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Aug 21, 2011

Nathan rated it:

I read it in less than a week, and I loved every sentence of it. If you want something, get it. If you want everything get it all, just one thing at a time. Live in the moment, whatever you're doing, do that, and only that. Slow down, and be happy.

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Jan 15, 2009

Mandy rated it:

This book reminded me a lot of the book Getting Things Done. Very practical advice, I had just heard a lot of it before. I like the refresher though on picking goals, focusing on one thing at a time, figuring out what's essential and eleminating anything that isn't essential. Lots of good stuff on simplifying your life. Stuff I'll come back to and spend a life time learning to implement. Great book. More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Aaron rated it:

A very simple book(go figure). Very short and to the point. One of my goals this past year has been to not get so overwhelmed with multiple project at school(teacher), life, hobbies, and with my family. I have been reading various books to help me learn how to take things, slim them down, and slowly eliminate the unnecessary things in my life and To Do list.

This book has proven to be a great help in helping me establish some patterns and habits. This summer for example I took a break More...

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Oct 30, 2010

Kathy rated it:

I used to read Leo's blog, Zen Habits, so most of this book was familiar. He writes about time management, productivity, organization, prioritizing, simplifying, single tasking, focusing, etc. Even though there was nothing really new or extremely original here, it does help to remind myself of some of these ideas. The book was short, straightforward, and easy to read through quickly. I did pull out my notebook and answer questions about what my values are, what my goals are, what I love, what's More...

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Sep 09, 2009

David rated it:

This book is split into 2 parts, a philosophy or approach to life/work and then a second half of actions to put it in place.

I have been looking for a book on organization/work flow for some time that I related to and found a connection to and a sense of "OF COURSE!". This book did it for me. I had looked into Getting Things Done and tried to implement some of them. I kept "Getting things done in my organization system" and not in the real world.

T More...

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Apr 27, 2009

getAbstract rated it:

How to get out of the fast lane

The next time you’re sitting at a red light, note how many of the drivers around you are talking on cellphones or text messaging. Do your co-workers scurry about, occasionally pausing to converse, even though they’re clearly preoccupied? Most people seem resigned to living in the fast lane, where stress and multitasking are unavoidable realities. Not Leo Babauta, even though he is the father of six children. Babauta believes you can stop the insanity by More...

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Nov 14, 2011

Bruno rated it:

Como sempre falo, livro bom é livro lido. Existem livros para nos divertir (tem gente que vê novela e Big Brother) e tem livros que acrescentam muito em nossas vidas. Adoro os dois tipos e esse livro “Quanto Menos, Melhor”, do Leo Babauta, editora Sextante, certamente acrescentou muito na minha vida. Esse livro dá dicas simples para você reduzir o estresse. Exemplos práticos e reais, empregados pelo próprio autor, demonstram o poder das dicas propostas no livro. Imagino que ser repórter, escrito More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Cara rated it:

Ironically, a book about simplicity and "limiting yourself to the essential" has become the eighth addition to my currently-reading list! But I know other people have holds on it, so I only have two weeks to read it before it has to go back to the library.

I read Leo Babauta's Zen Habits blog (http://zenhabits.net/) all the time, and find it challenging and inspiring. Interestingly, earlier this year I was reading Ten Natural Laws of Success and Time Management and contrasti More...

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May 17, 2010

Tom added it

We are all overloaded by the sheer volume of information that comes into our lives on a daily, hourly, and even minute-by-minute basis. Leo Babauta, author of the popular blog Zen Habits, offers in this small but powerful book a methodology for increasing one's effectiveness and happiness in work and in life. He focuses on six core principles:

1. Setting limitations
2. Choosing the essential
3. Eliminating the rest by simplifying and decluttering
4. Focusing
More...

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Aug 06, 2009

Caitlin rated it:

I think this one is really worth 3 1/2 stars, but of course that's not an option here. It's not a bad book, it's just that I think there are better and more practical productivity books out there. I think it's most effective when read as an addition to more rigorous, perhaps method-based productivity books, or if, in spite of having a system, things are still overwhelming you.

It has it's good parts - Babauta makes good points about slowing down life's pace and not trying to do everyt More...

