Tweet

The Power of Less: Changing Behavior with Leo Babauta

Written by: Timothy Ferriss

Article Overview: To learn a skill, I often look — not for the best in the world — but for people who’ve made the greatest progress in the shortest period of time.

The Power of Less: Changing Behavior with Leo Babauta

To learn a skill, I often look — not for the best in the world — but for people who’ve made the greatest progress in the shortest period of time.

Thus, to gain muscle mass, for example, I would rather examine the training and diet log of someone who went from 145 - 185 lbs. in 1-2 months rather than consult with a 300-lb. professional who has been 300 lbs. for a decade. This also relates to the “explicit vs. implicit” (preach vs. practice) issues many top performers face when they can’t articulate an unconscious competence. I faced this when I asked lifelong swimmers for technical advice.

Leo Babauta has been a incredible model for me in the world of blogging.

His blog, Zen Habits, went from 1 reader — his wife — to being one of the Technorati top-100 blogs in the world in less than 12 months. Leo, who lives in Guam (how cool is that?), has built his audience by deconstructing his offline behavior as much as his online behavior…

In the last two years, he has:

- Quit smoking (on Nov. 18, 2005).
- Lost 40 pounds.
- Gone from a non-runner to completing several marathons and triathlons.
- Become a vegetarian.
- Tripled his income.
- Written a novel and a non-fiction book.
- Eliminated his debt.

Oh, and those children people like to use as justifications for inaction? No more excuses. Leo has six kids.

To illustrate a few of Leo’s principles for changing behavior, I am pleased to offer several exclusive excerpts from Leo’s new book, The Power of Less.

It is a fast read and a good reminder that — in a world where people tend to focus on the latest Firefox extensions and gizmos — simple basic habits are the force multiplier, not new applications. I added bolding to some parts I think are particularly important, as well as bracketed text [ ] for my comments.
The Power of Less

From Chapter 5: Create New Habits and The Power of Less Challenge

The only way you’ll form long-lasting habits is by applying the Power of Less: focus on one habit at a time, one month at a time, so that you’ll be able to focus all your energy on creating that one habit.

The tool that you’ll use to form each habit is an extremely powerful one: the Power of Less Challenge, a 30-day challenge that has proven very effective in forming habits for thousands of readers of my Zen Habits blog.

Here’s how it works:

1. Select one habit for the Challenge. Only one habit per month. You can choose any habit — whatever you think will have the biggest impact on your life.

[Tim: This is also supported by research done by BJ Fogg of Stanford University. Want to teach 60-year olds to use an SMS program to help them quit smoking? It won't work. Those are two new behaviors. Choose one behavioral modification at a time.]

2. Write down your plan. You will need to specifically state what your goal will be each day, when you’ll do it, what your “trigger” will be (the event that will immediately precede the habit that’s already a part of your routine — such as exercising right after you brush your teeth), who you will report to (see below).

3. Post your goal publicly. Tell as many people as possible that you are trying to form your new habit. I suggest an online forum, but you could email it to coworkers and family and friends or otherwise get the word out to a large group.

4. Report on your progress daily. Each day, tell the same group of people whether or not you succeeded at your goal.
The Rules

There are only a few rules you need to follow to make this Challenge a success. If you follow these rules, it would be hard for you not to form a new habit by the end of the 30 days.

* Do only one habit at a time. Do not break this rule, because I assure you that if you do multiple habits at once, you will be much less likely to succeed. Trust me — I’ve tried both ways many times, and in my experience there is 100% failure for forming multiple habits at once, and a 50-80% success if you do just one habit at a time — depending on whether you follow the rest of these rules.

* Choose an easy goal. Don’t decide to do something really hard, at least for now. Later, when you’re good at habit changes, you can choose something harder. But for now, do something you know you can do every day. In fact, choose something easier than you think you can do every day. If you think you can exercise for 30 minutes a day, choose 10 minutes — making it super easy is one of the surest ways to ensure you’ll succeed.

* Choose something measurable. You should be able to say, definitively, whether you were successful or not today. If you choose exercise, set a number of minutes or something similar (20 minutes of exercise daily, for example). Whatever your goal, have a measurement.

* Be consistent. You want to do your habit change at the same time every day, if possible. If you’re going to exercise, do it at 7 a.m. (or 6 p.m.) every day, for example. This makes it more likely to become a habit.

* Report daily. You could check in every 2 or 3 days, but you’ll be more likely to succeed if you report daily. This has been proven over and over again in the Challenges.

