Post written by Leo Babauta and Eva Babauta.

When I wrote my 16 Essential Tips for Traveling with a Family a couple weeks ago, I had a ton of people ask the same thing: “I’d like to see Eva’s packing list!”

There’s an idea, it seems, that it’s much easier for a man to pack lightly than a woman. And while there’s some truth to that, I think it’s a matter of changing long-held ideas of what you need when you travel.

Luckily, we have my wife Eva to tell us what she packed, and what the experience was like for her. This is her first post on Zen Habits, and I’m happy to have her join me here.

Some context: Eva and I took five of our kids on a 3-week trip across southern Europe, in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Cinque Terre, the French Riviera (Antibes), and Barcelona. We brought only a small backpack each (no luggage, no roller carry-ons), and found the experience to be great.

Eva hasn’t always packed this lightly. She used to need a heavier carry-on duffle bag that I would usually end up lugging around for her (we have never traveled with big suitcases since we started traveling in 2008). But on those trips, she would begin to realize that there were a lot of things she brought that she really didn’t use or need, and slowly she has radically changed the way she packs, to my everlasting delight.

And now, let me turn it over to Eva:

Eva’s Packing List

By Eva Babauta

I definitely did not travel as lightly as Leo did. But, I think that I did a pretty good job of traveling light.

Here’s my packing list, carried in one backpack.

In my 15-inch packing folder were:

• a pair of shorts


• underwear


• 4 thin comfortable tank tops


• a pair of pants with adjustable drawstring hem


• a bathing suit


• a sports bra

In a small pouch I had travel size toiletries:

• facial wash


• moisturizer


• contact solution and lenses


• deodorant

I also packed:

• a pair of shades


• a book


• my iPod shuffle and earbuds


• camera with battery charger

When we left San Francisco I wore:

• jeans


• a tank


• a light jacket/hoodie


• my New Balance Minimus shoes — very comfortable and good for walking running and light hiking

While in Europe I realized that I really didn’t need the jacket I wore or the extra pair of pants that I packed so I left them behind in one of the apartments.

I was very happy that we were each all able to travel with just one small bag and it saved me the trouble of having to keep track of extra luggage and the added stress of standing around at baggage claim. We made it through customs easily and avoided the long lines because of this.

I realized that it’s OK to wear the same things over and over again. No one cares what you are wearing. They’re too busy having a good time to even notice.

Having a big family means lots and lots of dirty laundry. I am so thankful that our kids agreed to minimal packing. They each packed three t-shirts and one extra pair of shorts/jeans. It made washing and folding so easy.

Packing lightly means that everyone (including the little ones) can be responsible for their own things. Our little ones (6 and 8 years old) did a very good job of repacking when it was time to leave one city to go to the next. They were able to carry their tiny backpacks the whole trip without being tired. We each packed for ourselves and I didn’t have to pack anything extra in my bag or carry theirs.

Things I used to pack which I now realize I don’t need:

• Hair straightener and product — I simply tie my hair in a bun which is perfect when it’s so hot.


• Lotions shampoo conditioner toothpaste — just buy some when you get to your destination. They don’t have to be the brand you’re used to.


• Extra pairs of shoes — find a pair that is comfortable and can be used for everything.


• Fancy clothes/shoes — no need to pack these. You can buy a nice dress and pair of shoes if you decide that you’d like to go somewhere fancy otherwise there is no need.


• Baby wipes or hand sanitizer — grab an extra napkin when you eat out and shove it in your pocket for later.

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I’m often asked about writing (something I’ve done professionally for 22 years), and one of the most common things people want help with is writing a book.

I’ve written a number of books, including 110,000 words of a novel in a month (in addition to blogging regularly), and numerous non-fiction books. I could share a lot of tips for writing a book, but my favorite secret is how I can write a book in just three days.

I’ve written several books this way, and really, it’s the same process I used to write 110,000 words in a month. If you want to take several years to write a book, that’s fine, but you’ll want to skip this post. If you want to finally get that book done, he’s how to do it.

