Welcome to book club! Let’s settle in with a glass of wine (it’s Friday, right?!) and get to chatting! This month we read, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life* by Leo Babauta. Leo is of Zen Habits fame and this is one of many books and articles that he has written.
Full disclosure: I again, listened to this book via Audible*. This time I didn’t mind the speaker’s voice so I don’t think that swayed my feelings towards the book, but I do think at times, I missed things because I’m not a naturally audible learner.
What I did grasp from the book were a few key concepts that, although very basic, have been helpful for me in achieving goals in the past. Although, when Leo listed how many goals he has achieved in the beginning of the book using these methods, I felt like I have achieved NOTHING. He’s written books, run marathons, grown his blog to hundreds of thousands of readers and so much more. He also has 6 kids and gets up at 4:30 am everyday. Crazy pants. Anyway, I think he really has something with the 3 “Most Important Tasks” (MITs) concept. I write down the 3 most important things that I have to do each day in my planner and my “MITS” always get done.
I also really liked his suggestion to start (almost comically) small when achieving goals. If you want to exercise everyday, start exercising for 5 minutes a day. It’s more important to establish the habit first than actually achieve results. I know that I would have trouble with this suggestion. I’m an over-achiever, but I’m going to try it with my next big goal.
Leo also suggests just pursuing one goal at a time. This would be the hardest suggestion for me to follow. I want to achieve so many things and I don’t want to wait an entire year to start the next goal. I want to both exercise every day and grow my blog. I don’t know if both would be possible by his standards.
I did like that his methods are easy to understand. Nothing is revolutionary, but nothing seems impossible either.
Did you read The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life?* Let’s chat in the comments
love,
melanie
*Affiliate links.
I haven’t read his book, but I used to read his blog a lot.
I know what you mean about it being difficult to only pursue one goal at a time. There’s so many things I want to do! Plus, some of them take a LONG time and only make sense to do in tandem.
I did the MIT thing yesterday, and it worked like a charm! I have done it before, but it fell by the wayside at some point. I’m going to start that up again.
I suppose I have been combining these two strategies for a while now. Instead of having one goal a year, I have my top 3 (in order of priority). Has helped me stay focused and pare away other stuff.
1. Good relationship with my hubby
2. Get my degree
3. Better our finances so we can build dream home
Thanks for the book review. I enjoyed it!
You’re welcome! It’s a short read, so I’d recommend it.
I just listened to this while cleaning my room. I conquered a huge pile of boxes that had been blocking my closet for months. Hooray!
I had to come back and read what you thought about it. I like the MIT idea.
I had abandoned to-do lists altogether with the idea that if it was important enough I would remember to do it. But then again I often procrastinate by doing unimportant tasks rather that the things that I really need to get done (and will haunt me if I don’t)… so I am going to try the MIT process and see if that helps me focus on the important stuff.
Thanks for this recommendation. I am going to start listening to positive audiobooks while cleaning since it seems to help me focus. Looking forward to more book discussions!
Awesome! Yeah, I’ve been really getting into audiobooks. We’re discussing “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much” on Wednesday. I know that’s probably short notice, but it’s a good one!