Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a little while now, about an experiment I’ve been doing. For a few months, I’ve been purposely binding myself.

Not as a way to hamstring myself, but as a way to make me focus on fewer, but more important things. As a way to allow myself to do more in less time.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pareto principle, known also as the 80/20 rule. While I don’t think that the percentages of that rule are exact, the principle is true: you should focus on the few things that get you the most benefit.

But while that’s nice in principle, in practice it’s hardly ever done. Why? Because we have too much thrown at us at once, and we’re too busy juggling everything coming at us to take a minute and evaluate what’s essential, what gets the most benefit for the least amount of effort, and what we should really focus on.

There’s no systematic way to focus on the essential stuff, and eliminate the rest.

Until now. I’ve developed a system I call Haiku Productivity, based on some good ideas by others (and I won’t be able to name them all, but know that I am indebted). The key to Haiku Productivity is to limit yourself to an arbitrary but small number of things, forcing yourself to focus on the important stuff and eliminate all else.

Haiku: Limited but powerful
To understand this simple concept, think about the form of the haiku (the common version, at least): it’s poetry in 17 syllables, with 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables (I know there are variations and this is only a rough definition, but that’s not important to this article). The point is that the form of the haiku is extremely limited, to a small number of lines and syllables.

What this does is forces the poet to focus on only those words that mean the most to the poem. While other forms of poetry can go on for pages, haiku are short and compact. As a result, haiku can be some of the most powerful poems in any language.

With such a limited form, you cannot just use any amount of words you want to express a concept. You have to focus on one small but essential concept, and as a result you accomplish a lot with a few syllables. That’s what Haiku Productivity is.

Limited but Productive
So how does this apply to productivity? Well, if you think this will allow you to accomplish twice as many tasks, you’re wrong. You’ll accomplish fewer tasks. But you will most likely be more effective, because you will have to choose only the essential tasks — the ones that will give you the most benefit for your limited time.

What are the other benefits of Haiku Productivity, besides increased effectiveness? Besides forcing you to focus on essential tasks that have a large Return on Investment (ROI), it forces you to eliminate the non-essential tasks. No other system forces you to do that. It forces you to make the best use of your time. It forces you to limit the time you spend on things, which means you have more time for other things that are important to you, and you are able to focus on what you want to focus on, instead of everything coming at you.

It simplifies your life and makes you less stressed out.

Haiku Productivity: Place Limits on Everything
For those who enjoyed Zen To Done (ZTD), this is an extension of those concepts.

The rule of Haiku Productivity is: put limits on everything you do.

That’s it. One rule. What are the things you do? It’s different for everyone, but common ones might be: email, RSS feeds, goals, time wasters, tasks.

What limits should you set? It’s different for everyone. And it’s arbitrary (there are no logical limits for anything — it’s necessarily arbitrary) but based on your own experience and experimentation.

Here are the limits I’ve set for myself that seem to work — but remember that they will be different for you. And also note that while there’s a nice order to these, that’s mostly coincidence (I put them in a nice order), and there is no need to keep an order like this.

1 Goal: The number of goals I’m allowed to have at any one time. I can only really focus on one goal at a time … any more than that and I lose focus and energy.

2 times to process email: If I only allow myself to check email twice a day, I cannot let email control my life. It makes me much more efficient. When I process email, I process to empty. Now, there are other times during the day when I have to send email, such as emailing a post to one of my editors. At that time, I might respond quickly to one or two emails, but I don’t process my email during that time.

3 MITs: I choose three Most Important Tasks for each day, and focus completely on these. Any more than that and I might not get them all done.

4 batch tasks: Aside from MITs, I also give myself 4 smaller tasks that I try to batch all at once. This usually takes me 30-60 minutes at the end of the day.

5 sentence emails: I got this idea from Mike Davidson, whose article came at a perfect time as I was limiting other things in my life, and was also trying to keep my emails short at that time. His 5-sentence rule (no email can be longer than 5 sentences) fit in perfectly with everything else I tried to do, and I’ve adopted it. It forces you to write only what’s essential. I broke the rule at first, but I’ve been pretty good lately. This rule also limits the amount of time you spend replying to email, and makes processing a breeze.

