How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours

By Leo Babauta So many of us feel a scarcity of time: we feel rushed, like there’s not enough time to do everything, always behind, never feeling like we’re doing enough. This problem is called “time scarcity,” and it’s one of the most common stresses in our society. So how do we deal with this? Unfortunately, there’s...

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A Quick Guide to Planning Your Year

By Leo Babauta The beginning of the year offers such a beautiful blank slate. A fresh beginning is something to take advantage of: we can start anew, and reinvent our lives. If you’re feeling like you’re in a bit of a rut, this is the perfect time to make the most of this year’s blank slate. In this post,...

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Essential Zen Habits of 2021

By Leo Babauta This was quite the year of change for Zen Habits, and everyone in the world. Chaos, growth, uncertainty, tragedy, joy, meaning. It’s hard to encapsulate it in words, because it contains multitudes and contradictions, but this has been such a year of powerful change. In this post, I’ll share what this year...

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Slow Holidays

By Leo Babauta For the past couple of Decembers, I’ve created a lot of spaciousness and slowness for myself. It’s a beautiful way to wind down the year and reflect on my life. The holiday season can be a rushed affair for many people, but it doesn’t have to be. I’d like to share a few ideas in slowing things down for the holidays....

Dec 2021

Interstitial Ritual: Finding Focus & Mindfulness in Your Day

By Leo Babauta We will often start our days with the best of intentions … and then promptly get caught up in a chain of busywork, messages, opening browser tabs, checking on things, answering email … … and soon the day has gone by and we wonder what we did with the day. There’s a simple practice that can shift that in...

Dec 2021

Using the Pandemic as Mental Training Ground

By Leo Babauta This neverending pandemic hasn’t been the best mental health environment for many people — it has created raised levels of uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, unhappiness, procrastination and feelings of dreariness for large numbers of people. That’s understandable, and I feel tremendous compassion for everyone who...

Nov 2021

Energy Depletion & the Practice of Relaxing Our Threat Detector

By Leo Babauta I’ve been working with a large number of people who are very often exhausted, not just from sleep problems but from their daily activities. A lot of us are drained by being around other people, doing video meetings, going out in public … and so we start to avoid those activities to preserve our energy. ...

Nov 2021

Practicing with Zero

By Leo Babauta When we’re creating a habit — say, meditation or practicing a language — we often try to encourage ourselves by creating an unbroken streak. 100 straight days of meditation! 30 straight days of practicing Chinese! These are amazing accomplishments, and we should let ourselves feel encouraged when we have...

Nov 2021

Everything is a Practice

By Leo Babauta I have a client who has completely changed his life — it’s been a complete transformation, and it is breathtaking. One of the most powerful things he’s brought into his life is the practice of self-compassion. It changed everything, once he started bringing this into what he did. But one of the next most...

Nov 2021

Tackling Hard Tasks

By Leo Babauta Generally we avoid hard tasks, putting them off while we either do easier tasks or distract ourselves. This is understandable, as a hard task might feel daunting or overwhelming, but spending our hours on urgent but easy tasks vs. difficult but important tasks is generally a costly choice. So let’s talk for a minute...

Oct 2021