“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” - Arnold Toynbee

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.

I’m lucky — I’ve found my passion, and I’m living it. I can testify that it’s the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love.

And so, in this little guide, I’d like to help you get started figuring out what you’d love doing. This turns out to be one of the most common problems of many Zen Habits readers — including many who recently responded to me on Twitter.

This will be the thing that will get you motivated to get out of bed in the morning, to cry out, “I’m alive! I’m feeling this, baby!”. And to scare your family members or anyone who happens to be in yelling distance as you do this.

This guide won’t be comprehensive, and it won’t find your passion for you. But it will help you in your journey to find it.

Here’s how.

1. What are you good at? Unless you’re just starting out in life, you have some skills or talent, shown some kind of aptitude. Even if you are just starting out, you might have shown some talent when you were young, even as young as elementary school. Have you always been a good writer, speaker, drawer, organizer, builder, teacher, friend? Have you been good at ideas, connecting people, gardening, selling? Give this some thought. Take at least 30 minutes, going over this question — often we forget about things we’ve done well. Think back, as far as you can, to jobs, projects, hobbies. This could be your passion. Or you may have several things. Start a list of potential candidates.

2. What excites you? It may be something at work — a little part of your job that gets you excited. It could be something you do outside of work — a hobby, a side job, something you do as a volunteer or a parent or a spouse or a friend. It could be something you haven’t done in awhile. Again, think about this for 30 minutes, or 15 at the least. If you don’t, you’re probably shortchanging yourself. Add any answers to your list.

3. What do you read about? What have you spent hours reading about online? What magazines do you look forward to reading? What blogs do you follow? What section of the bookstore do you usually peruse? There may be many topics here — add them to the list.

4. What have you secretly dreamed of? You might have some ridiculous dream job you’ve always wanted to do — to be a novelist, an artist, a designer, an architect, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a programmer. But some fear, some self-doubt, has held you back, has led you to dismiss this idea. Maybe there are several. Add them to the list — no matter how unrealistic.

5. Learn, ask, take notes. OK, you have a list. Pick one thing from the list that excites you most. This is your first candidate. Now read up on it, talk to people who’ve been successful in the field (through their blogs, if they have them, or email). Make a list of notes of things you need to learn, need to improve on, skills you want to master, people to talk to. Study up on it, but don’t make yourself wait too long before diving into the next step.

6. Experiment, try. Here’s where the learning really takes place. If you haven’t been already, start to do the thing you’ve chosen. Maybe you already are, in which case you might be able to skip to the next step or choose a second candidate to try out. But if you haven’t been, start now — just do it. It can be in the privacy of your own home, but as quickly as possible, make it public however you can. This motivates you to improve, it gets you feedback, and your reputation will improve as you do. Pay attention to how you feel doing it — is it something you look forward to, that gets you excited, that you love to share?

7. Narrow things down. I recommend that you pick 3-5 things from your list, if it’s longer than that, and do steps 5 & 6 with them. This could take month, or perhaps you’ve already learned about and tried them all out. So now here’s what you need to ask yourself: which gets you the most excited? Which of these can produce something that people will pay for or get excited about? Which can you see yourself doing for years (even if it’s not a traditional career path)? Pick one, or two at the most, and focus on that. You’re going to do the next three steps with it: banish your fears, find the time, and make it into a career if possible. If it doesn’t work out, you can try the next thing on your list — there’s no shame in giving something a shot and failing, because it’ll teach you valuable lessons that will help you to be successful in the next attempt.

8. Banish your fears. This is the biggest obstacle for most people – self-doubt and fear of failure. You’re going to face it and banish it. First, acknowledge it rather than ignoring or denying it. Second, write it down, to externalize it. Third, feel it, and be OK with having it. Fourth, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Usually it’s not catastrophic. Fifth, prepare yourself for doing it anyway, and then do it. Take small steps, as tiny as possible, and forget about what might happen — focus on what actually is happening, right now. And then celebrate your success, no matter how small.

9. Find the time. Don’t have the time to pursue this passion? Make the time, dammit! If this is a priority, you’ll make the time — rearrange your life until you have the time. This might mean waking earlier, or doing it after work or during lunch, or on weekends. It will probably mean canceling some commitments, simplifying your work routing or doing a lot of work in advance (like you’re going on a vacation). Do what it takes.

10. How to make a living doing it. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, be passionate about it. This could take months or years, but if you’re having fun, that’s what’s most important. When you get to the point where someone would pay you for it, then you’re golden — there are many ways to make a living at that point, including doing freelance or consulting work, making information products such as ebooks, writing a blog and selling advertising. In fact, I recommend you do a blog if you’re not already — it’ll help solidify your thinking, build a reputation, find people who are interested in what you do, demonstrate your knowledge and passion.

I told you this wouldn’t be easy. It’ll require a lot of reflection and soul-searching, at first, then a lot of courage and learning and experimentation, and finally a lot of commitment.

But it’s all worth it — every second, every ounce of courage and effort. Because in the end, you’ll have something that will transform your life in so many ways, will give you that reason to jump out of bed, will make you happy no matter how much you make.

I hope you follow this guide and find success, because I wish on you nothing less than finding your true passion.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius

If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter. Comments? @zen_habits me.