And trust me, it works.

1. Create a Time Limit. I like to narrow the topic of my book down to something very specific, and keep it short and simple. If you do this, set a short time limit — a couple of times I set a three-day time limit for myself. I write quickly, so you might want a limit a bit longer, like 5 or 7 days, or two weeks if the book is longer or you are a slower writer. For a novel, 30 days is a good limit.


2. Make a Public Challenge. This is really key. Tell people about your time limit, and when you’ll be doing it. For example, if you set yourself a limit of 5 days, tell them when the 5 days will be, and what your challenge is during those 5 days. Tell them that you’ll report to them each day during the challenge. You might make the challenge public on Facebook, Twitter, email, a blog, Google+ or a forum, for example. The challenge will motivate you to stay focused and get the writing done.


3. Get Your Pre-Writing Done Beforehand. Before the challenge starts, do the research and make the notes you need. I will often outline my non-fiction book and save any information I need to my hard drive, so I don’t need Internet access during writing. For novel writing, I’ll make character sketches, plot notes, think through different themes, etc. Going on runs or taking long walks helps me to think through my writing before I write.


4. Find a Distraction-Free Zone. I like getting away from my home and finding a tea house or library without Internet. I will often use headphones to keep from being distracted by people around me. I’ll close my browser and all programs but my writing tool. I’ll get other things done before the writing session starts.


5. Get Some Inspiration. I like to read other writers as inspiration, and read about the writing habits of other writers. Sometimes music serves as good inspiration, or inspirational quotes from writers I admire.


6. Work in Bursts. When I’m ready to write, I go to my distraction-free zone, play some music, and set a timer. I like to write in 15- or 30-minute bursts, take a 5-10 minute break, then repeat. During my break, I will walk around, do some exercise, stretch. Again, walking helps me to think through my writing.


7. Report Your Success. Every day, stick to your commitment to report your success — or failure, as the case may be. Don’t let embarrassment stop you from keeping yourself accountable. This accountability will help you stick to it, and the reporting of success is like a celebration of your accomplishment that will motivate you to keep going as well.

That’s it. It’s a simple formula but it works well for me, for any kind of writing. In fact, it can work for any kind of creativity and any kind of work at all.

Happy writing, my friends.

Post written by Leo Babauta.

For a weekend in August, I will join Zen teacher Susan O’Connell in leading a weekend retreat in the beautiful Tassajara Zen Mountain Center entitled, “Zen in the Workplace: The Benefits of Mindful Work”.

For a few days, step away from the busyness and pressures of your life, and find the rhythm of your own breath. Feel the summer breeze, enjoy delicious food, and immerse yourself in the healing waters of the hot springs and the refreshing cool of Tassajara Creek.

Learn how simple mindfulness practices can transform your everyday work life, improving health, stress, effectiveness, relationships and happiness.

Susan and I will explore the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace. Students will learn simple mindfulness practices that will help them find focus in the workplace, deal with a constant stream of interruptions, collaborate mindfully, and deal with technology and distractions. Zazen, walking meditation, and awareness exercises will help students learn to be mindful and find peace even in the midst of busy-ness and chaos. We’ll also explore our need for more information, and the experience of “enough.”

The retreat runs from Aug. 15-17, and you should sign up now to get a spot.

Post written by Leo Babauta.

One of the hazards of our modern lifestyle is our tendency to become more and more addicted to staring at screens, and more and more sedentary.

We look at laptops and desktop computers, iPhones and Androids and iPads and iPods, TVs and movie screens, play video games, watch videos, surf the web, socialize online, work online. And we’re sitting the whole time.

I’m a victim of this as much as anyone else. My family and I are drifting toward this lifestyle, and while I’m no Luddite, I do believe that we should live less as victims and more consciously.

Too much screen time means less active time, less personal socializing, less focus on the present, less time for cooking healthy food, less time reading novels, painting, making music, making time for the ones you love. And too much sitting means fewer years on your life.

