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Zen To Done

December 26, 2007 /

I have posted about Task management my way – pen and paper which gives me the basic tools and a simple system. What I needed in order to achieve my own goals was a philosophy that works for me. I have tried GTD but found it too complex for my needs. Then I came across ‘Zen To Done: The Simple Productivity E-Book!‘ written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and that e-book suits me perfect.

Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more.

As simple as possible is what I was looking for. Zen To Done (ZTD) has a focus on doing, here and now, more than on planning or on the system. ZTD focuses on simplifying which is in line with my pen and paper solution.

Zen To Done is a set of ten habits that will help you get organized, simplify your life, get things under control and, last but not least, actually get things done. You can pick those habits out of the ten that will work for you. To really master a new habit, and to make it stick, focus on few (1-3) at a time and work on them for a month.

Each of the ten habits has its own chapter in the e-book, here is just a brief list.

  1. Collect tasks, ideas, projects etc. Write them down and later add them to your to-do lists.
  2. Process your inboxes. I need to work on that.
  3. Plan for a week ahead, focus on MIT (Most Important Tasks) or “Big Rocks”.
  4. Do, one task at a time. Finish them!
  5. Simple trusted system. No complicated system and do not keep on trying out new tools.
  6. Organize, have a place for everything. And put it there right away!
  7. Review your system and goals weekly.
  8. Simplify and eliminate. Reduce your goals and tasks to the essentials.
  9. Routine, set and keep routines.
  10. Find your passion. Seek work for which you are passionate, passion gives energy.

I already worked on habit one, three, four, five and seven before I came across ZTD. And I have touched on habit eight, Turning 2008 into 80-20. Now I have to set those habits which take me about halfways in the ZTD and then start working on the other habits.

If ten new habits sounds far too much there is a minimalist version of ZTD, the first four habits. Set those and you have achieved a lot.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Meditation for Beginners

December 26, 2007 /

ZenHabits has a guest post titled Meditation for Beginners: 20 Practical Tips for Quieting the Mind.

Although a great number of people try meditation at some point in their lives, a small percentage actually stick with it for the long-term. This is unfortunate, and a possible reason is that many beginners do not begin with a mindset needed to make the practice sustainable.

I do meditations on an irregular basis but intend to be more consistent during 2008 and do it on a regular basis. That is where the post above comes in handy since it provides 20 practical recommendations to help beginners (and us that got stuck…) get past the initial hurdles and integrate meditation over the long term.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Way Of The Peaceful Warrior

December 26, 2007 /

I was recommended to watch the Peaceful Warrior movie (IMDB) which has a site of its own at The Peaceful Warrior. The plot can be found at Wikipedia.

I decided to instead get the book the movie is based on, “Way Of The Peaceful Warrior”. The author Dan Millman is a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor and college professor.

Blending fact and fiction, the story relates an odyssey into realms of light and shadow, romance, and mystery. Guided by an eccentric old warrior named Socrates, drawn to an elusive young woman called Joy, Dan moves toward a final confrontation that will deliver or destroy him.

This classic tale, told with heart and humor, speaks to the peaceful warrior in each of us, moving readers to laughter and tears — even to moments of illumination — as they rediscover life’s larger meaning and purpose. Join Dan on the peaceful warrior’s path. Find out why this book has changed lives.

I picked some quotes from the FAQ-section at Dan’s website that are relevant to my comments:

Life, literature and film overflow with such pairings (a struggling student and mysterious mentor): Arthur had Merlin, Frodo had Gandalf; Mitch had Morrie; Luke Skywalker had Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda. And I had my Socrates.

According to an old proverb, “Art is a lie that helps us see the truth.”

The student – mentor setup is great, the focus is on the life of Dan the student with Socrates the mentor there to help in the spiritual process. I like the book for its spiritual teachings, they are similar to what I have learned from my mentors. But I would have preferred less fiction, sometimes Socrates gets ‘superhero’ abilities and that is strange to me. Still, the book is well worth reading and gave me some new insights.

I have picked some quotes from the book, pieces that stuck with me.

  • Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you.
  • You do not see your prison because its bars are invisible.
  • To rid yourself of old patterns, focus all your energy not on struggling with the old but on building the new.
  • Once you make your choice, do it with all your spirit.
  • Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, action and consequence, then making a choice.
  • You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires. (Get more money or simplify life.)
  • It does not matter what you do, only how well you do it.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Money for nothing

December 24, 2007 /

Seth Godin has published a free e-book titled ‘Money for nothing (and your clicks for free)’. Quotes from his post:

There’s an enormous amount of superstition about what makes some pages rank high while others languish. When you look at the actual figures, though, much of that fades away.

It turns out that the new playing field enforced by the search engines is eliminating many of the shortcuts that used to be effective. In other words, the best way is the long way.

The long way is to create content that is updated, unique and useful.

Those three U’s are not that simple. Useful and updated are the easy ones, unique is a different issue. The e-book is short but food for thought and includes links that shows more about what Seth means.

Read Seth’s post.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

How to write well

December 18, 2007 /

It is a bold title but I have gathered links around this for a while and add some of my own comments along the way.

Brian Clark at Copyblogger writes about Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well which actually are four of Hemingway’s and one of Brian’s. Rule number one, Use short sentences, is worth keeping in mind. It does make the text more reader-friendly.

Skellie posts about “Little Words, Big Meaning”, your writing can be short (under 200 words) and still meaningful. I like shorter posts, if you got much to say about a topic then why not create a series of posts instead of one long.

Sarah Lewis at Blogging Expertise writes about “Four tips for structuring your blog articles”. Her fourth rule is what Hemingway said, Keep your Sentences Short. The other three are about making the post easier to read, web is different from paper.

Sarah Lewis also writes about “What makes a good blog post?”. I do not think all posts need to be laser-focused but I agree on linking to relevant information. For me that is added value, it gives more information if I want to go there.

Brian Clark at Copyblogger has a post about Three Ways to Spice Up Any Blog Post. I think the final comment, Develop a Distinctive Voice, is important. Confidence in your own style might not be asy to find but

While you’ll always want to keep pushing your boundaries, a writer who is comfortable and confident in her own style naturally ends up an effective writer.

Joanna Young at Confident Writing writes about How to be a total reader magnet: pulling the readers that you want. Guess what, short sentences are mentioned here too.

Skellie posts over at DailyBlogTips about 10 Tips for Writing Bookmarkable Content.

Michael Martin at Pro Blog Design lists 30 Ways to Improve Readability. The list is a mix of design tips at blog level and tips that are relevant to posts.

I round it off with Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever from Daily Blog Tips.

See more in How to write well part 2.

This was originally posted at another (now extinct) blog of mine.

Turning 2008 into 80-20

December 17, 2007 /

I know we are in the middle of December but with holidays coming up there are not that many workdays left of 2007. Which means I take a shoot at what I intend to do next year, and how.

Chris Garrett posted about The 80/20 Rule of Effort. It is about summing up 2007 and looking forward into 2008. Chris writes:

One conclusion I have to draw from this year that I will take into the next is how I have squandered my time.

Squander (waste; spend thoughtlessly; throw away) is a harsh word but I am guilty of the same with some of my time. It could have been used better and that is where the 80-20-rule comes in. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) states that, for many phenomena, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the efforts. In other words, find the 20% of your work that really makes a difference and cut down on the other 80%.

Benjamin On WOWNDADI posts 10 Tips To Gain You a Better 08. That is a great list and I will comment on some of them.

1. Set good goals.
This is important and so is to follow up on them, are we heading in the right direction and in the desired speed?

2. Quit stuff.
This is where 80-20 can help us, we can quit more than we think and spend that time on our core issues instead.

6. Commit to learning something new.
I believe in life long learning so this is a must for me.

And what do I intend to focus on during 2008?
I recently finished a course and became a professional coach. Coaching is my baby for next year and where most of my efforts will be focused.

I will set off time for my blogging efforts with the intention to post regularly at my three main blogs. The fourth one, doodling, is for fun and requires no set schedule.

On a more personal level I intend to enjoy life, be in the here and now.

Additional reading about the Pareto principle:

This was originally posted at Forty Plus Two, another blog of mine.

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