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On mnmlist: Learn to love less

“The shortest answer is doing.” - Lord Herbert

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Too often we get stuck in inaction — the quagmire of doubt and perfectionism and distractions and planning that stops us from moving forward.

And while I’m no proponent of a whirling buzz of activity, I also believe people get lost in the distractions of the world and lose sight of what’s important, and how to actually accomplish their Something Amazing.

And so today I’d like to humbly present a few little rules of action — just some small reminders, things I’ve found useful but by no means invented, common-sense stuff that is often not common enough.

1. Don’t overthink. Too much thinking often results in getting stuck, in going in circles. Some thinking is good — it’s good to have a clear picture of where you’re going or why you’re doing this — but don’t get stuck thinking. Just do.
2. Just start. All the planning in the world will get you nowhere. You need to take that first step, no matter how small or how shaky. My rule for motivating myself to run is: Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. The rest takes care of itself.
3. Forget perfection. Perfectionism is the enemy of action. Kill it, immediately. You can’t let perfect stop you from doing. You can turn a bad draft into a good one, but you can’t turn no draft into a good draft. So get going.
4. Don’t mistake motion for action. A common mistake. A fury of activity doesn’t mean you’re doing anything. When you find yourself moving too quickly, doing too many things at once, this is a good reminder to stop. Slow down. Focus.
5. Focus on the important actions. Clear the distractions. Pick the one most important thing you must do today, and focus on that. Exclusively. When you’re done with that, repeat the process.
6. Move slowly, consciously. Be deliberate. Action doesn’t need to be done fast. In fact, that often leads to mistakes, and while perfection isn’t at all necessary, neither is making a ridiculous amount of mistakes that could be avoided with a bit of consciousness.
7. Take small steps. Biting off more than you can chew will kill the action. Maybe because of choking, I dunno. But small steps always works. Little tiny blows that will eventually break down that mountain. And each step is a victory, that will compel you to further victories.
8. Negative thinking gets you nowhere. Seriously, stop doing that. Self doubt? The urge to quit? Telling yourself that it’s OK to be distracted and that you can always get to it later? Squash those thoughts. Well, OK, you can be distracted for a little bit, but you get the idea. Positive thinking, as corny as it sounds, really works. It’s self-talk, and what we tell ourselves has a funny habit of turning into reality.
9. Meetings aren’t action. This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings!
10. Talking (usually) isn’t action. Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.
11. Planning isn’t action. Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.
12. Reading about it isn’t action. You’re reading an article about action. Ironic, I know. But let this be the last one. Now get to work!
13. Sometimes, inaction is better. This might be the most ironic thing on the list, but really, if you find yourself spinning your wheels, or you find you’re doing more harm than good, rethink whether the action is even necessary. Or better yet, do this from the beginning — is it necessary? Only do the action if it is.

“Talk doesn’t cook rice.” - Chinese Proverb

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Read more about simple productivity in my book, The Power of Less.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Annabel Candy of Get In the Hot Spot.

Did you know that moving house can be one of the most stressful times in your life? It’s right up there with losing your job, divorce or the death of a loved one, as one of the biggest causes of stress.

I’ve been there. In 2007 my husband and I sold our house along with most of our belongings and moved from New Zealand to Panama with our three young kids. We ended up spending 18 months in Central America and lived in Costa Rica for over a year during which time we moved house three times.

Moving house was easier in Costa Rica, because by then we’d got rid of most of our possessions and had less to cart around with us. We got good at giving things away, selling them or just chucking out all that rubbish that clutters up our lives.

Moving out of our home in New Zealand was the big one. I certainly felt the stress could come but managed to change that pressure into a buzz so I could enjoy the excitement of change and new beginnings. In the end moving house and countries was a fun way to declutter our lives.

Tips for a stress free move:

1. Get organised in advance. If you leave everything until the last minute it will be stressful. We sold our house five months before we left and then rented it back from the new owner. That way we could relax with the cash in our bank account and not worry about how we were going to finance the move.

2. Start selling non-essential items three months before you leave. Clutter and things you don’t use much build up in any house, especially if you have kids. You’ll find that there are plenty of things you can off-load two or three months before your move. Stuff like toys, tools, kitchen equipment, many clothes and everything that’s broken, or that you never use but have been saving for a rainy day.

3. Organise your personal belongings and paperwork. Get a concertina folder for essential documents like passports, birth certificates, and other certificates and keep them all together. Sort out your personal photos – put them in albums and chuck out all the blurred and boring ones. Give all the kids a memory box – a shoe box will be about the right size for them to keep all their school reports, photos, pictures and keep sakes in. Keep the box small – they will fill it!

4. Maximise this opportunity to minimalise. There’s no point in keeping too much stuff if you’re making a big move. Sending it overseas may cost more than replacing it and this is the ideal time to become more minimalist and get rid of all the possessions that are compromising your freedom. Make a list of everything you want to sell but need to keep until you leave: furniture and big electrical items such as the fridge, washing machine, stereo and dryer.

Write an email with title, description and price. Just sell everything for half what you bought it for. Remember, you want to get rid of it. Now email this to all friends and colleagues who live nearby. I predict a feeding frenzy. Print out the email, ask people to commit to buying something and add their name by the item. Ask them to swing by on moving day and pick it up. Simple yet effective and your friends will be delighted.