So what’s a better way?

Limits.

Limit how much screen time you have each day. Limit your sitting to short periods with breaks in between.

I realize that many people have jobs that require them to have a minimum amount of computer time, and probably mostly sitting. So I don’t recommend a certain number, only that you figure out a limit and work with that.

What I’ve Been Doing

Though I’ve set limits for myself in the past, I’ll admit that they’ve eroded in recent months, so that my screen time has grown over time. And not just for me — for my wife and kids. So recently Eva and I set limits for ourselves, and we’ve been working with them.

We find them to be great. I find daily limits to be a better balance than going on week-long or month-long digital sabbaticals, which aren’t realistic for many people.

Here’s an example:

1. We set a limit of either 4 or 5 hours of total screen time a day. (We haven’t figured out what’s best yet, still experimenting.)


2. That total is broken into 30-minute chunks. So if it’s 5 hours total, that’s 10 chunks of 30 minutes.


3. At the start of a 30-minute chunk, I set a computer timer and put a tally mark on a text document, so I know how many chunks I’ve used today. When the bell rings, I close my laptop.


4. After the 30-minute chunk, I take a break of at least 30 minutes. I try to get up and move, stretch, play with the kids, get outside. I also often read a novel. The moving is good for my body, and helps me to think.


5. If I have things I want to look up online, or write online, I’ll just make a note of it and do it when I start my next 30-minute chunk.

This isn’t the only way to do it — you’ll have to find the limit that works for you, and the chunk size that works for you. But the idea is to set limits, and to break the total up into pieces so you’ll take breaks and do other things.

Benefits of the Limits

We’ve loved it: we’re reading more books, spending more personal time with each other and the kids, getting more chores done, exercising more, playing outside more.

It also means that because we have a limit, we have to figure out the best way to use that time. We have to make choices — what’s worthy of our limited time, and what isn’t? This means more conscious use of our time.

We haven’t instituted the limits with the kids yet, though we have been talking to them about it and getting them thinking about what would work best for them. And we do tell them to take breaks from devices throughout the day, so they’ll do other things.

For the kids, this has meant they have more unstructured, imaginative play, more reading, more art and music, more activity. Kids get addicted to screens just as much as adults do, and it’s not a healthy thing for them. We’re trying to teach them ways to live a healthy lifestyle, which is a lesson with lifelong benefits.

We’ve found this lifestyle to be healthier, better for relationships, better for our peace of mind. And to me, that means it’s something work keeping.

More reading:

1. How to Limit Your Child’s Screen Time


2. Reduce Screen Time


3. Setting Computer Limits

‘In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.’ ~Henry David Thoreau

Post written by Leo Babauta.

The tendency of life in our society is to become more complicated: Internet, television, shopping, work, family commitments, possessions, eating, debt … these things pile on top of each other endlessly.

This is a rather bad formula, as our days have a limited capacity, and so do we as humans. We can only do so much, only handle so many tasks and possessions and social commitments, and filling ourselves to those limits means we stress our breaking points.

It takes a bit of conscious effort to simplify, but it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever learned to do.

Simplify everything. That might sound hard, but with practice it’s actually fairly easy, and leads to a quiet, content, lovely life full of space, with only the things in it that matter to me: my family, my writing, with some reading and workouts thrown in.

So how do you simplify? As simply as possible.

Here are a few ways:

1. Block off some disconnected time. The Internet is amazing, but always being connected means you’re always pulled in a thousand directions at once. It’s hard to focus, hard to connect with others, hard to get out into nature and be active. So schedule some time every day for disconnection: maybe a block in the morning where you get your best work done, and a block in the afternoon when you get out and active, or connect with friends or family.


2. Start eliminating commitments. List your commitments, and pick one to eliminate today. It’s a simple matter of making a call or sending an email explaining that you can’t do the commitment. Trust me, they’ll find a way to live without you. You’ll start to free up time for what’s more important to you.


