Leo Babauta

Put it in full-screen mode all the time →

Published September 4, 2018  ·  All posts on Sep 4

Single-task by putting your life in full-screen mode. Imagine that everything you do — a work task, answering an email or message, washing a dish, reading an article — goes into full-screen mode, so that you don’t do or look at anything else. You just inhabit that task fully, and are fully present as you do it.

~ Leo Babauta from, 8 Key Lessons for Living a Simple Life – Zen Habits Website

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Whenever I perform a save or equivalent preservation action, I stop and spend a second determining the context that needs to be associated with this artifact. Every single artifact has a bit of context.

~ Rands, from Everything Goes in a Context Bucket – Rands in Repose

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Another idea: Long ago I cleared the home screens of my devices. I wake my phone and the screen is empty; Just the background image.

This requires a bit of work initially to drag all the applications off that first screen. There’s also a trick with IOS where you can dock your phone, and use iTunes to insert an empty page in the front. Either way, on IOS, once you clear the home screen, it’s smart enough to NOT drop any new apps on your pristinely blank screen.

At first, I opened my phone, a lot, and stared at the blank screen, “wait, why did I…” AND THEN I CLOSED IT. Now I think, “what’s the weather tomorrow?” Wake phone. Swipe down w-e- … touch, read weather, hit home (back to clear), close phone.

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The kind of training I need →

Published August 5, 2018  ·  All posts on Aug 5  ·  

The truth is that if you can push into the discomfort, with love, and keep going … it’ll be an amazing breakthrough for you, an opening up of your habitual patterns. It’ll be a place of growth, of learning, of tremendous change. This is the kind of training that you need to put yourself in if you want to grow. Not a meditation retreat, necessarily, but any kind of practice that makes you want to retreat. It doesn’t have to be hardcore, just something that causes you to be uncomfortable, that causes your old habitual patterns to come up.

~ Leo Babauta from, A Guide to a Life of Purpose – Zen Habits Website

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Leo’s Zen Habits has helped me tremendously over the years. His was one of the first useful sites I found about 10 years ago when I started changing my life. The idea that hard work– not a retreat per se, but anything that makes you want to retreat– is exactly what I need to work on, is one of the pillars upon which I began rebuilding. When things start to crack– when I feel my grip on my reasonable demeanor slipping– it’s this idea which I try to pull up.

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Calm →

Published April 11, 2018  ·  All posts on Apr 11

You have a million things to do an not enough time to do it all? Not a big deal: pick the things you can do, and get to work. That’s all you can do anyway, so it’s not worth adding some stress to the already difficult situation. Have a huge task to do that is going to be very difficult? No big deal. Just take the first step. Just get moving. You’ll deal with the difficulty.

~ Leo Babauta from, How to Be Calm

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Frenetic activity. Fits of rage. Tidal waves of guilt. Mountains of frustration. Spasms of activity. Rivers of self-doubt. Occasional moments of calm. Thank you Leo!

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Why I’m always in a hurry →

Published May 10, 2017  ·  All posts on May 10  ·  ,

So what is going on? Why do I hurry so much? I’ve been reflecting on this, and the answer seems to be that my mind has a tendency towards greed. This isn’t greed in the sense that I want a lot of wealth … but my mind finds something it likes and it wants more. Always more.

~ Leo Babauta from, Why I’m Always in a Hurry, & What I’m Doing About It

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Approaching life with beginner’s mind →

Published April 22, 2017  ·  All posts on Apr 22  ·  

It’s not just something you practice when you’re learning something — though dropping the “expert’s mind” and seeing the learning as a beginner is an important practice in learning. It’s something you can practice every single moment of the day (if you can remember to do so).

~ Leo Babauta from, Approaching Life with Beginner’s Mind

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Finding Stillness →

Published April 15, 2017  ·  All posts on Apr 15  ·  

This is pretty common. Thinking isn’t the problem, but the struggle comes when we’re constantly spinning stories in our heads and getting caught up in them.

~ Leo Babauta from, Finding Stillness

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Hear! Hear!

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The path of fearlessness →

Published January 5, 2017  ·  All posts on Jan 5

The two key fears are the fears of uncertainty and not being good enough, and in my experience, they’re both the same thing. We’re afraid of the uncertain future (and uncertain situations) because we don’t think we’re good enough to handle whatever might come out of the chaos.

~ Leo Babauta, from The Path of Fearlessness

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If one felt that this were true, what might one do unlearn such fear? As usual, Leo has a considered opinion spoken from the position of experience.

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The way to finding powerful human connection →

Published December 21, 2016  ·  All posts on Dec 21  ·  

Human connection is not so common in our age of connectivity. We see lots of people but find our little cucoons to hide in. We don’t realize we’re craving a deeper connection with others until we find it.

It’s hard to connect, because cultural norms get in the way — we’re supposed to talk about the weather and sports and the news, but not our deepest struggles. We’re supposed to say cool or witty things, but not share our greatest hopes for our lives or the person we want to become.

~ Leo Babauta from, The Way to Finding Powerful Human Connection

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Why travel? Well, I’m glad you asked…

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Ultralight, by Leo Babauta →

Published November 30, 2016  ·  All posts on Nov 30

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Parkour Travel

The freedom that resulted was so incredible. We felt liberated. We could travel faster, farther, happier. Sure, we gave up a handful of comforts, but in return we got the comfort of being unburdened.

Recently, Leo Babauta put together a spectacular book on travel called, Ultralight. I’ve only recently begun reading it, but it covers a great deal of what I wanted to say. And — as with so many things Leo writes — it’s written better than I could hope to do myself. So for now, start with this book (it’s a very affordable Ebook). I expect some of what I add to this series will be commentary and thoughts on what Leo has written, and some will be from the notes I’ve already compiled on my own.

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An overlooked factor in creating positive change →

Published October 13, 2016  ·  All posts on Oct 13

Find joy in every step. You’re not doing this to get to some great destination at the end. Each positive step can be a joy in itself, a place to smile and breathe and find gratitude. What a wonderful thing to be where you are!

~ Leo Babauta from, An Overlooked Factor in Creating Positive Change – Zen Habits Website

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