5. Have a huge garage sale for smaller items. Think of it as being paid to clean out your house and declutter your life. Again, remember to sell everything for a low price because your main aim is to get rid of stuff. If you’re not comfortable making money from selling your old clothes, toys, crockery and books then mention in the garage sale ad that all proceeds will go to a worthy cause, like Guampedia or your favourite charity.

By now your house, cupboards and garage should be looking nice and empty which will make cleaning easier. Don’t pack or store any breakables unless they have sentimental value or are not replaceable. Things like crockery and glasses can be picked up when you get there.

6. Packing. You can start packing up things you’re taking early too. Buy a big roll of bubble wrap, masking tape, cardboard corners for pictures and some tea-chests from removal company then pack a few things each night or blitz the lot in one day.

Give the kids one small box each for toys they want to keep. This will focus them on not over-packing and on getting rid of everything they don’t need any more. Tell them you’ll use some of the proceeds from selling their old stuff to fund a great family outing from your new home.

7. Moving day. When your friends come round to collect all the stuff they bought offer them all the crockery and glasses you needed until the last moment. If they don’t want it ask them to drop it off at a charity shop for you. They’ll be so pleased with the great deals they got from you they’ll be happy to oblige. Finally have a good clean up or use some of your garage sale money to hire a cleaner.

Boom! You’re out of there.

With less clutter tying you down, the world is your oyster. Just imagine if you were really good and got rid of it all, you’d be free as a bird.

If you’re like me you’ll enjoy the process of clearing out and moving house. Plus, it’s great knowing that your friends will think of you every time they open that beautiful old trunk you spent weeks restoring.

So you thought moving would be stressful? No way. Just adopt these zen habits before making a move and debunk the myth that moving house is stressful forever.

Read more from Annabel Candy at her blog, Get In the Hot Spot, a virtual treasure trove of inspiration, information and idiosyncrasies for people who want to live their dream. Or make her day and keep yourself updated on the latest articles, by subscribing to the free RSS feed.

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” - Albert Einstein

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Very often you’ll see blog posts or books teaching you to “master” a skill in only 10 days, or 3 days … in fact, it used to be 30 days but the time frame to master something seems to be shrinking rapidly.

I’ve even seen tutorials claiming to teach a skill in just a few hours. Pretty soon we’ll be demanding to know how to do something in seconds.

Instant mastery of skills and knowledge! Hey presto!

Unfortunately, the reality is something a little less magical. Or maybe that’s a fortunate thing.

There’s only one way to become good at something:

1. First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know how to do it, but most especially by doing.
2. Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but you’ll suck. This stage could take months.
3. Do some more. After a couple of years, you’ll get good at it.
4. Do some more. If you learn from mistakes, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great.

It takes anywhere from 6-10 years to get great at something, depending on how often and how much you do it. Some estimate that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, but I think it varies from person to person and depends on the skill and other factors.

Want to be a great writer? It’s possible to be great within a few years, if you have the God-given talent of Fitzgerald or Shakespeare, but most of us toil for over a decade and are still trying to get better. We’re still learning, to this day, and if we look back on our first few years of writing — of any kind — we’ll tell you we sucked (for the most part) back then.

Want to be a great blogger? Same deal. I’ve been doing it for almost three years, and I’m still only competent. Gruber’s been doing it for, like, 7 years and he’s still only … well, he’s pretty great by now. You have to do it, make mistakes, learn, really begin to understand it, and someday, if you stick with it, you’ll be great.

There’s no one who is great at his profession who hasn’t been doing it for at least 6 years — no designer, no programmer, no carpenter, no architect, no surgeon, no teacher, no musician, no artist … you get the point. I dare you to name one. Most have been doing it for over a decade, and are still looking to improve.

It takes desire, it takes drive, it takes lots and lots of doing.

So here’s the thing: don’t get discouraged if you’re just starting out. Have fun, like we all did in the beginning. If you have fun, you’ll learn to love it, and THAT’S when it clicks. When you love something, you’ll want to do it all the time, sometimes late at night and often, you’ll jump out of bed and want to do it before you move your morning bowels.

THAT’S how you get great. By loving it so much your morning bowel movement takes second seat.

“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.” - George Lucas

Find that desire. Do it, don’t just read about it. Don’t buy a single product or book or magazine that claims to teach you something in minutes, hours, days. They’re lying to your face, with a hand in your pocket at the same time.

Do it, keep doing it, then keep doing it some more. It’s the only way to get great, but the good news: anyone can do it. It just takes some time and some doing. Hey presto.

When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
~Author Unknown

—

On mnmlist: The sweet science of less mail & Simplicity is the path, not just the destination

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Reader Carolyn recently asked, “How can an achievement-motivated workaholic learn to back off, relax, de-stress, and feel good about doing it? I am too driven!”

This is a common problem, and one that has several parts we should look at separately:

1. Being achievement-motivated.
2. Being a workaholic.
3. Learning to relax and de-stress.
4. Learning to feel good about it.

Let’s start by saying that there’s nothing inherently wrong with work — it can be fun, exciting, fulfilling, rewarding. I love my work in a way I never did for most of my life, until a few years ago, and work is one thing I live for, that I jump out of bed each morning to do.

