Zen Habits aneb Zen to Done

He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities. – Benjamin Franklin

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist.

Ask any physician and they will tell you that rest is essential for physical health. When the body is deprived of sleep, it is unable to rebuild and recharge itself adequately. Your body requires rest.

Ask any athlete and they will tell you that rest is essential for healthy physical training. Rest is needed for physical muscles to repair themselves and prevent injury. This is true whether you run marathons, pitch baseballs, or climb rocks. Your muscles require rest.

Ask many of yesterday’s philosophers and they will tell you that rest is essential for the mind. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.” And Ovid, the Roman poet, said, “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Your mind requires rest.

Ask most religious leaders and they will tell you that rest is essential for the soul. Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha’i, and Wiccan (among others) teach the importance of setting aside a period of time for rest. Your soul requires rest.

Ask many corporate leaders and they will tell you that rest is essential for productivity. Forbes magazine recently wrote, “You can only work so hard and do so much in a day. Everybody needs to rest and recharge.” Your productivity requires rest.

Physicians, athletes, philosophers, poets, religious leaders, and corporate leaders all tell us the same thing: take time to rest. It is absolutely essential for a balanced, healthy life.

Yet, when you ask most people in today’s frenzied culture if they consistetly set aside time for rest, they will tell you that they are just too busy to rest. Even fewer would say that they set aside any concentrated time (12-24 hours) for rest. There are just too many things to get done, too many demands, too many responsibilities, too many bills, and too much urgency. Nobody can afford to waste time resting in today’s results-oriented culture.

Unfortunately, this hectic pace is causing damage to our quality of life. We are destroying every sense of our being (body, mind, and soul). There is a reason we run faster and work harder, but only fall farther behind. Our lives have become too full and too out of balance. Somewhere along the way, we lost the essential practice of concentrated rest. We would be wise to reclaim the ancient, lost practice of resting one day each week.

To get back into balance, just consider the countless benefits of concentrated rest for your body, mind, and soul:

§  Healthier body – We each get one life and one body to live it in. Therefore, we eat healthy, we exercise, and we watch our bad habits. But then we allow our schedules to fill up from morning to evening. Rest is as essential to our physical health as the water we drink and the air we breathe.

§  Less stress – Stress is basically the perception that the situations we are facing are greater than the resources we have to deal with them – resources such as time, energy, ability, and help from others. We have two choices, either reduce the demands or increase our resources. Concentrated rest confronts stress in both ways. First, it reduces the demands of the situation. We have no demands on us as long as we have the ability to mentally let go of unfinished tasks. Secondly, rest reduces stress by increasing our resources, particularly energy.

§  Deeper relationships – A day set aside each week for rest allows relationships with people to deepen and be strengthened. When we aren’t rushing off to work or soccer practice, we are able to enjoy each other’s company and a healthy conversation. And long talks prove to be far more effective in building community than short ones on the ride to the mall.

§  Opportunity for reflection – Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees. It is even more difficult to see the forest when we are running through the trees. Concentrated rest allows us to take a step back, to evaluate our lives, to identify our values, and determine if our life is being lived for them.

§  Balance – Taking one day of your week and dedicating it to rest will force you to have an identity outside of your occupation. It will foster relationships outside of your fellow employees. It will foster activities and hobbies outside our work. It will give you life and identity outside of your Monday-Friday occupation. Rather than defining your life by what you do, you can begin to define it by who you are.

§  Increased production – Just like resting physical muscles allows them opportunity to rejuvenate which leads to greater physical success, providing our minds with rest provides it opportunity to refocus and rejuvenate. More work is not better work. Smarter work is better work.

§  Reserve for life’s emergencies – Crisis hits everyone. Nobody who is alive is immune from the trials of life. By starting the discipline today of concentrated rest, you will build up reserves for when the unexpected emergencies of life strike… and rest is no longer an option.

Properly developing a discipline of concentrated rest requires both inward and outward changes. Consider these steps to reclaiming the lost practice of weekly rest in your life:

1. Find contentment in your current life. – Much of the reason we are unable to find adequate rest is because we are under the constant impression that our lives can and should be better than they are today. This constant drive to improve our standing in life through the acquisition of money, power, or skills robs us of contentment and joy. Ultimately, rest is an extension of our contentment and security. Without them, simplicity and rest is difficult, if not impossible. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and start enjoying the things that you do.

2. Plan your rest. Rest will come only from intentional planning and planning rest will come only if it is truly desired. Schedule it on your calendar. Learn to say no to any tasks that attempt to take precedent. Plan out your day of rest by choosing creative activities that are refreshing and encourage relationships. Understand that true rest is different than just not working. As the Cat in the Hat wisely said, “It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” Avoid housework. Plan meals in advance to help alleviate cooking responsibilities. And by all means, turn off your television, e-mail, and blackberry.

3. Take responsibility for your life. You are not a victim of your time demands. You are the creator and acceptor of them. Refuse to complain or make excuses and start changing your habits. Remember, you are only as busy as you choose to be. Leave “if only” excuses to the kids. If needed, alert your employer about your desire for rest and tell them you will be unavailable on that particular day.

4. Embrace simplicity. Embrace a lifestyle that focuses on your values, not your possessions. It is difficult to find rest when the housework is never finished, the yard needs to be mowed, or the garage needs to be organized.

5. Include your family. It is much easier to practice the discipline of concentrated rest if your family is practicing it too. The fact that this gets more difficult as your kids get older should motivate you to start as soon as possible.

6. Live within your income. A debtor is a slave to his creditor. It is difficult to find rest for your mind when you are deep in debt. The constant distress of your responsibility to another may preclude you from truly enjoying a day off. It is possible; it’s just more difficult. Don’t overspend your income, live within it.

7. Realize the shallow nature of a results-oriented culture. If you live in a results-oriented culture where productivity alone is championed on every corner, rest is counter-cultural. And thus, the saying goes, “If you rest, you rust.” Rest may even be seen as a sign of weakness by others. Unfortunately, that view of humanity’s role in this world is shallow. It is true that many of the benefits from concentrated rest are not tangible; but then again, only a fool believes that all good things can be counted.

Rabbi Elijah of Vilna once said, “What we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so.” The implication is clear. We could live lives that produce countless widgets, but we won’t start living until we stop producing and start enjoying. Capture again the lost practice of resting one day each week and start truly living.

Read more from Joshua at his blog, Becoming Minimalist, subscribe to his feed, or check out his new ebook, Simplify.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica.

I don’t often write reviews of ebooks, but a handful of them have come out in the last couple weeks that I just can’t ignore — I really think they’ll be of interest to Zen Habits readers who are interested in getting out of debt, in minimalism, or in reducing dependence on cars.

The first is a project I’m involved in: Unautomate Your Finances. An ebook by Baker of ManvsDebt, it teaches you to curb your impulse spending and become more conscious of your financial habits, so you can stop living paycheck-to-paycheck and take control of your money. I wrote a forward to the ebook and there’s a video interview with me on these topics that comes with the book. Buy it here: Unautomate Your Finances.

A quick note: the links to the ebooks in this post are affiliate links, which means that while I’d fully recommend them without compensation, if you do buy a copy you’re helping to support Zen Habits.

Some other awesome ebooks I think you’ll be interested in:

• Simplify: focuses on 7 guiding principles used by the family of four who share their journey at the excellent blog, Becoming Minimalist. Must-read.
• Simply Car-free: wonderful ebook by Tammy of Rowdy Kittens (another awesome simplicity blog) that explores the whys and hows of becoming car-free. Very practical guide that’s been useful to me as my family and I move towards a car-free lifestyle (will be fully car-free when we move to S.F. in June).
• Project M-31: Simplify Your Life in 30 Days: excellent step-by-step approach by Dave of The Minimalist Path that will target one area of your life per day for 30 days. Makes a major change manageable.
• The Art of Being Minimalist: book by Everett Bogue, great advice on becoming a minimalist.

—
Haiti Relief Donation
I’m also happy to report back to all of you that my fund-raising effort for the Haiti disaster relief was successful, thanks to all of you! As I said near the end of January, 100% of Zen Habits ebook sales for 30 days would be donated to Doctors Without Borders. Last week, I was happy to make a donation of $6,100 from those ebook sales.

So thank you, all of you, for your generosity!

If you’d still like to buy a Zen Habits ebook to support this site, you can do so:

1. Zen To Done.
2. The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.
3. The Zen Habits Handbook for Life.

—
Zen Habits blog skin, plus a video
Finally, a couple things of potential interest to bloggers:

1. Zen Habits skin. If you buy the Frugal theme for Wordpress, or if you already own it, you can get the Zen Habits skin for Frugal. The skin is free, and it’ll make your blog look pretty much like this one, if that’s of interest.

2. Video interview with Leo: Making a living online. Eric Hamm, developer of Frugal and blogger at Motivate Thyself, did a video interview with me on making a living online. I don’t give you any get-rich-quick answers, but it’s a little insight into what has worked for me.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Awhile back I (a bit ironically perhaps) tweeted this message:

Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.

This seemed to strike a chord with many people, who I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.

There are a million blogs, people, services, media, competing for our attention. Our attention is limited, and valuable, making it one of the most precious resources we have.

The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes.

And it does determine the shape of your life: what you pay attention to becomes your reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.

If instead, you choose to give your attention to work you’re passionate about, that you feel is important, that will change your life and the world in some small way … this will become your life.

If you choose to give your attention to your friends, family and other loved ones — really give your attention to them instead of only half-heartedly while also checking text messages and emails and other updates — your life will be rich in many ways.

And so I urge you to reclaim your attention.

Here’s how:

1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential. Read more.
2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.
3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.
4. Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.
5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.
6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.
7. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.
8. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.

For more, read my new book, focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.

—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Annabel Candy of Get In the Hot Spot.

You probably don’t need me to tell you that there’s a global recession at the moment. People all over the world are feeling the pinch and the travel industry is suffering because we all have less money to spend these days on luxuries like travel.

But not being able to afford it doesn’t stop people from wanting to travel. Apart from general happiness, I think dreaming of travel, visiting new places and seeing new things is probably one of the most universal life goals.

Travel is also one of the most popular search engine terms and the more we see of the world on TV and read about in books, or on the Internet, the more we want to explore planet earth ourselves.

Yet although many of us want to travel more we don’t. There are so many excuses for not traveling: the expense, the kids and the job are all commonly used to explain to ourselves why we can’t travel right now.

But what’s the point in deferring your dreams? To me you should be able to follow your dreams even if you do have limited funds, a growing family and a demanding career. All you need to do is change your mindset, make travel one of your top priorities and get on with it. These are my ideas on 10 ways you can travel more with less.

1. Start Local. First try changing your mindset. The purpose of travel is to see new things and experience new cultures. Many people think that in order to see things they’ve never seen before they need to travel far afield but that’s not true. Find out more about your local area. Anywhere within a two or three hour drive should be fair game for a weekend trip. If you’ve got longer you can extend your range further.

First head to your local library or get on the Internet for ideas of things to see and do close to home. There are probably some walks, caves, rivers, lakes, forests or waterfalls that you’ve never visited before but have always wanted to. Pick one and make sure you check it out as soon as possible.

When I lived on the beautiful Waiheke Island in New Zealand I was amazed by the number of Aucklanders who, on hearing where I lived, would wistfully say:

“What’s it like? I’d love to visit some time.”

But Waiheke is only a 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland so I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just jump on the ferry and check it our for themselves.

2. Accommodation. Think outside the box. For me, travel isn’t about staying in boutique hotels or luxury spas. Travel is about getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing things you’ve never tried before.

Cheap sleeps include camping and house swapping. If you want to try camping ask around and see if you can borrow some camping gear. As soon as you do you’ll be amazed at the number of people who have all the camping equipment but hardly ever use it. For a couple of nights all you really need is a tent, bedding, an icebox and a small stove so you can cook pasta or risotto. Or forget the cooking part and just grab a take away.

If you don’t want to camp organize a house swap with friends or through out of town friends. Find someone in an area you’d like to visit and swap away. The added bonus of this is that it will motivate you to clean out your house.