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Oct 02, 2011

Mike rated it:

While this was a pleasant and easy read, Babauta's approach to personal productivity is a little impractical for normal people. Much of his advice regarding the workplace requires a high degree of autonomy to implement. Additionally, much of his advice regarding the workplace will seem very familiar to those of you who have read anything by David Allen. Every page or two you encounter concepts like project lists, tickler files, one-way inboxes, breaking projects into discrete actions, or having More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Deepak rated it:

This os a great book get it for yourself and give it as a present anytime you need to buy something for someone. this books shows how we just drowning in a never ending list of things to do most of which do not even matter. It has very practical ways of getting you to figure out what is important in your life and eliminating the rest. The peace of mind you get when the unimportant is eliminated is just priceless. With the important things left like exercise and developing better habits the books More...

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May 01, 2011

Artem rated it:

Хорошая книга для тех, кто хочет познакомиться с концепцией "делать меньше". The Power of Less — пожалуй, не самая практическая книга, я вообще с трудом представляю себе кого-то, кроме ее автора, кто смог бы воплотить все рекомендации. Более того, я остался не до конца уверен в действенности метода. Однако кое-что вполне реально перенести в жизнь, что я с удовольствием и делаю. Рекомендую прочитать адептам и фанатам мультитаскинга и GTD. Вы сможете дополнить и обогатить свои техники. More...

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Mar 09, 2011

Laura rated it:

This book is amazing. It is deceptively simple. It works. I started it in August last year. He has you doing, much, much less, but achieving gargatuan feats in a few months. The idea is you do less, and achieve much, much more. At first it was painful - you pare down to the absolutely necessary and MUST limit yourself to only a few things that you focus on at any given time. For example, if you are making changes in your life - you can only work on one new habit a month. But wow, once you get More...

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Mar 24, 2009

Erin rated it:

This book changed my life--no joke. A lot of it seems like you've read it before in some woman's mag, but when it's put all together in a book, it's pretty powerful. One of the most useful lessons I learned (which we could probably all use) was single-tasking. We all think we can multi-task and do multiple things at once, but WE CAN'T. We can do mutiple things, but not well. Single-tasking is doing one task at a time, with complete focus, and then finishing it. Not letting other things get More...

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Nov 25, 2010

Harri rated it:

Some parts of the book are very good and the overall idea of "less" is really something we all should do to become happier, more efficient, focused. This book would probably have been better with more talk about mind, motivation and mental models and less "week one do this, week two that..." kind of practicallity. A few times I could not help thinking the author has some work to do on his path (e.g. waking up 4am and finding motivation by looking at the covers of fitness maga More...

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Jan 05, 2009

Frank rated it:

I wrote a complete review of the book at my blog at letmypeopleread.blogspot.com (search for it) but I will say. Less is the new more. Ok that sounds crazy, but I've notices a rise in blogs and books dedicated to simplicity. This book was written by the blogger of zen habits blog. I think we've hit an overload in this culture of information, entertainment, appointments, dates etc... Sometimes, it's we must find the essential and eliminate the rest. That is the premise of this books and I'm findi More...

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Aug 05, 2009

Amy rated it:

Okay, some of the ideas in this book are so obvious that I could have easily thought them up on my own. But the point is that I haven't. And reading this inspired me to do some note-taking in prep for some habit-changing. I really think the methods in the book make change more approachable..realistically doable.

One of the main ideas that stuck with me most is that we fritter away our lives doing so MUCH that the things we really had hoped to accomplish never get our attention. More...

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Feb 14, 2010

Heather rated it:

Right now I have five books that I'm in the middle of, and just can't seem to get the motivation to finish.

And then I pick up this book from the library and NOM! NOM! NOM! in three hours I'm done.

Over the past six months I've been borderline obsessed with books like this and the ideas contained therein. This book is succinctly written, making big ideas fold into smaller ideas well. The pages are 100% content and 0% fluff. An easy read and a great help.

I want t More...

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Jan 20, 2010

Miette rated it:

Reading this book at the beginning of 2010 is perfect, as I'm trying to start the year off right, filled with good intentions to make this a better year. I've listened to the Power of Less on the way to work twice through now and have begun implementing several of the many tips Leo Babauta presents in handy lists. I agree with others who have reviewed it that it reminds me a lot of David Allen's Getting Things Done. My favorite tip so far is to start each day by identifying the three most impor More...

