Leo, the owner of the wildly popular ZenHabits blog, has written one of those classics that apply to both our business and personal lives. In brief, The Power of Less is a treatise on the small steps (see my blog post on the Kaizen way) we can take to simplify our lives and in the doing find far more joy and success than all of our manic behavior could produce.
The book begins with Leo's own story of being an debt, overweight, smoking, workaholic who rarely saw his family. His life was chaotic and he never had time for the things and people he loves. (Sound familiar?) Then, he made the choice to simplify his life in small continuous ways; first he quit smoking by focusing all of his energy on that one goal.
Then, he attacked other goals, one at a time, like becoming a runner, eating healthier, starting a successful blog, and getting out of debt.
One by one the goals were met (and exceeded). Leo has run two marathons, has doubled his income, became a vegetarian, decluttered his home, lost 45 pounds, and spends quality time with his family. Today, Leo's blog is one of the top 50 blogs in the world, with more than two million readers a month. If that doesn't make you want to adopt his principles, nothing will!
The Six Principles of Simple Productivity
The Power of Less is divided into two sections; the first walks readers through the six principles of simple productivity:
1. Set limitations
2. Choose the essential
3. Simplify
4. Focus
5. Create habits
6. Start small
Part II details practical tips for implementing the six principles in key areas including e-mail, health, time management, filing, Internet, and decluttering your work space.
Simple Doesn't Mean Easy
While the principles are simple, it doesn't necessarily mean they're easy to implement. Anyone who has started a new habit (like a diet) knows that for sure. However, with small continuous improvement, the principles are achievable.
For example, Leo has weaned himself off e-mail to checking only twice a day. I probably check e-mail 100 times a day - - and just as a nutritionist wouldn't ask us to cut out every unhealthy food in one day, they would encourage us to cut-back. For me, that would mean (first) KNOWING how many times a day I check e-mail, and then (second) cutting back a little, then a little more, and then a little more. Until I reach a point that e-mail doesn't rule my existence.
The Principle of Choosing the Essential
While all of the principles serve as stepping stones to a life of more, the one that hangs me up the most is the principle of choosing the essential. And it's a bugaboo that's been with me life-long. As Leo says, once you know the essentials you'll be in a position to eliminate the chaos of incoming information, commitments, and clutter.
Thankfully, the section on choosing the essential has a series of questions to help define what's essential - and this is the section I'm currently re-reading - because it's the most difficult for me. I know absolutely that once I have those essentials defined, the remaining principles will be far easier to integrate.
The reason this principle is so important to me is that in knowing the essentials, I'll know which projects or tasks have the highest priority - because they're the ones that will have the biggest impact on the essentials. For me, this is the key to having the life of what truly IS more.
Putting the Principles Into Action
As a life-long "clean desk" advocate, I was ahead of the game on the decluttering principle, but way behind on e-mail, Internet, commitments, and health.
Fortunately, simplifying these areas are a matter of making small continuous changes (the Kaizen way), instead of radical ones. For instance, one of the life issues discussed is making time for what we love. As a self-employed person, I get so caught in the flow of work that I forget what I really love.
However, once prompted by The Power of Less, I really thought about what I love - then I made a list, and one-by-one will begin implementing them in my life.(and being a true Kaizen-ista) will NOT try to take on all of them at once!) By the way, my list includes learning to kayak, to play the harmonica, and hiking.
A Perfect Time for a Perfect Book
As I wander the Internet, I hear over and over the desire for simplification. The entrepreneurs I know have all hit the wall at the same time - - they're on information overload, have massive (and unattainable) to-do lists, poor health, wretched time management, cluttered desks and minds, and no fun.
If ever there was a time for The Power of Less, it's now.
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Ours is a world of excess. Most people complicate their lives while accumulating more of just about everything. Leo Babauta explodes the "more" myth with The Power of Less.
He really does understand the concept of simplifying a life, as his blog, http://zenhabits.net has grown exponentially to be one of the leaders in the personal productivity field in the past two years.