However, the reader recognizes that there’s more to life than work, and that relaxing is important, and that stress is a major problem. When work takes over your life and causes problems — with your relationships, health, happiness — then it’s time to step back and figure out a better way.

Each person needs to figure out what that better way is, and I can’t offer one solution to fit all, but here are some thoughts on the four parts of the problem outlined above.

1. Stop being achievement-motivated.
There’s nothing wrong with achievements or being proud of them — it’s a natural thing to feel good about what you’ve accomplished. But it shouldn’t be the only thing that motivates you.

What’s a better motivation? Doing things you love, creating something great, being with people you love, doing things that are exciting.

If your work is something you love, something that excites you, that’s great. You’re better off than most, actually. But there’s gotta be more — what else gives you joy? Do you have hobbies you love? Do you like doing anything outdoors? Do you have family members or friends you love?

Figure out 4-5 things that truly make you happy and excite you — at least one of them should be a person or persons, and one of the others must be non-work-related. You need some balance in your life.

Get excited about these things, and be motivated by your love for them. If you have a spouse and kids, for example, let your life be motivated with the thought of spending time with them.

2. Stop being a workaholic.
What’s a workaholic? Someone who overdoes work — long hours, can’t stop working even at night, obsessed with work, to the detriment of other parts of his life.

If this is you, you might need help — beyond the help I can give you in an article. You might need to reach out to family members, to a therapist, to a group (online or off). There’s no shame in this — sometimes this is what’s needed to conquer an addiction.

But if you aren’t so far gone, you might be able to implement a few steps to stop from working so much.

First, stop working after a certain time — say 5 or 6 p.m. Make this a hard line: tell your office not to call you after this time, and don’t take your work home. Once the clock hits this time, you’re done for the day. The rest can wait until tomorrow.

Second, don’t check email or do other work-related communication after this point. Turn off the Blackberry or iPhone, even turn off the computer at home, and do something else. Also don’t take your mobile devices to non-work events such as vacations, your kids’ activities, family parties and so forth.

Third, schedule other things into your life. Exercise with a friend after work. Make dates with your partner. Take your kid to soccer practice. Set aside time for a beloved hobby. These things will stop you from working.

This should be good to start you out. The other steps are below, but for now, focus on these three things and be firm about them with yourself. No exceptions!

3. Learn to relax and de-stress.
This should be the easiest step (it’s fun, after all) but for many people it isn’t. There are many ways to relax and de-stress, but we’ll just touch on a couple of points.

First, take it in small steps. If you have a hard time relaxing, you don’t need to take a whole week or a month to do it at first (later, you might want to try this). For now, just try it in 10- or 15-minute increments. You’ll get used to it, and be able to do it for much longer.

Second, schedule a physical activity just about every day. This could be walking or running or cycling or swimming or playing basketball or soccer or whatever. As long as you’re doing something, preferably outdoors if weather permits. Again, just start out with 10 or 15 minutes a day. It might take some experimenting to find an activity you enjoy, so feel free to try out different things.

Third, schedule some solitude. This could be 10 minutes of reading alone, or walking quietly, or relaxing with a hot bath, or meditating. You should do it in silence, alone, with no distractions. A peaceful setting is best, without clutter or people knocking on your door. Ask your co-workers (if it’s at work) or family members (if at home) to please help you out and respect this time of solitude. Slowly stretch it from 10 minutes to 15, 20, 30 and so on until you have 45-60 minutes a day.

4. Learn to feel good about it.
This step is hard to comprehend for those who love relaxing, but for those who have a workaholic mindset, feeling good about relaxing can be tough. This takes a change in mindset.

We have to stop thinking that hard work is the only virtuous way. Sure, hard work is good, but so is being lazy, so is relaxing. We need to give ourselves permission to do this, and to feel good about it.

Relaxing and being lazy are necessary to good health and happiness. Our bodies and minds need to recuperate each day and week, and if we don’t have this downtime eventually something will go wrong: we’ll burn out, ruin our relationships, have deteriorating health. So think of it as a necessity, and a good thing.

Do things that are pleasurable. Forget about all the things you have to do and really be in the moment as you do them. Focus on how enjoyable the activity is, and how great you feel. Breathe deeply and feel the tension leaving you.

Give yourself time. It takes time to learn to enjoy relaxing. You’ll adjust, slowly, gradually. But you need to do it, in small steps, and block out negative thoughts and thoughts of work. Let those thoughts go, and focus on what you’re doing now.

This transformation won’t happen overnight, but it can happen. And it’ll be great.
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A note to my readers who are interested in decluttering their lives:

The fantastic Erin Doland of Unclutterer.com (a must-read blog) has just published a book that I love and think you’ll all enjoy very much: Unclutter Your Life in One Week.

Erin really knows her stuff, and this book will help you to:

• Unclutter your closet
• Learn how to part with sentimental clutter (often the hardest type to get rid of)
• Get ready for the onslaught of holiday guests with tips on how to prepare for guests
• Organize your home
• Organize your office
• Build an effective and personalized filing system
• Get rid of mental distractions

You can order the hardcopy or get the Kindle version. Really essential reading.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary.

