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The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life Hardcover – January 1, 2009
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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, youll finally be able work less, work smarter, and focus on living the life that you deserve.
- Print length192 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHachette Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2009
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 8.6 inches
- ISBN-101401309704
- ISBN-13978-1401309701
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Product details
- Publisher : Hachette Books; First Edition (January 1, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 192 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1401309704
- ISBN-13 : 978-1401309701
- Item Weight : 11.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 8.6 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #417,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #417 in Time Management (Books)
- #720 in Personal Time Management
- #7,076 in Motivational Self-Help (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Leo Babauta is a simplicity author and creator of Zen Habits (http://zenhabits.net), one of the most-read blogs in the world.
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Many other books of this type encourage and attempt to teach skills for handling an ever-increasing set of goals, projects, and tasks. These systems are complex in design and often involve myriad lists and charts and numerous steps of analysis and planning. Some people may thrive in this environment and truly enjoy taking on more commitments but there is always a twin pair of risks. The first is that the next task we take on might be the one that breaks us down. Second, these complex planning systems can consume our attention and become the focus themselves.
Babauta suggests a different approach: shedding distractions, simplifying and narrowing your focus in order to improve your life and increase your performance. His system is built around the notion of limiting yourself to only the most important things and ruthlessly treating everything else as a distraction to be avoided. As you read, you begin to realize how many things that you now see as necessary (the little chime announcing each incoming email) are really distractions that are keeping you from accomplishing the things that you deem most important.
Consider your list of goals right now. You may have two or three or even more goals. If you're the type who sets goals for yourself then you probably also divide your attention amongst these goals as you work toward their accomplishment. Leo suggests a different approach. Select the most important goal and devote all of your attention to attaining it. Your attention will be more focused, your stress reduced (because you won't be trying to keep multiple plates spinning), and your motivation enhanced as you work toward the goal. When the first is finished - and only then - you start on the next. Simplifying in this fashion will not only improve your overall performance, you'll find yourself happier as you discover that those things you once thought were crucial were really just distracting you from reaching your most important objectives.
Leo offers this approach up for consideration in many personal and professional areas in Less. Filing, email, and the Internet all threaten to overwhelm us if we let them. What if you only checked you email twice a day? What is the worse thing that would happen? How about unplugging from the Internet? How many times have projects become sidetracked by a quick troll through your favorites bookmarks that turns into an hour or two? In so many areas, Leo points out how many times we have become dissatisfied with ourselves because we have allowed the multitude of things demanding our attention to distract us from what we want to accomplish. Removing clutter from our life, home, and work allows us to focus on what is truly important and to find greater personal joy and satisfaction.
The Power of Less is the exact opposite of The Seven Habits... though both seek the same end, greater personal performance and achievement. If you've spent hours developing your mission and moving big rocks around and still find yourself unsatisfied, give Babauta's ideas a try. Simplify, reduce, and de-clutter and you may just discover the one or two things that are most important to you buried beneath.
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.
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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Un livre à l'image de la générosité de son auteur. Une approche pratique et pragmatique des bénéfices apportés par un mode de vie minimaliste - ou du moins beaucoup plus simplifié et épuré que ce lui que la majeure partie d'entre nous mène. Leo Babauta nous livre son mode d'emploi pour une vie plus apaisée, moins encombrée... et donc centrée sur l'essentiel.
Less is more !