3. Food. Who needs fancy restaurants? Even eating out at fast food joints will eat into your precious travel budget. With a little advance planning and some basic equipment you can feed yourself twice a day for a minimal cost. Here’s how.

Take a couple of plastic plates, bowls and beakers with you and buy a picnic knife that comes with a cover so it won’t pierce a hole in your bag. For breakfast pick up some local seasonal fruit, yogurt and muesli bars. One of the healthiest breakfasts is a thin layer of peanut butter on bread and you can’t get easier than that. Just buy a plastic jar of peanut butter to carry round with you and pick up bread, chapati, tacos or rolls fresh.

For lunch fresh bread, tomatoes and cheese or ham are simple, nutritious food. Eating outside is a real pleasure and you’ll have more time to explore because you won’t be stuck inside or limited to places with restaurants. If you’re staying in a hotel ask if they can include breakfast at no extra charge.

When it comes to the evening meal watch where the locals eat, don’t head straight to the touristy restaurants. Street food can be excellent and extremely cheap too. I ate lots of street food from stalls in India and never got sick once. In fact, I may be the only person in the entire universe who went to India for three months and put on weight. My secret is to pick stalls that are poplar with the locals, watch what they order and get the same.

4. Sight-Seeing. There’s a lot of store set by seeing the big sights, like visiting Disneyland, going up the Eiffel Tower or touring the Sydney Opera House. But these things tend to be expensive. They’re big ticket items so limit yourself to one at the most per trip.

Some of the best things have no entry charge and there are plenty of lesser known attractions which may be free or low cost like hanging out at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or browsing the Paddington markets in Sydney. All fun, interesting and easy on the budget too. You get the idea, no matter where you’re going don’t feel you have to spend big on the main tourist attractions. That’s all they are, you can learn more by hanging out with the locals.

5. Relax. This is my top tip. Too often a vacation or travel becomes a check list of things to do. Promise yourself that you’ll stop trying to tick things off just for the sake of it.

For example, f you do make it to Paris then visiting the tourist attractions needn’t be your top priority. You won’t see many French people paying to climb the Eiffel Tower. They’re all sitting in the cafes having a short black coffee (the cheapest option) and people watching. Or you can join them wandering free of charge around the parks, visiting the local markets and walking along and over the bridges of the River Seine.

You may not be heading to Paris this trip but you get the idea. Just travel to get to your destination and then be. Stop rushing, relax, enjoy and see what happens. Travel is all about getting rid of your agenda and going with the flow, allowing a little spontaneity into your life.

That’s it! Don’t delay. Get your calendar out and write in when you’re going away for the weekend. My next trip is to the hinterland which features waterfalls and bush walks and is only about a ninety minute drive from my house. Definitely not something you’d want to do for a day trip with 3 young kids in the car so I think we’ll pack the tent, relax and make a weekend of it.

Happy travels everyone!

Read more from Annabel Candy at her blog, Get In the Hot Spot, a virtual treasure trove of inspiration, information & idiosyncrasies for people who want to live their dream. Or subscribe to her free feed to keep yourself posted on the latest articles.
—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Also see Leo’s related ebooks:

1. Zen To Done.
2. The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.
3. The Zen Habits Handbook for Life.
4. Essential Motivation Handbook.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

We all have days when we’re just not very inspired, when we need passion and creativity breathed into us.

I know I do.

For anyone who needs a little shove, whose creativity has dried up, who needs to be moved … I humbly offer this simple guide.

While I never claim to have all the answers, nor that my way is the only way, I share here some things I’ve learned about inspiration, some tricks I’ve learned that work for me.

I’m often in need of inspiration, but in all cases I’ve found it. And it’s a wonderful thing.

What Is Inspiration?

Many people think of it as an elusive quality that can’t be forced, and yet it can be found if you look for it.

Others think it’s a way to find ideas, but it’s more than ideas … it’s being moved to put those ideas into action.

Inspiration is finding something else that is divinely inspired (people, nature, amazing ideas), having that inspiration breathed into you (“breath” is the root of “inspiration”), and then taking action on it. Creating, doing, inspiring others.

How to Find Inspiration

Inspiration is just about everywhere you can look, if you’re looking for it. That’s the key: to keep your eyes open. Too often we miss beautiful sources of inspiration, because we’re too busy thinking about other things.

Be observant. See everything around you as a possible source of inspiration.

Some possible sources of inspiration:

• blogs
• books
• magazines
• films
• people around you
• nature
• children
• art
• music
• history
• exercise
• religion
• great projects
• dreams
• social media
• photographs
• forums
• google
• success stories
• life, everywhere

Just keep your eyes open, at all times, staying present whenever possible, and allow yourself to breathe in that inspiration.

How to Stay Inspired

Inspiration isn’t just a one-time thing. You’ll need it on a regular basis.

When you practice the above method — keeping your eyes open, staying present, and breathing in inspiration — you get better at it. It becomes a skill you can use at any time, and you’ll use it often.

Some tips for keeping the inspiration coming:

• Work with inspired people – one of the best ways to stay inspired is to work with creative, energetic, positive people.
• Read daily – varied things, from blogs to magazines to books of all kinds.
• Get outside – nature is one of the biggest inspirations, and you’ll miss it if you’re inside all day.
• Talk with new people – they’ll always expose you to new and interesting things, if you’re open to it.
• Break out of your routine – see things from a different perspective. Take a new route home. Go to a new restaurant. Visit someplace new in your area.
• Find time for silence – it’s more inspiring than you might think. Unfortunately, not enough of us do it.
• Exercise – or at least get moving. It helps the blood to circulate, and gets ideas moving around. My most inspired thoughts come during runs.

Now Take Action

Don’t just feel inspired. Take this inspiration and use it, be moved, and do something. Channel that inspiration into creating something amazing.

Put that something out into the world, and in turn, you will inspire others.

Having trouble taking action? Read The Little Rules of Action.

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” ~Vincent van Gogh

—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

—
Read more about simple effectiveness in my book, The Power of Less.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Michael Bungay Stanier of Box of Crayons.

Imagine everything you do could fall into one of three buckets:

1. Bad Work.

2. Good Work.

3. Great Work.

I’m not talking about the quality of the work you deliver – I’ve no doubt that’s fine. I’m talking about the meaning the work has for you and the impact it makes.

Let me explain.

Bad Work is the work that makes no difference yet consumes your time and energy. Put less politely, it’s those soul-sucking, spirit-draining activities that make you question how you ever ended up spending precious moments of your life on anything like this. Endless meetings. Paperwork. Busywork.

Good Work is most likely the work you do most of the time, and you do it well. It’s necessary stuff that moves things along and gets things done. Organizations are primarily set up to do Good Work: create a product or service, do it efficiently, sell it to the world.

There’s nothing wrong with Good Work– except for two things.

First of all, it’s endless. Trying to get your Good Work done can feel like Sisyphus rolling his rock up the mountain, a never-ending task. And second, Good Work is too comfortable. The routine and busy-ness of it all is seductive. You know in your heart of hearts that you’re no longer you stretching yourself or challenging how things are done. Your job has turned into just getting through your workload week in, week out.

And then there’s Great Work. Great Work is what you were hoping for when you signed up for this job. It’s meaningful and it’s challenging. It’s about making a difference, it matters to you and it lights you up.

It matters at an organizational level too. Great Work is at the heart of blue ocean strategy, of innovation and strategic differentiation, of evolution and change. Great Work sets up an organization for longer-term success.

The challenge is that Great Work carries with it uncertainty and risk as well as impact and reward. We’re pulled towards what Great Work promises and pushed away by its threat. We want to free ourselves from the regularity and comfortable rut that is Good Work, and yet we’re tugged back by the familiarity and certainty that it provides.

Why don’t you do more Great Work?

When I ask people how much of each type of work they do, here’s what I hear:

• 0% – 40% on Bad Work.
• 40% – 80% on Good Work.
• 0% – 25% on Great Work.

Regardless of the numbers (and probably more important), no-one yet has said to me, “I’ve got too much Great Work. I’m overloaded with meaningful, engaging work that really makes a difference.”

So why aren’t we doing more Great Work? Why does life at work feel like a conveyor belt, churning through tasks to try to make it to the weekend – when, let’s face it, we’ll most likely open up the laptop “just to stay on top of our email”?

Leo points to all sorts of things, from the quagmire of inaction to “feature creep” and suggests the Power of Less. And you know he’s full of good ideas.

Let me add one fundamental, foundational skill you need to master.

It comes down to this

At the heart of doing more Great Work are the choices you make. Not just what you are saying Yes to. But – and this follows your Yes just as the back of the hand follows the front – what you are also saying No to.

That sounds simple enough, but you know it’s not.

Sure, it’s easy to say a knee-jerk Yes to whatever comes along. We all do that. It’s much harder to be mindful and thoughtful and clear and bold and courageous as to what you really want to say Yes to.

And for most of us, it’s a nightmare to say No.

How to say No when you can’t say No

There are some people in your life to whom it’s fairly easy to say a clear No.

Category One: People you have a really close relationship with. Spouse, kids, best friends. You’ve got a solid enough relationship that No is going to be OK.

Category Two: People you have absolutely no relationship with. Telemarketers come to mind. “Hello, I’m from Hardsell Credit Card Company, can I …” <click>.

It’s everyone in the middle – and it’s a big group – that’s the challenge. For instance, it includes most everyone you work with.

So stop thinking about saying No.

Think about how to say Yes More Slowly.

Because that’s what’s really killing you. It’s not saying Yes. It’s saying Yes quickly.

Saying Yes More Slowly

Here’s how it goes.

Someone asks you to do something.

And, while nodding your head, you say “Sure – and let me just ask you a few questions first.”

And then you pick and chose from some of these questions. (Your goal is to ask at least three of these.)

• Why are you asking me?
• Who else have you asked?
• When you say this is urgent, what do you mean?
• If I could only do part of this, what part would it be?
• What part of this is something that only I could do?
• What standard do you expect this to be done to?
• Is this more urgent than X, Y and Z that are currently on my list?
• Have you checked with [name] about me taking this on?
• How does this contribute to [Great Work Project]?

You get the gist I’m sure. And I’ve no doubt that you can add some questions of your own.

When you start saying Yes More Slowly, one of four things happen.

First, the person will answer all your questions and make a very good case for your to say Yes. Which is fine – you’re saying Yes for all the right reasons.

Second, they’ll tell you to stop with the questions and get on with it. (Sadly, this isn’t a ‘silver bullet’ that will work all the time.)

Third, they’ll go away and find the answers to your questions – which at the very least will buy you some time.

And finally – and this is a good result – they’ll go and find someone else who’s less trouble, someone who hasn’t mastered the art of saying Yes Slowly.

Time’s ticking

Kevin Kelly once explained how to calculate the date of your death. Mine is September 15, 2043 and that means – as I write this – I’ve got 12, 275 days left on this planet.

You’ll have more. Or less. But in any case, the minutes and hours and days are ticking away.

You can keep doing the busywork. Or you can do more Great Work.

Here’s how Steve Jobs puts it:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

Do more Great Work.

Don’t settle.

Michael’s new book Do More Great Work: Stop the busywork and start the work that matters offers 15 practical strategies to find, start and sustain more Great Work. It features original guest contributions from Leo “Mr Zen Habits” Babauta, Seth Godin, Chris Guillebeau and others. You can watch the Do More Great Work movie at www.DoMoreGreatWork.com and follow Michael on Twitter at @boxofcrayons.

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” ~Woody Allen

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Often you’ll read an article called “The Seven Deadly Sins of” (fill in your topic here). But when it comes to changing habits, there aren’t Seven Deadly Sins.

There’s just one.

You can do a lot of things wrong when you’re trying to form a new habit — just jumping into it without a plan, not having public accountability, not having the right support, etc. But there’s just one thing you can do wrong that will cause the habit change to absolutely fail.

The One Deadly Sin of Habit Change?

Not doing the habit.

If you don’t do it, it won’t become a habit. As obvious as that may sound, too many people fail at this one thing. They start the exercise habit (or flossing habit, or filing their papers habit, or waking early habit) and they do it with enthusiasm for a week or two, and then they stop. For whatever reason — work, or family problems, or other interests taking over.

