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The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life [Hardcover]

Leo Babauta (Author)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Babauta (Zen to Done), employing the power of less will propel readers from chaos to blissful and productive minimalism. Learning to set limitations, such as penning a three-item Most Important Task list every day and restricting e-mails to five lines, is a cornerstone for the authors plan for increased simplicity and satisfaction. With new boundaries in place, readers can discover flow, become wholly absorbed in tasks and live the paradox of doing less and achieving more. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

With the countless distractions that come from every corner of a modern life, it’s amazing that we’re ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary – freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better.

The Power of Less will show you how to:

• Break any goal down into manageable tasks
• Focus on only a few tasks at a time
• Create new and productive habits
• Hone your focus
• Increase your efficiency

By setting limits for yourself and making the most of the resources you already have, you’ll finally be able work less, work smarter, and focus on living the life that you deserve. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion; First Edition edition (December 30, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1401309704
  • ISBN-13: 978-1401309701
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #8,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #6 in  Books > Health, Mind & Body > Self-Help > Time Management
    #61 in  Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Motivational
    #70 in  Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Stress

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More About the Author

Leo Babauta
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Leo Babauta Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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Short List, Most Important Tasks, One Goal, Simple Projects List, Zen Habits, Simple Commitments, Google Calendar, Start Small
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The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life
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The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life 4.1 out of 5 stars (90)
$11.53
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Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less 4.9 out of 5 stars (14)
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Customer Reviews

90 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (90 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
141 of 149 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This book is great -- but zen habits is great AND free, January 3, 2009
This review is from: The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life (Hardcover)
First, let me say this: The content in this book is worth 5 stars. Leo is the absolute best at making anyone realize what is important in the world, and act on it. If you've had it with other self-empowerment books, the kind that use phrases like "thrive off of synergy" and "discover the true version of yourself" and "unlock the millionaire within you" and other absurdities that clog the self-improvement industry of books, then The Power of Less will be an absolute relief. The general mantra is easy to swallow and understand: focus your efforts on one thing and you will be more effective.

The book is simple and direct with little fluff. It's aimed at everyone, not just the big-time business managers and the yuppie type. As a student and writer, I find that 7 Habits and Getting Things Done and the like, while they're great, just don't feel like they're aimed at me. The Power of Less is, though. And it's undiluted greatness. There's no New Age-y stuff in here, nothing really abstract. Just solid, practical approaches to the problems that everyone faces.

Here's the one catch, though: at least 85-90% of the content in this book is fundamentally equivalent to what's been posted on his blog, Zen Habits (zenhabits dot net). Leo's techniques rely on simplicity so much that there are really only so many ways you can spin it.

There are a lot of reasons to buy this book: it goes a little bit deeper in its explanations, it is a great summary and introduction to everything on Leo's site, it supports Leo after all of the hard work he has put in to helping your average Joe like me make his life and his world a little bit better, and it introduces his ideas in a logical order.

But you can get explanations the same fundamental approaches and set of tips for free on Zen Habits, so if you're looking to pinch pennies while still taking serious steps forward in your life, you might instead just want to go through his site.

This review is not a knock on the book at all. It's just a reminder that there's a free digital alternative. That's a tip Leo himself would approve of.
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60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars How to have more with the Power of Less, January 4, 2009
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This review is from: The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life (Hardcover)
My copy of Leo Babauta's new book, Power of Less, The: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life, arrived Friday evening, and by late Friday I'd read it cover to cover. Now, on Sunday, I'm starting it again. It may be about "less", but is contains more than my brain could take in with a single read.

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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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars If you like the Zen Habits blog, you'll enjoy this book a lot - but get it as a book not an audio, February 6, 2009
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This review is from: The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life (Hardcover)
Length:: 1:31 Mins

I love the Zen Habits blog and really connect with Leo's simple message of cutting the clutter and living a simpler life in order to do and achieve the things that are of real value, so I got a lot out of this book's simple reminders and encouragement.

I didn't like it in audio format, though, which I explain in my video review, so while the content deserves five stars, the robotic, slick narrator and the way the format of the book worked with being read aloud brought the star rating down.

One other minor quibble was that Leo mentioned "previous posts" and "later posts" in his book a lot. Some of the content was obviously written for a blog format and it wasn't edited vigorously enough to catch these mistakes.

Other than that, though, the content is exactly what I expected from reading Leo's blog and I enjoyed the book a lot. It's a good kick in the rear if you need help getting fired up to achieve your goals through simplicity.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars ZEN for beginners
If you'r beginning your journey with work-life balance and minimalism, this is the right book to start. Read more
Published 1 day ago by bulski.pl

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed My Life
This book is a gem among gems. Leo's blog Zen Habits has been on my radar for years, but i needed a chapter-by-chapter book that would overhaul my life for the better, and this... Read more
Published 6 days ago by damali ayo

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book and really effective approach to reaching goals
I think this book is very helpful. I even bought the audio version in the iTunes store.
The audio version is very good. Read more
Published 1 month ago by DudemanLA

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick self-help tips for busy people
One thing I'll say for this Leo Babauta's The Power of Less -- it's a very quick read. So quick that, after I read it a while ago in one sitting, and wasn't too impressed, I was... Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Harris

5.0 out of 5 stars Cut to the chase advice for productively simplifying your life!
Feeling overwhelmed? This book is the perfect prescription. It is written in a very approachable, simple, yet engaging style. Therein lies its effectiveness. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kevin Sink

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful ideas to increase your productivity (and some fluff)
The Power of Less has some powerful, counter-intuitive ideas that could lead to a significant change in your productivity, and a reasonable volume of fluff that will be helpful to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by William Bachman

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Less
A constant stream of emails. Instant messages. Notes, files, phone calls, news, requests. Is this really how we want to spend our lives? Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lisa Fahoury, CBC

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical advice and good writing
Simply put, the advice in the book is practical and down to earth. There is nothing earth shattering or new here, but it is a nice collection of simplifying your life advice. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Chris P. Kunicki

5.0 out of 5 stars Just read it
i cant speak english, so ive read this book with a dictionary. Just one goal: improve my english.

in spanish: sentido común embotellado listo para consumir
Published 5 months ago by JiPiBiMAif

4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing in the Book that Isn't in the Blog
The book is good, especially the way the author tells his story and how he changed. He is giving concrete (detailed) examples of how you can do more with less. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Husain Mohd Naser

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