Zen To Done: The Simple Productivity E-Book!

When I published the Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System series, a number of readers asked for it to be turned into an e-book. I heard the requests, and after some hard work, today I’m making it available for purchase.

Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more.

To get the ZTD system in a handy e-book, with additional material, resources and forms, you can purchase it here:

Reader testimonial: “I had always dabbled in trying to establish some sort of productivity habits, but GTD and everything similar seemed too intensive to realistically implement. ZTD and its simplicity make perfect sense to me.” Christopher

Optimize Your Productivity with Daily, Weekly Routines

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits. Recently I posted my new twist on the excellent GTD system, Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. This is the ninth in a series of posts exploring each of the 10 Habits.

One major thing missing from GTD is structure — I think David Allen did this on purpose, to achieve more of a “mind like water” state where you are Ready for Anything. You are fluid in your movements, and respond to anything that comes your way.

But while this is a good thing for people like The David, it can be a bit too chaotic for others.

Hence Zen To Done’s Habit 9: Create weekly and daily routines. This habit creates the structure missing from GTD, giving your day and your week a more ordered and calm feeling.

Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

Recently I posted my new twist on the excellent GTD system, Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. This is the eighth in a series of posts exploring each of the 10 Habits.

If you’re like me, you have a long list of tasks to do, perhaps broken down by different contexts (work, home, errands, calls, etc.). Your list of tasks is so long that it’s overwhelming. You can never completely wipe out your list because it’s growing every day.

Simplify your list down to the barest of essentials, and you can eliminate the need for complex planning systems.

The long to-do lists are one of the problems of GTD, which as I’ve said before, is an excellent system. But it does no prioritizing, and everything is added to your lists. In the end, it’s overwhelming, and you are left extremely busy, trying to knock off all your tasks.

Today we’ll look at ZTD Habit 8: Simplify - reduce your goals & tasks to the essentials.

Refresh Your Focus Every Week to Achieve More

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

Recently I posted my new twist on the excellent GTD system, Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. This is the seventh in a series of posts exploring each of the 10 Habits.

Let’s face it: even the best of us loses track of things over time, and loses focus on our goals, and let’s the best-planned system fall apart a little. With a busy workweek, and a busy life outside of work, the best systems tend to gravitate toward chaos.

That’s where the Weekly Review comes in — it gives you a chance to get things together and refocus yourself on what’s important.

But today we’re going to look at how to tap into the power of the Weekly Review in as little time as possible — the Simplified Weekly Review.

The Showdown: Simple*ology vs. GTD

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

Reader Dave Mauder wrote to ask for my take on Mark Joyner’s Simple*ology vs. David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). Today we’ll watch the two systems go head-to-head and see which one emerges the winner.

Spoiler: I cheat at the end of this.

Simple*ology: A Brief Overview
I’d read about Simple*ology before, but hadn’t actually seen the details until Dave sent me some of the info — the problem is that you have to register in order to find out anything about the system beyond platitudes. But having read about it, I have to say that there are some good concepts there — even if they are not new and are actually borrowed from age-old personal development concepts.