Life gets in the way, right? Well sure, but if you’re not doing the habit, the habit will never form. If you want to form the habit, you have to do it regularly.

Let’s repeat that, and then talk about how to actually do it: If you want to form the habit, you have to do the habit regularly.

That’s how habits form. You do it one day, then the next, then the next, then the next, right after your habit trigger. Soon, it becomes so ingrained that … it’s a habit.

How To Avoid the Deadly Sin
So it’s easy to state the blindingly obvious, but it’s harder to put it into practice, right?

Sure. So I’m here to help. Some tips for avoiding the One Deadly Sin:

• Just start. Not feeling like doing the habit today? Tell yourself all you have to do is take the 1st step. Usually the 2nd step will follow, but if not, at the very least you got started. And that’s what matters most.
• Do it, no matter how small. Need to exercise but don’t have much energy? Do it for a few minutes at least. Need to meditate? Three minutes will do.
• Do it, no matter how badly. Want to form the habit of blogging? Write a quick and dirty post that takes five minutes of writing, no proofreading or formatting. Quality doesn’t matter when you’re forming habits — doing it matters.
• If you fail, don’t beat yourself up – do it the next day. Let’s be clear: missing one day won’t kill your habit. Feeling discouraged about missing one day, and then missing the next and the next, is what will kill the habit. So let go of the guilt and just get back on your horse. Start again, immediately.
• If you don’t do it the next day, do it the day after. If you miss two days, don’t let yourself miss a third.
• Figure out what’s stopping you. If you find yourself struggling and missing a day or two, think about why. What’s getting in the way? How can you adjust for that?
• Plan ahead. Life gets in the way, but if you know something’s coming up, think ahead and be sure to get your habit in.
• Engineer success. Knock down the barriers and set it up so it’s harder to fail than to actually do the habit. Public accountability is a good way to do that.

In the end, all that matters is doing it. So go do it already.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

If you liked this article, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my peeps.

Want more? Read my site on habit changes, 6 Changes, or check out my book, The Power of Less.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Scott Young of ScottYoung.com.

In high school, I rarely studied. Despite that, I graduated second in my class. In university, I generally studied less than an hour or two before major exams. However, over four years, my GPA always sat between an A and an A+.

Recently I had to write a law exam worth 100% of my final grade. Unfortunately, I was out of the country and didn’t get back by plane until late Sunday night. I had to write the test at 9 am Monday morning. I got an A after just one hour of review on the plane.

Right now, I’m guessing most of you think I’m just an arrogant jerk. And, if the story ended there, you would probably be right.

Why do Some People Learn Quickly?

The fact is most of my feats are relatively mundane. I’ve had a chance to meet polyglots who speak 8 languages, people who have mastered triple course loads and students who went from C or B averages to straight A+ grades while studying less than before.

The story isn’t about how great I am (I’m certainly not) or even about the fantastic accomplishments of other learners. The story is about an insight: that smart people don’t just learn better, they also learn differently.

It’s this different strategy, not just blind luck and arrogance, that separates rapid learners from those who struggle.

Most sources say that the difference in IQ scores across a group is roughly half genes and half environment. I definitely won’t discount that. Some people got a larger sip of the genetic cocktail. Some people’s parents read their kids Chaucer and tutored them in quantum mechanics.

However, despite those gifts, if rapid learners had a different strategy for learning than ordinary students, wouldn’t you want to know what it was?

The Strategy that Separates Rapid Learners

The best way to understand the strategy of rapid learners is to look at its opposite, the approach most people take: rote memorization.

Rote memorization is based on the theory that if you look at information enough times it will magically be stored inside your head.

This wouldn’t be a terrible theory if your brain were like a computer. Computers just need one attempt to store information perfectly. However, in practice rote memorization means reading information over and over again. If you had to save a file 10 times in a computer to ensure it was stored, you’d probably throw it in the garbage.

The strategy of rapid learners is different. Instead of memorizing by rote, rapid learners store information by linking ideas together. Instead of repetition, they find connections. These connections create a web of knowledge that can succeed even when you forget one part.

When you think about it, the idea that successful learners create a web has intuitive appeal. The brain isn’t a computer hard drive, with millions of bits and bytes in a linear sequence. It is an interwoven network of trillions of neurons.

Why not adopt the strategy that makes sense with the way your brain actually works?

Not a New Idea, But an Incredibly Underused Idea

This isn’t a new idea, and I certainly didn’t invent it.

Polymath, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Marvin Minsky once said:

“If you understand something in only one way, then you don’t really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we’ve connected it to all other things we know. Well-connected representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things from many perspectives until you find one that works for you. And that’s what we mean by thinking!” [emphasis mine]

Benny Lewis, polyglot and speaker of 8 languages, recently took up the task of learning Thai in two months. One of his first jobs was to memorize a phonetic script (Thai has a different alphabet than English). How did he do it?

“I saw [a Thai symbol] and needed to associate it with ‘t’, I thought of a number of common words starting with t. None of the first few looked anything like it, but then I got to toe! The symbol looks pretty much like your big toe, with the circle representing the nail of the second toe (if looking at your left foot). It’s very easy to remember and very hard to forget! Now I think of t instantly when I see that symbol.

It took time, but I’ve come up with such an association for all [75] symbols. Some are funny, or nerdy, or related to sex, or something childish. Some require a ridiculous stretch of the imagination to make it work. Whatever did the job best to help me remember.”

The famous British savant Daniel Tammet has the ability to multiply 5 digit numbers in his head. He explains that he can do this because each number, to him, has a color and texture, he doesn’t just do the straight calculation, he feels it.

All of these people believe in the power of connecting ideas. Connecting ideas together, as Minsky describes. Linking ideas with familiar pictures, like Lewis. Or even blending familiar shapes and sensations with the abstract to make it more tangible as Tammet can do.

How Can You Become a Rapid Learner?

So all this sounds great, but how do you actually do it?

I’m not going to suggest you can become a Tammet, Lewis or Minsky overnight. They have spent years working on their method. And no doubt, some of their success is owed to their genetic or environmental quirks early in life.

However, after writing about these ideas for a couple years I have seen people make drastic improvements in their learning method. It takes practice, but students have contacted me letting me know they are now getting better grades with less stress, one person even credited the method for allowing him to get an exam exemption for a major test.

Some Techniques for Learning by Connections

Here are the some of the most popular tactics I’ve experimented with and suggested to other students:

1. Metaphors and Analogy

Create your own metaphors for different ideas. Differential calculus doesn’t need to just be an equation, but the odometer and speedometer on a car. Functions in computer programming can be like pencil sharpeners. The balance sheet for a corporation can be like the circulatory system.

Shakespeare used metaphor prolifically to create vivid imagery for his audience. Your professor might not be the bard, but you can step in and try them yourself.

2. Visceralization

Visceralization is a portmanteau between visceral and visualization. The goal here is to envision an abstract idea as something more tangible. Not just by imagining a picture, but by integrating sounds, textures and feelings (like Tammet does).

When learning how to find the determinant of a matrix, I visualized my hands scooping through one axis of the matrix and dropping through the other, to represent the addition and subtraction of the elements.

Realize you already do this, just maybe not to the same degree. Whenever you see a graph or pie chart for an idea, you are taking something abstract and making it more tangible. Just be creative in pushing that a step further.

3. The 5-Year Old Method

Imagine you had to explain your toughest subject to a 5-year old. Now practice that.

It may be impossible to explain thermodynamics to a first grader, but the process of explanation forces you to link ideas. How would you explain the broader concepts in simpler terms a child would understand?

4. Diagramming

Mind-mapping is becoming increasingly popular as a way of retaining information. That’s the process of starting with a central idea and brainstorming adjacent connections. But mindmapping is just the skin of the onion.

Creating diagrams or pictures can allow you to connect ideas together on paper. Instead of having linear notes, organized in a hierarchy, what if you had notes that showed the relationships between all the ideas you were learning?

5. Storytelling to Remember Numbers and Facts

Pegging is a method people have been using for years to memorize large amounts of numbers or facts. What makes it unique isn’t just that it allows people to perform amazing mental feats (although it can), but the way it allows people to remember information–by connecting the numbers to a story.

Pegging is a bit outside the scope of this article, but the basic idea is that each digit is represented by the sound of a consonant (for example: 0=c, 3=t, 4=d…). This allows you to convert any number into a string of consonants (4304 = d-t-c-d).

The system allows you to add any number of vowels in between the consonants to make nouns (d-t-c-d = dot code). You can then turn this list of nouns into a story (The dot was a code that the snake used…). Then all you need to do is remember the order of the story to get the nouns, consonants and back to the numbers.

The Way We Were Taught to Learn is Broken

Children are imaginative, creative and, in many ways, the epitome of this rapid learning strategy. Maybe it’s the current school system, or maybe it’s just a consequence of growing up, but most people eventually suppress this instinct.

The sad truth is that the formal style of learning, makes learning less enjoyable. Chemistry, mathematics, computer science or classic literature should spawn new ideas, connections in the mind, exciting possibilities. Not only the right answers for a standardized test.

The irony is that maybe if that childlike, informal way of learning came back, even just in part, perhaps more people would succeed on those very tests. Or at least enjoyed the process of learning.

Scott Young is a university student, author and head of an online service designed to teach you rapid learning tactics. The program is currently sold out, but you can sign up here to get announcements when it reopens.

—

If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

“If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this is the best season of your life.” ~Wu-Men

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

When I hear about a great idea that a friend has, I get excited. I can’t wait to see that idea become reality.

Then I ask about the idea a few months later, and it often is not one bit closer to completion.

Ideas stop short of becoming reality, and projects seem to drag on endlessly, because of one thing: complexity.

A software programmer can allow the development of a new app he’s building to drag on and on for years (I know of cases where this happened), only to find Google release something that makes his app obsolete. The problem: the program grew and grew in complexity and features, but never shipped.

A web developer can work on a rad new website with killer features, but after months of work the website never launches. Problem: too complex, and too much of a perfectionist.

A writer can work on a novel, working in characters and plotlines, and then work on revision after revision, only to abandon it. The complexity of a book can become overwhelming.

If your project has been dragging on, or you’re having problems completing, try simplifying, and stop trying for perfection.

I’ve launched a number of projects over the last few years, and learned a thing or two about making ideas take life, and getting to done.

Here are some of those key principles:

1. Keep the scope as simple as possible. You don’t need to do everything with this project. In fact, if you can just do one thing, that’s perfect. As small a thing as possible. Don’t redesign an entire city — just work on one building. If the project starts to get complex or seem overwhelming, narrow the scope. Do less. It’ll help you get things done.

2. Practice ‘Good Enough’. Perfectionism is the enemy of completion. Nitpick and worry about getting it “just right”, and you’ll never get it done. Done is better than right. So if you start to nitpick and worry about perfect, say “screw it” and then just try for “good enough”. You can always make it better in the next version.

3. Kill extra features. Similar to simplifying the scope, you’ll want to try to make your creation do as little as possible. Want it to talk and walk and cook breakfast? Just try for talking. Want your website to publish great content and have social networking and podcasts and news and a newsletter and a membership area? Just shoot for great content. Whenever you find yourself adding new features, see if they can’t be killed.

4. Make it public, quick. Your goal should be to get your project in some working form out to your customers/readers/public as soon as possible. In as few steps, as quickly, as easily, as simply as possible. Remember: don’t worry about perfect, and don’t let this first public release be wide in scope or full of features. Release it with as few features as possible. Releasing it publicly will 1) get you to done faster and 2) put some pressure on you to make it better, quickly.
—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Everett Bogue, author of The Art of Being Minimalist, and blogger at Far Beyond the Stars.

Have you ever had a creative evening when time suddenly flew by? A day when you executed a difficult project at work flawlessly? A brief moment in time when your challenging exercise routine felt effortless?

All of these times you were in a state of flow.

Flow is a concept developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Chicago, who has studied the phenomena his whole career. Daniel Pink reintroduces the concept in his new book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Many people flow through their lives in an effortless fashion, while countless others have a difficult time achieving a flow state.

