Zen Habits Website

Living with Kind Intention

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

There’s a part of the Buddhist path that I’ve been studying in my life, called “right intention,” that I’ve been finding to be really powerful.

To put it simply, right intention is about having your actions and words come from a place of kindness and compassion, rather than having the intention to harm, be unkind, or abuse. Sounds good, right? Most of us want to live this way.

But to work with this deeply, you have to really examine your intentions behind your actions. And as you do so, it might bring to light the actions and words that aren’t aligned with kind intention.

For example:

You get into an argument with a loved one because you want to prove that you’re right.
You start honking your horn at a rude driver, because their driving made you angry.
You start flaming people online who are part of a political movement that infuriates you.
You smoke or put harmful foods in your body, because it feels good.

None of the above makes you a bad person — and in fact, maybe you don’t have the intention to harm someone when you take these actions. We might notice that they’re simply a way to deal with our stressful emotions. But it’s possible that none of them come from an intention to be kind.

As we examine these actions, we might ask ourselves, “What would I do here, from the intention to be kind?” And the action might be very different. With this clarity, we might then change our actions, and feel the kind intention in our hearts. We’re transformed, and so are our actions.

Working with kind intention means bringing a lot of awareness to our lives, throughout the day. I set reminders 4 times a day, and when they go off, I try to reflect on my recent actions and their intentions.

The idea isn’t to beat yourself up when you notice an action that’s not kind. That’s just adding more unkindness to the fire. Instead, we might be kind to ourselves … but also try feeling kindness towards the other person. And then start to act from that intention.

If you work with kind intention, it is transformative. Not easy. And it doesn’t come with any rewards, other than the reward of feeling kindness in your heart.

The False Dilemma Between Being Frugal & Enjoying Life

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

There’s a mentality that says, “YOLO! I should spend now (instead of saving for later) and enjoy life!”

This usually reflects a false dilemma: I want to save money … but I also want to enjoy life now! It’s not an either/or situation.

(Btw, this is the same false dilemma as “work hard now or play now” — it’s not an either/or choice.)

Here’s the reason it’s a false dilemma: Saving money can be done while enjoying life. Living an amazing life doesn’t require spending much money beyond the necessities.

If you don’t believe me, try this experiment: Try going 3 months without spending anything but the necessities, but challenging yourself to enjoy life anyway.

Reading books (from the library) is free. Going for walks and hikes and enjoying nature is free. Spending time with amazing people can be free too. Journaling, playing chess, learning, meditating, working out, making healthy meals … all can be done without spending a lot.

Buying useless crap and eating out a lot and drinking a lot of alcohol — that’s not necessarily living.

Beyond free, enjoyable things you can do, there’s another important truth: lasting happiness and fulfillment don’t come from external sources. Those are fleeting.

Lasting fulfillment comes from the inside — by learning to enjoy life wherever you are. By learning to appreciate others, and feel connected to them. By learning to be vulnerable, curious, fascinated. By serving others, and being generous.

None of these require anything external. And if you cultivate this, the fulfillment you get is much more lasting than ordering something cool online. And it can’t be taken away from you.

The Full Experience of Right Now

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Most of the time, we’re distracted from what we’re experiencing right now, in this moment. Our minds are on other things, or we’re looking at technology, or ruminating about something.

We’re not really having a full experience of this moment.

Imagine, instead, that you looked up and saw a tree out your window. A moment ago, you were too distracted to notice it, but now you’re seeing it in vivid detail — there’s sunlight lighting up the leaves giving them a bright glow, highlighting their deep green leaves swaying in the gentle breeze. There are bees floating around the tree, and some small berries.

As you look at the tree, your body fills with a sense of elation and wonder, and you are also aware of that sensation in the body.

This is a full experience of a moment. We’ve all had moments like that … but they tend to be rare for most people.

Having the full experience of the present moment can be transformative. When we have that experience, you might see:

You enjoy each moment more
You’re less stressed, more at peace
You feel more positive and grateful toward life in general
You might use technology less, and be less distracted
You might feel less drained throughout the day
You might be less avoidant towards the things you normally resist

None of this is guaranteed, but it’s something I notice when I’m more present and more fully experiencing the moments of my life.

How to Practice

You can practice right now, in this moment: pause for a moment and try to fully experience the sensations of the moment you’re in — all the visual sensations of light and color and texture, sounds, touch sensations of whatever you’re body is contacting, and physical sensations inside your body.

Let yourself linger on these sensations as if they were something to be curious about, or savored. See if you can enjoy something about them, or find gratitude for them.

That’s the how of the practice.

Let’s talk about the when …

It’s helpful to try to remember throughout the day. Have little things that remind you to slow down, and pay attention. Little notes, phone reminders, even little objects you place around your work space or home that will help you remember.

I’ve found it helps me to reflect a little at the end of each day. So a foundational habit could be taking just 3-5 minutes every evening to reflect on the moments you fully experienced, and what you could learn about how to practice going forward.

It’s a simple thing, but vastly rewarding. I encourage you to see what it brings to your life, by practicing today.

Step Into the Next Phase of Your Growth

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

One of my favorite things in the world to do is supporting people on their journeys of growth — it’s a breathtaking process to witness and support.

I’ve seen people overcome fears of creating, putting themselves out there, of honoring their deeper needs, of facing things they’re resisting, and much more.

If you’re interested in the next phase of your growth journey, we’ve opened enrollment for my deepest program, Fearless Mastery.

I specifically designed Fearless Mastery to support people who are interested in growing beyond their comfort zone, in creating what’s next for them in their lives, and in overcoming old beliefs and patterns and fears.

The program offers three distinct journeys, each designed to meet you where you are:

FM Productivity: for those who feel overwhelmed, stuck in cycles of procrastination or burnout, or who’ve tried productivity systems that didn’t last. This track helps you build foundations for meaningful, sustainable work — grounded in mindfulness rather than hustle.
FM Creators: for writers, coders, artists, content creators, community builders, and anyone with a dream project or bold idea that keeps getting put off. You’ll work on a self-chosen Breakthrough Project and get collaborative support from a small group of fellow creators.
FM Business: for leaders ready to move beyond old patterns, navigate the challenges of growth, and expand their impact in sustainable, aligned ways.

