Every year a new “self-help” book comes along that receives limited attention – and then drifts off to will o’ the wisp land. So it was with raised eyebrows as my friend began declaring her revolutionary new existences after taking heed of Leo Barbuta’s The Power of Less: The 6 Essential Productivity Principles That Will Change Your Life.
She kept pointing to pages as I complained about my overworked email inboxes and whined vehemently about there not being enough hours in the day. After a week or two, I decided to humour her and so found myself plonked with the book in my hand.
My friend got a result. I’m a Power of Less convert. Today I found myself having a leisurely morning that included a lovely walk in the local park while the sun was still out, I felt a sense of pride having completed my MITs (In Barbuta’s language, this stands for Most Important Tasks) and still managed to have a two hour long late lunch with a friend and no doubt I’ll have a wee drink with a friend tonight before a good dinner and an early night. While this may be normal for some, this type of calm daily activities is unusual for me, particularly as I work in an industry of deadlines.
Yet Barbuta’s manifesto carefully sets out the importance of focus, even going as far to state that we have lessons to learn from the popular short poetry form of the Japanese Haiku , such as “by setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations”.
Without focus, our multitasking society leaps and jumps around, never quite finishing anything and allowing all our “inboxes” to take control of our lives.
Through setting limits, embracing simple goals and projects, simple time management, simple daily routine, simple filing and other simple ideas and rules to break old habits and find new ones, you can achieve more throughout the day, without the usual noose of anxiety and guilt for not doing something hanging around your head. jorg&olif readers will particularly like the chapter entitled Slow Down, that covers much of the Slow Life principles we all know and love.
If you don’t work for yourself and feel you don’t have that power, Barbuta even promises to write to your boss to explain how much more efficient you will be through single-tasking.
Like with all self-help books, there is responsibility on you to make the change. None of my new habits have happened over night – and at times saying no, when you want to say yes has been a painful challenge, but giving the principles the time they deserve to put into practice slowly and surely, the Power of Less has become a reassuring aspect of my day, as I create my own work/life equanimity.
Image: ToastyKen
nice summary of the contemporary minimalist philosophy Barbuta and followers espouse – a contrarian philopsophy in a world that worships multi-tasking. certainly makes me want to read the book.