Why flow is hard to achieve
Flow is a moment in time when you’re both challenged at the activity that you’re doing, and when you also have complete autonomy in the task you’re conducting.

We engage in flow under your own volition, with a skill which we’ve had some amount of experience.

If you’re not flowing, it’s probably because you aren’t allowing yourself to be challenged, you’re completely overwhelmed, or someone else is holding you back.

The majority of my experience with flow has been with dance and writing. I’ve studied dance for many years, and one of the technical skills that dancers work on is called improvisation. Improv is very tricky in dance. You have to turn off your mind and simply dance with your instincts.

When you’ve mastered improv dance, you’ve reached the sweet spot between your brain transferring commands to your nervous system. There is no longer any thinking involved, as thinking in improv dance will make everything stop. There just isn’t any time for brainwork when you are constantly moving.

Csikszentmihalyi hypothesizes that these moments of flow occur because we’re simply activating too many neurological functions. Because of this we no longer have capacity to be aware of what functions we’re engaging in. So the ‘conscious of me’ part of the mind switches off, your awareness of yourself slips away, and you just do.

You’re simply flowing in the the present moment
I have also experienced flow in writing. I think it’s very important for writers to engage in flow. A lot of writers stop and meticulously edit their work after every sentence, but writing this way (for most people) is counterproductive.

Why? I believe it’s because of the same reason that dancers can’t stop dancing in improvisation. If you just keep writing for 30 minutes without stopping, you give your mind a chance to turn off the ‘conscious of me’ brain functions. This in turn grants more brain power to challenging the boundaries of your writing ability.

You cannot edit while you’re producing work. If you do, you’ll be constantly switching between your right brain and your left brain. Your creative center will be switching off and on and it will be harder to produce anything meaningful.

A classic example of real world flow
Ray Bradbury was a freelance writer who was trying to support his family. However, he was working at home with his cute little children. This proved to be incredibly distracting, so he had to find somewhere else to write. So, he headed over to UCLA’s Lawrence Clark Powell Library.

In the basement of the library there was a number of typewriters that gave 30 minutes of writing time for a dime.

Ray was very poor at the time, and needed all the money he could to support his family. Whenever he popped in the dime, he wanted to get his month’s worth. This forced him to write at a frantic pace until his time was up. The most frustrating element of writing the novel was when the typewriter keys tangled, because it meant that he was wasting valuable time.

In between these 30 minute typewriter banging sessions, he would wander the halls of the library studying books and contemplating what he would write for the next 30 minutes.

The novel Ray finished was classic sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451. He created this novel in record amount of time, and recalled feeling as if the flow of time had accelerated. The novel wrote itself, effortlessly.

Think about how important it is to flow
I really believe many people miss this aspect of engaging in their work. If you aren’t flowing, you’re not reaching the peak of your ability. There is so much untapped hidden potential in flow, just waiting to be retrieved.

People who have learned flow are challenging themselves and creating work at their best.

We no longer have dime typewriters at the library, but there are a number of ways to practice flow without them.

9 simple ways you can bring yourself into flow

1. Pick a enjoyable, challenging activity. The easiest way to enter flow is by doing something you love. The activity also needs to challenge you, one you are extremely passionate about, that you enjoy doing, and that causes you to grow. If the activity is boring to tedious you won’t enjoy it, and so there is no way you can engage in flow.
2. Eliminate distractions. Turn off your phone, log out of twitter, switch off gmail. If you’re constantly flipping back and forth between different tasks you’ll never be able to achieve flow. A foreign distraction will quickly bring you out of the flow mindset.
3. Think before you do. Do any research or preparation before you engage in the activity you wish to flow in. If you stop and do research while writing, or have to grab a bite to eat in the middle of a run, you’ll throw yourself out of the grove. Preparation is the only way to avoid that.
4. Isolate yourself. The best way to achieve flow is alone. If you’re in a room full of people, your mind will constantly be drawn away from what you’re doing. Shut the door, put on headphones, or find another way to isolate yourself.
5. Let go. Give up any expectations that you have for yourself. If you enter a flow situation with preconceptions about the results that you’ll get from the practice, you’ll inevitably disappoint yourself. You also run the risk of narrowing your focus to a point where you can’t change coarse naturally if your flow takes you down a road less traveled.
6. Give yourself a time limit. Like Bradbury, set a timer on your activity. Give yourself 30 minutes of uninterrupted flow time and just go at it with everything you’ve got. Forget about how much time you’ve been doing the activity, and how much time you have left, just flow. You may just find that you lose track of time completely.
7. Keep moving. Continuous motion is key to flow, don’t give your mind a chance to start second guessing what you’re doing. Keep moving with the activity you’re flowing in. Go at a pace that’s challenging for you, but not overwhelming. You want to be calm and collected, but also have forward momentum.
8. Don’t think. Switch off the part of your brain that observes what you’re doing. This is your self-consciousness, your ego, your sabotage. Why flow is so important is that it circumvents the necessity to constantly critique yourself. This can be hard, if you’re used to constantly second-guessing everything you do, but it is so important to successfully entering flow.
9. Practice. Like any useful skill, flow takes time to master. Don’t stress if you can’t do it right away. If you’re interested in achieving a state of flow, you need to practice regularly. Set a time every day that will be dedicated flow time. Eventually you’ll start to recognize when you’re flowing, and when you’re not. After many hours of practice, you’ll eventually become a flow master.

Everett Bogue is the author of The Art of Being Minimalist, and writes about living a simple minimalist life at Far Beyond The Stars.
—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

The beauty of an empty inbox is a thing to behold. It is calming, peaceful and wonderful.

An inbox that is overflowing with actions, urgent calls for responses, stuff to read … it’s chaos, it’s stressful, it’s overwhelming.

A friend recently posted:

“Help! I’m drowning in email!”

Let’s look at how to get your head above water first, and then how to get safely to dry land.

Head Above Water
You need to give yourself some breathing room. A flooded inbox is overwhelming, and you don’t know where to start. So here’s where we’re going to start:

1. Create an “actions” folder or label in your email. This is where you’re going to store any emails that you need to take action on (other than just replying or filing or whatever).
2. Pick the most important. Go through your inbox and check off 10-15 that are the most urgent action emails, and file them in this new folder. If you don’t get to the sections below right away, you can at least work from this folder for now.
3. Temporarily archive. Now create a “temp” folder. File everything that’s still in your inbox into this temp folder. Everything. You’re going to get these out of the way and not worry about them at the moment. We’ll get to these, but it gives you a little breathing room.
4. Set a new policy. Every new email that comes in will follow the rules in the next section. No more allowing your inbox to pile up.

New Emails
So what to do with new emails that come in? Set some rules, and commit right this minute to ruthlessly sticking to them:

1. Process from the top down. When you open up your email, process the inbox completely. Start with the top email in your inbox, and open it. Take one of the following actions, in this preferred order: (1) delete (use this liberally), (2) archive (in case you want to look it up later), (3) quick reply (four sentences or less) and then archive, (4) put on your to-do list for action (if you don’t have a list, start one now) and then file in your “action” folder. This last item includes long replies (which should be as rare as possible). If you take one of these four actions, you should dispose of every email.
2. Go to the next email and take quick action, and so forth. Don’t spend longer than 20 seconds on any one email, and even then you should only do that if you’re doing a quick reply or adding the item to your to-do list. If you process this quickly, you’ll be done with your inbox in minutes.
3. Only when you’ve processed should you start worrying about the to-do items. You can choose to do those now, or later. Don’t start doing the to-do items when you’re processing.
4. Newsletters, etc. You’re never going to read all those newsletters, notices from services, catalogs from companies, and so on that regularly get delivered from your inbox. So go into your “temp” folder and delete all of them right now. All of them. And whenever new ones come in — emails that are not from real people directed just for you — you’re going to go to the bottom of the email and click on the “unsubscribe” link. Every single one of them should have an “unsubscribe” link — if not, mark as spam. It only takes 10 seconds to click on the unsubscribe link and then go to the new page and hit the unsubscribe button. And if you do this for every single one, you’ll soon get a lot less email.

Follow these four rules and you’ll never have a full inbox again.

Stop the Flood
OK, things should feel a bit more manageable now. Now we want to set some long-term policies so that you get fewer emails from now on.

Here’s what to do:

1. Unsubscribe from everything. This was talked about in the section above, but just in case you missed that, go back and read the newsletters item. You don’t need newsletters flooding your inbox.
2. Stop sending so many emails. The more emails you send, the more you’ll get. Use email as little as you possibly can. Call people if you can, or walk over and talk to them. If those aren’t possible, see if you can figure it out for yourself. If you send an email that doesn’t require a response, say so.
3. Send shorter emails. They’re more likely to get read and acted on, and it’ll take less of your time to write them. Try sticking to 4 sentences or fewer.
4. Check email less often. Set times each day, and only check email on those times. When you do, process your inbox to empty using the rules above.
5. Filter out notifications. If there are notifications you do want to see, create a folder or label for them, and create a filter (Gmail is great for this) so that the notifications go straight to that label/folder and skip the inbox.
6. Set policies. Put up policies on your website or send the policies out to the people you work with. These policies should be aimed at reducing the number of requests you get. For example, if requests are coming to you that should be going somewhere else, put that in your policies. If people should deal with things through a different channel than email, say it in the policies. Try to figure out your most common types of emails, and find solutions so you don’t have to respond to all of them.
7. Post FAQs. Similarly, if you get a bunch of questions regularly, post the answers publicly so that you don’t have to repeatedly answer them by email. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Processing the Old Emails
You’re going to want to return to your “temp” folder, when you have the time, and start processing it. Some steps:

1. Process it in chunks if there are too many to do now. Just do it for 5 minutes and then come back later.
2. When you process, follow the rules for processing your inbox above (under the “New Emails” section). Start at the top, take quick action on each email, moving it out of the temp folder as fast as you can.
3. Feel free to mass delete emails. If you know you’ll never reply or act on emails, just check a bunch of them off and delete or archive. You can get big chunks done at once this way. Give yourself the freedom to let these go — and just worry about what you need to do from this point on.
—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

“Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.” ~ Lao Tzu

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

It’s a bias of our culture that stillness is regarded as lazy, as being stuck in inaction, as a negative.

It’s not. It’s an action, and a powerful one.

What’s more, it can change your day, and in doing so change your life.

You’re in the middle of a frazzled day, swamped by work and meetings and emails and interruptions, or hassled by kids and phone calls and errands and chores.

You pause. Stay still for a minute, and breathe. You close your eyes, and find a stillness within yourself. This stillness spreads to the rest of your body, and to your mind. It calms you, centers you, focuses you on what you’re doing right now, not on all you have to do and all that has happened.

The stillness becomes a transformative action.

Stillness can be a powerful answer to the noise of others. It can be a way to push back against the buzz of the world, to take control. It can remind you of what’s important.

How to Practice
Stillness, oddly, doesn’t come naturally to many people. So practice.

1. Start your day in stillness. Whether it’s sitting with a cup of coffee as the world awakes, or sitting on a pillow and focusing on your breath, stillness is a powerful way to start your day. It sets the tone for things to come. Even 5-10 minutes is great.

2. Take regular stillness breaks. Every hour, set an alarm on your computer or phone to go off. Think of it as a bell that rings, reminding you to be still for a minute. During this minute, focus first on your breathing, to bring yourself into the present. Let the worries of the world around you melt away — all that is left is your breath. And then let your focus expand beyond your breath to your other senses, one at a time.

3. When chaos roars, pause. In the middle of a crisis or a noisy day, stop. Be still. Take a deep breath, and focus on that breath coming in, and going out. Find your inner stillness and then let your next action come from that stillness. Focus on that next action only.

Let stillness become your most powerful action. It could change your life.

“Through return to simple living Comes control of desires. In control of desires Stillness is attained. In stillness the world is restored.” ~ Lao Tzu

If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

How does ’simple’ differ from ‘minimalist’?

That’s the question someone asked me on Twitter recently, and it’s a good one.

Zen Habits has become known as a leading simplicity blog, and at the same time I recently started mnmlist, a blog about minimalism.