Fearless Mastery is my flagship four-month training and coaching program, it runs from Aug. 3 through Dec. 1, and it’s built around three interconnected forces: structure, community, and coaching.

They’re built on the foundation of working with resistance, overwhelm, and uncertainty … while cultivating mindfulness and presence, building habits that sustain you, and developing the self-compassion needed to keep going when things get hard.

Every track includes weekly 90-minute live sessions, monthly practices, 1-on-1 coaching, weekly check-ins, office hours, and co-working focus sessions.

Spots are limited — 10 for Productivity (few spots left), 8 for Creators, and 6 for Business — and early bird pricing is available through July 14. All the cohorts filled up last round, so don’t wait!

Jump on a call with me

If you’re interested in exploring the possibility of Fearless Mastery — you’re curious but have questions — let’s talk. You can book a quick exploratory with me here.

Let’s dive into the next part of your growth journey together.

How to Learn to Love Healthy Food

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

There was a time in my life when I was addicted to junk food, fast food, comfort foods. These days, I still enjoy the taste of those foods, but nothing tastes as good as healthy, whole foods.

The switch for me was gradual, not instant. It was also intentional. And I’m so glad I made the change.

These days, I eat mostly whole plant foods (I’m vegan): beans, nuts, seeds, lentils, tofu and tempeh, whole grains, lots of veggies, lots of fruit. And it’s delicious.

I also mostly cut out sugar and fried foods, and completely cut out meats and other animal products including dairy, and am currently not drinking alcohol (for the last 5 months). These changes don’t feel like sacrifices to me.

If you’d like to make the switch to loving healthy food, let’s look at how to make it painless, delicious, and very much not a sacrifice.

What We’re Moving Toward

It can be really helpful to start by envisioning what you’d like to move toward — what would a healthy diet look like for you? What kinds of healthy foods would you like to include? (Don’t limit yourself to what you already like.)

You don’t have to envision a vegan diet (although maybe consider it!) … just think about what would be healthy for you. I encourage you to think about whole foods over processed.

For me, I love to include healthy bowls: grains with proteins (tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils) and veggies and a simple sauce or hummus. Maybe some nuts or seeds to go with it. I also love huge salads with all of these things included, or soups or chili full of beans and veggies. But you could think of healthy tacos, stir-fries, or wraps.

Envision the healthy meals, and try to think of them in a positive light — not only will these help make you healthier, they are delicious and lovely!

Making a Slow, Lovely Transition

Now that we have the vision, I encourage a slow transition. You might be tempted to go for the whole enchilada (so to speak) right away … and if that feels super doable to you, go for it. But sometimes it can help to go slower.

For example, maybe there are some healthy foods that you don’t really like — green vegetables, tomatoes, beans, for example. Maybe you’re interested in tofu or tempeh but aren’t used to them. Maybe you are used to lots of sugar and fried foods and eating foods that don’t have added sugar and aren’t fried seems terrible to you.

In that case, here’s what I suggest:

Start with the healthy changes that would be easy for you. If you already like apples, feel free to just add apples for now. Maybe you also like carrots. Add those too! Get some easy wins.
Gradually add the other things that don’t feel so intimidating. No need to buy everything you hate and try to thug it out. Go with the ones you can tolerate reasonably well, and start to acclimatize yourself in them.
Focus on savoring and enjoyment. As you pay close attention, and try to find the elements of the textures and tastes that you enjoy, you’ll start to appreciate the food more.
Harder foods: there will be foods you don’t love — but you can grow to love them, if you slowly acclimatize yourself and start to appreciate the more subtle qualities of the food. I have grown to love so many healthy foods that I didn’t before. Sometimes it helps to season them in a way that’s more palatable, or try different ways to prepare. Give yourself time.

There’s no rush. You have a lifetime to learn to enjoy these foods.

The Role of Identity

This kind of shift requires a shift in identity. You might think of yoursef as someone who doesn’t like these kinds of foods, or someone who “has to have” their sugar drinks or snacks, for example. This is your old identity.

A new identity could be someone who love all kinds of healthy, delicious foods, and someone who doesn’t need junk food to be happy or to deal with stress. It’s a new identity that’s resilient in the face of stress.

So my encouragement is to start to shift how you see yourself. Let go of the old, limiting way you think about yourself in relation to food. And start to craft a new version, that is empowered and ready to enjoy a new kind of life.

Navigating Through the Uncertainty of Life’s Transitions

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

A number of people I’ve talked to lately are going through a big transition in their lives:

Quit or changing jobs
Sold a company and not sure where to go next
Kids leaving the nest
Health problems or helping an aging parent with health issues
Starting school or going back to the workplace
Retiring, reinventing yourself
Moving somewhere new
Dealing with financial problems

The list goes on and on — lots of us are going through a transition period.

And what you might notice is that this can feel really groundless — the solid ground we like under our feet just isn’t there. It feels uncertain, and can bring anxiety or fear.

From that uncertainty, we might go to distractions, comfort foods or addictions, shopping, or a number of other things that don’t really address the uncertainty.

So how can we navigate these transitions with some grace?

Let’s take a look.

Acknowledging & Practicing with the Uncertainty

The first step is just to acknowledge that you’re feeling uncertainty. You’re in a transition, it feels groundless, you are worried you don’t know what you’re doing and you might fail. Acknowledge the fears, anxiety, frustrations, and judgments that you might notice.

Just acknowledge them without judgment — it’s OK to feel all of this. There’s no problem with them.