6 RSS posts: I’ve been adjusting this as I’ve experimented, but I’ve settled on reading 6 posts per day. The method: I open my Google Reader in list view, scan through the headlines, and choose just 6 to read, opening them in new tabs. I then “Mark All as Read” and go and read my 6 posts in further detail. It has made RSS reading super fast.

7 minutes of wasted time: This is just for fun, but when I’ve done a task, I reward myself with 7 minutes of being able to do anything I want. That means I can read a humor site, or go and read comments on this blog, or look through Delicious or Digg or a forum, or whatever I want. For only 7 minutes. Then I get back to work. This allows me to have a little fun sprinkled throughout my day, but limits it. I set a timer. Totally works.

10 RSS feeds: While I’ve talked about reducing my RSS feeds before, I got the idea of only having 10 feeds from a friend, Ann, who bested my 16 feeds (at the time) with only 10 of her own. I thought that was a great idea, and now I only allow myself to subscribe to 10 feeds. That means I have to choose the 10 that give me the absolute best info for the time I spend reading them.

100 things: Actually, I haven’t done this, but it was one of the inspirations for this post, so I had to list it. It’s also something I’d like to try out in the near future. I don’t think it’ll be that difficult for me, as I doubt I have much more than 100 things. But anyway, the gist is that blogger Dave Bruno decided to do a 100 thing challenge, where he keeps only 100 personal items (not counting books, and not counting non-personal items such as dishes, cleaning supplies, etc.). Read the entire series. 100 things is, of course, an arbitrary limit, but again, that’s the idea: set a goal and try to limit yourself to it.

Again, your limits and the things you limit will vary depending on your situation. I am in no way suggesting that you adopt these limits. But by restricting yourself to a small number of things, you force yourself to focus only on the essential.

It’ll make a world of difference. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

See also:

Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

Photo by Hyougushi

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a little while now, about an experiment I’ve been doing. For a few months, I’ve been purposely binding myself.

Not as a way to hamstring myself, but as a way to make me focus on fewer, but more important things. As a way to allow myself to do more in less time.

There’s no systematic way to focus on the essential stuff, and eliminate the rest.

It simplifies your life and makes you less stressed out.

Haiku Productivity: Place Limits on Everything
For those who enjoyed Zen To Done (ZTD), this is an extension of those concepts.

The rule of Haiku Productivity is: put limits on everything you do.

That’s it. One rule. What are the things you do? It’s different for everyone, but common ones might be: email, RSS feeds, goals, time wasters, tasks.

1 Goal: The number of goals I’m allowed to have at any one time. I can only really focus on one goal at a time … any more than that and I lose focus and energy.

3 MITs: I choose three Most Important Tasks for each day, and focus completely on these. Any more than that and I might not get them all done.

4 batch tasks: Aside from MITs, I also give myself 4 smaller tasks that I try to batch all at once. This usually takes me 30-60 minutes at the end of the day.

It’ll make a world of difference. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

See also:

Posted on 10 September 2007 in Productivity & Organization, Simplicity |
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Comments (38)

Ingo Says:

September 10th, 2007, 5:57 am

Great post, Leo. I just read about the Pareto Principle before reading your post — One essential tool for limiting yourself is a timer application. I have spent some time to find one that is minimalistic and free, and I ended up using the “Cool Timer” from http://www.harmonyhollow.net - only beaten by a real physical timer that sits on your desk and let’s you see the time running away ;)

Keep up the good work! I’m a long time reader of your blog and really enjoy your content.

Greetings from Germany!

Joshua Says:

September 10th, 2007, 8:13 am

Nice! To some degree I adopt a lot of these, but thanks to the corporate environment I work in I don’t have the option of checking my email only twice a day :( However, I also have been trying to hold fast to the 5 sentence cap for emails. And now for a tribute haiku :-D

I love zen habits
posts are blissfully simple
must get back to work

Leo Says:

September 10th, 2007, 8:17 am

@Joshua: lol … that’s the first haiku dedicated to Zen Habits that I know of. I bow to you.