“Is that all your stuff?”

While embarking on my current 100+ day sojourn I’ve been asked that question almost daily. Most people take more stuff for a 3 day weekend break than I’ve taken on this long trip.

If you’ve struggled to pack what you need in a carry-on I will show you the light. It’s not difficult and you don’t have to do everything at once. Remember the old cliché, slow and steady wins the race.

1) The first step to minimalist travel is to use a smaller carry-on.

If you don’t have enough room to pack all your stuff you’ll be forced to eliminate the unnecessary.

Personally, I use a 32L backpack, the Deuter Futura 32. If you can’t grasp the small size of a 32 liter pack, it’s about the same volume as most school backpacks.

I also carry a small messenger bag just large enough to fit a paperback book, an iPod, a small bag of almonds, and my Asus Eee 1000HE, a 10″, 3 pound netbook PC.

I can actually fit all of my things in my backpack, but the messenger bag is great to take out while exploring during the day.

The biggest benefit of a backpack vs a rolling carry-on is a backpack is much easier to carry around.

2) No matter how long your trip, pack no more than 3 shirts in neutral colors so everything matches everything else.

This way you never have to think about what to wear. If your shirts, pants, and jacket always match you simply wear whatever is clean.

I have 2 black T shirts, 1 orange T shirt, and 1 pair of khaki colored convertible pants (which I obviously wear on the plane and everywhere else).

In case it gets cold, I also have a black long-sleeved shirt in addition to my black jacket.

As for shoes, 1 pair of black shoes to wear and 1 pair of flip flops (in my case, Vibram FiveFingers) to pack.

Dark colors are also better for visible cleanliness reasons. If you spill sauce on light colored clothing it stands out. Unfortunately I couldn’t find dark colored convertible pants that fit me (I’m 6′5″), so I had to settle on khaki.

3) Multi-use soap minimizes your liquids considerably.

Dr Bronner’s organic fair-trade liquid soap can be used to wash your body, shampoo your hair, brush your teeth, and clean your clothes. Buy it in large bottles and fill smaller 3 ounce airline-approved bottles to pack in your carry-on.

3 ounces of Dr Bronner’s soap lasts me about 4 weeks and yes, I use it for everything.

If Dr Bronner’s isn’t available in your area you have 2 options:

First, check out your local health food store and ask them if they carry organic vegetable based soap. This will be similar to Dr Bronner’s.

Second, every outdoor/camping store I’ve been to carries something called camper’s (or camping) soap. This soap is also a good alternative to Dr Bronner’s.

4) Wash clothes in the sink.

Limiting your clothing to just 3 T-shirts means you’ll have to do laundry every few days. Wash them in the bathroom sink (using Dr Bronner’s or similar soap) and hang them up to dry overnight with an elastic clothesline. A common elastic clothesline is the Rick Steves brand available on Amazon and at most outdoors stores.

Your clothes will be ready by morning. If anything is still slightly damp in the morning wear it anyway as it will dry quickly. Read more: Wash
your clothes in a bag like I do.

5) If worst comes to worst, buy it.

Pack the bare minimum, but be prepared to buy what you need if you forget or can’t pack something. Unless you’re heading to the middle of nowhere, you will be able to find whatever it is you’re looking for.

Travel is supposed to be fun. If you’re bogged down with luggage it can be a real drag. Who likes lugging suitcases up stairs, escalators, elevators, and around town?

Packing light makes travel simple, so you can focus on having a good time, and not on how you’re going to avoid paying airline checked baggage fees. :)

Karol Gajda blogs about Freedom, Health, Travel, and Life at RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com. To read more about his quest to help 100 people achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you like this post, please Digg it!


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Elsewhere:

• On mnmlist: The beauty of small and The 400-word promise

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Great news for you Firefox minimalists: have you always wanted Minimalist Gmail in one click? There’s an extension for that.

After my post on creating a Minimalist Gmail experience using Greasemonkey scripts, programmer and artist Matt Constantine worked hard to create an amazing Firefox extension that did what I was looking for and a lot more: The Minimalist Gmail Firefox Extension.

You can install this extension and not worry about installing Greasemonkey or any of the many user scripts I detailed in my previous post.

This simple extension creates a barely-noticeable label in the top right corner that you click on to give you options to hide:

• The entire Gmail header, including all the links across the top, the Gmail logo, the search box, and other clutter at the top.
• The footer, which is a bunch of small links across the bottom of Gmail.
• All the ads that show up to the right of your email message — hiding ads gives wider screen space to your messages.
• Non-essential things in your sidebar, including the chat box and invite box. If you have other gadgets in your sidebar enabled, you can disable them in Gmail’s settings.
• Almost everything in the Inbox view, including the lines separating messages, buttons along the bottom, most buttons and links across the top.

You decide which elements to hide, but if you check all the options, the result is a very satisfying uncluttered Gmail. The best email program just got beautiful.

For those who normally use the buttons, Matt and I both recommend enabling the keyboard shortcuts and learning them. You can do all the things you do with the buttons, but faster, and it only takes a few minutes to learn them.

If you’re interested in reading more on how I use Gmail, the minimalist way, check out the steps I use at the bottom of my previous post.