Why the two blogs? What’s the difference? It’s an important question as it forces us to examine each concept a little more closely.

First, let’s acknowledge that the two concepts are related, and in some ways are two ways of saying the same thing. When you simplify your life, you’re cutting back on the complexity of what you do and what you own. Minimalism is about the same things.

Each concept is really a striking back against the growing complexity of the modern world, against consumerism, against the mindset that we need to buy to solve our problems, that we need more and bigger. Against the idea that busier is better and that we must always be connected.

So how is minimalism different? It’s basically an extension of simplicity — not only do you take things from complex to simple, but you try to get rid of anything that’s unnecessary. All but the essential.

Minimalism says that what’s unnecessary is a luxury, and a waste. Why be wasteful when the unnecessary isn’t needed for happiness? When it just gets in the way of happiness, of peace? By eliminating the unnecessary, we make room for the essential, and give ourselves more breathing space.

Now, exactly what is essential will vary from person to person. So someone might look at my essential things and say “That’s too much — it’s not minimal!” But they’d be wrong — because essential is subjective.

How to do minimalism
There’s no one right way.

I talk more about my recommendations in my ebook, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. You can also read weekly (or so) articles at my other blog, mnmlist.

Some recent articles at mnmlist you might find useful:

• How to do minimalism in steps
• 12 minimalist ways to reduce your carbon footprint
• Minimalist eating
• A minimalist approach to books
• Less
• Why reading faster doesn’t increase productivity
• Learn to love less
• Simplicity is the path, not just the destination
• The sweet science of less mail
• The beauty of small
• The lust for new things
• 7 Ways to Avoid Buying New Stuff
• On owning nothing

Another great guide to minimalism is a new ebook by Everett Bogue called “The Art of Being Minimalist.” I just read it and it’s excellent.

You might also enjoy these other blogs on minimalism: mnmlist links.
—
Potential Bloggers!
I’d like to let you know about my new blogging webinar — Blogging 101: How to Create a Blog that Rocks.

It’s aimed at absolute beginners, who want to create a professional blog but are overwhelmed with what to do. I’ll help you get started and navigate through all the confusing choices with some solid information I’ve learned, as well as other excellent bloggers.

The sign-up for the webinar has just opened up, and slots are limited, so sign up soon!

“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

This morning I found myself lying around, enjoying a lazy weekend with my wife and kids, basking in the peaceful simplicity of today.

It’s in these moments that I find not only my greatest happiness, but my purpose in life.

I am here not to achieve or even to change the world, but simply to live. Life is a gift, and I’m happy to accept every moment of it.

And so, in this spirit, I thought I’d dig through my archives and share a few favorite posts, to help others find this peace.

A lot of Zen Habits readers are new, and haven’t taken the time to peruse the 800+ posts I’ve written. Shame on you! :)

Here’s a good way to get started. If you want more, check out the Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits, or see the newly revamped Zen Habits archives for every post ever published here.

12 Classic Posts You Might Not Have Read
Don’t read these all at once:

1. Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment
2. The Four Laws of Simplicity, and How to Apply Them to Life
3. The Cure for What Ails You: How to Beat the Misery of Discontentment
4. 30 Things to Do to Keep From Getting Bored Out of Your Skull at Work
5. A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices
6. 9 Steps to Achieving Flow (and Happiness) in Your Work
7. 10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life
8. 15 Tips for Becoming as Patient as Job
9. 12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow
10. Calm as a Monk: How Equanimity Can Save Your Sanity
11. The Many Paths to Simplicity
12. The Magical Power of Focus

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~Lao Tzu

If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity.

For more than ten years I’ve operated a string of one-man businesses. My model is: keep it lean, hire no one, and outsource very little. I’ve made my share of mistakes (a long list!), but one thing has remained constant—I want to add extreme value to my customers, and I want to make a good living without simply creating a job for myself.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. Hire no one. My Unconventional Guides business took off in early 2009, and for a while I felt an internal pressure to hire some kind of virtual assistant—mostly because that’s what everyone in the internet world seems to advise these days. “Get someone to do the things you don’t want to do,” is how the idea is usually sold.

I finally realized that another answer to dealing with “the things you don’t want to do” is to just not worry about doing them at all. If I have to supervise someone else doing boring work, it’s not that different from doing it to begin with. The things are still on my mind one way or another. Therefore, it’s just me in the virtual shop, working from more than 20 countries a year.

2. Outsource very little. The conventional alternative to hiring employees is to outsource your life through overseas agencies or virtual assistants. But instead of outsourcing, you can just stop doing stuff. I don’t want employees, assistants, or clones in India to answer my email. I actually like hearing from my customers and don’t want to create a barricade between them and me.

3. Offer no customization. As Henry Ford famously said about his Model-T automobile, “They can have any color they want, as long as it’s black.” Once you start providing options, color, sizes, and so on, things get complicated. If you want to stay deliberately small, don’t customize.

(I also offer no shipping services, since everything I sell is digital. Therefore I have no need for inventory, trips to the post office, or worries about lost orders.)

4. Pursue a lot of opportunities, but don’t be afraid to cancel. Last year I developed four new products, but I almost developed two others. No one heard about them, because they ended up not being a good fit for the mission. Failing quickly is OK; dying a slow death is not. Don’t worry about what you’ve spent to get to the point where you are. In the words of Seth Godin, “The only cost that matters is the one in front of you.”

5. Offer more to the right people. Properly set up, the creative use of cross-selling and upselling can rock your business world. Most businesses earn much more money from existing customers than from new ones. When I first set up a very basic cross-sell – “Would you like fries with that?” – I increased sales by 23% immediately, without increasing the workload. Then I set up a simple upsell – “If you bought x, you’ll love y” – and increased sales a further 12%.

6. Set a clear, non-ambiguous goal. Most businesses have the goal of “maximizing shareholder value.” There’s nothing wrong with making money, but an unclear goal is hard to achieve. How will you know when shareholder value has been “maximized”?

Therefore, my goal is basic: happy customers who benefit from my work, and a good living for myself. I don’t need seven-figures or an overseas call center to achieve either of those objectives. Instead, I need to be able to travel and work from anywhere without worrying about money.

7. Provide the strongest possible guarantee, and stop worrying. I don’t mess around with guarantees. My Frequent Flyer guide guarantees that customers will receive at least one free plane ticket (25,000 miles) in exchange for $49, or I don’t get to keep their money. Everything else is guaranteed for life, or for as long as the bank that processes my Visa transactions will allow me.

Some people ask, With such a generous guarantee, what’s the refund rate? Answer: less than 1%.

But don’t people take advantage of you? Answer: most people are honest, so why worry about the dishonest ones? Life is too short.

8. Focus entirely on relationship building and cash flow. That’s it. This is what your very small business will live or die by, so avoid getting sidetracked by anything else. Relationship building activities include talking to customers and creating new products based on their feedback; cash flow activities include joint venture promotions, sales, and offers to existing customers.

9. Track two key metrics and ignore the rest. For my blog I want to know: how many new readers did we add today? For my business I want to know: what was the total revenue that came in today? Everything is evaluated according to those figures. At the end of the month I also quickly look at a few other metrics like visitor value, sales from affiliates, and a few social media stats. But it’s all very simple; it takes fifteen minutes to update monthly, and I ignore everything else.

As Zen Habits readers know well, you can often do more by doing less. What you give up is just as important as what you hang on to—and besides, choosing to be very small in business is fun.

Chris Guillebeau writes for a small army of remarkable people at The Art of Non-Conformity. Follow him on Twitter here.

—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I get asked a lot of questions, many of them repeatedly, and I figured instead of answering them all over and over, I’d compile my answers for everyone here.

Of course, there’s a lot more about me and this site on the About page, and I’d always love it if you checked out the Books page.

I hope you find this useful!

1. Why did you turn off comments on Zen Habits?
This has been the most difficult decision I’ve made since starting Zen Habits, as I truly loved comments here. I love hearing from readers, and it was my opinion that the comments often held better tips than the posts themselves. I learned (and still learn) a lot from my readers.

So why did I turn off comments? There was too much comment spam, resulting in huge headaches for me. Seriously, it took up a lot of my time — time I wanted to spend creating, or with my family. And the tiny minority of legitimate comments were mostly bloggers trying to get noticed — not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just don’t want to spend my life moderating spam for this reason alone.

Edit: Yes, I’ve tried several different software solutions for comment spam, and they don’t really solve the problem of humans leaving comment spam. Even things like Askimet (and numerous other such filters) and CAPTCHA let a lot of spam through. Trust me, I’ve done a lot of research, and when spammers are motivated, they’ll find a way through for a site with this kind of traffic.

People can still give me feedback via Twitter, and if I don’t always respond I do listen. Getting rid of comments has been regrettable, but they don’t scale, and it has brought peace to my life.

2. When and why are you moving to San Francisco?
We’re moving to San Francisco this summer – in late June 2010.

And we’re super excited.

We’ve bought our plane tickets but haven’t reserved a house or apartment yet. We’ll be living in the city, going carless.

We’re selling all our stuff but a handful of clothes and my laptop, and a few pieces of artwork. Read more about selling all our stuff on our “yardsale” site (if you don’t live on Guam, you can’t buy anything).

I know the burning question is why. The reasons are manifold, but here are a few:

• Guam will always be home, but we’d like to experience more of the world, and we’d love our kids to see more than this tiny little slice of life, however wonderful it is.
• San Francisco is one of my favorite places in the world – I lived there as a teen-ager, and I fell in love with it. It’s beautiful, the people are diverse and crazy and awesome, there’s no shortage of things for kids and teens and adults to do, the food is great, the weather is superb, and the areas around it are varied and gorgeous, from the California coastline to the mountains to the redwoods to wine country to Oregon to the north to Disneyland to the south (I know, but we have six kids, so.).
• As a blogger, I can work anywhere in the world, and I’d love to meet online blogging friends and readers in real life from time to time.
• As homeschooling parents, my wife and I want to expose our children to more opportunities to learn from the world around them. Guam is a great place for that, but San Francisco offers more. It’ll be an incredible learning experience for our kids.
• We hope to go carless, and San Francisco is a good place to do that, with muni and BART and a cycling friendly city and the ability to walk and things like Zipcar and City CarShare if we need them. Guam is a very bad place to go carless if you have kids.
• I’m vegan, and Guam is also a bad place for that. There’s exactly two vegan/vegetarian restaurants on Guam, and great as they are, I’d love to be in a place with more options. I can’t wait to try veggie restaurants in S.F., or at least restaurants with more veggie options than, you know, salad. Farmers markets and natural food co-ops and leftist bookshops and such are also attractive to a person like me. We also considered Portland and Eugene, OR as options, for these same reasons, but for complicated reasons S.F. is our choice.
• We have awesome family in the Bay Area, and I can’t wait to spend time with them. Seriously, other than the family I have here on Guam, the ones in S.F. are among the rockingest I have (well, there’s also the ones in Eugene and Austin and Vegas and Scottsdale and Chicago and a couple other places, but I digress).
• My oldest daughter will be a senior in high school next school year, and being in California will help her visit and apply to colleges and even establish residency should she decide to go to college in CA.
• I try to buy as little as possible, but when I do need to buy something, I prefer to buy used. Guam’s options for thrift and second-hand shops are, shall we say, limited.

Again, these are just a few. I could go on all day.

I love Guam, but it’s time for a change. We’ll always come back to Guam. We just want some new experiences, and we can’t wait.

I hope to see some of you there!

3. What’s your current workout/running routine?
At the moment, I run 3-4 times a week (training for a half marathon), and I go to the gym 3 times a week, and bike a couple times a week. You can see my training plan on this spreadsheet, but be aware that it changes from month to month, depending on my goals.

I like to mix things up. I don’t often train for races anymore, but I still love running. I’m trying to build a little muscle, which is why I’m lifting weights right now, but in a few months I’ll probably stick to bodyweight exercises and the like.

I’m riding my bike right now to get in better bike shape — I hope to make it my main form of transportation when I move to San Francisco.