Joshua Says:

September 10th, 2007, 8:18 am

@Leo: hehe, I do what I can :p

Gerhi Janse van Vuuren Says:

September 10th, 2007, 9:26 am

I have been looking at my website bookmarks and your haiku idea would just be the thing to sort it out. I use my Firefox bookmarks kind of as an extended to do list.

The only thing is I rarely get back to doing them because there is just this long list. In addition I have list at work and one at home. Now an arbitrary limit on that would mean I have to do with just ‘eight’ bookmarks.

If I want to bookmark another site I have to do/have done a site and then bump it of the list. I’m just thinking out loud here but I think this haiku productivity should do the trick.

Spike Says:

September 10th, 2007, 9:29 am

I’m liking the logic of putting limits on everything you do. It’s so applicable nowadays with so many things freely available to us: hundreds of TV channels, thousands of websites and RSS feed, music from ipods, CDs, TV, radio, internet etc. etc. It’s a good idea to put caps on all this, otherwise we tend to become desensitized to it all. I know I no longer have that enthusiasm for music I once had because nowadays if I want to listen to a song I can probably find it in a matter of moments on the internet, rather than patiently waiting days and weeks for it to get released like I used to do.

SpiKe
Organize IT

Alison Says:

September 10th, 2007, 9:55 am

Nice idea, Leo. I’ve actually been modifying my GTD using your MITs (and something like the 4 ‘mosquito tasks’), and I’ve reduced my goals (although not to 1).

I think that, as well as making better use of time by using it for only the important things, this has the effect of reducing/removing the fragmentation that comes with GTD. While it’s easy to do the Next Actions, I get overwhelmed by having lots on my lists, and disoriented because I’m shifting focus so often.

And I’ll give the haiku a go, as well. Can’t resist!

Pure GTD? No!
Haiku productivity
Brings power and calm.

Susanna Says:

September 10th, 2007, 10:08 am

This is a very timely post for me! My husband and I have been talking about doing less and getting more done all weekend. We agreed yesterday to do no more social activities until 9/30 so we can focus on setting up our new home, which we have been neglecting recently in order to meet people in our new town.

Also, this morning I decided to make a schedule for myself. It includes 2 times to check email during the day. I agree that doing less can make you happier and more productive. I hope this limiting schedule works for me.

Mark Says:

September 10th, 2007, 12:36 pm

I’ve been reading your articles on productivity for quite some time and I find them very interesting but…I am a govt. contractor and right now our company has nothing (seriously nothing) for us to charge to. It is a nervous time since being on overhead is not profitable for the company. I am not alzy man and I have spent hours and hours tending to “administrivia”, learning new software etc. The only thing left now is to work on my resume; which I don’t want to do because I like my company very much and I know things will change in a couple months.

Any Ideas?

Thanks
Mark

Jean Says:

September 10th, 2007, 13:16 pm

Great post, Leo! Thanks! “Haiku” + “productivity” = a favorite topic. I’ve also been using the following quote from Albert Einstein as a launchpad for my daily action list:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein.

Jean

Lucy Says:

September 10th, 2007, 14:55 pm

I decided last November to limit myself to watching three television shows per week. Then they all went into reruns. By February, the TV hadn’t been on for months, so I got rid of the darn thing. Haven’t missed it a bit.

It is a great conversation stopper: “What! You don’t have a television? How can you live without a TV?”

Answer: “Very well, thank you.”

Corky Says:

September 10th, 2007, 15:13 pm

OK, I can see the wisdom of paring down my list of RSS feed subscriptions, TV channels and other sources of information.

But once I’ve pared them down, what’s the process for updating the list in the future, as my interests change or as new information sources become available? Don’t you have to wade back into the bigger pool now and then to see what’s out there and perhaps find new things to replace the ones on your current list?

Henrik Edberg Says:

September 10th, 2007, 15:56 pm

This is a great post, Leo. I´m already doing a lot of these things - I have 7 RSS feeds and probably already less than 100 things - but one that caught my eye was 7 minutes of wasted time with a timer. That´s a really interesting idea. And I should probably start using a timer more for a lot of things, what with Parkinson´s Law and all.