Then you can practice:

Notice how the uncertainty (and other emotions) feel in your body. Locate them in the body, notice the sensations.
Keep your attention on these sensations, just for a few moments. It’s like meditating on the breath, but instead you’re putting the attention on uncertainty sensations.
Breathe slowly and deeply, and allow your nervous system to settle. Let it be OK that you’re feeling groundless, and let it just be a feature of the transition you’re going through.

In this way, we can soothe our nervous system, without needing to control everything. Without needing to fix everything. Or panic.

Navigating with Grace

Once we’ve settled a bit with the uncertainty, the question becomes how to act. We can’t always just do nothing!

And so a few ideas can be helpful here:

If you can get to a place of at least some relaxation and calm, some degree of openness, then the choices you make and the actions you take will be very different. Breathe and practice the steps in the previous section first.
You don’t have to know exactly how things will work out — you can take one small step at a time. Choose a step, and take it, then choose again. This is a small-step approach to navigating uncertainty.
To navigate without knowing exactly where you’re going and how things will work out … requires trusting yourself. You might not have that self-trust yet, which is why you might either freak out, or avoid action. So build the trust just a little at a time — take small steps in uncertainty, but nothing that can’t be reversed or fixed if things go wrong. Over time, you’ll be able to take slightly riskier steps if you start to trust yourself to deal with any outcome.
Take an attitude of learning — you don’t need to know the answers and the outcomes, you’re here to learn! Be curious, try experimenting, and reflect on what you’re learning. This is a more open way to deal with uncertain situations.

And perhaps most important: give yourself some grace. Don’t expect perfection or “doing it right.” Let it be a little messy, let yourself make mistakes or freak out a little. Let it be OK that you’re not completely comfortable in uncertainty, and that you don’t have full self-trust yet.

Giving ourselves a little grace, when we’re in the midst of a big life transition, is an incredible gift. May you grant yourself that grace, my friends.

The Practice of Zero Negativity

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Two of my favorite authors on the topic of marriage, Harville Hendrix and Helen Lakelly Hunt, wrote something called The Zero Negativity Guide for Couples.

I haven’t tried this method in my marriage, but I’ve found that the approach is very powerful as a general approach to our lives.

I think of myself as a positive person — and compared to many people, I am very positive. But as I started to practice with zero negativity, what I noticed is that I judge other people more than I realized. And I have a negative view towards some people — much more than I realized.

I’ll talk about that below, and how I practice with it. And share how it can change your life.

In brief, here’s what the zero negativity approach can shift if you practice:

You can soften in your judgments towards others (less resentment & frustration).
You can shift to a more positive view of others, leading to better relationships, less complaining, more appreciation.
You can start to have a more positive view of yourself, with less self-judgment, shame, anxiety.

These are huge changes, life-changing. Let’s dive in.

Negative View Towards Other People

It really shocked me how often I have a negative view of other people — sometimes people in my life, sometimes strangers in public, definitely people behaving badly in the public sphere.

When we have these negative views … it just feels like we’re right. They shouldn’t behave that way. They should know better. They should act differently.

I started to notice how often people’s behavior irritated or frustrated me. How I see them in a negative light. Yikes!

So I’ve been practicing:

Noticing when I have frustration, irritation, resentment — and then looking at the negative view I have of the person.
Letting myself feel the feelings, without feeding them with more negative thoughts.
Try to soften my view towards the person, give them more grace and compassion, see that they’re trying their best.
Try to see the positive qualities of this person.

What this creates is a whole new way to relate to this person.

As we create these shifts, one little moment at a time, we’re creating a new view and relationship to everyone in our lives, and strangers as well.

Negative View Towards Ourselves

What occurred to me, as I was doing this zero negativity approach towards other people … is that the same thing can apply to ourselves. We have a negative view of ourselves that causes shame and anxiety, discouragement and disappointment when we don’t live up to frustration, and an inner critic that hurts everything we do.

What if we created a new relationship to ourselves?

Same practice:

Noticing when I have frustration or disappointment with myself — and then looking at the negative view I have of myself.
Letting myself feel the feelings, without feeding them with more negative thoughts.
Try to soften my view towards myself, give myself more grace and compassion, see that I’m trying my best.
Try to see the positive qualities in myself.

What shifts, if we do this, is profound. Everything in our lives become easier. You might resist this practice, but I hope you’ll try it.

The One Thing That Makes a Habit Stick

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Changing a habit — whether it’s forming a new one like journaling, or quitting an old one like smoking — can be a frustrating endeavor for a lot of us.

The way it usually goes: get started when you’re struck by motivation, commit as hard as you can, and then kind of white-knuckle it for a week or two. And then life happens and you fall off. And feel bad.

Does that feel familiar? Most people will usually conclude that it’s something wrong with them — you don’t have enough discipline, maybe.

But it’s not about discipline, or how hard you try: it’s about how you’re going about it.

There’s one shift that can change everything — and that’s identity. How do you see yourself, as you create this habit change?

How Identity Changes Habits

The shift is from asking “what do I want to do” to asking “who do I want to be?”

There’s research-based evidence behind this, and I’ve seen it in my own work helping people change habits. Instead of depending on motivation and willpower to fuel your change, you see the habit as an expression of how you see yourself.

Some examples from my life:

Exercise: From “I need to make myself work out to be healthy” to “I’m a runner who lifts weights”. Or “I’m someone who moves my body regularly.”
Meditation: When I resist meditation, and try to force myself to be disciplined about it, I struggle. But when I just think of myself as someone who meditates daily, it becomes much easier. And when my meditation alarm goes off, I now think of myself as someone who just gets up and goes to meditate, and that drops any egoic struggle.
Quitting smoking: When I was smoking, I thought of it as the way to cope with stress, and give myself something pleasurable. When I quit, the shift was that I stopped thinking of myself as a smoker and thought of it as something I just wouldn’t want to do.

The same kinds of things happened when I started thinking of myself as a vegetarian, then a vegan, a marathoner … these just became who I was.

How to Make the Shift

Start with a simple declaration — a statement of who you are becoming: “I am a writer.” “I am someone who takes care of their body.” “I keep my word to myself.”