A look at his blog shows that his writing style is easy to get into and enjoy. The Power of Less is the same. You'll be engrossed in no time.
And know this, Leo doesn't just write about his topic -- he lives it!
The Power of Less will be a game changer -- a life changer -- for all who dig in and follow the plan.
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This little book is not about giving up everything, but rather it is about keeping only what really matters--in things, in commitments, and in life.
"Simplifying isn't meant to leave your life empty--it's meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do..."
Here is an easy to read book perfectly timed for the New Year. It is not just another book on dealing with clutter, but more of a how-to book on dealing with the realities of life today. Whether you want to learn another language, keep your desk in order, loose weight, or whatever, the author sets you on your way to actually accomplishing your goals.
"...focus on doing less, but doing it more effectively and, in effect, accomplishing more while reducing stress."
Check out the chapter headings:
PART I: THE PRINCIPLES
1. Why Less is Powerful
2. The Art of Setting Limits
3. Choosing the Essential, and Simplifying
4. Simple Focus
5. Create New Habits, and the Power of Less Challenge
6. Start Small
PART II: IN PRACTICE
7. Simple Goals and Projects
8. Simple Tasks
9. Simple Time Management
10. Simple Email
11. Simple Internet
12. Simple Filing
13. Simple Commitments
14. Simple Daily Routine
15. Declutter Your Work Space
16. Slow Down
17. Simple Health and Fitness
18. On Motivation
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Leo Babauta says that simplicity boils down to two steps:
1. Identify the essential.
2. Eliminate the rest.
And in his recent book, The Power of Less, he takes these simple steps and invites those of us who "drink from a fire hose of information" to simultaneously discover simplicity and increase productivity. He recommends "setting limits to how much we consume and do...making the most of our time by focusing on the most important things, instead of everything."
In this practical book, Babuata describes six principles (Set limitations, Choose the essential, Simplify, Focus, Create habits, and Start small) and then describes ways to put them into practice in all aspects of life (goals, tasks, time, email, internet, work space, health, and more). He takes the best of the GTD phenomenon, debunks the myths of multi-tasking, and shows a simple way to to find simplicity in all aspects of life.
This is a book to read with a pen in hand as there are countless questions and quotes to note and remember. With a writing style that has proven true for thousands of blog readers (myself included), The Power of Less proves quite simply to be one of the best books on practical simplicity and productivity you will find.
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This book is certainly not a `management' style book in the sense of a Covey or Blanchard publication. However, if I really wanted my managers to be more productive, efficient and serve the customer better while maintain dignity for the employees I would have to recommend this book over the other `management' types. Why? Because this book captures the essence of good management and (to go out on a limb) good leadership as well.
While providing great tips and techniques for clearing out the clutter in your life, more importantly, the spirit of the book provides the real foundation for a successful career. Applied in its totality, I believe LESS can help the poor manager manage better and the better manager to become the best he or she can be.
I have read dozens of time management books (and reviewed the best of those I have read here on Amazon).
Leo Babauta has written the best I have read on this subject. Most of the others focus on systems; his focus on habits is key to making a quantum leap in time management results.
My reviews are generally longer...in honor of the author's philosophy, I will demonstrate the Power of Less. This book is the best!
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What will consumers think in 2009? What will they feel? What will they buy (if anything)?
Leo Babauta tells you in "The Power of Less."
No, it's not a marketing book, but marketers BETTER read it. No, it's not economics or politics or investing, either. It's LIVING.
Babauta, author of the uber-popular productivity site [...] and the writer's blog [...], has turned his passion for and experience with SIMPLIFICATION, FOCUS, HEALTH, AND HAPPINESS into a book that promises to re-ignite life itself.
After 3 decades (yes, the 1970s were the "Me" decade that started it all), Western civilization has taken the fine of accumulation to pathological extremes. We have stuff atop stuff piled on crap and crammed into things that cost $200 more than our neighbor's things that everyone went ga-ga over at the annual subdivision "I spend more than you" party last spring.
Somewhere between opening day of the 2008 baseball season and Lehman Brothers' collapse in September, we all woke and said, "Do I really need all this stuff? And do I really WANT to try to collect MORE?"