I also eat fairly clean, about 90% of the time. You can take a look at my Daytum to see how often I’ve been eating clean this week. Diet has been the biggest part of my weight loss, actually — I’ve lost 30 lbs. in the last year on my Bellyfat Challenge.

4. Cool. But can’t you give us a sample of what you typically eat during a day?
Um, sure. But before I do that, a couple of caveats:

1. Obviously I don’t eat exactly the same thing every day. It varies.
2. I usually have a “cheat meal” each week, and sometimes two.
3. I don’t recommend my diet for everyone — pick the eating style that works for you, your goals, your health situation, etc.

That said, here’s a typical day (lately):

• 7 a.m. 1/2 cup cooked rolled organic oats w/ berries, raw almonds, cinnamon, raisins, ground flaxseed.
• 10 a.m. Unsweetened coconut flakes w/ berries, almonds, soymilk.
• 1 p.m. Quinoa, steamed veggies, and some kind of protein — usually black bean chili or lentil curry or a veggie burger.
• 4 p.m. Soy yogurt w/ almonds, berries, some other fruit, ground flaxseed.
• 7 p.m. Quinoa, steamed veggies, and some kind of protein — usually black bean chili or lentil curry or a veggie burger.

I don’t eat many grains other than the rolled oats (quinoa isn’t a grain). I am vegan. I get more than enough protein. This diet is about 400 cals per meal, or 2,000 cals daily — which will net me a 500-1000 cal deficit depending on exercise and activity during the day.

5. What time do you go to sleep/wake up?
This question arises as I’ve written in the past about waking up early and becoming an early riser. One thing to realize is that those posts were written in 2007, so things have changed in the last few years.

At various times in 2007, I was waking at 5:30 a.m., 5 a.m., 4:30 a.m., and 4 a.m. Part of that depended on where I was in my marathon training — when I was doing long runs, I’d wake up at 4 a.m. so that I could leave by 4:30 or 4:45 for a 2 or 2.5 hour run. On days when I wasn’t doing the long run, I’d use the extra time early in the morning to write my blog before I had to go to work.

Or sometimes I’d sleep in. And these days, I sleep in half the time, as I don’t have a day job so I can blog any time in the morning. I still get up early many days — 4:30 or 4:45 usually — but on other days I’ll sleep in until 6 or even 7 a.m. and let my body recover from the previous day’s workout.

When do I go to sleep? I prefer to go to sleep by 9:30 or 10 p.m., but my wife likes to watch a little late-night TV (not cable TV but one of our favorite shows on the Apple TV), and I stay up with her, usually until 10:30 p.m.

6. Can you provide a sample “schedule” of your day?
Hoo boy. That’s a bit difficult, as I don’t follow a set schedule anymore. I prefer to live moment by moment and go with the flow of life. That’s a bit vague for most of you, so here’s an attempt:

1. 4:45 to 6 a.m.: Wake up, have coffee, read. The time I wake depends on whether I’m going for a morning run.
2. 6 a.m.: Run (Mon, Wed, Fri and sometimes Saturday)
3. 7-9 or 10 a.m.: Write, do other most important tasks.
4. 10 a.m. to mid-afternoon: Smaller tasks, catch up on RSS feed reading, research various things I’m interested in (and will often blog about later). This really varies.
5. Late afternoon – evening: Spend time with kids. Sometimes get a gym workout in. Or read. Also varies from day to day.
6. Evening until 10 or 10:30 p.m.: Eat dinner, spend some time with wife and kids. Watch one of our favorite TV shows (The Office, Community, How I Met Your Mother, Mad Men, Lost, 30 Rock, not in that order). Once a week Eva and I will go on a date.

Again, this is a rough sketch, but in general:

• I go for runs early and do other exercise later in the afternoon.
• I write and do other important tasks next.
• I do less important stuff later.
• Always try to find time for Eva and the kids.

7. What happened to the Search function on Zen Habits?
I took it off as part of my simplification of this site’s design.

Update: I’ve now added an Archives page with a search function, so you can not only look through every old post easily, but search through all the Zen Habits articles using Google.

8. What theme are you using on Zen Habits? Is it available for download?
Zen Habits is running a modified version of Frugal theme for Wordpress. I’m working with Eric Hamm, the developer, to make a Zen Habits skin available for anyone who buys the theme.

9. What’s your story, buddy?
Hey there, friend! You can read my story here.

10. Can I use a post you’ve written here for my blog, my book, my magazine, etc.?
Yes, please do! Read my Uncopyright.

There is no need to email me for permission. You already have my blessing.

11. I’d like to do a guest post. What’s the deal there, buddy?
I don’t take guest posts. I run about a guest post a week, by invitation only, and at the moment I have enough for the next couple of months.

12. Why does Zen Habits have the word “Zen” in its title? Are you a Zen Master or Zen Buddhist?
No, I’m not. Read more about all of that here: Why Zen Habits.

13. How do I contact you via email?
I’m a bit of an email recluse, sorry. Here’s why I ditched my email inbox. You can always contact me via Twitter, though I don’t guarantee a response.

My focus is on creating, and spending time doing the things I love most. Email gets in the way of that.

14. But … I’d like to share my new book/blog post/product/seminar with you!
Thanks, but no. Please don’t ask me to promote your product, book, website, service, or blog post, or I will karate chop you to death.

15. Do you still wear Asics? Also, have you tried barefoot running?
Yep, still use Asics. Love em.

I’ve been trying barefoot running lately, a little at a time, at the recommendation of several readers. In fact, I ordered a pair of Vibram Fivefingers KSO and will be giving these a try. Basically, there have been a few studies done on barefoot running (including a couple of recent ones), but even those acknowledge that there are many questions and lots of other research needs to be done.

16. How can I follow Zen Habits? How can I thank you with a donation? Where else can I read your brilliant stuff?
OK, I’ll admit these aren’t really common questions, but hey, any opportunity for a shameless plug (or three), right?

I’d love it if you subscribed to Zen Habits via email or RSS subscription. It’s completely free (and always will be), and you get about three posts a week, all quality posts without the fat.

If you’d like to support Zen Habits, I’d love it if you bought my print book, The Power of Less, or one of my ebooks. Or you can make a donation if you have some extra cash lying around, Mr. Moneybags.

Other than my books, you can read more of my writing at my other blog, mnmlist, or little tips & brilliant insights on Twitter, or occasional thoughts on Zen Habits Offloaded, or links that I like to share on the Zen Habits tumblr. I also co-own and often contribute to Write To Done (for writers & bloggers) and Zen Family Habits. And then there’s my new site on changing habits: 6 Changes.

Other questions that I should add to this list? Ask via Twitter, & I’ll do my best to answer the most common ones. And feel free to share this post via Twitter.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Consider the above quote from Lao Tzu, (perhaps mythical) father of Taoism: how can it be true?

Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done?

It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy.

In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The winner is the person who has the most insane schedule, who rushes from one thing to the next with the energy of a hummingbird, because obviously that means he’s the most successful and important.

Right?

Maybe not. Maybe we’re playing the wrong game — we’ve been conditioned to believe that busier is better, but actually the speed of doing is not as important as what we focus on doing.

Maybe we’re going at the wrong speed. Maybe if we are constantly rushing, we will miss out on life itself. Let’s let go of the obsession with speed, and instead slow down, stop rushing, and enjoy life.

And still get everything done.

Let’s look at how.

A Change of Mindset
The most important step is a realization that life is better when you move at a slower, more relaxed pace, instead of hurrying and rushing and trying to cram too much into every day. Instead, get the most out of every moment.

Is a book better if you speed read it, or if you take your time and get lost in it?

Is a song better if you skim through it, or if you take the time to really listen?

Is food better if you cram it down your throat, or if you savor every bite and really appreciate the flavor?

Is your work better if you’re trying to do 10 things at once, or if you really pour yourself into one important task?

Is your time spent with a friend or loved one better if you have a rushed meeting interrupted by your emails and text messages, or if you can relax and really focus on the person?

Life as a whole is better if you go slowly, and take the time to savor it, appreciate every moment. That’s the simplest reason to slow down.

And so, you’ll need to change your mindset (if you’ve been stuck in a rushed mindset until now). To do this, make the simple admission that life is better when savored, that work is better with focus. Then make the commitment to give that a try, to take some of the steps below.

But I Can’t Change!
There will be some among you who will admit that it would be nice to slow down, but you just can’t do it … your job won’t allow it, or you’ll lose income if you don’t do as many projects, or living in the city makes it too difficult to go slowly. It’s a nice ideal if you’re living on a tropical island, or out in the country, or if you have a job that allows control of your schedule … but it’s not realistic for your life.

I say bullshit.

Take responsibility for your life. If your job forces you to rush, take control of it. Make changes in what you do, in how you work. Work with your boss to make changes if necessary. And if really necessary, you can eventually change jobs. You are responsible for your life.

If you live in a city where everyone rushes, realize that you don’t have to be like everyone else. You can be different. You can walk instead of driving in rush hour traffic. You can have fewer meetings. You can work on fewer but more important things. You can be on your iPhone or Blackberry less, and be disconnected sometimes. Your environment doesn’t control your life — you do.

I’m not going to tell you how to take responsibility for your life, but once you make the decision, the how will become apparent over time.

Tips for a Slower-Paced Life
I can’t give you a step-by-step guide to moving slower, but here are some things to consider and perhaps adopt, if they work for your life. Some things might require you to change some major things, but they can be done over time.

1. Do less. Cut back on your projects, on your task list, on how much you try to do each day. Focus not on quantity but quality. Pick 2-3 important things — or even just one important thing — and work on those first. Save smaller, routine tasks for later in the day, but give yourself time to focus. Read more.
2. Have fewer meetings. Meetings are usually a big waste of time. And they eat into your day, forcing you to squeeze the things you really need to do into small windows, and making you rush. Try to have blocks of time with no interruptions, so you don’t have to rush from one meeting to another.
3. Practice disconnecting. Have times when you turn off your devices and your email notifications and whatnot. Time with no phone calls, when you’re just creating, or when you’re just spending time with someone, or just reading a book, or just taking a walk, or just eating mindfully. You can even disconnect for (gasp!) an entire day, and you won’t be hurt. I promise.
4. Give yourself time to get ready and get there. If you’re constantly rushing to appointments or other places you have to be, it’s because you don’t allot enough time in your schedule for preparing and for traveling. Pad your schedule to allow time for this stuff. If you think it only takes you 10 minutes to get ready for work or a date, perhaps give yourself 30-45 minutes so you don’t have to shave in a rush or put on makeup in the car. If you think you can get there in 10 minutes, perhaps give yourself 2-3 times that amount so you can go at a leisurely pace and maybe even get there early.
5. Practice being comfortable with sitting, doing nothing. One thing I’ve noticed is that when people have to wait, they become impatient or uncomfortable. They want their mobile device or at least a magazine, because standing and waiting is either a waste of time or something they’re not used to doing without feeling self-conscious. Instead, try just sitting there, looking around, soaking in your surroundings. Try standing in line and just watching and listening to people around you. It takes practice, but after awhile, you’ll do it with a smile.
6. Realize that if it doesn’t get done, that’s OK. There’s always tomorrow. And yes, I know that’s a frustrating attitude for some of you who don’t like laziness or procrastination or living without firm deadlines, but it’s also reality. The world likely won’t end if you don’t get that task done today. Your boss might get mad, but the company won’t collapse and the life will inevitably go on. And the things that need to get done will.
7. Start to eliminate the unnecessary. When you do the important things with focus, without rush, there will be things that get pushed back, that don’t get done. And you need to ask yourself: how necessary are these things? What would happen if I stopped doing them? How can I eliminate them, delegate them, automate them?
8. Practice mindfulness. Simply learn to live in the present, rather than thinking so much about the future or the past. When you eat, fully appreciate your food. When you’re with someone, be with them fully. When you’re walking, appreciate your surroundings, no matter where you are. Read this for more, and also try The Mindfulist.
9. Slowly eliminate commitments. We’re overcommitted, which is why we’re rushing around so much. I don’t just mean with work — projects and meetings and the like. Parents have tons of things to do with and for their kids, and we overcommit our kids as well. Many of us have busy social lives, or civic commitments, or are coaching or playing on sports teams. We have classes and groups and hobbies. But in trying to cram so much into our lives, we’re actually deteriorating the quality of those lives. Slowly eliminate commitments — pick 4-5 essential ones, and realize that the rest, while nice or important, just don’t fit right now. Politely inform people, over time, that you don’t have time to stick to those commitments.