Then take small actions to vote for that identity. Small things like a 1-sentence journal or a short walk absolutely count.

Then acknowledge the action and how it is a part of this identity you’re becoming.

Give yourself some grace for not being perfect at it. You’re becoming this new version of yourself, but there’s always a transition period. The direction of the trend is what matters.

This isn’t just a habit strategy — it’s a new version of yourself that you’re creating, a new way to relate to yourself. Don’t wait until you already feel like that person. Take action to create this identity.

The One Thing That Changes Everything

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

We’re always seeking more information, the perfect methods, the right system — as if more and more were the answer to what we’re trying to do.

But no matter what you’re up to — trying to take action in your life, create something from a deeper place, take your business or leadership to the next level — more information and systems and tactics and hustle is rarely ever the answer.

That just leads to more overwhelm, more indecision, more exhaustion.

I’ve found, in my years of leading others through this work, that there’s one single thing that can change everything: doing less, with purpose.

This is about being deliberate, and being willing to look honestly at everything you’re doing and ask: what actually matters? That takes courage, because adding more to your plate is ironically the easier answer.

Subtraction forces you to confront what you’ve been avoiding. It forces you to focus, go deeper, and find what makes the impact you’re created to making.

There’s a wonderful Blaise Pascal observation that most of our problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Let’s add a modern corollary to that: our problems stem from our inability to resist filling every available space with activity.

What It Looks Like in Practice

This principle won’t look the same in practice for everyone. Doing less, with purpose, can’t be a cookie-cutter type solution. What’s “less” for you is going to look different than it does for me.

Here are some versions of how it might look:

For productivity & taking action: If you’re trying to take action and move your life forward, then it can be really powerful to stop working from a place of reactivity and urgency, and to slow down and work from a place of calm purpose. Clearing out the noise (inbox, messages, busywork) and focusing on what actually deserves your focus.
For creators: Anyone who is a writer, artist, maker knows that distractions and busywork are the enemies of deeper creativity. We need to slow down and be willing to choose our creation and go all in. Focus on doing your thing as fully as you can.
For leaders & business owners: We get pulled in so many directions that it can be hard to get clear on priorities and direction. But that’s the practice of a leader and entrepreneur: slow down and get clear on what matters. The leaders and businesses that make an impact are the ones that learn focus.

The real work in all of these cases is that these are not about productivity hacks. They’re about learning to go deeper, and understanding what matters to you.

Doing less, on purpose, means discovering the kind of person you want to be, and what you stand for. What you’re choosing to build, and what you’re not going to build.

That can be uncomfortable work, so we avoid it by going to busywork and what’s urgent.

When you’re ready to face this discomfort, I encourage you to ask: what’s calling you?

What’s Calling You?

If something in this resonated with you, I want to invite you into something designed specifically for that next step.

Fearless Mastery is my cohort program for people who are done adding more and ready to go deeper. There are three cohorts, and each one is built around a specific domain:

Fearless Mastery Productivity — for anyone ready to take action in their lives, with mindfulness and calm
Fearless Mastery Creators — for the makers ready to move beyond hesitation and commit to their deepest work
Fearless Mastery Business — for the builders ready to deepen and grow their impact

If one of those called your name, I’d love to have you. Learn more and apply here →

The Three Enemies of Clarity

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

When we have clarity, we can be incredibly motivated and purposeful. When we don’t have clarity, we get stuck, demotivated, overwhelmed.

For example: if you knew the most important thing to work on right now, with absolute certainty, and you were clear how crucial it is to what you care about — you’d probably give it your all!

Clarity is powerful — but it’s not always easy.

There are three things I’ve found that get in the way of clarity:

Overcommitment: If you have too many commitments (that’s most of us), it can be hard to get clarity on what to work on.
Unprocessed emotion: If you feel anxiety, fear, resentment, grief about something, and pushed it to the background … it can cloud your judgment, drain you, make you pick things to avoid those feelings. This leads to cloudiness and confusion.
Decision fatigue: Most of us are making decisions all the livelong day. By the time we get to decisions that actually matter … we are running on fumes. That’s why we often make bad choices or feel too overwhelmed, later in the day.

Any of these feel familiar? Let’s figure out what we can do about them, to bring more clarity and calm to our days.

Enemy #1: Overcommitment & Saying Yes to All of It

We say yes to more than we can actually follow through with — our calendars and tasks lists feel so full that everything feels urgent.

This is usually from FOMO (fear of missing out), fear of disappointing people, or just being too optimistic.

So what can we do?

One priority practice: Every morning, choose one most important thing to give your focus to.
Monthly commitment audit: Go through everything you’ve said yes to, and ask if it belongs in your life. You’ll see when you’re overcommitted when you look at this level.
Strategic choosing: Catch yourself when you’re about to say yes to something … and ask, “What would I say no to, so that I can say yes to this?” If it’s important enough, you’ll trade.

If you practice these, you’ll overcome the old habit of overcommitting. Life will start to become right-sized, and you’ll have more clarity.

Enemy #2: Unprocessed Emotion

We often feel too busy, or lacking in capacity, to process emotions like anger, resentment, frustration, grief, fear. So it just gets pushed into the background, where it clouds our clarity.

If you often feel confused, cloudly, frozen, or indecisive, this might be what’s going on for you.

Some ways to process all of this:

Therapy: we all need it!
Journaling: Don’t just write about what happened, but process the emotions of what happened as you’re writing. What are you avoiding, what are you afraid of, what do you not want to feel? Just to feel it, not to solve anything.
Check in before starting: Before you get start with work, or a major meeting or project, pause to check in with yourself — what am I feeling? Just name it, no judgment — just start to clear the noise from the signal.

Sometimes, the feeling itself is a signal — it’s telling you something. It can be hard to distinguish between a valuable signal like this, and just the usual noise of unprocessed emotion … if you get into this processing as a regular thing, it gets easier.

