Introducing Season 3: The Zen of Productivity

Welcome to the Zen Habits podcast, where we dive into how to work with uncertainty, resistance, and fear around our meaningful work. This is for anyone who wants to create an impact in the world and cares deeply enough to do the work. I'm your host, Leo Babauta, creator of the Zen Habits blog.

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Hello and welcome to season three of the Zen Habits podcast. This season is called "The Zen of Productivity," which might sound like a bit of a contrast, a little bit of a conflict in terms—"The Zen of Productivity." In this episode zero, I'm really here to welcome you to the new season, to give you a little bit of an intro, a little bit of an overview, and tell you what's coming.

So, episode one is where we really get into it. But in this one, we're just introducing you to the season. So, what is the Zen of productivity? I'm going to talk a little bit about that, a little bit about what we're going to cover this season, a little bit of a sneak peek, and then invite you to play along, to be a part of this.

OK, so "Zen of Productivity"—two different words that don't sound like they go together. I wanted to talk about productivity because it's so important to so many people. I've heard from a lot of you who said, "We want your best productivity tips. Help me to overcome my procrastination. Help me to create a great productivity system, or work-life balance, or the ability to focus, or overcome distractions."

So, there's a group of problems, a group of aspirations, that we could lump under productivity. We’re going to talk about that—what are the best systems and tools, the things that I use, the things that I recommend, how do we simplify it, how do we create focus, how do we create habits, systems, tools, and accountability, and all of these amazing things that help us to become more, quote-unquote, "productive," more effective, more focused, more impactful.

And that's really what this part of it is about—creating an impact. Whether that's an impact in the life that you want to create, an impact on others, your customers, your team, your family, your community, or an impact on the world. If we can't overcome our urges to distraction, overcome our resistance, if we just give in to our patterns, our wanting to exit from things always, we can't learn to work with that.

And we can't have the impact that we're here to have. I actually think a lot of you really care about having a positive impact on the world. You want to learn how to actually bring that to all of the struggles that you're facing. I think you do that because you care so much. That's what this season is about—we care about the impact that we have.

We care about what we're doing. Or at least we want to. If we're not caring that much right now, we want to be on purpose. We want to learn to overcome these obstacles. We want to have the impact that we're here to have. So, that's the productivity part of it. It's not just about churning out more widgets.

We can talk a little bit about that, but it’s really about having the impact that you want to have—overcoming the things that you need, creating the tools, systems, structures, and tactical parts of it, but also the deeper part of it. And that's where the Zen part of it comes in. Now, Zen is overused. It's used as a catchphrase that just kind of means "peaceful" or whatever, like "I'm all Zen-ed out." But I'm an actual Zen student—I'm not a Zen master or anything like that. I work with an actual Zen teacher, a priest, and a number of them. I've worked with other Zen students, and I've taken Zen classes.

I've taken vows, and I'm working to take more vows. So, I study Zen fairly deeply. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but it's something that I actually, authentically care about. And so, I want to bring in some of the wisdom that I've learned into this realm of productivity. Zen covers everything.

Productivity, work, having an impact in the world—none of this is excluded from Zen. It's not like, "Oh, over here, this is Zen, and that’s not Zen." No, Zen is in our relationships. Zen is in our parenting. Zen is in finances, in how we walk our dog, in how we do anything. We can bring the ideas, the practices of Zen into all of it.

And that's what we're going to do. How do we become more mindful, not just productive? How do we bring mindfulness into your everyday work, face uncertainty and resistance? How do we simplify down to the simplest versions of all of this when we're feeling overwhelmed? How do we bring compassion, love, and devotion to things that we might just feel blah about? So, that's what we're doing here with Zen.

We're learning to become present, focused, and calm, along with the effective productivity strategies. In doing so, we're going to cover a bunch of topics, which I'll talk about, but we’re also going to bring in experts from a number of fields. I'm bringing in people who are productivity experts, people who deal with mindfulness—you know, a Zen priest is on the roster.

