Power of less : The art of setting limits

The power of less is a book by Leo Babauta. This book is full of good stuff.

Chapter 2 is about “The art of setting limits”.

Chapter  main idea :

Setting limits is mandatory and is a iterative process

If you just take all comes to you, you’ll not be able to achieve it. you’ll have to many actions to do, to many phone call to give, and so on…

If you live without limits, it weaknens you in many ways, it dilutes your power and effectivness.

You can set limits on emails, daily tasks, the amount of time spent on the phone, the number of projects you have on your plate, …

To set the limits, you have to find the good number of items that fit to you.

For this you’ll have to analyse your habit and define a limit, test it for a week, adjust, and adjust again.

Here’s a quote from the book :

1. Analyze your current usage levels (how many times do you do something a day ?) and pick a lower limit based on what you think would be ideal
2. Test it out for about a week, and then analyze whether that’s working for you.
3. If it doesn’t work, adjust to a new level you think might work better, and test that out for about a week.
4. Continue to adjust until you find the right level and until you make it a habit.

 

Leo Babauta

If you want to read the full story, you can buy the paper or kindle version of the book here : Power of Less, The: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

My experience with ZTD : Week 9 results

This is the report #9 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement 9 weeks ago  is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

The 2nd one I started to implement 3 weeks ago is to manage emails to stay inbox 0 and for this to spend 30 minutes per day in an “email cleaning” session.

I’m really happy with the result of these 2 new habbits.

Defining 3 MITs everyday really helps to stay focused.

Of course many times it does not goes as planned, and achieving the MITs is not always possible, but at list I achieve some, and I know what to focus on next day.

Next week I’ll not try to implement any new routine, but I’ll still focus on :

•  define 3 MITs (and do them !)
• do a 30 min email cleaning session everyday to come back to inbox 0.

Results next week …

My experience with ZTD : Week 8 results

This is the report #8 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement 8 weeks ago  is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

The 2nd one I started to implement 2 weeks is to manage emails to stay inbox 0 and for this to spend 30 minutes per day in an “email cleaning” session.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19), and during week #3, a total failure (6%), week #4 had been better : 59% success , week #5 has been so far the best week, with 78% succes , week #6 went down with a 39% success, week #7 was better with 50% success.

Here’re the results of week #8 :

•  3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES, How many did I achieve : 3/3
• Day 1 (March 12th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :2/2. Did I clean emails : Yes
• Day 2  (March 13th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2. Did I clean emails : Yes
• Day 3 (March 14th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 0/2. Did I clean emails : Yes
• Day 4 (March 15th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2. Did I clean emails : Yes
• Day 5 (March 16th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO, How many did I achieve : O/2. Did I clean emails : No
• Total : I’ve defined the MITs 4 times instead of 5, I’ve achieved  11/18 (61%).
 

What are  my conclusions ?

• 11/18  is  a “standard” week.


• The new email habbit has  been very successfull.  It helped me a lot to keep under control.


• Defining MITs everyday really helped me to be (at least feel) efficient !

Next week I’ll not try to implement any new routine, but I’ll start again to define 3 MITs, and consider email as a fourth one.

Results next week …

My experience with ZTD : Week 7 results

This is the report #7 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement 7 weeks ago  is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

The 2nd one I started to implement last week is to manage emails to stay inbox 0 and for this to spend 30 minutes per day in an “email cleaning” session.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19), and during week #3, a total failure (6%), week #4 had been better : 59% success , week #5 has been so far the best week, with 78% succes , week #6 went done with a 39% success.

Here’re the results of week #7 :

•  3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES, How many did I achieve : 2/3


• Day 1 (March 5th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :0/2. Did I clean emails : Yes


• Day 2  (March 6th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2. Did I clean emails : Yes


• Day 3 (March 7th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2. Did I clean emails : No


• Day 4 (March 8th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2. Did I clean emails : No


• Day 5 (March 9th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : Yes, How many did I achieve : 2/2. Did I clean emails : No


• Total : I’ve defined the MITs everyday, I’ve achieved  9/18 (50%).
 