But most often, the emotions just need to be released!

Enemy #3: Decision Fatigue

We’re making so many decisions every day, all day long — our brains get tired. This makes it hard to get clarity with the things that actually matter, because we just shut down.

Some ways to deal with this:

Keep decision-making time sacred: Make your most important choices early in the day, before you’re depleted. This is a good time to take on your harder focus tasks as well.
Reduce trivial decisions: Get some routines going, like what you wear, what you do when you wake up, what you eat, how you take care of your life. The more of these that are decided, and you don’t have to think about, the more you’ll have mental energy for the things that matter.
Don’t overthink the little things: If something can be easily recovered from, just make a simple, easy decision and move on. Don’t waste a bunch of brain cycles stuck in indecision about these things. Save that for things that have bigger consequences. Batch these little decisions together as well, so you’re not constantly switching between things.

Despite me calling these “enemies”, these three things don’t really need to be vilified. They’re just a part of living in this modern world.

But they do have something in common: they take up the space of clarity in our minds.

Overcommitment fills up our time, unprocessed emotions crowd our inner space, and decision fatigue crowds our mental bandwidth.

Clarity is something we uncover when we make room for it.

Working from Calm

Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

When I was in my 20s, I really tried to be as productive as I could — and that usually meant rushing through things, pressuring myself to do more, and acting from a sense of urgency.

I think this is how most of us are trained, culturally:

Productivity = urgency, pressure, rushing, have to perform well

But as many of us have discovered, urgency isn’t a great environment for creating, doing things with a sense of purpose and a longer vision. It’s also not great for our mental or physical health, if we’re always in that mode.

So what if our best work didn’t come from urgency, but from settling into a deeper calm?

Calm Work, in Practice

Calm isn’t a passive, disengaged, lazy way of being (despite cultural messages to the contrary) — it’s a sense of presence.

It’s actually a high-performance state — our nervous system is relaxed and regulated, our attention is clear, and we can act from a non-reactive state.

Calm also doesn’t mean no urgency ever — sometimes we have to work with urgency, but we can still come from a grounded calm as we do so.

So here’s how it might look in practice:

You start work with intention, not just rushing into the urgent stuff.
You sit with a difficult task, and breathe, instead of running to something easier.
You bring curiosity to something that you might feel fear around — exploring, not just reacting to the fear.
Mistakes and setbacks are handled with grace, instead of letting them destabilize you. You learned something — it’s not a judgment of who you are.
You move through the day with a more relaxed state, so you’re not so drained by the end of it.

How does that sound? Easier said than done, I know!

How to Cultivate Calm Work

This takes practice, of course.

Start each day with a pause at the threshold of your work — don’t just jump in. Let yourself begin with a quiet, intentional moment.

Choose one meaningful piece of work to focus on.

Build a small “settling ritual” that you can come back to during the day — a few breaths, a short walk, a cup of tea that you make and enjoy slowly.

Notice when you start to slip into urgency and reactivity — and give yourself a bit of grace to not do any of this perfectly. Come back to the settling ritual.

And then finish your day with a calm moment of reflection — journal, and acknowledge where you got off track and where you brought intentional calm into your life.

This is not just a productivity strategy. It’s not about optimizing our lives. It’s about creating a different relationship with ourselves, and the work that we find meaningful.

This is about trusting ourselves, and giving ourselves access to the grounded calm that we crave.

How to Find Your Signal in the Noise

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Our lives are filled with so many inputs, it can all just feel like noise — emails, messages, tasks, meetings, news, social media and more. We get overwhelmed, and often shut down or avoid.

Too many priorities, too much information, too many inputs, too much noise.

The secret is to find the signal in all this noise.

The noise is everything that feels urgent, or all the incoming stuff. It can make us reactive when we’re acting on the noise.

The signal is the stuff that actually matters. It’s the stuff that will move the needle, make the impact you want, move the important things forward in a meaningful way.

We need to get good at distinguishing this if we want to deal with overwhelm, and be less reactive.

So how do we distinguish the signal from the noise?

Let’s take a look.

Criteria for Finding the Signal

There’s no right answer here, but here are some ways I look for signal in all of the noise …

What would move forward my most important things?
What would I regret ignoring?
What keeps surfacing when I get quiet?

And this last one is what I highly recommend — practicing a little stillness every day. It can be daily meditation, but it could also be just pausing for a minute or two, closing your eyes, breathing in slowly, and relaxing. Listening.

In this kind of stillness and quiet, the signal becomes clearer.

How to Practice

Question 1 above (moving forward your most important things) requires you to know what’s most important. So I recommend a little stillness every few months, for an hour or two, to get clear on your priorities. They might shift over the course of a year, so check back in every 3 months or so.

Then do a weekly “signal check”: 10 minutes at the start of the week to ask what’s really important for this week. Write those down, schedule them if you can.

I highly recommend doing a daily stillness practice, either at the start of the day or at the end (or both!) to keep the signal visible. What’s important for today, in all the noise?

And during the course of the day, if you’re overwhelmed or feeling reactive … just take a moment to calm yourself, re-center, and get clear on your signal with just a moment of stillness.

Clarity isn’t found in more information — it’s found in letting ourselves relax into stillness, and finding the signal of what really matters.

The Hidden Cost of Rushing Through Everything

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

A lot of us rush through our day, our tasks, our emails and messages … because of a sense of being behind on everything. This is fine, but there’s a hidden cost that I call “Life Debt.”

In programming, there’s a concept called “tech debt” … basically, it’s the idea that when you take the shortcuts now, you owe some work later to make things the way they actually should be done. Every programmer does it — no one does things exactly as they should be as they go, but instead do things the short way now and come back later to complete the job.

This is what we’re doing in our lives as well. We’re accumulating Life Debt when we rush through the day, leaving little things unfinished, not put away, or in a mess because of our hurry.

