for long.

5. Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of

others. We will go the extra mile to do something we've said

publicly.

6. Get excited. Well, it starts with inspiration from others

(see above), but you have to take that excitement and build on it.

For me, I've learned that by talking to my wife about it, and to

others, and reading as much about it as possible, and visualizing

what it would be like to be successful (seeing the benefits of the

goal in my head), I get excited about a goal. Once I've done that,

it's just a matter of carrying that energy forward and keeping it

going.

7. Build anticipation. This will sound hard, and many peo-

ple will skip this tip. But it really works. It helped me quit smok-

ing after many failed attempts. If you find inspiration and want

to achieve a goal, don't start right away. Many of us will get ex-

cited and want to start today. That's a mistake. Set a date in the

future_a week or two, or even a month_and make that your

Start Date. Mark it on the calendar. Get excited about that date.

Make it the most important date in your life. By delaying your

start, you are building anticipation, and increasing your focus

and energy for your goal.

8. Print it out, post it up. Print out your goal in big words.

Make your goal just a few words long, like a mantra ("Exercise

15 mins. Daily"), and post it up on your wall or refrigerator. Post

it at home and work. Put it on your computer desktop. You want

to have big reminders about your goal, to keep your focus and

keep your excitement going. A picture of your goal (like a model

with sexy abs, for example) also helps.

20 WAYS TO SUSTAIN MOTIVATION

WHEN YOU'RE STRUGGLING

The second half of motivation is to keep yourself going when

you don't feel the same excitement as you did in the beginning.

Perhaps something new has come into your life and your old

goal isn't as much of a priority anymore. Perhaps you skipped a

day or two and now you can't get back into it. Perhaps you

screwed up and got discouraged.

If you can get yourself excited again, and keep going, you'll

get there, eventually. But if you give up, you won't. It's your

choice_accomplish the goal, or quit. Here's how you can stop

from quitting, and get to your goal:

1. Hold yourself back. When we start a new exercise pro-

gram, or any new goal really, we are usually raring to go. We are

full of excitement, and our enthusiasm knows no boundaries.

Nor does our sense of self-limitation. We think we can do any-

thing. It's not long, though, before we learn that we do have limi-

tations, and our enthusiasm begins to wane. Well, a great motivator

when you have so much energy at the beginning of a program,

and want to go all out is_to hold yourself back! Don't let yourself

do everything you want to do. Only let yourself do 50 to 75 percent

of what you want to do. And plan out a course of action where you

slowly increase over time. For example, if I want to go running, I

might think I can run three miles at first. But instead of letting

myself do that, I start by only running one mile. When I'm run-

ning that mile, I'll be telling myself that I can do more! But I don't

let myself. After that workout, I'll be looking forward to the next

workout, when I'll let myself do a mile and a half. I keep that en-

ergy reined in, harness it, so that I can ride it even further.

2. Just start. There are some days when you don't feel like

heading out the door for a run, or figuring out your budget, or

whatever it is you're supposed to do that day for your goal. Well,

instead of thinking about how hard it is, and how long it will

take, tell yourself that you just have to start. I have a rule that I

just have to put on my running shoes and close the door be-

hind me. After that, it all flows naturally. It's when you're sit-

ting in your house, thinking about running and feeling tired,

that it seems hard. Once you start, it is never as hard as you

thought it would be. This tip works for me every time.

3. Stay accountable. If you committed yourself publicly,

through an online forum, on a blog, by e-mail, or in person ...

stay accountable to that group of people. Commit to report back

to them daily, or something like that, and stick to it! That ac-

countability will help you to want to do well, because you don't

want to report that you've failed.

4. Squash negative thoughts and replace them with

positive ones. This is one of the most important motivation

skills, and I suggest you practice it daily. It's important to start

monitoring your thoughts, and to recognize negative self-talk.

Just spend a few days becoming aware of every negative thought.

Then, after a few days, try squashing those negative thoughts

like a bug, and replacing them with a corresponding positive

thought. Squash, "This is too hard!" and replace it with, "I can

do this! If that wimp Leo can do it, so can I!" It sounds corny,

but it works. Really.

5. Think about the benefits. Thinking about how hard

something is is a big problem for most people. Waking early

sounds so hard! Just thinking about it makes you tired. But in-

stead of thinking about how hard something is, think about

what you will get out of it. For example, instead of thinking

about how hard it is to wake early, focus on how good you'll feel

when you're done, and how your day will be so much better. The

benefits of something will help energize you.

6. Get excited again! Think about why you lost your excite-

ment ... then think about why you were excited in the first

place. Can you get that back? What made you want to do the

goal? What made you passionate about it? Try to build that up

again, refocus yourself, get energized.

7. Read about it. When I lose motivation, I just read a book

or blog about my goal. It inspires me and reinvigorates me. For

some reason, reading helps motivate and focus you on whatever

you're reading about. So read about your goal every day, if you

can, especially when you're not feeling motivated.

8. Find like-minded friends. Staying motivated on your

own is tough. But if you find someone with similar goals (run-

ning, dieting, finances, etc.), see if they'd like to partner with

you. Or partner with your spouse, sibling, or best friend on

whatever goals they're trying to achieve. You don't have to be

going after the same goals_as long as you are both pushing

and encouraging each other to succeed. Other good options are

groups in your area (I'm part of a running club, for example) or

online forums where you can find people to talk to about your

goals.