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Aug 31, 2009

Meghan rated it:

I am a huge fan of Leo Babauta's style of writing and an avid reader of his blog, ZenHabits, so I knew I would enjoy his book. And I did enjoy it, I just didn't like how it ended so I can't give it 5 stars. It was so abrupt and I was left wanting; not my normal reaction to his writing.

That said, the ideas presented in the book were good and would probably make a positive impact on anyone who incorporated them into their lifestyle. I really agree with the idea of using small goals and More...

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Oct 06, 2009

Jayfader rated it:

Some of the recommendations of this volume by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame don't work for my life (checking email twice would be the end of my profession). However, his amazing advice, in just this slim volume, has already changed key elements of my daily operating sysem. And this guy has SIX kids, makes a living and seems to have a lovely home life. This is a must read for those of us suffering from information anxiety or work in 24/7 worlds of data smog. Anxiety reducing techniques for livin More...

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Jan 07, 2012

Sharon rated it:

This book can change your life. It did mine before I was finished reading it, and that was totally unexpected by me. I thought the book was about paring down the material things in life, but it's only marginally about that. It's about finding what's important and essential in your life and getting back control and personal time to do the things you love.

The book is easy to read and could be a fast read, but I suggest you take your time. Try out some of the suggestions. They wo More...

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Aug 13, 2011

Ashley rated it:

I waited a bit to write this review, to try the stuff out and see how it worked for me. This is one I will end up checking out over and over, and maybe eventually buying.

He has some good ideas about lowering the stress in your life and not being overwhelmed by it all. This is a big problem for me, and as I've tried some of his suggestions, I have noticed a difference (for good) in my stress level.

I'm a big "list" person and find myself being really stresse More...

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Apr 11, 2011

Barry rated it:

This book reads like a book written by a blog author using a lot of his existing blog content to fill the pages. You know the drill. Odd repetition of ideas across chapters is a sure sign. At least he didn't outright contradict himself like some books I know. Anyway, it was to be expected since Babauta writes the popular blog zen habits.

To me it read like a calmer version of Getting Things Done. A lot of the same ideas are included, but in a less pragmatic and more holistic way. I do w More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Gloria rated it:

Easy to scan, this is a minimalist approach to efficiency and effectiveness issues. At its core, it is simply rephrasing the concepts of the Pareto Principle (80/20), Stephen Covey's quadrants, and the words of other business leaders. Babauta is a younger 30-ish author and thus may appeal to that generation, especially among readers who are both ambitious and struggling in today's economy. Like his blogs: http://mnmlist.com/ and http://zenhabits.net/about/. Bottom line: Can you focus? Can you do More...

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Apr 10, 2010

Jay rated it:

From the small size of this book and the title, I expected a philosophical treatise on simplicity. The book brushes on that, but is more. The repeated focus is to reduce things in your life, things like goals, possessions, to-do items. With this reduction comes the ability to more easily focus on a singular item, topic, task. The book evolves into a series of suggestions about how to do this in today's world, including generating focus for health and eating, and for email handling. Lots of inter More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Heather rated it:

I really liked the beginning of the book. He talks about choosing a single goal to have as a focus, rather than scattering among multiple goals. Tricky to do but a good idea. Related, he recommends 3 projects at a time, and not to add a new one until all three are complete. A great way to ensure all the projects get done without one becoming an albatross.

Unfortunately, the later parts, when he was discussing life in general, didn't seem as good. Lots of repetition and very little con More...

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Aug 26, 2009

Mozart rated it:

tep by step honest techinuqes, very simple instructions, no bizarre extravagant claims, quick read. i recommend. the only thing that I disliked about this book and many personal developments books, is that even though Babauta tested all of this stuff out himself, I'm sure a lot of it came from other sources and I'm a firm believer of telling people who you are borrowing from. Besides the lack of references, this book is really simple and has stuff that you can apply immediately.

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May 02, 2010

Polina rated it:

In my quest for simplification and ever expanding amount of free time this book has delivered not only the advise and inspiration I have been looking for but also many other gems of wisdom like focusing on one goal/project at a time, creating an enjoyable morning and evening routine and the importance of setting conscious limits on your commitments and activities.

Absolutely loved every part of it and the message and methods resonated with me very deeply.

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