Try these things out. Life is better when unrushed. And given the fleeting nature of this life, why waste even a moment by rushing through it?

Remember the quote above: if nature can get everything done without rushing, so can you.
—

If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.
—
Read more about simplifying in my book, The Power of Less.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from best-selling author and top blogger Seth Godin, author of the new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?.

Why is it so difficult to ship?

Ship as in get it out the door. Ship as in make a difference at work. Ship as in contribute your art and vision and expertise and passion to the project you’re working on.

Regular readers of this blog (and of Leo’s life-changing book) have seen first hand what happens when you force the distractions out of your life and focus on what needs to be completed instead. What he has taught us is that when you focus your efforts and energies on things that matter and cut out the stalling and distractions, amazing things happen. It’s absolutely astonishing how much we can accomplish (and insanely disappointing how few people do).

What separates the few who ship from the masses who stumble, stall and ultimately surrender?

The resistance.

Steven Pressfield first wrote about the resistance a few years ago. The resistance is that little voice in the back of your head, the one that tells you that it will never work, the one that insists you check your email one last time, the one that worries that people will laugh at you.

The resistance loves committees and it hates a mission. The resistance creates fear and uncertainty, and it will do almost anything to keep you from being noticed. There’s a biological underpinning to the resistance–your amygdala. The amygdala is the pre-historic portion of your brain, located near the brain stem. It’s responsible for fear and anger and revenge and sex and survival. When the amygdala is aroused, when it feels threatened, when there’s a sense that people might actually laugh at you, it takes over. It rises up in rage and fear and shuts you down.

And so the resistance kicks in. The resistance goes to meetings and plays devil’s advocate (I didn’t know the devil needed an advocate.)

The resistance finds excuses, it makes tasks needlessly complex (or oversimplifies so much that you fail). The resistance uses phrases like, “see, I told you it would never work.” The resistance demands that you study the issue more, or grab a Diet Coke, or go visit those friends who are in from out of town and you won’t be able to see them unless you go right now. The resistance invented yak shaving. The resistance is also responsible for giving you an even better idea just before you finish this one… in fact, the resistance will do anything it can to prevent you from shipping.

Why do little companies get so much more out the door than big ones? Because big companies have committees, groups of people designed to protect the status quo, to prevent failure, to avoid catastrophe. The committee is made up of humans, each of whom is battling her own version of the resistance. “If this ships, my boss will see it, and I might get fired.” “If this ships, a kid might use it, cut of his finger and I might get in trouble.” “If this ships, people are going to think it was my idea, and there’s a chance, just a chance, they might hate it.” Most of all, “if this ships, people might laugh at me.” And so the committee shoots for the lowest common denominator of safety, a product or service or idea that arouses no one’s lizard brain. Which means mediocre. Or late. Or both.

The iPod came from two people, Steve and Jonathan. The Zune came from 250. Which product would you rather own?

The resistance sabotaged my work for years. It pushed me to focus on average topics, delivered in a blameless way, because that felt safer.

So, when others were starting search engines or revolutionizing the online world, I was busy creating sort of ordinary books for sort of ordinary editors who were looking for the next small thing. And no one scolded me for doing this. No one looked at my sort of average work and called me out on it, because they were fighting the very same resistance as I was. It’s surprisingly easy to get through life and make a career out of being average… the resistance would prefer it if you did.

The resistance is powerful, so powerful that all the shortcuts, time savers and focusing tools are powerless in its path. Now you know its name. Now you know how it sneaks in under the radar and sounds quite sensible as it undermines your work and compromises your vision. When the resistance appears, you must call it out. Call it by name. Recognize it for what it is and then defeat it. You will defeat it not by rationalization or even a calm discussion. You will defeat it with single-minded effort, effort so deep and dedicated that it might exhaust you.

Unfortunately, the web is filled with tips and tricks and lists that appear to help you in your quest to shut up the lizard, to defeat the resistance. I say unfortunately because these lists are calm, practical and ultimately ineffective. They are polite in the face of a nefarious enemy, they are rational in the face of screaming insecurity. None of them are working for you because you may not be serious about actually defeating the resistance. It’s fun to procrastinate and comforting to dissemble, because not shipping doesn’t arouse the lizard brain. It’s safe.

The challenge then, the missing link in the Zen Habits is this: you must quiet the lizard brain. You must defeat the resistance. You must find something SO IMPORTANT that it is worth enraging your prehistoric fears, SO IMPORTANT that you can’t sleep until it ships, SO IMPORTANT that yes, you are willing to go through all the hoops Leo lays out for you in order to ship.

Either that, or you could be mediocre instead.

Seth Godin is the author of a new book called Linchpin. It’s about recognizing, defeating and ultimately destroying the resistance on the path to doing work that matters. Read more about the book.
–
If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

OK, you’re going to want to take a deep breath before reading this post, but please, do read it.

Deep breath taken? OK, let’s get started!

First, Zen Habits has been nominated for the 2010 Bloggie Awards … which is a huge honor. I’m humbled.

I’m nominated in the “Best Topical Weblog” category, which as far as I can tell means, “We don’t know where else to put you.” It includes other great blogs, including Post Secret, which is kinda unfair as Post Secret rules. But just to be up for the same category as them is really flattering.

So, if you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate it if you went over to the site and voted … please vote for your other favorite blogs as there are a crapload of awesome ones.

Zen Habits Ebook Profits will Go to Haiti Relief
Next up, I’m a bit late in announcing this, simply because things are a little busy for me, but I’ve been wanting to do something to help with the ongoing tragedy in Haiti. So many people have contributed to the relief efforts that I can’t possibly measure up to what’s been done already … but I figure every little bit counts.

So, this is an announcement that for the next 30 days, every penny of sales of Zen Habits ebooks will go to Doctors Without Borders. I spent some time trying to pick the right organization to donate the money to, but there are so many good ones … I decided to just pick one semi-randomly.

So here are the ebooks:

1. Zen To Done.
2. The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.
3. The Zen Habits Handbook for Life.

If you haven’t bought any of these, this is a good chance to get a moderately priced ebook that I believe will be of value to you … and to help out a good cause at the same time. If you have bought them, they also make good gifts! :)

I’d also be happy to do a 60-90 minute (or so) webinar on changing habits, for a donation of $25 per attendee, with all donations going to Haiti relief, if people are interested. It would basically be me on streaming live video, answering questions on changing habits that you could ask by text chat. If you’re interested in this, let me know via Twitter. If I get 30 or more people say they’d pay $25 for this webinar, I’ll do it, and announce it later.

Leo’s Big Book Giveaway
So I’ve been meaning to give away a bunch of my used books for awhile now, and I figured I’ll just do it now.

These are books on my cherished bookshelf that I decided I love, but no longer want to keep. See my post on a minimalist approach to books for more.

These are mostly books on simplifying, living frugally, self-improvement, veganism and fitness (marathons, triathlons, etc.) that I’ve read and kept for reference. I’m giving them away, for free.

UPDATE: This book giveaway is now closed! Please don’t follow the instructions below.

If you’re interested in getting a free book from my shelf (you freeloader!), do one of the following:

1. Vote in the Bloggies.
2. Buy one of the ebooks mentioned above.
3. Tell friends about Zen Habits or The Power of Less – via email, Twitter, your blog, Facebook, or however you like.

Once you’ve done that, send me a tweet. The tweet should include the following info:

1. @zen_habits #bookgiveaway
2. What you did to enter (i.e. “voted” or “bought ebook” or “told friends” or “blogged”)
3. What books you’d like, ideally – although I don’t guarantee you’ll get them.

OK, if that’s not too complicated, let’s get to the list of books in the giveaway:

1. Simple Taoism – A Guide To Living In Balance, by C. Alexander Simpkins PH.D. & Annellen Simpkins PH.D.
2. The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff (awesome)
3. Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
4. George Sheehan on Running To Win (awesome)
5. Marathon – The Ultimate Training Guide, by Hal Higdon
6. The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, by Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover
7. Advanced Marathoning, by Pete Pfitzinger & Scott Douglas
8. Simplify Your Life with Kids, by Elaine St. James
9. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff … and it’s all small stuff, by Richard Carlson PH.D.
10. Your Money Or Your Life, by Joe Domiguez and Vicki Robin (an all-time great)
11. Ready For Anything – 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done, by David Allen
12. Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen
13. Simply Organized, by Connie Cox and Cris Evatt
14. The Te of Piglet, by Benjamin Hoff
15. Simple Living for Busy People
16. Keep Life Simple, by Karen Levine
17. The Simplicity Reader, by Elaine St. James (awesome)
18. Career Renegade, by Jonathan Fields
19. Time Management In An Instant, by Karen Leland & Keith Bailey
20. 30 Days To A Simpler Life, by Connie Cox and Cris Evatt
21. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, by Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey (one of my favorites!)
22. Vegan Freak – Being Vegan In A Non-Vegan World, by Bob Torres and Jenna Torres
23. Author 101 Bestselling Book Publicity – The Insider’s Guide to Promoting Your Book — and Yourself, by Rick Frishman and Robyn Spizman
24. 10,001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget, by Wisebread
25. Vegan With A Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (excellent cookbook)
26. Training Plans For Multisport Athletes, by Gale Bernhardt
27. The Triathlete’s Training Bible, by Joe Friel
28. Design Your Best Year Ever A Proven Formula for Achieving BIG GOALS, by Darren Hardy

After 4 days, I’ll randomly pick winners from everyone who entered, and then do another post on the winners and how to claim your book. UPDATE: The book giveaway is now closed!

Thanks everyone for your help, support, and encouragement! It means the world to me.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

I frequently tweet about my runs – including a gorgeous 8.5-mile run I did along the ocean this morning that just blew me away – and every time I do, I get asked running questions.

Today I thought I’d answer those questions, for a few reasons:

1. I love talking about running – and it’s your fault you got me started.
2. The more I can encourage others to enjoy this glorious pasttime, the better.
3. I’d love it if my passion for running could inspire others in some small way.

I should note that I am not an expert. I’m not even an advanced runner — aside from running track and cross country in high school, I’ve only been running steadily for the last 4 years. In that time I’ve done three marathons, a few half marathons, a couple of 20K races, a bunch of 10Ks and 5Ks and other road races, and have rarely missed a week.

Recently, even though I haven’t been training for races, I’ve run my best-ever 10K (44:30) and 5K (19:55), blowing away previous PRs done more than a year earlier. I’ve decided to run my first half-marathon in a year and a half – take a look at my training plan.

So take any advice I give with that in mind. And let’s dive into the questions!

Q: How do I get started running?

A: Slowly. Most beginner’s make the mistake of trying to go too long or too hard — being too ambitious. I did that, so I know. You think you can do more, so you do.

However, this is a mistake. You end up getting too sore (some soreness is normal at the beginning of any new activity) or worse, injured. Please, take it easy at first, I beg you.

If you’re out of shape, and especially if you’re pretty overweight (20-plus pounds or more), start by walking 20-30 minutes, a few times a week. After a few weeks of this, start doing some faster walking intervals — quick walking for a minute or two, alternated with slower walking.

If you feel you’re ready for running now, or if you’ve done the above walking routine for at least a month and are ready to incorporate running, I suggest run-walking. That’s warming up with walking for 5-10 minutes, then jogging for a minute or so, alternating with walking rest periods.

If you think you can run without the walking, do it for short periods at first — 10 minutes, then 12, then 15, and so on. Add some time every 2-3 runs, but don’t be too quick to add the distance. And don’t add faster paced running in yet.

The key principle is this: your body will adapt if you give it time. Start slowly, let your body adapt to that, then gradually gradually add time. Later, when you’re used to running (after a couple of months), you can add intensity.

You’ll be tempted to ignore this advice and be more ambitious. But listen to me, and you’ll have a much better experience with running.