I’d like to give a big “thank you” to Matt for creating this extension. Check out his site or follow him on Twitter.

If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Delicious. Thanks my friends.
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Elsewhere:

• On mnmlist: On owning nothing

“There is a meditation exercise in which you place a raisin in your mouth. You do not eat the raisin. You meditate and allow it to sit in your mouth unmolested. The raisin plumps up and becomes a juicy fruitness in your mouth, tempting you to bite it. This is a powerful example of how eating is different when you are truly aware of each morsel.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

When my family and I visited Tokyo earlier this year, it was a bit sad to see the rise of fast food in Japan.

It’s a beautiful country with a rich history of a traditional lifestyle, incredible food, and good health. They’ve perfected the art of food preparation, using the freshest ingredients to create small portions of beautiful dishes.

And while there still aren’t many fat Japanese people, especially compared to the U.S., I’d bet that will change with the insidious growth of fast food restaurants on many a street corner. McDonald’s is prevalent, of course, but so are many other Western food chains and an increasing number of Japanese fast food outlets.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about the Slow Food movement, but I really believe it’s the answer to many of our problems: health and obesity, the hectic and stressful pace of modern life, and the lack of happiness in a complex and often burdensome world.

This is the Anti-Fast Food Diet — a way to not only lose weight and get healthier, but to change your life to one of simplicity, moderation, and joy.

Abandon fast food, and all the values it brings: mass consumption, mass production, the exploitation of workers, the destruction of the environment, the destruction of small local businesses, the corporatization of our culture.

Instead, embrace Slow Food. Here’s how.

1. Stop rushing to eat. Set aside more time for eating, for shopping and preparation, for enjoying life. Stop rushing to fast food places because it’s convenient — because it’s not so convenient to be hospitalized. Instead, make time, and take things a bit slower.
2. Prepare your own meals. I know, who has the time? You do. Make the time, and cook simple meals without a lot of ingredients or preparation time. It takes 10 minutes to whip together a healthy and tasty lunch or dinner. And it can be a lot of fun (get the family or your partner involved). Preparing your own meals is healthier, frugal, and you know you’re eating good food.
3. Eat real food, not processed. Buy fresh ingredients such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, beans, and the like. Use ingredients you can recognize, not things filled with chemicals. Don’t use prepared food if you can avoid it — microwaveable or boxed foods are not the best. Avoid processed food at all costs.
4. Eat slowly and mindfully. Too many people stuff food down their gullets these days. It’s not healthy, and you’ve just consumed food without enjoying it. Instead, take the time to chew your food, to taste it, to be present as you eat.
5. Enjoy the food. Fully savor each bite. Appreciate the miracle of the food you’re eating, and be grateful you have that bite at all.
6. Take time to breathe, and smile. Before you begin to eat, smile, and take a deep breath, reminding yourself to be present and enjoy the food. Between bites, instead of rushing to the next bite, breath, relax, enjoy. Savor the moment.
7. When drinking tea, just drink tea. When eating, just eat. Be fully present. Don’t read a book or surf the net or drive or work or anything else but eat and drink.
8. Good conversation. OK, the exception to the above rule: eating with friends and family. Fast food has destroyed the good meal and conversation, because we’re rushing as we eat and don’t have time for a good talk. Bring it back.
9. When you do eat at a restaurant, make it a good one. Avoid the fast food places, but also the chain restaurants (Chilis, TGI Fridays, Lone Star, Olive Garden, etc). Go to locally owned restaurants where they use real ingredients and really make good food. These may be more expensive, but you’re not supporting a corporation and your food will be better, and even if it means eating out less that’s OK — quality is more important than quantity.

“There are some people who eat an orange but don’t really eat it. They eat their sorrow, fear, anger, past, and future.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

“When you eat with awareness, you find that there is more space, more beauty. You begin to watch yourself, to see yourself, and you notice how clumsy you are or how accurate you are. … So when you make an effort to eat mindfully…, you find that life is worth much more than you had expected.” - Chogyam Trungpa

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If you’re interested in a life of minimalism, check out my new ebook: The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.

Or find more of my other books and ebooks.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

The prevailing way of living in our Western societies is to plan out our lives, both for the long term and on a day-to-day basis.

We have planners and digital calendars that map out our lives, sometimes to the minute. We feel we’re in control, with plans like this.

But it’s an illusion, as I’ve said before.

We cannot control our lives to this degree, no matter how we try. Things will always come up to spoil the best-laid plans, and the more detailed our plans the more of a guarantee that something will go wrong.

And what happens when the plans go wrong? We are stressed out, because things get out of our control and don’t live up to our expectations. This is one of the greatest sources of stress for most people, actually.

Think about how often your days actually go according to plan, exactly — it’s pretty rare, because we have no way of predicting the future. No matter how hard we try. There’s always an email that will disrupt things, a last-minute meeting, cancellations and postponements, emergencies and fires to put out.

So if plans will almost always go wrong, and when they do we get stressed out, isn’t all the time we spend creating the plans a bit of a waste?

But what’s the alternative? Giving yourself to the moment. This will not work for everyone, I’ll admit: there are those who will have a hard time giving up the illusion of control, and others who are controlled by their bosses or peers and cannot work or live this way.

