The Power of Less introduces Leo Babauta’s ideal of productive minimalism. His approach focuses mainly on the development of good habits as the key to long-term changes.
Chapter 6: Focus on one success at a time: think in goals, sub-goals, projects and tasks
Setting goals is easy; achieving them is exponentially harder. We need energy, focus and motivation - all of which we only have in limited supply.
That’s why we’re most likely to achieve something when we focus exclusively on that one specific goal. If you have a goal that can be achieved in, say, six to 12 months, it would make sense to put all your energy into achieving that one goal.
In order to come a step closer to achieving your main goal, divide it into several smaller sub-goals that can be achieved in shorter periods of time, e.g., a week. By achieving a sub-goal every week, you come a small step closer to achieving your main goal every week.
Then identify projects for the actual work you have to
do. You have to define a concrete status you want to have
achieved by the end of the project. In order to achieve this
status, you should create a number of concrete tasks that
can be taken care of as quickly as possible. Ideally, every
task should be short enough to finish in 30 minutes.
In order to guarantee that you finish all your projects, you should never work on too much at once.
Choose no more than three projects and don’t begin any new projects until these three have been completed.
The more these projects have to do with your main goal, the better.
In order to guarantee that you finish all your projects, you should never work on too much at once.
Choose no more than three projects and don’t begin any new projects until these three have been completed.
The more these projects have to do with your main goal, the better.