Q: What’s the best way to motivate myself to run regularly?

A: Three things that work brilliantly for me:

1. Get a running partner. I can’t tell you how great this is. My partner is my sister Kat, who is a wonderful person to have a conversation with – I really look forward to our runs together. She’s pretty reliable too, and I make sure to wake myself up and head out the door on time to meet her so that I don’t stand her up in the dark. Find someone to meet up with, and you will rarely miss a run.

2. Make a rule: just lace up your shoes and get out the door. That’s all you have to do. The secret is – and don’t tell anyone I told you this – you’ll run once you get out the door. You don’t have to run long, but as long as you run a little, you’ll continue to build up the habit.

3. Focus on the enjoyment of it. Don’t focus on how hard it is, or you’ll never keep doing it. Think about the beauty in the surroundings as you run. Enjoy the quiet and solitude, or the conversation if you have a running partner. Use it for contemplation, for stress relief, for release.

Q: But I hate running! Why should I run?

A: If you really hate it, don’t do it. I’m not saying running is the best thing in the world, and that everyone should do it. No – instead, find an activity you really enjoy, like cycling or swimming or yoga or hiking or tennis or whatever.

Or, if you like, try starting out slowly, as I described above, and get a partner who you enjoy spending some time with. Running is very enjoyable if you don’t overdo it at first, and if you can have a great conversation while doing it.

Q: I’ve been running regularly, but how do I build up my long runs? I can’t run for more than a few miles (or maybe 5 miles).

A: If you’ve been running regularly, you might set your sights on a longer race, like a 10K or a half marathon or something like that. If so, the best way to do that is one long run a week.

Take note of that – don’t make all of your runs longer. If you’ve been running 3 miles a day (for example) 3-4 times a week, don’t suddenly make all your runs 4 miles. Just pick one day a week to go longer.

Gradually increase that long run by half a mile to a mile each week. But it’s not good to keep increasing without rest — so if you increase for 2-3 weeks straight, cut back on your long run one week before progressing the next. So, if your long run progresses each week like so: 3.5 miles, 4 miles, then 4.5 miles, take a cut-back week where you just do 3.5 miles on the fourth week. Then go back to 4.5 miles, then 5 miles, and so on. Cut back on every 4th week or so, or you will risk injury.

Another thing to note is if you’re increasing the duration of a run, cut back on the intensity. So do your long runs a little slower at first — later, when long runs aren’t a problem for you, you can do faster-paced ones, but that’s more of an intermediate/advanced tactic.

Q: I did a long run of 10-plus miles and chafed badly. Tips?

A: Yeah, that’s something every runner has to experience once. As you go past the 10-mile (or so) mark, you’ll feel things you’ve never felt on shorter runs: you’ll chafe in the crotch and nipples, which are not places most people like to have pain (with some possible exceptions among you).

It’s best to avoid this pain by using some kind of lubricant – Vaseline works well, or BodyGlide if you can find it, or in a pinch, if you’re a parent of a baby like I was when I was training for a marathon, diaper rash cream.

Apply the lubricant to the areas in your crotch that your running shorts touch. I use Band-Aids for my nipples. Or if you’re a male, run without a shirt for those longer runs. Females will want to also put lubricant around the edges of their sports bra.

Q: Any advice on running clothes and shoes?

A: Runners don’t have to buy a lot of equipment, but investing in good clothes and shoes is important.

Actual running clothes really help. If you’ve tried running in cotton, it’s uncomfortable – it can chafe, it’s heavy once you start sweating, and just doesn’t feel great after rubbing against your skin over and over. Running fabric is light, doesn’t chafe until you go over 10 miles, and magically wicks sweat away from your skin. This includes real running socks.

I’m not qualified to give advice on running shoes – go to an actual running shoe store if you can and get the advice of professionals, who can watch you run and tell you if you’re an over-pronator or a supinator or neutral or whatever. Failing that, do some reading online to figure out what kind of shoe you need. It’s important – wear the wrong kind of shoe for too long (months) and you can get an injury.

After that, it’s trial an error to find the brand that works best for you. I personally love Asics.

Q: What about pre- and post-run nutrition? What should I be eating and drinking before and after a run?

A: This is something runners worry too much about. Honestly, unless you’re doing a marathon, pre- and post-run nutrition isn’t that important.

I usually don’t eat anything before I run, even on runs of 8-10 miles. Even when I do sprints or hills. Sometimes I’ll have a banana or a handful of raisins.

For a run of 15-plus miles, you’ll want to get some carbs before and during and after the run, either in the form of a sports drink or gels, or some kind of easily-digested food like bananas or gummy bears.

After a run, I don’t worry about getting anything. It’s not that important unless, again, you did a really long run. After a half marathon race (or longer), it’s good to get some carbs and protein. Chocolate milk is perfect for this.

If I’m really hungry after a run, I’ll eat. My favorite breakfast is oatmeal with nuts and berries and flaxseed.

As for hydration, it’s important, especially for longer runs. I always, always have a glass of water when I wake up, before I run. I usually don’t need to hydrate during a run unless it’s 10 miles or longer. Hydrate immediately after a run. You normally only need water.

Q: I heard steady-state cardio isn’t that healthy for you. Does it erode your muscles or something?

A: It’s healthy. Most people into fitness who bag on “cardio” or endurance running just had bad experiences with it. They would rather do weight training or shorter, intense workouts, and that’s fine.

But they usually say running is not that healthy because they see fat people on treadmills who never get any fitter. That might or might not be true — are they sure it’s the same fat people, month after month? – but even if it is, it’s probably because of diet. Those people are on the treadmill but are eating junk food.

Studies have shown that running improves health, time and time again. Sure, evidence shows that while you’re running a marathon, you’re at higher risk of things like heart attacks, but … duh. You’re putting yourself under a lot of stress, and you should be sure you’re pretty healthy before attempting a marathon. Also, after a marathon, you’re at higher risk of a cold, because of a weakened immune system. But regular running actually improves your immunity, as long as you’re not taxing your system as much as a marathon.

Some people worry about losing muscle because of running – mostly because they look at marathon runners like the Kenyans and think that means running will make you skinny. This isn’t something to worry about unless you run as much as the Kenyans do – 100-plus miles a week. For the casual runner, your body won’t make adaptations this extreme.

To save muscle, be sure to do resistance training with weights. I do weights three times a week, but I think twice a week would be sufficient. I recommend basic compound lifts, going heavy once you’ve gotten used to them: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, lunges, pullups, dips.

Strength training helps running, in my experience. Since getting stronger, I’ve been running better than ever, despite minimal running training.

Q: How can I stop from getting shin splints? Or other injuries?

A: I’ve been lucky to have been running injury-free for most of the last four years, with a couple of exceptions (a twisted ankle once, pain in my heel during my first marathon training, back injuries a couple times from weight training).

Shin splints usually happen to beginners, and it’s usually just your body not adjusting quickly enough to the demands you’re placing on it by running so much. The answer is almost always rest. Rest a few days, or a week, and start again slowly. If you still have pain, rest a little longer. Don’t overdo it when you return.

Most other running injuries are a result of overuse, in my experience. Meaning, you’re running too much, or you’ve added too much running too quickly. Our bodies need time to adapt, and even if we give it adequate time, every person’s body has its limits.

The answer for most injuries is just rest, and when you return, to cut back on volume of training.

Some injuries are the result of using the wrong kind of shoes, in which case it’s probably smart to get a professional to look at you – either to get the injury treated or to get the right kind of shoe. I’m no doctor, though, so don’t take my word on injuries.

Q: Should I only do steady-state runs? Or should I mix it up somehow?

A: If you’re just starting out, just start with regular running – don’t add intervals or other challenges in yet. Your goal is to let your body adapt to the basic activity of running, and you should do that gradually.

But after you’re past that stage, you’ll definitely want to mix it up. There are too many ways to mix things up than I can mention, but to name a few: long runs, sprint intervals, longer intervals, hill runs, hill repeats, tempo runs, tempo intervals, faster-paced long runs, fartleks, and more. I’ve done all of these and love them all.

I recommend you add these different types of runs into your training one at a time, and that you go easy at first. Adding intensity needs to be done with caution – if you do intervals, for example, don’t do them all out at first. Just do them at a lower intensity, and after a few weeks, increase intensity a bit, until your body is used to them.

What kinds of runs you add into your training depends on your goals. Longer runs build endurance for longer races. Hills help you build strength. The other runs add intensity for various goals – increased VO2 max, the ability to run faster for longer, and so on. I’m not going to outline a pace or plan – that’s what online running sites are for. :)

Q: Any recommendations for reading about running?

A: There’s so many good ones out there that I can’t be comprehensive. But I’ll name a few to get you started.

Any books by Hal Higdon or Jeff Galloway are good for beginners. Once you’re into the intermediate phase, I recommend The Competitive Runner’s Handbook by Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover. For intermediate to advanced marathoners, you can’t do better than Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger/Douglas, though be warned this is not an easy plan.

My favorite running philosopher is George Sheehan, and you must read Running To Win, no matter what your level.

Runner’s World magazine, website and forums are great, though the tips can get repetitive once you’ve read them for awhile. I also like coolrunning, completerunning and a bunch of other blogs (like Mark’s).

Q: What about a good diet for runners?

A: I don’t buy that runners need a special diet or need to eat anything other than what’s healthy for most people: real, whole foods. Some people think runners need a huge amount of refined carbs, like pasta, but this is a myth based on the idea of carbo-loading for marathons or other longer endurance events. If you’re not doing a marathon, you don’t need to carbo load, and you don’t need sports drinks either.

If you’re running, you can eat a little more calories than most people, but it’s not an excuse to pig out. And if you’re trying to lose weight by running, you might actually eat more if you get really hungry from your runs. I would resist the urge to eat more if you’re trying to lose weight. Eat moderately, and don’t think you can pound down those donuts just because you did a 3-mile run. You’ll gain weight this way.

A better plan is to eat a nutritious diet of real foods: whole grains if you’re going to eat grains (whole oats, sprouted grains are my favs), lots of fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, beans, and if you’re not vegetarian or vegan, lean meats and dairy. My diet has limited grains (basically just oats), seeds like quinoa, beans and nuts, lots of fruits and veggies, and some soy (tofu, soymilk) but not too much.

On a diet like this, you’ll be healthy, and adding in an activity like running will only make you healthier. Like I said, I’ve been running better than ever on this diet, losing weight, and feeling great.

Q: Does continuous jogging help in reducing weight?

A: Yes, it can help. It’s not a silver bullet, though — jogging won’t cause you to lose your gut overnight.

Losing weight is simply burning more calories than you eat, over a good period of time. Not a week or two, but more likely a few months or a year or more. As running burns a good amount of calories, it’ll help you get into a caloric deficit, especially as you increase your endurance and can run for a longer time.

There’s a school of thought, especially in weightlifting circles, that sprinting intervals is better for burning fat. And if your workout time is very limited, this is true — if you can only work out for 20 minutes, you’ll burn more calories sprinting or doing some other intense exercise rather than just steady-state running (or jogging). There are a couple of problems with that thinking, though:

1) sprinting is very intense, so if you’re not in good shape it’s not smart to just start sprinting;
2) the intensity of sprinting means you need more time to recover — so you shouldn’t do it too often, and if you try to do it every day (or even every other day) you’re risking burnout or injury;
3) sprinting can’t be done for very long — it’s usually limited to about 20 minutes or so (otherwise you’re probably not really sprinting), so the amount of calories you burn are limited — while you can run at medium intensity for much longer, meaning you can burn many, many more calories running instead of sprinting, and thus burn more fat.

That said, I think sprint intervals are a great compliment to any running or fitness program, as long as you don’t overdo it.

Back to the original question about weight loss: the biggest component of weight loss is really diet. You can burn 600 calories in an hour of running, but you can easily eat 2-3 times that much (or more) at a restaurant in one sitting. So if you don’t control your diet, almost no amount of running will help you lose weight.

Have more running questions for me? Ask me on Twitter, and I’ll try to add some of my answers to this post.

—
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Thanks, my friends.