Zen To Done (ZTD): Forming the 10 Habits

Recently I posted my new twist on the excellent GTD system, Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. An essential part of ZTD is the forming of the 10 Habits, one at a time. This post will explore why and how to do that.

Overview
One of the main problems people have with GTD, probably without knowing it, is that GTD is a series of habit changes that they try to undertake all at once. They get enthusiastic about GTD, and try and do it all in one shot, and then fall off the wagon. They get back on, and then fall off again. It’s almost like dieting or exercise — if you don’t adopt successful habit change methods, you will keep failing and eventually get discouraged and quit.

Well, if you’ve been reading Zen Habits for awhile, you know that habit changes aren’t something to be taken lightly. They can be successful, but it takes a lot of energy and focus and motivation, and it’s hard to do that with a bunch of habits all at once. I highly recommend that you start with one habit, and apply proven habit-change methodology to that habit, and then once that has become a habit, move on to the next habit.

Now, I understand that’s not easy. When you take on a system like GTD, you want to do it all at once. You’re excited and enthusiastic! Trust me, I’ve been there. But take that excitement and channel it into one habit, and you will be hugely successful. Doing one habit at a time will take some patience, but at the same time it’s not as overwhelming and it’s much easier to adopt this way. For some people, GTD can be overwhelming, and a major life change. I am an advocate of gradual life changes, ones that will last for a long time, not just for a few weeks.

If you are already good at some of these habits, and if you are good at changing your habits, it’s possible to do more than one at a time. I wouldn’t recommend more than 2-3 at a time, though, because the more you do, the less your chances of success. If you are already good at ubiquitous capture, for example, you could try adopting it as a habit along with, say, processing your inboxes. But don’t try to do much more than that. Start simple, and gradually add the other habits as you see fit.

Now, which habits should you adopt first? I recommend the order that they’re listed in, but that’s far from mandatory. You could easily do them in reverse or scramble them, or form an algorithm to decide. I suggest that if you don’t want to do them in the recommended order, see which ones will benefit you the most, and give those a higher priority.

Rome wasn’t built overnight, and you can’t change from being undisciplined, unorganized, procrastinating, unproductive (as I once was — I’m not accusing you of being these things) to organize, productive, with a do-it-now habit. Give yourself time to make these changes. At the end of this year, if you start now and adopt 1-2 habits per month, you will have some great habits adopted.

Habit Change Methodology
What are the methods you can use to make these habit changes successful? I won’t be able to go into much depth here, but these are discussed elsewhere on the site:

Commitment. Commit yourself to your habit change, big time. Make your commitment as public as possible — put it on your blog, join an online forum and tell them about it, tell your family and friends, send out a daily email update on your progress. The more positive public pressure, the better.
Practice. Changing your habits is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. Commit yourself to a 30-day Challenge, and try to do your new habit every single day for 30 days. You will be training yourself to do that new habit, over and over. If you mess up, don’t beat yourself up, but just try again. Practice makes perfect.
Motivation. Find as many ways to motivate yourself as possible. See the Top 20 Motivation Hacks.
Tracking. It’s best if you log your progress on your habit every day. This may sound difficult, but it will make your habit change much more likely to be successful. Log it in before you go to bed, placing your log next to your bed. It’ll motivate you, and will make you feel great as you look back on all your progress.
Support. Join an online group, or do your habit change with a partner. However you find it, get others to do a habit change with you, and it will be much easier.
Rewards. Reward yourself often, early on — at the end of each of the first three days, and then at the end of every week, and then a big one at the end of your 30-day Challenge.
Focus. It’s extremely important that you maintain your focus on this new habit for the full 30 days. That’s why it’s hard to do more than one or two habits at a time — you can’t maintain focus. Find ways to bring your focus back to your habit. Post up signs or posters around your desk or home. Send yourself email reminders. Put it on your desktop picture. However you do it, keep a laser focus!
Positive thinking. This is perhaps the most important element. If you tell yourself that you can do this, that you will do it, then you will. Squash all negative thoughts, and replace them with positive ones. You can do this!

Zen To Done (ZTD): Forming the 10 Habits

Habit Change Methodology
What are the methods you can use to make these habit changes successful? I won’t be able to go into much depth here, but these are discussed elsewhere on the site:

Commitment. Commit yourself to your habit change, big time. Make your commitment as public as possible — put it on your blog, join an online forum and tell them about it, tell your family and friends, send out a daily email update on your progress. The more positive public pressure, the better.
Practice. Changing your habits is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. Commit yourself to a 30-day Challenge, and try to do your new habit every single day for 30 days. You will be training yourself to do that new habit, over and over. If you mess up, don’t beat yourself up, but just try again. Practice makes perfect.
Motivation. Find as many ways to motivate yourself as possible. See the Top 20 Motivation Hacks.
Tracking. It’s best if you log your progress on your habit every day. This may sound difficult, but it will make your habit change much more likely to be successful. Log it in before you go to bed, placing your log next to your bed. It’ll motivate you, and will make you feel great as you look back on all your progress.
Support. Join an online group, or do your habit change with a partner. However you find it, get others to do a habit change with you, and it will be much easier.
Rewards. Reward yourself often, early on — at the end of each of the first three days, and then at the end of every week, and then a big one at the end of your 30-day Challenge.
Focus. It’s extremely important that you maintain your focus on this new habit for the full 30 days. That’s why it’s hard to do more than one or two habits at a time — you can’t maintain focus. Find ways to bring your focus back to your habit. Post up signs or posters around your desk or home. Send yourself email reminders. Put it on your desktop picture. However you do it, keep a laser focus!
Positive thinking. This is perhaps the most important element. If you tell yourself that you can do this, that you will do it, then you will. Squash all negative thoughts, and replace them with positive ones. You can do this!