That’s OK! No one is going to slowly do every single piece of maintenance or clean up needed, every minute of the day. It would take too long. But we should acknowledge the debt.

Let’s get into it.

What Does Life Debt Look Like?

There’s an infinite variety … but here are some examples of Life Debt:

Getting ready: You shower, get dressed, do all the things to get ready … but leave things on the bathroom counter or floor in your rush to get out the door. The debt is the mess to be cleaned up later.
Cooking: You’re rushing to cook a meal, leaving measuring spoons, measuring cups, a cutting board and knife, pots and pans … all dirty and all over the kitchen. Along with a mess of spilled food in different places. Instead of cleaning as you go, the mess piles up … and needs to be cleaned up later.
Eating: You eat your meal, and put the dishes in the sink. You don’t have time to clean up now, so you need to clean it up later.
Checking email: You read an email, don’t want to deal with it now, so you leave it for later. You do that with a dozen emails, leaving them to deal with later.
Meetings and calls: When you’re done with a meeting, you rush to the next thing to do … but you don’t have time to type out a few notes or add tasks to your task list. You’ll do it later.
Leaving little things around: As you rush through your office or home, you leave things here and there. You might not even notice. But they’ll be sitting there, waiting to be put where they belong at some point in the future — later that day, or even months later!
Papers to deal with: You open some mail, and it’s something you need to deal with but don’t have time. You leave it lying on a pile of other papers that need to be dealt with.
Open browser tabs: Your browser has a couple dozen tabs open, all things to be dealt with at some point, but you don’t have time to go through and deal with each one.

You get the point — this is everywhere. Files on your computer desktop, things piling up in your garage, a kitchen counter or table piled with things to be dealt with.

This is Life Debt. It’s a part of living, but it’s worth thinking about.

How to Deal with Life Debt

So what can we do about all of this? It’s important to note that this isn’t something to feel guilt or shame about, or to use to judge ourselves — it’s a part of life.

The question is: what’s a good amount of Life Debt that allows you to move through life at a reasonable pace … and what’s so much that it causes problems or too much stress?

There’s not a right answer for everyone.

For me, here’s what I try to do to deal with this:

Go slower, and put more space betwen things. OK, I’m far from perfect at this. But I realize that my life feels much less stressful and messy when I put a little more space between meetings and activities, and have more time for a little maintenance. I try not to rush between things (though I often do rush).
Pause before I move on, and complete things. I have a phrase “Complete the moment” that’s been helping me to pause and notice what needs to be done before I move on. For example, do I need to put away my clothes instead of leaving them lying around? Do I need to wash a dish or wipe the counter clean?
When I have some time, I’ll go around and clean up. Things that are out of place … I pick them up and put them away. If I find a mess and have a minute, I’ll clean it up.
If I don’t have time, I try to note it to be done later. Sometimes, I’d like to take care of something but don’t have time … I try to note it somewhere so I don’t forget. Ideally, I block it off on my calendar or put it on my todo list, even if it’s something like “Return the robot vacuum for a refund” or “change air filter.”
I have “catch-all” systems. Some things need to be cleared out regularly, so I try to find ways to make sure things are cleared out. For me, that’s usually weekly — I have days to clear out my read-later list in Instapaper, clear out my browser tabs, reorganize my todo list. I often have daily things — I clean the kitchen, clear out my email, and make sure my personal spaces are tidy by the end of each day.

I will say that I’m not perfect with any of this — that’s not what this is about. It’s worth exploring the ways that work for each of us, so that we don’t get weighted down too much by the messy debt we’re accumulating.

Daily Quote

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ancient Wisdom on How to Not Take Things Personally

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

It happens: sometimes a comment from someone else can just ruin your day, or a message that feels hurtful can send you spiraling.

The sting feels personal, and you might replay this offense in your mind over and over. It’s such a human reaction.

Today I’m going to share wisdom from three ancient philosophies — Buddhism, Stoicism, and the Toltecs — that can help to not take things so personally. As we practice this, our day becomes a bit more peaceful, and we become less shut down.

What makes these teachings so powerful — and not so easy to implement — is that they demand we let go of something important: the idea that how others talk about us or treat us has some reflection on our worth as a person. This idea is not a fact, but a concept we assume. And letting it go can be liberating.

The Second Agreement

Don Miguel Ruiz, trained in the spiritual tradition of the Toltecs, wrote a book called, “The Four Agreements,” in which the second agreement is “Don’t take anything personally.”

He teaches that nothing other people do is because of you, but because of themselves — and the reality they’re living in, in their own heads.

Taking things personally, then, is rooted in what he calls “personal importance” — the assumption that everything is about you. What a strange assumption we make!

He adds that when we take something personally, we’re basically taking someone else’s “emotional garbage” and making it our own.

If we practice not taking things personally, we don’t have to place our trust in what others do or say — but rather trust ourselves to make responsible choices. We’re only responsible for our own actions, not those of others. This gives us the freedom to move through the world without being wounded by the opinions or judgments of other people.

How to practice:

Write this agreement down, stick it somewhere visible. Build awareness of when you’re taking something personally, by noticing when you’re feeling offended.
Journal about it, even for just 5 minutes a day, and note how it made you feel. Don’t focus on what the other person said or did.
Use a mantra to remind you, like “This isn’t about me” or “They’re doing their best.”
When you notice yourself getting triggered, pause. Breathe. Remind yourself of the mantra. Bring some curiosity to what they’re saying.

The practice takes time, dropping this old habit isn’t easy at all, because when we’re caught up in it, it feels really true. Over time, it feels less true.

Buddhism: There’s No Self to Attack

In Buddhism, one of the main teachings is that the way we see ourselves (as separate and unchanging) is an illusion of the mind. This is a deep topic that can take a lifetime to study.

But the practical application can be simpler: If someone is criticizing you, they’re not really criticizing you … they’re criticizing their mistaken idea of you. And there’s not really a “you” to defend!