Leo Says:

September 10th, 2007, 16:09 pm

@Corky: You’ve brought up a great point … thanks for allowing me to expand.

If you cut your RSS subscriptions, for example, down to 10, you of course might find others you want to subscribe to in the future. If so, you’ll be forced to choose: is the new feed better or of more value than the existing 10? In no other system are you forced to make that choice.

I don’t think finding new things to add is the problem … we find new stuff all the time. From my existing 10 feeds, and from emails people send me, and things people link to on this blog, I find new feeds all the time. I don’t subscribe, however, unless I’m willing to throw out one of my other 10.

The problem, then, hasn’t been finding new things to add … it has been with adding too many things. We always hear about new TV shows, through friends, the internet, or on TV itself. But do we add them to our list? Only if we think it’s better than one of the others on the list.

adang Says:

September 10th, 2007, 16:19 pm

A great post on organizing your RSS + a bunch of great links and feeds to get into.

http://paperwallet.tumblr.com/post/11332572

Corky Says:

September 10th, 2007, 16:30 pm

Thanks for your answer, Leo!

Yes, now that I think of it, I’ve rarely shifted into a completely new vein of information. As you say, most of the new leads I follow come from friends or the information feeds already on my list.

It really is about the discipline of replacing things on the list, rather than adding to them. Thanks for making that clear!

Alison Says:

September 11th, 2007, 0:19 am

Lucy, I don’t think I’ve watched TV in probably 5 or 6 years. I sometimes watch DVDs (I’m a big fan of Asian cinema), but commercial television is a real waste of time and brain-space.

I’ve found since I stopped that:
1) I’m less depressed - even though I still read online news, TV news somehow seems more mind-numbing.
2) I’m less irritable - I used to get cranky about the spin that channels put on news, and the inanity of most shows. Plus the constant advertising breaks used to send me right out of my tree.
3) I have more time and more energy - I’m not wasting either slumped insensate in front of the box, merely out of habit.

I also find I’m less current on TV shows and sport (but then I never cared for them) and more current on world events. I think that’s some indication of the misleading effect of TV news.

I remember a study done years ago, which showed that, as the Gulf War went on, public knowledge and understanding of it actually decreased. Amazing stuff, but quite believable: people get fed a thin slice of the news, which is selected to look good on TV, and miss all of the nuance (and often fact).

Quite frightening, really, given the number of people who rely on TV for their news.

Truthteller Says:

September 11th, 2007, 0:36 am

Rather than try anything drastic, I’m on a program of ‘daily decreasing’. The idea is to start decreasing everything in my life…possessions, projects, things to do, etc. The more I decrease the more liberated I feel.
Added to this, I try to give away items rather than try to sell or throw away (which is easier).
So this is a gradual program that works for me, nothing drastic or difficult. I recommend it!

Patrick Says:

September 11th, 2007, 5:01 am

Very interesting approach. I will give it a try. Anyone knows of an app to support the classification of tasks for the day in MITs and Batch? I would think of a GTD app with daily planing.

gordon Says:

September 11th, 2007, 10:28 am

The hardest part of working for yourself is getting stuff done. Email is a huge time waster and i think your method is smart. I also like rewarding yourself with 7 minutes of nothing. I however usually make the mistake of rewarding myself with 30 minutes of nothing.

g.
http://www.cheapgreencar.com

psychic readings Says:

September 11th, 2007, 12:07 pm

good try.. cool

Magnus Says:

September 11th, 2007, 16:50 pm

As a software engineer I get a ‘natural pause’ often as each recompile takes two minutes. At that time the cpu load is 100% and web surfing is about all there is to do. The trick is to stop surfin’ and get back to work as the compile is finished…

Plamo Says:

September 11th, 2007, 21:22 pm

I’ve seen the hundred item rule before, in the book ‘The Gospel According to Larry’

It’s an excellent book, if you haven’t already read it, I whole heartedly suggest you do.