Posted on 17 April 2007 in GTD, Habits, ZTD |
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Comments (15)

Wallet Rehab - Ways to save money Says:

April 18th, 2007, 1:51 am

I love this ZTD idea, but you’ve posted a bunch of posts on ZTD within the last day. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. Could you slow them down a little? (They’re all great, seriously. I just want to devote enough time to understand all of them.)

Leo Says:

April 18th, 2007, 1:53 am

Hi Wallet Rehab … sorry about that. As I mentioned in the note, I just wanted to get a bunch of these done without stretching it out for a week. But I can slow it down if it’s overwhelming. The thing is, I have other things I want to write about, so I was hoping to pump these out, and move on to the other subjects. I’ll rethink that now. Thanks for the input!

Miracle Says:

April 18th, 2007, 10:58 am

I am loving this planned out variation of GTD. I am a pretty abstract person myself and am not very good at arranging steps like you have done here. Very good. Very informative. Very useful.

Leo Says:

April 18th, 2007, 15:34 pm

Hi Miracle … I’m glad you like the system! Thanks for the positive feedback — I appreciate it.

paulkdad Says:

April 18th, 2007, 21:13 pm

I’m very happy to see this! Thanks for consolidating your ZTD ideas into a continuous series of posts. Very informative!

I just have one thought to share, on “being positive.” I tend to prefer the phrase “practice non-judgment” instead. It’s a bit more specific, and it gets away from that one trap I always seem to get myself into: “@#&*^# Paul, you’re not being positive enough!”

Plus, one of the anti-productivity things I often find myself doing is “judging” time. By judging time to be inadequate (or even a source of pressure), I shift my focus away from the task at hand. Non-judgment takes care of this, too. Naturally, your mileage may vary.

As always, your work is great! Thanks again.

Leo Says:

April 18th, 2007, 21:38 pm

Hi Paul … thanks for the positive feedback! I’m glad you like the series.

Regarding your comments on practicing non-judgment … that’s an excellent idea. I agree that “being positive” can be a broad term, but I like it because it encompasses a lot of things that I think help you out. Practicing non-judgment is one of the best of them, but thinking encouraging thoughts (”I can do this!”) is another that really helps me, as corny as that sounds. I do have negative thoughts, but I’ve made it a habit of squashing them as soon as I recognize them (I have to monitor my thoughts), and replacing them with a positive thought. It’s made a huge difference in my life.

paulkdad Says:

April 19th, 2007, 3:38 am

Thanks for the response. “Think encouraging thoughts” is more specific, and definitely helps me make sense of it. Also, the image of “squashing” negative thoughts is a good visualization! Good tips.

Tim Says:

April 20th, 2007, 22:33 pm

I’ve experienced the yo-yo of GTD before, and realised that habit formation was what was needed. The steps you outline here are a great reflection of which of my trial & error steps led to my progressive adoption of GTD elements into my life.

This is some good advice.

Count me in as a subscriber.

-Tim

Leo Says:

April 20th, 2007, 23:08 pm

Hi Tim … I’m glad if this helps! These steps are based on my own experiences (things I’ve read and tried out that worked) in forming habits, and I think they work for any habits, including GTD (and ZTD). Good luck, and let me know what works for you!

Serge Stinckwich Says:

April 24th, 2007, 3:29 am

Leo, i like your ZTD series ! Some weeks ago, i write a post in my blog about what i call meta-GTD, my own self-improvement GTD system (sorry only in french right now, i have to make a translation some day …) and i think my approach is somewhat related to yours. Do you mind if i translated some of your ZTD posts in french on my blog ? (with the appropriate copyrights).

Leo Says:

April 24th, 2007, 5:51 am

Hi Serge … sure, no problem … as long as there’s a link and proper attribution, I don’t mind a translation. I would prefer if you didn’t do all the ZTD posts — perhaps just a few? Thanks for your interest!

Dan Says:

September 10th, 2007, 18:24 pm

I’m an undergrad student trying to pick up GTD, and I’m really glad I came across your ZTD posts. I’ve been reading your site for about six months after stumbling across a link on Digg or Reddit (your site is where I picked up GTD, actually, and on your recommendations I’ve read Simplify Your Life, Your Money Or Your Life, and part of The Art of Happiness, and I love embracing simplicity). I agree with every analysis of the frustrating quirks of GTD, and I’m excited about the prospect of something that sounds like it will work better for me. zenhabits is far and away my favorite feed and it’s become a major source of inspiration and knowledge for me! Just wanted to let you know how much I love your site, and ZTD in particular.

Kelsey Says:

December 16th, 2007, 5:08 am

I am very impressed with your blog; I’ve read so many of those get-your-life-in-order-type of books, and your system seems to be a combination of the best comments from each. I just was googling… and your blog appeared. Thanks for taking the time to blog.

Manuj Says:

March 29th, 2008, 23:03 pm

hey i read this comment by “paulkdad” on practising non-judgement specially the 2nd part about judging time and pressure , i think he is on something very important , can you elaborate on it more and make it more clear
I love zenhabits, its one of the good things that has happened to me………………..

J.SEBAS Says:

April 14th, 2008, 23:30 pm

Great for this site in general, I’m just discovering GTD with an application, TODO MATRIX in my blackberry, and it change mylife
Thanks Leo for all the information that you give us