Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less

Marc Lesser's book, Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less is a thought-provoking, inspiring, and refreshing read. This book offers an excellent recipe for cooking up a calmer yet more productive life both personally and in the workplace. The author is paradoxically both a Zen priest and a highly successful entrepreneur. He brings real-life examples of practical ways he and others he has coached have crafted lives and businesses that are productive, fulfilling, and totally free of frenetic "busyness." How does anyone manage to be highly successful and productive, while doing less? Lesser (and yes, don't you love his name!) presents his framework in what he calls the "Less Manifesto," where he addresses five "core" categories of thinking and being that get in the way of accomplishing more: 1) fear; 2) assumptions; 3) distractions; 4) resistance; and 5) busyness. He dedicates an entire chapter to each of these categories, and includes practical exercises with real-life examples to really make it all come alive. For example, in the chapter called, "Fear," Lesser discusses what he calls "...one of the more insidious anxieties of modern life...fearing a lack of time." To help us wrestle with this fear, he presents the concepts of "relative time," meaning clock time, and the alternate "absolute time," which is psychological time, the present ongoing "now moment." He provokes the reader's thinking as he explores these ideas. Then, he offers some simple strategies to reduce the fear of time, such as playing with your time by stepping out of time for a few minutes a day, or by meditating each day. He also offers tips for journal writing, reducing stress, establishing positive routines, as well as ideas for implementing these strategies in the workplace. Here is a favorite quote from the book that seems to really hit the essence of Lesser's message: "Less striving, less trying, less racing, less pushing can lead to surprisingly better results." This is a book that I will be coming back to over and over again I am quite sure.

Marc does a very good job integrating his knowledge of business, coaching and spirituality in setting forth a plan for minimizing the distractions in daily life. The exercises presented in his book are good tools to help us focus on minimizing the non-productive activity or "busyness" which keep us from realizing our desired goals. Through his book, Marc helps us take stock of our routines, and our activities, setting a vision for who we want to be in this world with useful tools for accomplishing that vision.

The word "enough" has long been important to me, and "less" is even more refreshing. Marc Lesser's writing reflects a keen intellect, compassion and wisdom. This book is enormously helpful in business and personal life, in sorting out what we need, what we want, and what just distracts us from living authentically.

LESS is a must read. The principles outlined in this book can be applied to work or personal life. The first concept that struck a chord with me was the idea of approaching each moment and task in an open, relaxed, and fully engaged manner. I gave this approach a test-drive at a potentially high-stress work situation where I was to wow a small group of business development executives with my great design ideas. I walked into the meeting open, relaxed, and fully engaged and I blew their minds as well as my own. One idea I came up with is now at the center of the entire campaign and I hadn't even thought of it before entering the meeting room. In addition to countless other simple, but powerful concepts like the one I just mentioned, LESS also teaches readers how to practice meditation as a way to slow down the busyness in your life. "The Less Manifesto" which is introduced in Chapter 3, focuses on the core of self-defeating habits - fear, assumptions, distractions, resistance, and busyness and eloquently and simply describes how to change these habits and have more productivity, but also how to have better relationships with others. My book club is reading LESS next month and I'm looking forward to a lively discussion. FIVE STARS for LESS!