Book: The Power Of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential by Leo Babauta. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

It’s a good book. It’s repetitive and a bit outdated (I heard Google reader somewhere) but all the hints here are still valid.

To summarize: the focus is everything. Chose something you want to do and do it. Remove everything else that’s not moving you toward your priorities and do what you have to do. He lists some actionable that can help you on this journey, but there’s no miracle here (as expected), you just have to focus and get things done.

For me, it was a bit repetitive because I already read about almost everything he says in this book, but I would recommend reading if you’re not into minimalist, productivity, and focus.

Here are my raw notes about the book:

  • Focus on the essential, eliminate the rest
  • Do less but better things. Focus on quality, not quantity
  • Set limitations, it will help you to simplify to the essentials
  • Do fewer things but focus on the ones with the most impact
  • Look at your tasks and prioritize the ones with high impact
  • Apply limitations to every aspect of life to force yourself to make choices and choose the essential
  • Follow your values when deciding what is essential. What is more important to you?
  • Second question to find the essential: what are your goals?
  • Third: What do you love?
  • Four: what is important to you?
  • Five: what has the biggest impact?
  • Six: what has the most long-term impact?
  • Seven: needs vs wants. It’s a good criterion when you’re deciding to spend. What do you really need? These are the essentials, The wants you can eliminate if you want
  • Eight: eliminate the non-essential. Example: wash the car and pay the Bills. You can totally eliminate wash your car and focus on the payment — 💭 so… thinking like that you will never wash the car…
  • You can apply these questions in many areas of your life: what commitments in your life are essential? Use the questions to prioritize your goals, you can always get back to the other goals later
  • Remove tasks that are not important, delegate the ones you can delegate, and focus on the essential
  • To get into the state of flow, wind something you’re passionate about, and then get rid of distractions for a period of time
  • When people want something but you don’t think it’s essential, learn to say no. Saying no is the prioritization of the essential. Make your reasoning clear and they will respect your time and appreciate your respect for their time.
  • Shut down everything and focus. If you feel the urge to check your email (or any other external thing), stop, take a deep breath and get back to the task
  • If some idea comes up when you’re focusing, write it down to your inbox and get back to the task
  • Process your inbox every predetermined interval, between one task and another
  • Become aware of your thoughts. Awareness brings change. Don’t beat yourself about it, be aware, let them go, and focus on the present
  • Focus on one thing. If you’re walking, just walk and feel the present.
  • Reporting your progress to a group of people helps. When you see a group of people doing great, so can you
  • Set your MITs (most important tasks) every morning. Make this a habit.
  • Check email just twice a day
  • It’s better to have a small but constant improvement than a big one. Small improvements tend to last because they become a habit
  • Start with just a small task of a project instead of trying to tackle everything at once
  • Declutter your desk and your life. Do it in small steps
  • Achieving a goal takes energy, focus, and motivation. All of them are highly requested virtues nowadays
  • If a goal is too big, break it into sub-goals. Instead of “become a lawyer” use “get into the law school”. No more than one-year goals.
  • Add 3 priority tasks to your list every day, and at least one must have an MIT that moves you towards one of your goals. Do it as the first task, in the morning. Whatever else you accomplish will be an extra.
  • The stacking pager doesn’t work. Use a file and a simple alphabetical system to file. File it right away.
  • Take an inventory of your commitments: work, side-work, family, kids, city, religion, hobbies, home (stuff to do at home), online communities, and others
  • Create a shortlist of things that contribute to your life and values. Leo’s list includes 1. Spend time with his life and family. 2. Writing 3. Running 4. Reading. These are his essential commitments, what are yours?
  • Eliminate non-essential commitments so you will have time for your essential commitments
  • Don’t try to eliminate everything at once. Eliminate one by one, starting with the easiest one
  • It’s hard to say no to other people, but keep in mind that every request is a demand of your time and your time is limited, so you have to spend it on what matters most to you
  • If you’re a morning person, use your morning to get things done. Use your evenings to plan for the next day, declutter, organize, wind down, write, read, be grateful, etc
  • Train your focus to accomplish more. A good exercise is meditation. Do some meditation sessions where you will just close your eyes and focus on your breeding
  • How to focus:
    1. Chose the work you love
    1. Chose important tasks to do
    1. Chose tasks with the right difficulty. If it’s too difficult, you will not understand it enough to be able to concentrate
    1. Find your quiet peak time. The time you will have a quiet environment and peak energy
    1. Clear away distractions to focus
  • Take the time to appreciate what you’ve done after your focus time
  • Drive slow, eat slow, have a good diet and exercise routine
  • To help with motivation, don’t start things right away. Set a date and get excited about it
  • Do not miss two days in a row. We all miss one day sometimes but don’t miss the second one or it will totally demotivate the rest of the week
  • Find pleasure on what you’re doing. It would be hard to stick to a habit if you can’t find any pleasure in it. Look for the good parts and find the things you like.