Still, it’s something worth considering. Here’s how to do it — starting with the don’ts:

1. Don’t plan. Planning is an attempt to control the world around us, but it’s a futile attempt. Throw out your plans, for now at least until you’ve decided this method isn’t for you. What do you do instead? More on this below. For now, just stop planning.
2. Don’t worry about the future. Will something bad happen? Are there things coming up that we must anticipate and prepare for? Of course, if there’s a massive hurricane headed your way, you should probably get ready. But otherwise, just realize that the future is unpredictable, and worrying about it is a waste of time. Focus on right now, and you’ll always be able to handle what comes.
3. Don’t have expectations. If you expect people to act a certain way, or hope that things will turn out a certain way, you’ll always run into problems. Forget about outcomes for now. Go into things without expectations, and they will always turn out perfectly (if a bit messy).
4. Don’t get annoyed when others act a certain way. Don’t expect people to act any way other than how they actually act. They are exactly the way they should be — even if that’s selfish or weird or aggressive. Those are their problems. Your problem is figuring out how you should act. I’d also advise you to try to understand others — why do they act the way they do?
5. Don’t overreact. This is a major problem when people plan and things go wrong — they overreact, and get upset and emotional and blow things out of proportion. Stay calm, because if things “go wrong”, they didn’t actually go wrong — they just happened. More on how to react below.
6. Don’t try to be proactive. This is a common prescription (being proactive) in management and business literature. And while I think the general idea is fine — do something to prevent problems from recurring rather than just fixing them after they happen — one of the problems this creates is always worrying about what might happen. And creating solutions before there are problems — if there never is a problem, you’ve wasted a lot of time creating the solution, and a lot of energy worrying about the future.

And now for the dos:

1. Do be open. What would it be like to go into each day without a plan, but just to see what happens? A bit scary, because of the lack of security and control, a bit chaotic perhaps, a bit like we’re a piece of driftwood floating in the middle of a churning sea. But in truth, this is what it’s like to go into each day *with* a plan — it’s just that we normally fool ourselves about the amount of control we have. So start the day with no plan, and be open to what emerges in each moment.
2. Do what you love. So what should you do, now that you have no plan? Do what you’re passionate about, do what excites you right now. Create something amazing. Pour yourself energetically into a project. Build something new. And what you think you’re creating might turn out to be completely different from what emerges, but you’ll have fun doing it and something even better might be revealed.
3. Do act, in the moment. Giving yourself to the moment doesn’t mean being passive and just letting life happen. It means acting, but doing what is best at this moment, what you are excited about right now, what needs to be done, in the present.
4. Do respond appropriately. Life happens, and we must respond. But instead of overreacting, we can respond calmly and appropriately. We can take the action that’s required, fix the problem, do what’s necessary to prevent it from happening again, and move on without it ruining our day.
5. Do accept. Accept what happens. It might not be what you considered ideal, but it’s what life has given you, what has resulted from your actions in an unpredicatable world. Accept it, respond, act, move on. Don’t get caught up in things not going your way, but accept that’s what has happened.

Again, this way of living won’t be for everybody. Some don’t have the freedom to live this way, and others just won’t give up control. Some will think this is a passive way of living, but it really isn’t: it’s just a way of living in the moment without being caught up in the future (or the past) so much.

And when we live in the moment, we’re really living life to the fullest. This is the gift of the present.

Thoughts? Please share them with me on Twitter.

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Elsewhere:

• On mnmlist: The lust for new things
• On Write To Done: How to write a novel in 30 days

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

As someone who does most of his work on the web, I’ve developed some habits to allow me to work quickly, without distraction, so that I can get my work done easily.

When I see others browse the web, it sometimes surprises me how far behind they are, and when others see me browse the web they’re surprised at how quick I am.

I’m not bragging — I know there are web monkeys faster than me. But I thought I’d share some of my tricks for the masses, in hopes that it’ll be of some use.

First, understand that everyone has their own personal style of browsing, and I don’t think you should adopt every tip below. This is what works for me. You probably won’t like it as much.

Second, understand that my philosophy is one of minimalism: I don’t like a lot of bells, whistles or distractions, and I like fast, lightweight programs that aren’t bloated or slow. I also like to work quickly, using the keyboard mostly, so that I can get my work done without friction.

So here are my tips — some of these will be old hat for web veterans, but they bear repeating.