When we understand that a person’s words and actions are a reflection of all of their life’s history and conditioning, and the stress they’re under right now, we might also have some compassion for them when they behave less-than-ideally. We might shift from, “Why are you doing this to me?” to “What pain are you going through?”

And once we realize that this self-importance we usually have is an illusion created in our own minds … we can also see that it’s our own decision whether we take something personally or not. That gives us a sense of empowerment, in the face of someone else’s words and actions.

Stoics:

The Stoics had lots of useful things to say on this topic, but for today I’ll just focus on one of my favorites, Epictetus.

He advised asking: “Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?” Other people’s thoughts, feelings, words and actions are not in our control. And so he advised the reaction, “Then it’s none of my concern.”

Taking things out of your control as your concern will only create misery.

Epictetus also wrote that whether or not we’re harmed by what others say is up to us — if we choose to be harmed, then we are.

“It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting”.

How to practice:

Pause before reacting — don’t respond impulsively to the impression you get from someone else. This allows reason to come back online before emotions take over.
If someone speaks ill of you, instead of defending yourself, you can answer, “You must be ignorant of my other faults, or you wouldn’t speak of that one fault alone.” This allows humor to take the sting out of criticism.
Take in feedback: if there’s someone giving you feedback whose opinion you value, don’t ignore that feedback, but see what you can learn from it.

Epictetus, like Don Miguel Ruiz and the Buddhists, helps you to place control squarely back in your own hands.

Simplify Your Browser Tabs

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

How many tabs do you think are open in your browser right now? Most people have more than 10 open at once, and probably just as common is to have 20+ tabs open. It can be overwhelming!

I’m no stranger to this myself — I will often open a bunch of tabs while researching, taking action on things, reading casually, working on a project. And they become a big mix of tabs, often across multiple browser windows.

But I find I work best when I put things in their place, and simplify my open tabs.

The biggest obstacle to simplifying tabs is that we need the information in the tabs, so we can’t just close them … but we’re also not clear on where to store that info.

So simplifying comes down to 2 things:

Get clear on what you need to do with the info — is it an article to read later, a video to watch later, some references you need for a project, a task you need to do (like pay a bill)?
Have a place for each of those categories of info.
Most people don’t do the first step, and are just as unclear about where to store things.

Here are some examples of places to store things:

Read later: If it’s an article to read later, save it to a read-later service. There are a handful of good ones: I use Instapaper, but Readwise Reader is also a good choice. I open Instapaper on my phone when I have some time to read articles. For books I want to read later, I just keep a reading list in my note-taking app (currently Obsidian).
Watch later: I’ve been using Raindrop to save tabs for later — including videos that I want to watch later (I tag the videos “towatch”). Then when I have time, I just open that list and watch away.
Action items: Often tabs will represent actions you need to take, so you can’t just close the tabs … so I add them to my task manager (currently Todoist) with a link to the tab in the task notes.
Notes to save: Sometimes, I just want to keep a couple bits of info from a tab for later reference. For example, maybe there’s a good health tip, or a bit of ancient wisdom that I find valuable … so I copy that paragraph and save it to my note-taking app (again, Obsidian). I have notes for saving tips on health, wisdom, finances, etc.
Reference items for projects: Sometimes, tabs are meant for a project I’m working on, but I don’t need them at this moment. So I will either bookmark them in Raindrop with a tag for that project … or copy the links into a task in Todoist.

That probably covers most kinds of tabs we have open, but you might have different needs. Categorize them, and find a place for them!

Overcoming the Feeling of Not Being Good Enough

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

There are many of us who’ve been living for decades with the belief or feeling that we’re not good enough.

It’s such a fundamental belief that we don’t even realize it — but we feel it.

It’s in our ever-present anxiety — if I’m not good enough, then I’m going to fail, I’m going to be show to be inadequate.

It’s in our hiding and avoidance, in our defensiveness, in our trying to please or impress others, in our self-criticism and resentment of ourselves and others.

It’s the fundamental belief and view that we experience life through.

So how do we overcome this nagging feeling that we’re not good enough, reinforced over so many years?

We have to reject the question.

The question might be, “How do I prove to myself that I’m good enough?”

This question is flawed. Reject it completely.

It’s based on some idea that we need to be good enough to be worthy to be loved. That we need to perform good enough to feel worthy. That someone will judge us (or has the right to judge us).

Reject all of this.

Instead, embrace the idea that there isn’t anything to prove. There isn’t any idea of “good enough.”

A tree, for example, doesn’t have to prove its worth, or prove that it’s good enough. It just exists.

We can do the same — just exist, and live life exactly as we are. Explore, be curious, play, learn, love, be generous to others. Or not! There’s no right way to be yourself.

When you find yourself caught in the “not good enough” mindset — reject it, and see that there’s no need for this lens of viewing life. Drop below it to the fundamental goodness of everything.

On Reducing Sweets or Alcohol

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Lately I have been eating very few sweets, and not drinking alcohol (for a few months). To be fair, I wasn’t drinking a ton of alcohol before that (maybe a few drinks a week) and while I do have a big sweet tooth, I didn’t have sweets all day long or anything.

The changes have been positive in my life — I don’t think sugar or alcohol are evil or anything, but I don’t really miss them, and I think abstaining has made me healthier. It’s definitely helped me to see I don’t need these substances as crutches to deal with stress or feel enjoyment out of life.

If you’re interested in cutting back on either of these (you don’t have to, of course), I’ll share a few tips:

Slow reduction — for me, it really helped to cut sweets down to 1-2 times a week at first. Same for alcohol. It became something I could have, but don’t really do often.
Sobriety — someone I care about was going sober (for reasons) … so I decided to join them out of support, and because I think alcohol isn’t very healthy for me. I made a promise to them to stay sober, and that’s really helped me.
Losing weight — I’ve been cutting back on calories the last few months, and tracking those calories really shows me that eating sweets is a big chunk of my calorie budget without adding in any nutrients. I decided to prioritize things that actually give me nutrients for the calories, and that has helped me see why sweets were a waste (for me).
Cravings happen — it’s true, I sometimes crave having a beer or a cocktail. It’s a temporary craving, and isn’t that big of a deal. I just let myself crave for a couple minutes, and then move on.
Dealing with stress — I used to use sweets or alcohol as coping mechanisms for stress. Now I use breathing, stretching and exercise. So much better!
Pleasure in life — for me, sweets and alcohol were ways to enjoy life … but I realized that there are so many other ways to get pleasure out of life! I read, I spend time with others, I exercise, I enjoy nature, I play, I reflect on the wonders all around me.