* Keep a positive attitude! Expect setbacks now and then, but just note them and move on. No embarrassment in this challenge.
12 Key Habits to Start With

You can choose any habits in this book that you think will help you most, at work and in the rest of your life. But if I had to recommend 12 habits to start with (one each month for a year), these are the 12 I think could make the most difference in the lives of the average person (more on each habit in later chapters):

1. Set your 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks) each morning.
2. Single-task. When you work on a task, don’t switch to other tasks.
3. Process your inbox to empty.
4. Check email just twice a day.
5. Exercise 5-10 minutes a day.
6. Work while disconnected, with no distractions.
7. Follow a morning routine.
8. Eat more fruits and veggies every day. [Tim: Here is the "slow-carb" breakfast I use to start my morning routine]
9. Keep your desk decluttered.
10. Say no to commitments and requests that aren’t on your Short List (See Chapter 16, on the Simple Life).
11. Declutter your house for 15 minutes a day.
12. Stick to a 5-sentence limit for emails.
On Starting Small

Tim: Leo advocates, as I do, that you use smaller behavioral changes as a lever for major behavioral changes. In other words, start smart to seed the right habit before you aim to maximize output. In the beginning the habit is more important than the result.

Here are four good examples of “downsizing” behavioral changes, taken from pg. 42 of The Power of Less:

* Exercise: Start with 5-10 minutes a day, instead of 30.
* Waking early: Start by waking 15 minutes earlier, instead of an hour or two.
* Productivity: Start by trying to focus on the task at hand for 5-10 minutes at a time.
* Decluttering: Start with just one drawer, instead of trying to declutter your entire office or home.

Here are a few other segments I highlighted in my own notes for The Power of Less:

p. 51 Focusing on completion vs. organizing and filing
p. 62 Don’t schedule appointments (Tim: much like Arnold Schwarzenegger)
p. 80 “What’s the worst that will happen if I delete this?”
p. 99 Reducing commitments
p. 119 Decluttering the desk
p. 128 Designate a home for everything:

Designate a home for everything, and be fanatic. When you find stuff on flat surfaces, or draping over a chair, it might be because you don’t have a designated spot for that kind of thing. If you don’t, designate a spot for it immediately. If stuff doesn’t have a home in your home, you need to get rid of it, or it will forever wander around the house.

Remember: productivity shouldn’t be complicated.

Putting a good tool on top of a bad habit (process) just multiplies garbage outputs. Forget the latest and greatest technologies and go back to basics. Routines and rules, not gizmos and tools.

Related Articles
  That person has a difficult personality
  A Basic Technique to Influence Others
  What Power Tool Online do you need for a business?
  Be a No Bully Manager
  Do You Have the Power

Article Tags: 12 months, changing behavior, excerpts, fiction book, firefox extensions, gizmos, inaction, justifications, leo, marathons, muscle mass, non fiction, period of time, reminder, swimmers, technical advice, technorati top 100, top performers, unconscious competence, zen



Related Forum Posts
Women Entrepreneur Tips - Thank you LeoOliveros, I found #4 particularly true in my case: 4. The Enterprise Must Include the Power of Power Networks. As a conductor of your own enterprise, you can not see yourself as a one-woman-show. You must choose to utilize the power people in your life, by asking for help when you need it, and effectively delegating in order to capitalize on your strengths and that of your power network. When certain experts are not represented in your power network, you must actively seek advisors or mentors and develop a team of specialists, so the benefits are received by everyone involved in the power network - the true Power of Power Networks.
Re: Search Engine Optimization - A lot of SEO in terms of on-page optimization is trial and error. Changing just one word can have a huge impact on your rankings.
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
The Power of Ten - Do you want to save money and time? Make the most of your marketing efforts? The Power of Ten™ is about taking the concepts of repurposing and leveraging “to the max”. It allows you to innovate and discover new possibilities for any marketing you already have in place. Here’s how it works: Make a list of the most recent 10 marketing items you’ve created or paid to have created. If you don’t have any materials, you can simply list the pieces you plan on creating. Now pick one. It could be an article, ad, poster, anything you have used recently as a marketing tool. Take a fresh look at it. Brainstorm and free write until you find at least 10 different ways to use that piece. You can do this with as many pieces as you want, but for now start with just one. It’s amazing how much time, effort and money you can save using The Power of Ten™. Below is an example using The Power of Ten™ with this very article. Even a very short piece, such as this, can benefit from The Power of Ten™. Here are some ways I can use this tip: 1) It’s part of a new marketing program I’m creating that may be called Marketing Full Circle. 2) It’s on my blog. 3) I can tweet it (knowing that it will show up on LinkedIn and many other sites which display tweets). 4) I can go over to LinkedIn and post it to a group. 5) I can it to my ezine subscribers. 6) I will send it to my clients. 7) If it is a longer article, I can try submitting it to an Article Bank, or two, or three. It started out as part of an answer on Focus.com 9) Eventually it will be part of an eBook on marketing tips. 10) I mention the concept often at speaking engagements. (c)2010 Elevating Your Business What would you add to the list? How about your own? Give it a try and comment below.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

3 Health Insurance Misconceptions

What Makes an Extraordinary Business Consultant?

Ten Twitter Tips For Work-at-Home Moms

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.