So, I'm going to bring in other experts, but I'm also going to bring in my own expertise. I've worked with thousands of people on these kinds of things—from mindfulness to simplicity to habits to productivity. So, we'll talk about all of that. I’m going to bring in not only stuff from Zen Buddhism but also things from Stoicism, from psychology, and even from relationship therapy, believe it or not. And again, some amazing experts.

One thing I want to talk about this season is that what you're struggling with is never what you're actually struggling with. If you’re like, "Ah, this project is the thing that I'm struggling with. This one task, my emails, my taxes, writing..." Whatever it is that you think you’re struggling with, that’s not the thing you’re actually struggling with. There's a deeper layer underneath, and if you can learn to address that with mindfulness, with presence, with your full heart, then you can actually conquer anything. There are no questions that you can't answer on your own.

So, let's talk about some of the topics that we have coming up. We're going to talk about setting intentions and goals, bringing Zen practice into that as well. We're going to talk about building sustainable habits when it comes to these kinds of work things and productivity. We're going to talk about simplifying your workspace and your workflow.

We'll discuss using some of the tools that I use and recommend—from tasks to notes to other kinds of things. We're going to talk about mindful time management and how we can bring Zen ideas into that as well. We're going to talk about dealing with distractions—everyone's favorite topic—including social media, but also other distractions.

We'll cover overcoming procrastination, resistance, uncertainty, and avoidance. We're going to talk about stress and burnout because productivity can often mean, "I'm just working hard all the time," and then we burn out. We don't want that. We want to try and learn how to manage that so we're not depleted. We can actually show up feeling excited and inspired, with our full battery charged. We're going to talk about balancing work and life, embracing imperfection, cultivating gratitude, wonder, and joy, and then reflecting and adapting.

These are some of the topics, along with the experts that I haven't named yet, but I will be sharing more about them. So, these are the topics we're going to discuss. I'm really excited about this season. What I'm going to do is invite you to play along. There are a couple of ways you can do that. If you're listening to the audio version of the podcast, take notes afterward.

What are the actionable steps that you can take with every single episode? And then, between the episodes, actually start to implement them. When you're done, email me with your questions, with how it actually worked for you. I might not answer every single email, but I will read every email.

And in this way, you can interact with me as you go through it. I can actually bring some of these emails into the season and answer your questions if you have them. The email is [email protected]—that will land in my inbox. I will read it, and I'll reply to some of them if I have the chance. If you're watching the video version of this, we're posting the videos on YouTube, so you can always watch the video versions and see my beautiful freaking face, along with the beautiful faces of the experts that I'm going to be interviewing. So, you can watch this on YouTube.

What I would really love for you to do is comment below with what you're going to take on from that episode. Like, "Here are the things that I'm going to do." And then also comment with questions.

Comment on how it's going, like, "Leo, this was great, but I didn't quite get this, and I'm struggling with this." That will help me, but it will also help you have some skin in the game. You're committing to practicing something, you're sharing, you're engaging with the process, and engaging with me. So, this becomes more of a dialogue of working with me and the rest of the group who is watching and listening along with you, as opposed to just absorbing information and hoping that it will have some effect in your life.

The way it’s actually going to work is, you have to write down what you're going to take on, put it into action, and then reflect on that and ask questions. If you do that, it will help me tremendously, but I actually think it will have a real effect on your life. So, that’s what I’m encouraging you to do here.

Again, if you’re watching the video version of this, please leave a comment below that you're in. Comment on what you’re excited about hearing, comment with your questions, and then let’s do this together. I’m freaking excited. OK. Thanks, my friends. I’m Leo. I’ll see you in the next episode.

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If you haven't already, please subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. If you found this episode useful, please share this podcast with someone you know, who cares deeply. That would be really meaningful to me. And, if you'd like to dive deeper with me into this work, please check out the blog at zenhabits.net or get in touch at [email protected].

Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join me every Wednesday for more episodes of the Zen Habits podcast.