Book Review: The Power of Less - Leo Babauta
I have been reading Leo Babauta's Zen Habits blog for a few years now. Even though unintentional, I've always felt silly coming away from a post. He makes things so simple that you question why you made things difficult for yourself in the first place.
I began hunting the interwebs for his book, "The Power of Less", all about eliminating the clutter in all aspects of our lives and making things simple.
I was in serious need of this book. After moving out of my parents' home and into a house with my partner, it began to dawn on me that I would have to do washing, cleaning, pay bills and maintain the house. I found I was spending less and less time with my friends and family and I was becoming overwhelmed and felt burnt out.
"The Power of Less" talks of eliminating multitasking which I just love - when has it really
helped you anyway? Instead of churning out lots of half-assed work, you can limit yourself to only concentrating on one task
and only one task at a time that helps you reach your goal. You won't
feel stressed out, you won't feel burnt out - you will have completed
an excellent piece of work because you focused entirely on that work.
One of the fantastic things I took from this book is to start small to achieve your goal. For example, one of your goals may be to go to the gym for 45 minutes, 5 days a week. Even if you used to be a gym goer or you're just starting out - start small. Do 10 minutes of running, even though you will want to do more, limit yourself to 10 minutes. Make your short term goal so easy that it is difficult to fail. Then start adding 5 minutes onto your work out after a week and so on until you're up to 45 minutes. Sounds simple? It is. It's supposed to be.
I felt that Babauta presented such simple information that you'll be wondering at what point you thought that multitasking and trying to fill up your time was helping you reach your goals. His book flows well, reinforces his theories well and applies them in different aspects of your life such as family, fitness and work. This book isn't just for the office worker, but everyone. It doesn't just apply to office work, it can apply to cleaning your house or trying to spend more time with your friends.
A must read for everyone who works for themselves, works in an office, a housewife/husband - anyone who wants to reclaim their sense of self.
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