Review: Zen to Done

Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts that highlight some of the books and other resources that I've found helpful in learning to manage my time and energy. This one was recommended to me by my sister-in-law, and I've decided to highlight it first because I think it's an amazing place to start if you're feeling overwhelmed.

Zen to Done is written by Leo Babauta, who is well-known in the world of minimalism, but you don't have to be a hardline minimalist to appreciate this book. As described on Babauta's website, Zen To Done, or ZTD, is a response to the Getting Things Done productivity method, with a more streamlined approach.

ZTD is a series of ten habits, which you progress through in a linear fashion, focusing on just one habit at a time. This is the part of ZTD that I think is the most compelling and effective, and the first four habits especially do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to getting your life in order and freeing up time and mental space.

​Ironically, when I first read this, I found ZTD to get a little over-complicated as you work your way into it, but I think that maybe I didn't quite understand how to incorporate the final few habits into my life in a way that felt natural. Now, looking back at these habits a few years later, they all seem very clear to me. But that's just part of the process -- I took what I really needed from it at the time, and it helped me. Now, I've found my own way to a lot of the later habits.

The habits are as follows, with much-abbreviated descriptions of them and a longer focus on the first four. I do recommend getting the book if this sounds interesting to you, as it's full of useful resources.

Habit 1: collect
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This is something I talk about a lot in my workshop series: have a very small number of designated places to put incoming information. This can mean digital files, paper files, thoughts and ideas, digital communication, etc. Let's assume for now that you can pick one place (a folder, a drawer, a tray) to put incoming paper and focus on the rest: all that mental clutter. I strongly recommend picking two places to store that information, one of which is easy to have with you at all times. Think about what needs those two places will serve.

For me, I like to have a digital option and an analog option. So I use my bullet journal, which I carry with me most places, and my Notion account, which I can access from my computer or my phone, thereby nearly guaranteeing I will always have one inbox with me at all times. Before I used Notion, I created a special filter in my gmail inbox that sent anything from my own email address with the subject line "note to self" in a specific folder. I knew that any random thought I had that I wanted to save for later would end up in there, as it was easy to just write myself an email and send it along.
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The most important part of this habit is that you use your inboxes. Put everything in there. Tasks that pop into your head, musings you have about a project you're working on, reminders about upcoming events. The idea is to clear out all that mental clutter you're trying to store in your brain. Outsource it to your two inboxes.

Habit 2: process

​Now that you have a swarm of thoughts and to-dos and whatever else happens to pop into your brain all stored in an external location or two, what do you do with it? You take a little time each day (or a few times a day -- I check in when I start my workday, at noon, and at the end of the workday) and clear out that inbox. That doesn't mean you need to do everything in it at that time. You can delegate things, put them on your calendar or in a longer term plan, but get them out of the inbox. The inbox is ephemeral... it's just a holding site for things that need to be out of your brain but don't have a location yet.

Habit 3: plan

This one is essential. Those of us with massive to do lists will relate to the feeling of drowning as soon as we look at the list. This habit asks that as you sit down to work every day, you focus on what you really need to do (hint: urgent-important matrices can really help with this process) and pick just a few things to prioritize that day. The recommendation is to pick your most important tasks (Babauta abbreviates this as M.I.T) for the week, and each day to select one to three of these tasks. These are the big things--not the quick emails that can get fired off later in the day when you're tired. These are things that are truly important to you, that will move your work forward in a significant way. For me this fall, these alternate between writing lesson plans, digging into data analysis on one research project, and doing the necessary reading and early investigative work on a new research project.

​Habit 4: focus

So pick one to three of these tasks in the morning. Start small -- start with one. And then close your email. Put your phone away. Set a timer. Start working. If you get distracted, use one of your inboxes to write down whatever thought distracted you. You will come back to it later: you've already nailed the collect and process habits, after all!

Habits 5-10

• Simple trusted system: have context lists for different areas of life, and make sure you check them daily. Don't overcomplicate the system: pare down to the most essential.
• Organize: apply the inbox principle to everything else. Use your context lists and your inboxes appropriately. Have one designated place for everything (physical and digital) in your life, so you always know exactly where to look. (Note: I find that this combines naturally with the previous habit, and I tend to treat them as one and the same, but you may find the separation useful).
• Review: ZTD recommends a weekly review where you check in with how you are doing and set goals for the next week. I, personally, do a very quick daily (how did I do today, did I set appropriate goals, etc) and then a much longer monthly review (see this blog post for more detail on reviews).
• Simplify: pare down your goals and tasks to just the most essential ones (again, I find this sort of belongs with habits 5 and 6 in practice, but is a really useful thing to ask yourself during your review process of habit 7).
• Routine: create natural structure where you can. Find ways to make things automatic. I, personally, struggle with routine becoming boring and have learned that making it more mindful (a ritual instead of a routine) helps me feel more grounded and makes it easier to let go of things that aren't working for me.
• Find your passion: this one feels not at all like a habit to me, and I see it as the overarching why behind this entire process. We have limited time and energy, so why spend it on things that aren't enriching our lives in some way? Establishing healthy time habits can help us return to our passions, or just give us the space to discover them.

There is so much to learn from all the habits. I find, though, that habits 5-10 are the kind that take time to work your way into. I've iterated on versions of them many times over the years, and I would recommend that if you want to use this method, you really focus on getting so confident on habits 1-4 that they become second nature before you worry too much about the other habits. 

One of the biggest pitfalls of organizational programs is that--especially for people like me that love a good system--it's so easy to get distracted by the flashy parts and try to jump ahead and skip the essential (maybe a little boring) parts that actually make it all work. It doesn't really matter if you do a weekly or monthly review (habit 7, also a topic of a previous post) if you can't get your days under control. Focus on doing the work, freeing up space to allow for that higher-level structure. Give yourself at least a few months on the first four habits before you move on, and then when you find life creeping back in, narrow your focus again to the first four habits until your mind clears a little again.

Just like anything, Zen To Done is not a quick fix. It's not a one-and-done. But if you give it the time, it will guide you to cultivating the kind of simple, effective habits that you can keep returning to when life gets overwhelming.

I hope this review was helpful, and I'd love to hear from you. Have you read Zen To Done? Do you have any favorite tips or tricks from the book? Or maybe you're brand new to this -- try it out and let me know how it goes!