8 Great Anti-Hacks to Fundamentally Change Your Life

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Clay Collins of Project Liberation and The Growing Life.

Albert Einstein stated that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein, of course, was right. Sometimes our problems require more than life hacks, tips, tweaks, etc. Sometimes our lives don’t need optimization, they need to be fundamentally reconfigured.

So What are Anti-Hacks?

The Building Blocks of a Super Healthy Diet (with a sample meal plan)

Most people know how to eat healthy, and know that they should — it’s just that when it comes down to implementing this knowledge, there’s a bridge that needs to be crossed from knowledge to action.

How do you actually eat healthy, instead of just knowing that you should eat healthy?

Create a meal plan, constructed with super healthy foods that you enjoy eating.

What’s in a Name? A Take on “Zen Habits” From a Zen Monk

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Laurel Vogel (Dharma name: Dai-I Kan Ji), a Zen monk (at large), a published author and blogger at Seattlecounseling.com.

My inbox this morning was acrimoniously stirred with posts on a thread from Zen Habits that again opened the controversy of Leo Babauta’s use of the word Zen in his blog title. I know why these posts happen. People are tired of seeing great pieces of art, deep and meaningful religious experiences, and unquantifiable relationships exploited for “commercial” use. Words like “Zen” and “yoga” are held up like crystals gazed into, stripped of context and meaning, and adjusted to perfectly fit the projections of as many consumers as possible. I don’t think this is how Leo is using it though, and if you can bear with me, I’ll tell you why.

Now Do This, and The Single- Tasking Philosophy

There’s a new online to-do app that’s come out called Now Do This: — I know, there are already a million of them, but I love this one for its simplicity and philosophy that’s so similar to mine.

It’s an incredibly simple program: The site has a white page with a single task written on it (you can change it to your own tasks). Below the task is a button that says “Done”. Finish the task, click the Done button, and the next task on your list appears. When you’re done with your list, a refreshing “all done!” message appears.

Simple and beautiful. And productive.

Reclaim Your Time: 20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time

“The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.” - Henry David Thoreau

Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday — anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise?

But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.

The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and it’s finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.

Experiments in Blogging: The Open-Source Model, Write To Done, and Other Tidbits

Today I thought I’d answer a few important questions that readers have asked me in the last few months. If you’re not interested in blogging or a slightly behind-the-scenes look at Zen Habits, you can skip this post.

I’d like to start by saying I’m not a blogging expert. I’m simply a blogger who started out with no readers, a mere 18 months ago, and has steadily grown in readership as I’ve experimented in various ways, finding out what works and what doesn’t. So, as with anything I write here at Zen Habits, I will give you some insight into what I’ve learned, but don’t look at it as the final word on anything.

How To Be A Great Mom – 12 Awesome Tips

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Vered of MomGrind.

I’m a mom.

I am also a woman, a wife, a daughter, and a friend.

Recently I started blogging. As it turns out, I am a writer too.

I am wearing many hats and doing so is not always easy. I was grateful to discover this article by Leo, where he shares useful tips on how to be a great dad. When I read Leo’s article, I was curious: do these tips apply to moms? Can I incorporate his advice into my own life?