3. Start purging possessions. Every day, find 5 things to donate or give to friends. Or clear an entire shelf or countertop, leaving only the things you actually use, getting rid of the rest. Slowly your possessions will be simplified to just the essentials.


4. Ban shopping for 30 days. You can do this. Don’t buy anything except the essentials (food, toiletries, basic supplies). If you think you really need it, put it on a list to be evaluated after the 30 days.


5. Wash your bowl. When you’re done eating, mindfully wash your bowl. When you’re done with anything, get in the habit of pausing before moving onto the next thing, and cleaning up after yourself. Put your food away. Put your clothes where they belong. Put your keys in one spot. Clean the sink before you leave it. This simple habit will keep you mindful while saving you lots of cleanup later.


6. Schedule time for what’s important. What’s most important to you? Your spouse or kids? Creating? Reading novels? Cooking, gardening, crafts, carpentry? Make the time for it.


7. Get outdoors once a day. Too often we are stuck at a desk or on the couch. Get outside, take a walk, enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. Go for a hike or a run with a friend. Play some sports. Run around and play tag with your kids. These simple activities will change your life.


8. Eat some plants. Learn some simple recipes that incorporate super healthy foods you might not be eating: kale, spinach, broccoli, quinoa, berries, flaxseeds, lentils, avocados, black beans, squash, raw almonds and walnuts, garlic, turmeric, cayenne, cinnamon. These simple plants will make you strong like oxen.


9. Drink tea. Green tea brewed from relatively fresh whole tea leaves is calming, healthy, and wonderful. A daily tea ritual keeps you grounded and mindful.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat.

Here is an experiment I’d like you to try:

Log in to your banking account. Check how much money you have.

Now log out.

Now log back in, check how much money you have.

Now Log out.

Repeat this two to three more times.

I’m willing to bet my money that your money did not change as a result of how many times you checked on it.

The point of this experiment is obsessing about things isn’t actually action. It rarely, if ever changes the circumstance you are obsessing about.

There are dozens of examples of this in life, but none that hit as close to home for me as health and fitness.

We’ve become obsessed with obsessing about health and fitness. We argue, debate, nitpick, research, tweet, blog, think, try and then give up on countless health fitness theories on a daily basis, all in the name of chasing the promise of ‘health’.

This is something I have grown tired of – especially the endless promotion of obsession as health, exhaustion as virtue and suffering as dedication.

In my eyes the very act of trying to achieve a healthy body is becoming extremely unhealthy, almost a form of self-mortification where people use the gym and the avoidance of their favorite foods as a way to ‘punish’ themselves for their past ‘unhealthy’ indiscretions.

Maybe we can blame the unrealistic goals people have of attaining 0% body fat and giant incredible-hulk style muscles, and the thought that our failure to achieve these goals must be a testament to our poor dedication and work ethic. Or it could be the wrong diet, or wrong workout, or wrong grip when performing curls … who knows?

Whatever the cause, the fact is that health and nutrition is sick.

Workouts have slowly progressed into competitions to see who can punish themselves the hardest, to the point where vomit on the floor is something to be celebrated.

Food is also transforming. It’s no longer about enjoying your meals as much as it is fueling the body. People are slowly forgetting how to eat, and as a result eating is becoming a means-to-and-end – a way to control your body weight. And that’s it.

Food is either fuel, or a guilty bad habit.

Now, it is completely true that in my book Eat Stop Eat I talk about hormones, free fatty acids and how fasting sets up the ideal ‘fat loss metabolism’. However, it was more than just interesting science and a new style of eating (or not eating) that drove me to write that book – it was a desire to share a mind set.

That health can (and should) be about being ‘dedicated but balanced’, rather than ‘obsessed and inflexible’.

I call this the art of ‘detach and relax’ – and it’s one of the most important things I learned through fasting – the ability to focus your effort and attention, combined with the ability to scale them up and down as needed.

Health and fitness should be a part of your life, but it shouldn’t BE your life … at least, it doesn’t have to be.