Kevin Says:

September 12th, 2007, 23:36 pm

Great blog! Enjoy it very much! Subscribed in Google reader.

Les Says:

September 13th, 2007, 13:54 pm

Leo — Could you give some examples of what you think of as batch tasks? How do you decide what sort of task falls into this batch task category. Thanks.

Leo Says:

September 13th, 2007, 16:33 pm

@Les: Sure … however, keep in mind that batch tasks are different for everyone. The key is that these are not big tasks — they should take less than 10 minutes each, preferably only 2-5 mins. — and that you group them together at at time other than your peak energy/productive time.

Some examples of mine:

* calls
* email
* paperwork
* typing up a quick memo or letter
* following up on stuff
* errands, sometimes (if it doesn’t take long to do them)

I’m sure you have other tasks that are small that can be grouped together so they don’t get in the way of your MITs. These are just some of mine. Hope this helps!

Audrey Says:

September 16th, 2007, 14:00 pm

I am a person that puts everyone else’s wants and needs before my own, to my detriment, physically, emotionally and financially.

Any suggestions? I love helping people, however, I am noticing that this is not working for me. At work I come to other people’s rescue instead of focusing on creating sales. (I get paid by commission only)

I try to set limits, however when people ask, I find it hard to say no.

I came across a quote that “it is more noble to imperfectly pursue my own passion than to perfectly pursue someone else’s.”

I know that this is true because in my own life I demand perfection from myself and am my own worst critic. However, I resolve other people’s situations and cannot perhaps face my own.

I sense that this is why I am not pursuing my own passion. Awareness is not results….so, please point me in the direction, give me tasks to do to get out of this never ending maze!

I am hoping you can help me through this.

Leo Says:

September 16th, 2007, 16:27 pm

Audrey … I think you hit the nail on the head with your statement:

“I try to set limits, however when people ask, I find it hard to say no.”

It’s hard to set limits if you can’t say no. I know it can be a difficult thing, but you really need to learn that your time is valuable, and so are your priorities. And you need to learn to say no. Practice it to get good at it. Make it a rule to say no to everything for a few days. And do it politely, but firmly … no wishy-washiness! :)

Good luck … the change won’t happen overnight, but start today, and it’ll happen!

Arielle Says:

September 25th, 2007, 23:52 pm

I recently wrote this blog due to your influencing post, maybe it can be useful to you in an upcoming post:
http://joemamaknows.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/rule-8-if-this-is-your-first-night-at-fight-club-you-have-to-fight/

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qqq Says:

February 17th, 2008, 14:44 pm

222

analleli rodriguez lopez Says:

March 14th, 2008, 15:35 pm

I in the personnel think that we must of being able to say not when we know that she can affect or affect other people to us, but everything is with the purpose of aprednder to say no

Wolle Says:

March 21st, 2008, 12:43 pm

Thank You for Your posts. It is a pleasure for me to reed this posts and to think about it. They helped me very much.

Dani Says:

April 5th, 2008, 3:47 am

This “7 minutes of wasted time” means every hour or each morning or afternoon?

Maria Calera Says:

April 20th, 2008, 21:11 pm

Well, interesting and helpful way to preserve the innerpeace while we stay productive.
My sister told me about something I want to share with you, just for you to think about it: someone ask other people to define themselves in 6 words…to choose just 6 words to put their lives in a sentence…Interesting and challenging…try to do it, for yourself and see what you get..
I came up with something like:
“Listen the drum you have inside”
Good luck and peace in your heart !

Amy Says:

May 21st, 2008, 20:15 pm

I’ve been reading your blog for about a week now and I just have to say that you’ve been very inspiring and given me some wonderful ideas. I’ve already implemented some of them, especially ones regarding simplifying.

Thank you, and I’ll be reading you. :)

Debbi Says:

July 1st, 2008, 23:11 pm

Wow, I do the same thing when it comes to planning tasks. I pick two or three major things I want to accomplish that day and 3-4 smaller things, which I do in a batch!

I also have three designated times to check email–morning, after lunch and end of day.

Your other suggestions are great, too. I’m so glad I discovered your blog.