Babauta takes you through the liberating, exhilarating, and RESTORATIVE process of freeing your house, your desk, you life, your calendar, and YOUR MIND from the stuff that gives no value or meaning despite costing a lot of money and creating stress every time you look at it.
And I'm not just talking about stuff you can throw away. Babauta will also help you trash that accumulation around your waist.
How does Babauta work this magic? Through development of QUALITY and HEALTHY HABITS that you develop one-at-a-time through LOW-IMPACT, HIGH-RESULT focus.
It Works! I've been following Leo's mantra since late November and the results are:
* Quit smoking 11/29
* Single list of all of my obligations since 11/19
* Wake at 5:00 a.m. (or earlier) every morning
* Write one quality blog post 5 days a week (I still write so-so posts whenever the mood strikes, though)
* My work area is free of crap and distractions, both at home and in my office!
* I am in a better mood
I have a long way to get to reach Leo's state of productivity, organization, and stresslessness. "The Power of Less" will be my guide, though, and I plan to adopt EVERY POSITIVE HABIT he recommends.
Buy this book today, and consider buying a 2nd loaner copy for the people you love.
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THE POWER OF LESS is one of the more logically written, user-friendly manual companions for self-improvement available in book form. Leo Babauta succeeds where many others fail because he converses with the reader instead of setting out a grand plan, scheme or recipe as a checklist for obsessive self-help book readers. His writing style is casual yet intelligent, supportive, and encouraging.
The quest for simplifying our too chaotic lives is the driver for this book. Babauta has a way of presenting his thoughts that challenges the reader to examine just how cluttered our days have become. And if our days are cluttered with addictions to email, blog sites, and other fixations on the internet, he offers ways to re-think the priorities we have established in this immediate communication world in order to find a sense of balance for living the lives we all desire. Early on in the book Babauta presents two principles that remain the key to the book: 1) 'By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations'. and 2) 'By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.' The remainder of this easy to digest book takes the reader on the journey of learning how to implement these principles.
If there could be only one reason to read this book it would be to gain an appreciation for just how cluttered our lives have become, and unfortunately, lost in that clutter are such vital treasures as true interpersonal friendships and tending to our fellow human beings. And that is reason enough to read THE POWER OF LESS: the discovery of the essentials will follow. Grady Harp, January 09
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In a world that consumes how we think, live and work there is a way to happiness and more fulfillment. Leo understands how people are and how we can easily be swayed by others to do more than what we need to be doing. He lays out simple easy to understand ideas that hit at the root of most of our problems. Our problems are that we take in and try to do more than we are comfortable or even capable of. Humans were never made for the fast paced lives that most of us live. We need to break free of the old ways of doing work and look toward a way that is better and more meaningful.
Leo taught me how to slow down, think about what's most important in my life and let go of the rest. We often find ourselves stressed and feeling that we don't have enough time because we tend to take on too many commitments that we don't need. He teaches how to let go of the non-essentials and focus simply on the essentials and the things in our lives that we want. To block out and stop doing things that are leading us from our goals and aspirations and spend the time saved not doing things that matter like spending time with family, exercise, how to achieve goals and to have fun again.
Too often people buy books that tell them how to do more, leaving the readers feeling like they are inadequate. Leo teaches us to not look for more but to instead look for quality and to change our life direction towards our goals rather than towards what others think we should be doing. If you need a change or a new direction this book is the best place to start. Also if you need a test run of the material before you buy it just go to zenhabits.com and see Leo's many other articles on topics like this. You'll see that he has mastered the art of simplifying so that we can spend our time working towards our goals.
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Leo has become a major player in the world of productivity. His widely popular blog [...] has launched him into almost "guru-like" status. Now this book allows you to take this message of simplicity with you where ever you go.
Like a previous review stated, this book is a continuation and update of his blog Zen Habits, so if you're looking to save a few bucks, spend a couple of weeks going through all the posts on his blog. If you'd like the message in a laser-like package, this is worth the money and the read.
Less really is more!
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