1. Use a fast, minimal browser. First, if you’re using Internet Explorer and you don’t absolutely have to, please do yourself a favor and switch right now. It’s bloated and slow, insecure, and doesn’t render the web correctly. If you can’t switch, please start educating your IT or HR department about modern, standards-compliant browsers. Second, I’ve long been a fan of Firefox because it’s generally awesome and extensible, but lately I’ve switched to faster and lighter browsers that do what I need with a minimum of bloat. So on the Mac, that’s been Opera and lately Camino. Both are great and do what I need. On the PC, there’s no contest — it’s Google Chrome, as it’s the fastest I’ve tried.
2. Use tabs, not windows. This should be obvious but many people still open a new window each time they’re going to a new site (including my mom). Instead, configure your browser to open new tabs instead of windows. When you are reading a post, for example, and want to open a link in a new window, Command-click (on a Mac) or middle-click (on a PC) should open the link in a new tab. Now you can switch between tabs without needing to find where each window went.
3. Learn keyboard shortcuts. Again, this is obvious to most web monkeys, but it’s so much faster that you need to take the time to learn the shortcuts. Some common examples (using Mac shortcuts): Cmd-T to open a new tab, Cmd-L to go to the browser’s location bar (to enter an url), Cmd-D or Cmd-K (depending on the browser) to bookmark, Cmd-K (on some browsers) to go to the search engine box (the Google box), Cmd-W to close a window or tab, and so on. Each browser and OS have different shortcuts, but you can easily learn them by looking at the shortcuts in the menus of the browser. It just takes a few minutes to learn them, and then you’re golden.
4. Set up keyword bookmarks and speed dial. Most browsers have keyword bookmarks, and it takes just a few seconds to set up each one. Basically, for all of your common sites, you’ll want to create a bookmark, and then go to the bookmark and enter a keyword for quick access to that bookmark. To do this, go the the Properties of the bookmark and set the keyword. I recommend short keywords — common ones for me include “gm” for Gmail, “rd” for Google Reader, “cal” for Google Calendar, “bog” for my bank website, “tw” for Twitter, “st” for my blog’s stats, “post” to create a new Zen Habits post, and so on. Speed Dial is an Opera feature that other browsers seem to be copying — you set up your 9 most oft-used websites into Speed Dial, and then can go to any of them with the press of a key (i.e. Cmd-1 for Gmail, Cmd-2 for Twitter, etc.).
5. Set up keyword searches. Same as above, but these are saved searches you might perform commonly besides a regular Google web search. Examples might include Amazon, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, IMDB, Ebay, and Flickr searches. For each saved search, you’ll have a keyword, and then you can just search from the location bar (Cmd-L to get there) — for example, “im alyssa milano” will search IMDB.com for Alyssa Milano (once you set it up of course).
6. Set up keyword bookmarklets. In Firefox and a couple other browsers, there’s the ability to create javascript bookmarklets that have some kind of functionality — for example, a bookmarklet for Tumblr (to create a new post from the page you’re reading) or Instapaper (to bookmark an article for reading later) or Twitter (to tweet a page) or is.gd (to create a short url for a page), and so on (some good examples). Other browsers (Opera is an example) don’t allow you to drag and drop a bookmarklet into the bookmarks toolbar, but you can still create them: 1) create a regular bookmark , 2) copy the link url of the bookmarklet using Control-click or right-click, 3) paste this url into the regular bookmark in your bookmark manager (Cmd-B in Camino), and then create a keyword for this bookmark. Now, if I want to create a short url for a page, I go to the page, press Cmd-L (to go to the location bar) and type “is” and press enter — and instantly have a short url. This works for any javascript bookmarklet.
7. Fast online bookmarking. Beyond creating keyword bookmarks for common sites, searches and bookmarklets, I like to bookmark resources and pages to be read later using online tools. In the past I used Delicious (for bookmarking resources) and Instapaper (for reading something later), but these days I use Pinboard (by the writer of the excellent blog, Idle Words). It’s in beta, but it’s fast, and has both bookmarking and to-read features. Using a service like this allows me to access my bookmarks from any computer.
8. Block Flash. Adobe’s Flash format is everywhere on the web these days — popular sites like YouTube depend on it for video, and you’ll find it in ads everywhere, and some entire sites are built on Flash. It’s annoying, frankly. Flash is slow, and I prefer to turn it off by default … but have the option to turn it on if I want to watch a YouTube video or something. In Camino, it’s simple — just turn it off in the preferences. In other browsers, you might need a plugin or extension to turn off Flash but give yourself the ability to turn on Flash elements with a click.
9. Distraction-free reading and videos. I love reading without the distraction and clutter of most sites. So I use two bookmarklets: Readability for reading articles, and Quietube for viewing videos.
10. Turn off most extensions. Firefox is great for all its amazing extensions, but if you use a lot of them they can cause the browser to get slow and bloated, and often buggy. So when I do use Firefox I turn off almost all extensions (except Google Gears for offline access), and on Camino I use none. It makes for much faster browsing.
11. Don’t have a million tabs open. This is a common web-surfing mode for a lot of people, but it slows down the browser. I tend to open lots of tabs at times, but when things get too cluttered I bookmark them for later reading (using Pinboard) and then close the tabs, so I have only two or three open at any time.
12. Clear most of your toolbars. I like minimal toolbars, so I turn most of them off on the browser and remove most buttons, so the content is all there is.
13. 1password or KeePass. Good tools for easily storing all your passwords — otherwise, you’ll either have to remember them all or use the same ones over and over (not very secure).
14. Tuning out the Internet. When I need to do serious work, I try to remove distractions by closing the browser to do actual work. If I find myself opening the browser too much, I’ll use a utility (such as Freedom) to shut off the Internet altogether.

What are your tips for fast, minimalist web browsing? Share them with me on Twitter. And if you liked this post, please bookmark it on delicious.
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Elsewhere:

• On mnmlist: 7 Ways to Avoid Buying New Stuff
• On Zen Family Habits: 6 Things You Can Do Today to Change Your Child’s Life

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Read more about simplifying in my book, The Power of Less.