By Leo Babauta

Lately I’ve been exploring ideas around how to bring more simplicity to taking action, tackling tasks, doing everything I have to do in a day.

It can be so overwhelming, we procrastinate, we overcomplicate.

What if it could be simple?

In this article, I’ll share some ideas I’ve been exploring to bring more simplicity to everything I do in my day. The ideas won’t work for everyone, but I hope they’re valuable to you in some way.

1. Completing the Moment

One thing I’ve been noticing is how often I’ll rush from one thing to the next, leaving a bit of a mess behind, or leaving something unfinished, in my rush to start the next thing.

A phrase that’s been resonating for me is “complete the moment.”

What that means is to not rush to the next thing before I’ve completed what I’m doing. For example:

• If I finish eating, wash my dishes and clean up any other mess. Put away food. Wipe the counter.

• If I’m getting ready, make sure I hang my towel, put my dirty clothes in my hamper, fold up or hang up any clothes that aren’t dirty yet.

• If I finish a meeting, write down any notes or tasks that need to be done so I don’t forget.

• If I’m doing laundry, don’t just wash and dry the clothes — fold and hang them and put them away.

If I slow down and let myself complete what is called for in the moment, then I can move on to the next thing with a sense of completion and peace.

Also, it’s so much nicer!

2. Just This Task

If you look at your task list or email inbox, it’s probably way too long to finish this week, let alone today. It’s overwhelming, and if we try to tackle it all, we’re likely to be jumping around from one thing to the next in a frenzy.

What’s been resonating for me is the phrase, “Just this.”

What that means is that I pick one thing to focus on, and forget about everything else. Easier said than done, I know! But it’s a practice.

So I clear everything away, and just have one thing in front of me. I give it my full focus, as if it were completely worthy of full attention. I breathe, and put myself into it.

It’s very simple, and very meditative. This isn’t a forcing, but a simplicity that’s refreshing and calm.

3. No Need to Rush

As I’m moving through my day, I like to remind myself, “No need to rush.”

As a Zen practitioner, you might think I’m always calm and I move slowly. Not so at all! I really like to move quickly — if I’m cooking or cleaning the kitchen, you’ll hear cupboards banging about, and I’m moving around like a whirlwind. It’s fun!

So I have to purposefully slow myself down. I find it challenging but really nice. No need to rush. What am I in such a hurry for?

4. No Need to Run

There’s always a handful (or more) of hard tasks on our lists that we like to procrastinate on. They get pushed back, and pile up.

I like to remind myself, “No need to run from this.”

What that means is, this isn’t something that’s as hard and scary as I might think. It feels like I need to run from it, because I have fear, or I’m overwhelmed. But when I notice I’m about to run, I just remind myself that it’s not necessary.

Then I turn toward the task and breathe, and just take the first step as simply as I can. This too, is a meditative act.

5. Clear Things Out

How many of us have a browser with ten thousand tabs open? What about an email inbox overflowing and overwhelming?

I like to remind myself, when I have so many things open or piling up, to clear things out. It helps keep things simple.

Some examples:

• Every day or two, I save and close browser tabs — I bookmark the tab to find later, put it into a task, save it to my read later service, or just act on it. Ideally, I’ve cleared them all so I can focus on what’s next.

• Every day or two, I clear out my email inbox. Now, this isn’t always true — sometimes things pile up. But I like to have a clear inbox, so I take some time working through them. If things have piled up, it might take 5-10 sessions! But ideally, it’s a couple sessions a day.

• My read-later service (currently Instapaper) gets piled up, so ideally I try to clear it out every week. That means spending a little time reading articles and archiving them, or just deleting if I don’t feel like reading something. This means I don’t have guilt about the things I’m not reading.

• I do the same thing with physical items — if I have things on the kitchen counter, on my desk, on my bedside table, etc. … I take a little time to deal with each item and clear them out. Sometimes I don’t have time to do that all at once, so I’ll come back to the pile until it’s cleared out.

This isn’t about being perfect, or stressing out if there’s a pile of things. But if I take a little time to clear things out, my life feels so much simpler.

6. Moments to Plan & Reflect

I find it important to take a little time at the beginning of each week and each day to plan.

Nothing complicated: what do I want to get done this week? What do I want to get done today?
I do the same for each month and each year. It helps me to know where I’m going, and what to focus on. I like to keep that simple, and only do a few minutes each day and every Sunday (or Monday).

I think it’s also important to create a little space to reflect. What have I been doing, what’s worthy of celebrating, what am I putting off? What’s blocking me? What am I learning? I don’t have to reflect on these every day, but if I spend just a couple minutes every day reflecting, my life becomes much more sane and simplified.