The Power Of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

by Leo Babauta

In everything you do, use these questions to guide you to choose the essential, especially if you have problems deciding. Once you get the hang of it, you won’t need these questions anymore—they’ll become automatic. 1. What are your values? Values are simply knowing what things are most important to you. Think about the things that really matter to you, the qualities you want to have, the principles you want to live your life by. Once you’ve identified these values, everything you do and choose should follow from those. 2. What are your goals? What do you want to achieve in life? How about over the next year? How about this month? And today? If you know what you’re trying to achieve, you can determine if an action or item will help you achieve it. 3. What do you love? Think about what you love, who you love to spend time with, what you love doing. 4. What is important to you? Along the same lines, make a list of the most important things in your life, in your work, or in whatever area you’re thinking about. 5. What has the biggest impact? If you have a choice to make between a list of projects or tasks, think about which project or task will make the biggest difference in your life or career. What will have the biggest effect on everything else? For example, if you have a choice between making some calls, having a meeting, and writing a report, think about the impact each task will have: the calls are to clients who spend perhaps one hundred dollars each on your ...