The Power of LESS — by Leo Babauta

The Power of LESS — the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential…in business and in life. This book was on my desk since a month. I had read lot of reviews and knew that the book is packed with lot of value. But my exams dint allow me to go through the book calmly. Still, with the curiosity and exam tension I read page after page(whenever I got sometime), in a hurry. Dint find the book of any use!

After my exams, I was just lazy to start reading the book. I kept on postponing.

I had planned to start two new online projects in my vacation, so kept on working(24×7) on them and started getting stressed. So finally I was looking for some info online, to reduce stress. Luckily I remembered that I had the book “The Power of Less”, which highly emphasizes on reducing or eliminating the non-essential and becoming more productive and less stressful. So finally made my mind to give the book a second try!

Basically the book is divided into two main parts:
1. The Principles [theoretical aspects].
2. In Practice [principles in action].

In the second part all the things that are in the principles are explained with some live examples. This makes some people to think that many ideas are repeated, through out the book. But every repetition is bundled with some new concepts to learn. If you read it in hurry, then I am sure you will miss many concepts and will find only the repetition!

Note: My opinion: This book doesn’t make any sense for those who read it in a hurry(my own experience!). My advice would be, to read this book whenever you find a calm time. Understand, concentrate or focus while you are reading, otherwise you will not notice many good things that are said in the book, even if you read it fully.

Some concepts like Simple Email, seem to be meaning less for many! as you might have never imagined that a person can receive hundreds of emails per day. But the Simple Email is one of the best concepts in the book. Emails can really be frustrating over time, if you start getting a lot of business emails, demanding information from your side.
If you are into any kind Online Business, then you might have experienced it.

Simplicity is shown in the design of the book itself. I love the design very much. It illustrates the simplicity that it teaches.

A review about the book “The Power of LESS”, wouldn’t be complete, if I don’t mention the topics it covers:

Introduction

PART I: The PRINCIPLES

1. Why Less Is Powerful.
2. The Art of Setting Limits.
3. Choose the Essential, and Simplifying.
4. Simple Focus.
5. Create New Habits, and the power of Less Challenge.
6. Start Small.

PART II: IN PRACTICE

7. Simple Goals and Projects.
8. Simple Tasks.
9. Simple Time Management.
10. Simple E-mail.
11. Simple Internet.
12. Simple Filing.
13. Simple Commitments.
14. Simple Daily Routine.
15. Declutter Your Work Space.
16. Slow Down.
17. Simple Health and Fitness.
18. On Motivation.
Acknowledgments.

Some of my favorite read was 13th Simple Commitments, 14th Simple Daily Routine and 17th Simple Health and Fitness.
Now I know, how and why to say “NO” to others when they demand a simple commitment from my side, which doesn’t provide any or much of value. Usually I use to commit to most of the things thrown at me, thinking that they are very small commitments, but now I realize the importance of focusing on less and important commitments, and making the committed things more valuable. And removing the unwanted commitments from my life, to get room for doing things that I love.

With this review I would like to share just a few lines from the book, which stuck in my mind while reading:
1. Flow concept: “People find their greatest enjoyment, not when they’re passively mindless, but when they’re absorbed in a mindful challenge.”
2. Start Small: If you start out with a small success, you can build upon that, and so on — until you have a series of small successes that add up to a very large success. And that’s much better than a large failure.
3. And I agree everything that is said about the Simple Commitment. Everything in this is worth knowing and practicing.

There are plenty of things that I would love to share with you, but don’t want to offend the book publishers!

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. Sit in a calm mood, and read this book and you will understand or rather realize a lot of things. I am slowly improving my life style, with the help of tips given in this book and I am very happy about it. I recommend this book to everyone. And its worth lot more than $13.56 .

You can purchase the book from Amazon for $13.56 – “The Power of Less“.

My sincere feedback about the book is: “The Power of LESS doesn’t teach you anything extra or anything from out side. It awakes the inner wisdom that we already have and makes us conscious of it, which otherwise most of us wouldn’t bother to recognize.”

As the saying goes: “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself.” — Galileo Galilei