I hope these help!

The Magic of Putting Yourself at Choice

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

Far more than we might realize, we often forget that we are choosing everything about how we’re living life. From how we spend our time, our money, our energy, our emotions, our attention … to how we eat, move, work, and love … we choose it all.

And yet, it often feels like we’re not choosing — consider these common things we say:

“I can’t help it — they just push my buttons.”
“I can’t seem to get myself to exercise regularly.”
“I don’t know how to stop scrolling on my phone.”
“I’m so mad at myself for eating all that junk food again.”
“I’m so undisciplined — I can’t stick to anything.”
“I don’t have the time to do ___.”
“Ugh, I keep buying too many unnecessary things!”

These are just a few examples — we don’t feel we’re at choice. That’s because we forget that everything we do and feel is a choice we keep making.

What would it be like to reclaim our power, and be fully at choice?

It can be magical.

Why We Forget We’re at Choice

It becomes a habit, created over years of practice, to forget that we’re at choice in every moment of our lives.

But we do it because being fully at choice, being fully responsible, is scary. It’s hard. It feels vulnerable.

It feels safer to not be at choice — to see it as other people’s fault, or see it as life just happening to me.

And so we turn to this disempowered view out of habit.

Interestingly … this habit doesn’t actually get rid of the fear and difficulty. Being at the mercy of everything and everyone else is not fun at all, and very scary. We just don’t realize we’re making the choice to be at the mercy of things outside of ourselves.

What Can Happen When We Start Choosing

But let’s say we decide we’re going to choose. “I decide this is what I’m going to do today, how I’m going to show up for conversations, how I’ll react when someone insults me, how I’ll set and honor my boundaries.”

What happens can be very magical:

We feel more empowered, excited, inspired, motivated.
We realize we can also choose not to do something, which can give us more space.
We realize we can stop choosing to make ourselves feel bad about things.
Our lives can become a deeper expression of ourselves.

When we choose, we are creating the world around us, from our hearts. We choose how we want to experience the world, how we want to interpret the words and actions of others, how we view each moment, what we pay attention to.

This is magic.

The Need for Radical Honest & Responsibility

The way to come into choice in our lives is to be fully honest with ourselves. This isn’t easy — it requires a willingness to look in the mirror with courage, letting our judgment come up but not dwelling on that judgment.

Start by owning the places where you feel not at choice — where does it feel like it’s other people’s fault? Where are you judging or resenting others? Where does it feel like things are happening to you, and you feel powerless?

These aren’t places where you’re doing something wrong — like you shouldn’t be like this. They’re just places to notice.

Now ask yourself: what is the identity that I’m holding onto, by promoting the idea that I’m powerless? It might be the idea that you’re a martyr, a victim, a blameless good person, an exhausted person who is just trying their best but no one appreciates them, a powerful person who lives in a world of losers who don’t get it, etc. etc.

This self-view can be really hard to see, so it helps to have someone else help you see it. If you’d like to do coaching work with me, get in touch.

The next step is to take responsibility — you’re the one who has created this identity. You might not have realized you did, and you’re not bad for doing it — it was a protection mechanism at some point. By now, it’s just habit — you can’t even see it, because it just feels like reality.

If you created it, taking responsibility is deciding if you want to stay that way. If so, great. You’re at choice. If you don’t want to stay that way, then you’re also at choice — you can choose to let go of that identity and choose how you want to show up, how you react to others, how you view others and yourself, what you want to create in your life and in the world.

This is powerful, but not at all easy. It requires work — beautiful, magical, deep work.

Bringing Awareness & Remembering

Once you’ve been honest with yourself, and decided to take responsibility … the hardest part can often be remembering to be aware of it all. We have old habits that we default to, and forget to practice with this deeper layer.

The practice is to become more and more aware. Notice when you’re pointing the finger, or feel powerless. We don’t want to notice we feel powerless, because we don’t like to admit it to ourselves. Just notice where you can.

You can remind yourself to notice as well — put sticky notes in different places, or objects where you’ll see them. Create a wallpaper for your computer or the lock screen of your phone that will remind you. When you see these reminders, stop and notice where you feel like you’re not at choice, and what identity you’re holding on to by choosing to feel that way.

Then ask yourself, “If I let go of that identity, how can I be at choice?”

It’s a powerful, scary and magical question to ask yourself.

Put Yourself 100 Percent Into One Thing

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By Leo Babauta

When we go through our day doing so many things, our minds are rarely fully on any of them. We’re thinking about all the other things we have to do, or what that one person said, or worrying about something coming up, or just distracted by technology.

What if you could put all of your attention on one thing at a time? What would that shift in how you experience each thing, and your day in general?

In one of his classic articles, the late Thich Nhat Hanh wrote:

“If you are cutting carrots, you should invest one hundred percent of yourself into the business of carrot-cutting. Nothing else.”

Wow. How many of us do that?

He added:

“Live deeply that moment of carrot-cutting. It is as important as the practice of sitting meditation. … When you cut the carrot with all of your being, that is mindfulness.”

I’ve been coming back to this mindfulness practice, and finding it incredible (and challenging!).

If you try it, I want to remind you that the purpose isn’t to “do it right” or to be a better person. It’s to practice being fully present, and fully alive.

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote:

“The principle of the practice is simple: to bring our minds back to our bodies, to produce our true presence, and to become fully alive.”