zenhabits
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Zen Habits is about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness.
zenhabits
6d ago
By Leo Babauta
On average, people spend more than 3 hours on their phones each day, picking up their phones nearly 60 times a day … with some people spending closer to 4 hours.
These numbers aren’t meant to be judgments — it’s not a bad thing to look at your phone — but instead are meant to bring some awareness to our phone usage.
A lot of people I talk to want to decrease their usage of phones — not necessarily decreasing to zero, but decreasing impulsive usage of their phones.
Many of us tend to grab our phones anytime there’s a lull, and once you get on your phone it can lead to mindless sc ..read more
zenhabits
3w ago
By Leo Babauta
Developing a strong sense of self is one of the most under-appreciated ways to be happy. To have healthy relationships, with others and with yourself.
It’s not often understood, and as a result, problems in this area cause problems in all areas of our lives.
Let me point out just some of the common symptoms of an under-developed sense of self:
People pleasing
Conflict avoidance
Not being honest about how you feel
Losing yourself in a relationship
Distancing yourself from your partner when you’re afraid
Hiding things, cheating on your partner
Not being able to take care of your ..read more
zenhabits
1M ago
By Leo Babauta
My wife Eva and I have been vegan for over 11 years now, and we love it. I don’t talk about veganism a lot on Zen Habits, but today I’d love to share a little about it, if you’ll indulge me.
Let me start by talking about why I’m vegan, and then I’ll share a few tips on how to make becoming vegan as easy as possible, in case you’re interested.
So the first thing is that veganism, for me, is about compassion. Yes, it has a huge environmental impact — probably bigger than anything else you can do, including ditching a car or going electric vehicle. Yes, switching to eating plants c ..read more
zenhabits
1M ago
By Leo Babauta
When we are procrastinating, avoiding exercise or some other habit we want to create, or avoiding taking on a difficult project … the underlying cause is rarely what we think it is.
We think that all we need to do is do the thing we’re avoiding, and stop procrastinating. Simple! But then when we fail, we wonder what’s wrong with us.
The problem is that we aren’t really addressing the real cause. We’re addressing the symptom, and while there are tactics that can help with the symptom, they rarely last for very long.
So what causes our avoidance? An underlying emotional current. S ..read more
zenhabits
2M ago
By Leo Babauta
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
― Rumi
There’s rarely a moment in the day when most of us stop moving and stop the noise. For most of us, we’re working, we’re moving, we’re driving, we’re listening to things on our headphones, we’re watching things, we’re filling up the little spaces by checking our phones.
This isn’t wrong — it’s a very human tendency to want to be busy, productive, filling every space with something useful or entertaining.
But what if we could let ourselves become quiet?
What happens is something magical: we start to discover a n ..read more
zenhabits
2M ago
By Leo Babauta
The last couple of months, things have piled up on me: emails, tasks, random notes, a bunch of browser tabs with things I’m interested or need to do, financial stuff, etc.
For the past week, I’ve been allowing myself the joys of getting organized. It’s beautiful, and I just had to share with you.
Let me say a few things first: you don’t need to be organized all the time, or at all. This isn’t a “should” to add to your list of things you’re not doing. Also, there isn’t one way to do this, and my way isn’t the “right” way. Finally, this is about joy, not torture.
How can getting o ..read more
zenhabits
2M ago
By Leo Babauta
How many days do you wake up excited for life, stoked to be alive and take on the day’s challenges?
If your answer is “often,” then congratulations! That’s an amazing way to live life — but you’re in the minority.
Most people are unenthusiastic about their lives, not looking forward to what the day has in store. That’s not a bad thing — if that’s how you’re feeling, it’s just how you’re feeling. There isn’t a “right” way to be.
That said, if you’d like to be more stoked about life, then there are ways to cultivate that. We’ll explore some of those ways in this post.
Living a Lif ..read more
zenhabits
3M ago
By Leo Babauta
Happy New Year my friends! Today I’m going to talk about how to start the year off right, with the Uncertainty Challenge we’ve created in my Fearless Living Academy …
If you’re feeling the New Year energy — which I love because it’s a chance at a fresh start — then the question is how to do you leverage that energy to the best results?
I love the mechanism of a monthly challenge. We’ve been testing out monthly challenges in Fearless Living Academy for more than a year now, through our Uncertainty Challenge, and it’s working incredibly well!
I’ll share more about how it works ..read more
zenhabits
3M ago
By Leo Babauta
It’s the end of 2023, and I’ve just finished my 17th year of publishing Zen Habits! What a journey this has been so far.
As usual, I’m going to run through some of the highlights of the year for me and my business, and then share the best Zen Habits posts of 2023.
Let’s look at some of the highlights of the year:
Zen Habits Podcast — the biggest accomplishment for me this year was the launch of the Zen Habits Podcast! I’ve been wanting to create one for years, and now finally have. Season 1 was called Joy + Fear, and was about resistance around our meaningful work. I got so muc ..read more
zenhabits
3M ago
By Leo Babauta
Earlier today, my email inbox was overflowing like never before. I’m taking this month off (mostly), so I haven’t been checking and responding to email as I normally do. This led to a super full inbox!
When our inboxes are overflowing, we tend to feel some anxiety, and respond in one of a couple ways:
We get overwhelmed and ignore it, allowing it to get even more overflowing, and getting more and more behind on replying to people.
We reply as fast as we can, often a bit frantically, feeling pulled in a zillion directions, and our day becomes swamped in responding to everything ..read more