What are  my conclusions ?

• 9/18  is  a “standard” week.


• The new email habbit has not been so successfull yet.  I did it the first 2 days and then did not really stick to it (even if I still manage my emails !)


• Defining MITs everyday really helped me to be (at least feel) efficient !

Next week I’ll not try to implement any new routine, but just have better result on the emails !

Results next week …

My experience with ZTD / Week 6 results (3 MITs per day) : 39 % success !

This is the report #6 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19), and during week #3, a total failure (6%), week #4 had been better : 59% success , week #5 has been so far the best week, with 78% succes.

Here’re the results of week #6 :

•  3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3


• Day 1 (February 27th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :2/3


• Day 2  (February 28th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 2/3


• Day 3 (February 29th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3


• Day 4 (March 1st) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 0/3


• Day 5 (March 2nd) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : Yes, How many did I achieve : 1/3


• Total : I’ve defined the MITs everyday, I’ve achieved  7/18 (39%).
 

What are  my conclusions ?

• 7/18  is not a very good result in term of % of success, even if last week has been very productive for me.


• The main explanation of the low success rate is because I had 2 actions that needed few days to be completed. I should have divided them in really achivable daily MITs. By the way, it does not really matter as I managed to finish these important actions on time.


• Back from Hollidays, I’ve successfully continued my new habbit. I can now consider that it’s a win !


• defining MITs everyday really helped me to be (at least feel) efficient !

Results next week …

My experience with ZTD / Week 5 results (3 MITs per day) : 78 % success !

This is the report #5 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19), and during week #3, a total failure (6%), week #4 had been better : 59% success !

Here’re the results of week #5 :

• 3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES,  How many did I achieve : 3/3
•  Day 1 (February 13th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :3/3
• Day 2  (February 14th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 3/3
• Day 3 (February 15th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3
• Day 4 (February 16th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 2/3
• Day 5 (February 17th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : Yes, How many did I achieve : 2/3

• Total : I’ve defined the MITs everyday, I’ve achieved  14/18 (78%).

 What are  my conclusions ?

• 14/18  is a better  result compare to last week and is my best result ever!
• As decided last week, I’ve improved my routine, and I’ve defined the 3 MITs  before starting my day, everyday.
• defining MITs everyday really helped me to be (at least feel) efficient !

Next week will be avacation week, so I’ll not try to apply this routine everyday. It will be an off week.

I’ll start again the week after, the objective will be to keep a good level of success, I’ll not try to implement a new routine.

My experience with ZTD / Week 4 results (3 MITs per day) : 59 % success !

This is the report #4 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19), and during week #3, a total failure (6%)…

Here’re the results of week #4 :

• 3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES,  How many did I achieve : 1/3
•  Day 1 (February 6th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :3/3
• Day 2  (February 7th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/2
• Day 3 (February 8th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 2/3
• Day 4 (February 9th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO
• Day 5 (February 10th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : Yes, How many did I achieve : 3/3

• Total : I’ve defined the MITs 4 times instead of 5, I’ve achieved  10/17 (59%).

 What are  my conclusions ?

• 10/17  is a better  result compare to last week and is my best result ever!
• As decided last week, I’ve improved my routine, and I’ve defined the 3 MITs  before starting my day except on day 4.

For the new coming week, my objective is to continue the implementation of this new habit, with a better result. If the result is there, it will be time to implement a new habbit !

My experience with ZTD / Week 3 results (3 MITs per day) : 6% success (94% failure…)

This is the report #3 of my experimental implementation of  Zen To Done the productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21) , during week #2, it has been 47% (9/19).

