Zen to Done (ZTD) is an ebook by Leo Babuata of Zen Habits. It’s a step-by-step guide to internalising a productivity system based on David Allen’s classic book, Getting Things Done (GTD). The idea is that although GTD is a good system, for many people it’s just too much, and people often burn out early before adopting the system as a whole. ZTD gets around this by breaking the system down into habits, which are added in month-by-month. I’m currently on month 3.
Month 2 Review (Process)
Last month’s task was fairly simple – empty your inbox every day. There were specific instructions for how to do this which I mention in last month’s article. So did I do this every day? No way. Every few days probably, but definitely not every day. There was even a period of about a week where I didn’t do much of anything, as though time was on fast forward.
Don’t know what happened there, but I realise that this is an important habit to get on top of. Psychologically, I find it easier to work when the inbox is empty. If there’s something in it, it’s very difficult to concentrate on other tasks. It’s right next to my monitor, so all the time it’s gnawing at me. When it’s empty, I don’t have that feeling that there’s a backlog of things to do. Even though there might actually be a lot of things to do, I know that if they are not in the inbox they are on a calendar or a list somewhere, so I won’t forget them.
Plus processing the inbox is a good way to start the day, you feel like you’ve got something done straight away. I did notice that my ‘collecting‘ slowed down this month, so I think it’s good to remember the previous habits when moving on to the next month, because it will probably take some time before they all become automatic.
Month 3 – Plan
In the Process month, anything in the inbox that is actionable but takes longer than 2 minutes goes onto a list. As this is a step-by-step learning process, you’re pretty much left to your own devices in terms of what to do with these lists. Month 3 – Plan – explains how to deal with a long to do list.
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There’s two ways you can go with this. The first is to be more intuitive and spontaneous, just look at the list and pick something. This is basically what GTD suggests. The other way is to plan and structure more, this is what ZTD suggests, although Leo mentions to use whichever method works for you.
Technically, I prefer the unstructured approach. I like to have free calendars and no plans, then just decide what to do on the day. The only problem is, I don’t do it very well. I have to plan things out, at least loosely, to have any chance of getting things done. “This one Monday, these two things Tuesday”, etc.
For example, I originally wanted to make this site a broad self-help site, with information on all kinds of areas, like psychology, health, fitness, finances, and so on, and get guest writers for the topics I didn’t know about. But, I decided this would be a stretch too far, and I’d just focus on two of these areas – psychology and health, on separate sites. So a while back I bought http://generallyhealth.com, and made a list of tasks to get it going (imaginative name, I know). And it sat there for quite a while, doing nothing. But then I planned some things out – Monday, find a template, Tuesday, make a contact form, etc, suddenly things started to get done. (I’m taking it slowly with that site, I plan to add content slowly and gradually on the side.)
So here’s how ZTD explains how to create a plan using your lists.
- Big Rocks. At the beginning of the week, you identify up to six “Big Rocks” – these are the major things you want to get done that week. Last week for example, I chose to finish off the beauty article (and believe me, that article was more like a boulder than a rock), clean my entire place top to bottom, and make a new workout routine.
- Schedule. You put the Big Rocks into your schedule first, the idea being that otherwise, other tasks will fill it up and there’s no room for the Big Rocks. Mark out blocks for them, of 1-2 hours.
- MITs. Each day, look at your lists and decide what the three Most Important Tasks (MITs) are for that day. If there’s a Big Rock on that day, obviously it will become one of your MITs for that day. Block out time for the MITs straight away, first thing in the day (or as soon as you can). Then do them – don’t check email or your ebay listings or facebook until one of them is done. The idea is to set the pace for the rest of the day. When the first one’s done, you move on to the next MIT, then the final one.
I think there may be certain pursuits that aren’t compatible with this sort of planning. Such as music – I never got anywhere by planning music, one day learn a scale, another day some chords. I preferred to just learn whatever I was in the mood for learning that day. But I think this sort of planning is perfect for a business endeavour, or studying; anything where there’s a load of little tasks that need doing at specific times or in a specific order.
Making Plans
The question turns to where and how to keep your lists and your MITs and so on for each day. Paper works fine, of course, but I’ve been using GTDAgenda for that purpose. It’s an online organisation website, you put your tasks and your lists up and manage them online, and it emails you your next tasks every morning. I’ve tried a few of these programs in the past, and I’ve never found a computerised system I liked; but this one I do. I’ll write a proper review of it later, after I’ve given it more use, but I definitely recommend it if you’re in the market for such a thing (there’s a free version). Check it out here.
So far the ZTD system is working well. It’s a low pressure, no stress, one thing at a time approach, which suits me. Hopefully it will make the habits last longer too. If you’re interested, you can get ZTD here – it’s under $10 at the time I write this.
Image: Day 092/366 – To Do List by Great Beyond.
I have read ALOT of books on procratination from many different schools of psychology and, though not specifically targeted as a overcoming procrastination style book ‘Zen To Done’ is the one book I wish I had read first.
Clear, concise and has an actual workable structure broken down into steps a monkey couldn’t make excuse to not be able to follow. Really does help you get things done.
Thanks for the heads up. I doubt I would have come across it otherwise. Great book.
Glad it was useful Mohinder! I like the principle of learning one tiny part of it per month until it’s a habit. It doesn’t feel like learning a big system, because by the time you get to the next step your pretty much doing the previous one on autopilot.
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