9. Read inspiring stories. Inspiration, for me, comes from

others who have achieved what I want to achieve, or who are

currently doing it. I read other blogs, books, magazines. I Google

my goal, and read success stories. Zen Habits is just one place

for inspiration, not only from me but from many readers who

have achieved amazing things. I love, love, love reading success

stories too.

10. Build on your successes. Every little step along the way

is a success_celebrate the fact that you even started! And then

did it for two days! Celebrate every little milestone. Then take

that successful feeling and build on it with another baby step.

Add two to three minutes to your exercise routine, for example.

With each step (and each step should last about a week), you

will feel even more successful. Make each step really, really

small, and you won't fail. After a couple of months, your tiny

steps will add up to a lot of progress and a lot of success.

11. Just get through the low points. Motivation is not a

constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes,

and comes and goes again, like the tide. But realize that while it

may go away, it doesn't do so permanently. It will come back.

Just stick it out and wait for that motivation to come back. In the

meantime, read about your goal, ask for help, and do some of

the other things listed here until your motivation comes back.

12. Get help. It's hard to accomplish something alone. When

I decided to run my marathon, I had the help of friends and

family, and I had a great running community on Guam who

encouraged me at 5K races and did long runs with me. When I

decided to quit smoking, I joined an online forum and that

helped tremendously. And of course, my wife, Eva, helped every

step of the way. I couldn't have reached these goals without her,

or without the others who supported me. Find your support

network, either in the real world or online, or both.

13. Chart your progress. This can be as simple as marking

an X on your calendar or creating a simple spreadsheet, or logging

your goal using online software. But it can be vastly rewarding

to look back on your progress and to see how far you've come,

and it can help you to keep going_you don't want to have too

many days without an X! Now, you will have some bad marks on

your chart. That's OK. Don't let a few bad marks stop you from

continuing. Strive instead to get the good marks next time.

14. Reward yourself often. For every little step along the

way, celebrate your success, and give yourself a reward. It helps to

write down appropriate rewards for each step, so that you can

look forward to those rewards. By appropriate, I mean 1) it's pro-

portionate to the size of the goal (don't reward going on a one-

mile run with a luxury cruise in the Bahamas); and 2) it doesn't

ruin your goal_if you are trying to lose weight, don't reward a

day of healthy eating with a dessert binge. It's self defeating.

15. Go for mini-goals. Sometimes large or longer-term goals

can be overwhelming. After a couple weeks, we may lose moti-

vation, because we still have several months or a year or more

left to accomplish the goal. It's hard to maintain motivation for

a single goal for such a long time. Solution: Have smaller goals

along the way.

16. Get a coach or take a class. These will motivate you to

at least show up and to take action. They can be applied to any

goal. This might be one of the more expensive ways of motivat-

ing yourself, but it works. And if you do some research, you

might find some cheap classes in your area, or you might know

a friend who will provide coaching or counseling for free.

17. Never skip two days in a row. This rule takes into ac-

count our natural tendency to miss days now and then. We are

not perfect. So, you missed one day... now the second day is

upon you and you are feeling lazy. Tell yourself, "No! You will

not miss two days in a row!"

18. Use visualization. Visualize your successful outcome in

great detail. Close your eyes and think about exactly how your

successful outcome will look, will feel, will smell and taste and

sound. Where are you when you become successful? How do

you look? What are you wearing? Form as clear a mental picture

as possible. Now here's the next key: Do it every day. For at least

a few minutes each day. This is the only way to keep that moti-

vation going over a long period of time.

19. Be aware of your urges to quit, and overcome them.

We all have urges to stop, but they are mostly unconscious. One

of the most powerful things you can do is to start being more

conscious of those urges. A good exercise is to go through the day

with a little piece of paper and put a tally mark for each time you

get an urge. It simply makes you aware of the urges. Then have a

plan for when those urges hit, and plan for it beforehand_and

write down your plan, because once those urges hit, you will not

feel like coming up with a plan.

20. Find pleasure again. No one can stick to something for

long if they find it unpleasant and are only rewarded after

months of toil. There has to be fun, pleasure, joy in it, every day,

or you won't want to do it. Find those pleasurable things_the

beauty of a morning run, for example, or the satisfaction in re-

porting to people that you finished another step along the way,

or the deliciousness of a healthy meal.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to acknowledge the invaluable help of the many people

who contributed to this book, including Holly and Brendan,

who had great patience for this first-time author. The readers of

Zen Habits inspired and encouraged me every step of the way.

My mom, Shannon, who has been the rock upon which my life

has been built. My father, Joe, whose wit and humor have in-

fused everything I do. My sister Katrina, who is both my run-

ning partner and confidant, and my beautiful sisters Ana and

Tiara, and my wonderful brothers Joseph, Brandon, and Austin.

My incredible children, the reasons for everything I do: Chloe,

Justin, Rain, Maia, Seth, and Noelle.

And of course my wife, Eva, my greatest supporter.

About the Author

Leo Babauta has been a reporter, editor, speechwriter, and freelance

writer for the last 17 years. He founded ZenHabits.net with no

funding in January 2007, and one year later it is a top 50 blog

with about a million unique visitors per month. Using the methods he

shares in THE POWER OF LESS over the last two years, he's trained

and successfully completed a marathon, he's doubled his income, he's

eliminated his debt, he's quit smoking, and he's written a novel.

Credits

Book design by Nicola Ferguson

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