Here’re the results of week #3 :

• 3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES,  How many did I achieve : 0/3
•  Day 1 (January 30th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :0/3
• Day 2  (January 31st) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3
• Day 3 (February 1st) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO
• Day 4 (February 2nd) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO
• Day 5 (February 3rd) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO

• Total : I’ve defined the MITs 2 times instead of 5, I’ve achieved  1/18.

 What are  my conclusions ?

• 1/18  is a very poor result.
• In fact during this week I did not use ZTD. I did not take time to define 3 MITs everyday.
• By the way, I did achieve a lot of things during this week but without planning them.
• As a consequence, my achievements are not the most important ones, so it’s not a so good result.
• I need to improve my routine when I’m travelling to make sure I define the 3 MITs before starting my day

For the new coming week, my objective is to continue the implementation of this new habit, with a better result (which will not be so difficult)  !

My experience with ZTD / Week #2 results (3 MITs per day) : 47% success !

As I’ve explained in a previous post, I’ve decided to use Zen To Done productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

This is the feedback after 2 weeks.

As a reminder, the first habit I’ve decided to implement is to define every morning the 3 Most Important Topics (MITs) I want / need / commit to achieve during the day.

During week #1, the success rate has been 52 % (11/21)

Here’re the results of week #2 :

• 3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES,  How many did I achieve : 1/3
•  Day 1 (January 23th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve :3/3
• Day 2  (January 24th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 2/3
• Day 3 (January 25th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES (4), How many did I achieve : 2/4
• Day 4 (January 26th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3
• Day 5 (January27th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : NO , How many did I achieve : 0/3

• Total : I’ve defined the MITs 4 times instead of 5, I’ve achieved  9/19.

 What are  my conclusions ?

• 9/19 is a poor result. It’s even worse than last week (11/21). I’ve clearly over committed to myself during that week. Like last week there’s 1 specific MIT that I’ve pushed from day 1 to day 5  that made me loose 5  points.
• I did not defined the MITs on friday as my work day started at 6am.
• Even if the numbers are quite bad, I’m happy with this week. It was a VERY busy week, and defining 3 MITs everyday really helped me to keep control. I’m still happy with my new way to use todo system nirvanahq (I’ve removed all project, and used 1 simple list)

For the new coming week, my objective is to continue the implementation of this new habit, with a better result !

My experience with ZTD : Week #1 results

As I’ve explained in a previous post, I’ve decided to use Zen To Done productivity methodology by Leo Babauta.

This is the feedback after 1 week.

For this first week, I’ve decided to implement 1 new habit : 3 MITs.
The habit is simple : at the beginning of the week, and then every morning, I’ll list the 3 MITs (Most Important Topics) that I want to achieve during the day (or the week).

Here are the sresults :

• 3 MITs for the week : Did I defined 3 MITs  ? :  YES,  How many did I achieve : 2/3
•  Day 1 (January 16th) : Did I defined 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 3/3
• Day 2  (January 17th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3
• Day 3 (January 18th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES (4), How many did I achieve : 2/4
• Day 4 (January 19th) :Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 1/3
• Day 5 (January20th) : Did I define 3 MITs ? : YES, How many did I achieve : 2/4

• Total : I’ve defined the MITs everyday, I’ve achieved  11/21.

 What are  my conclusions ?

• 11/21 is a poor result. I’ve clearly over committed to myself during that week. There’s 1 specific MIT that I’ve pushed from day 1 to day 5 (finally I did it in day5) that made me loose 4 points.
• Defining the 3 MITs at the beginning of the week and every morning really helped me to focus on the good topics and to realize when I missed them.
• During this first week, I’ve also drastically simplified the way I use my todo system (nirvanahq). I’ve removed all project, and used 1 simple list. I’ve also simplified the actions (remove duplicate actions, remove actions I’ll never do…).  As a result, I feel really more comfortable with this system.

For the new coming week, my objective is to continue the implementation of this new habit, with a better result !

ps : why did I put a bonsai here ? Because I like bonsai’s !