You can be incredibly focused during your workout and put forth an amazing amount of effort. But then you can detach and relax. Don’t take it home with you, don’t obsess about it.

Your workout is done, your body is stimulated, now let it do what it does best. As much as you wish you could, you simply cannot control the finer aspects of how your body works. (If you doubt this then try to create a new vein in your right bicep, let me know how it goes)

You can be aware of what and when you are eating, but once you are done making a food decision, try to detach and relax. Don’t obsess about your food choices, don’t let your food control you. After all, food is your to be enjoyed.

Learn to be patient and to take breaks from eating. You do NOT have to eat all the time, and you certainly don’t need to fast all the time either.

Your food won’t disappear or become any less enjoyable because you waited. And really, small amount of patience – a slight pause – is all most of us need to realize “I don’t need this”, or “I can wait until diner” or even “I can wait until tomorrow – I’ve had enough today”.

Detach and Relax.

You simply can not be all health and fitness all the time.

Eat less, move more, don’t be afraid to break a sweat every once in a while, and remember to be balanced. When we obsess over health and nutrition, it is no longer healthy.

Give full focus and effort when it is appropriate. Be present during your workout session, but after that turn it off.

As much as some people may hate to hear it, and I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – there is more to life than chasing 0% body fat, blood and puke in the gym and the macro-nutrients on your plate.

Read more from Brad at his blog.

Post written by Leo Babauta.

I recently read a travel tip from someone who reminds himself that “killing time is a sin”, and so makes the most use of every bit of downtime, even on an airplane: “read a good book, learn a new language with Rosetta Stone, write to my friends around the world who haven’t heard from me in too long”.

I have no objections to reading books, learning languages, or writing to friends. It’s the idea that downtime must be put to efficient use that I disagree with. While I used to agree with it completely, these days I take a completely different approach.

Life is for living, not productivity.

Make the Most of Every Minute

There is a tendency among productive people to try to make the best use of every single minute, from the minute they awake. I know because not too long ago I was one of these folks.

Got time on the train or plane? If you’re not doing work, maybe you can be enriching yourself by learning something.

Got time before a meeting starts? Organize your to-do list, send off some emails, write some notes on a project you’re working on.

Driving? Why not make some phone calls or tell Siri to add a bunch of stuff to your calendar? Why not listen to a self-help audiobook?

Watching TV with the family? You can also be answering emails, doing situps, stretching.

Having lunch with a friend? Maybe you can talk business to make it a productive meeting.

This is the mindset that we’re supposed to have. Every minute counts, because time’s a-wasting. The clock is ticking. The sands of the hourglass are spilling.

I used to feel this way, but now I see things a bit differently.

Is This What Life Is To Be?

It might seem smart and productive to not let a single minute go to waste (they’re precious, after all), but let’s take a step back to look at the big picture.

Is this what our lives are to be? A non-stop stream of productive tasks? A life-long work day? A computer program optimized for productivity and efficiency? A cog in a machine?

What about joy? What about the sensory pleasure of lying in the grass with the sun shining on our closed eyes? What about the beauty of a nap while on the train? How about reading a novel for the sheer exhilaration of it, not to better yourself? What about spending time with someone for the love of being with someone, of making a genuine human connection that is unencumbered by productive purpose, unburdened by goals.

What about freedom? Freedom from being tied to a job, from having to improve yourself every single minute, from the dreariness of neverending work?

An Alternative

Killing time isn’t a sin — it’s a misnomer. We’ve framed the question entirely wrong. It’s not a matter of “killing” time, but of enjoying it.

If we ask ourselves instead, “How can I best enjoy this moment?”, then the entire proposition is reframed.

Now we might spend this moment working if that work brings us joy. But we might also spend it relaxing, doing nothing, feeling the breeze on the nape of our neck, losing ourselves in conversation with a cherished friend, snuggling under the covers with a lover.

This is life. A life of joy, of wonderfulness.