3836: 5 Questions to Simplify Your Life During the Holidays by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Simple Holidays

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Education, Mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3836: Leo Babauta invites us to rethink the chaos of the holiday season with five powerful questions that uncover what truly matters. By examining our attachments, limits, and priorities, we can trade stress and overcommitment for clarity, calm, and deeper connection. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://zenhabits.net/simple-holidays Quotes to ponder: "What are you striving for right now? You can tell what it is by what’s stressing you out, what’s been occupying your mind, what fills your life with things to do." "What if you only limited your plate to five things? You’d have more space, more focus, more enjoyment." "Spending time with friends and loved ones is the best way to use your holiday time." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:37.0	See terms on site.
0:39.8	This is Optimal Living Daily. Five questions to simplify your life during the holidays.
0:45.8	By Leo Babata of zenhabits.net. And I'm Justin Mollick reading articles to you every day of the year.
0:51.9	This one covering the holidays, so let's get right to it as we
0:55.4	optimize your life. Five questions to simplify your life during the holidays by Leo Babouda
1:05.0	of Zenhabits.net. For many people, the holiday season is the busiest, most complicated, most stressful time of year.
1:13.6	Holiday parties, gift shopping and wrapping, decorating, travel plans, end-of-the-year projects, planning for the new year.
1:21.6	These are all added on top of your regular business, and life before the holidays were already pretty busy.
1:32.5	So what can we do to simplify? Is it even possible to simplify when things are getting crazy?
1:39.2	Yes, it's possible with some willingness to change. If you want things to be exactly as they are,
1:46.3	you can't simplify. But if you're open to change and have an open mind about your routines and priorities and projects and more,
1:47.8	you can simplify.
1:52.1	One method to go about this is to ask yourself a series of questions.
1:59.2	Now, it takes a minute or two to reflect on these questions, but if you have five questions, that will only take five to ten minutes.
2:01.5	That's totally worth the time investment if it greatly simplifies your life, reduces your busyness and stress, and makes you calmer and happier.
2:07.7	Take the time now to reflect. Here are the ones I've found useful. Number one, what are you
	...

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