Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less (Lesser, 2009)

Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less (Lesser, 2009)

“This wise, beautifully written book is grounded in a refreshing new way to understand busyness and filled with concrete strategies to recapture your quality of life — for good.”
— Cheryl Richardson, author of Take Time for Your Life

“A wise, compassionate, and insightful guide to finding spaciousness in the only place it truly exists: inside your own mind, heart, and life.”
— Jane Hirshfield, poet and author of After and Nine Gates

“With gentle wisdom and real-world common sense, Marc Lesser effortlessly integrates profound spiritual wisdom into a clear and doable program for sane self-improvement, whatever the challenges of your work or life.”
— Norman Fischer, Zen abbot and teacher, poet, and author of Sailing Home

“Marc Lesser dives into one of the most pervasive and persistent difficulties of our time — overwhelming busyness — with courage, deep practical know-how, profound spiritual understanding, and kindness....Less goes way beyond most self-help books — yet stays within everyone’s reach. Quite amazing.”
— James Flaherty, founder of New Ventures West Integral Coaching and author of Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others

“This valuable work is so loaded with practical, applicable insights and suggestions to simplify work and daily existence that after reading it I felt that I should be studying at Marc’s feet....Give your daily life and work a spring cleaning by following the practices and path suggested in this book.”
— Peter Coyote, actor and writer

“This Buddhist teacher-cum-lifestyle coach has come up with a very practical life plan.”
— Mandala magazine

“Less is more, as the old saying goes. Author Marc Lesser takes this to heart in his new book, Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less. 'Too often we mistakenly believe that doing less makes us lazy and results in a lack of productivity,' Lesser writes. What it really does, he argues, is make us better appreciate the things we actually do get done. The author offers a 'Less Manifesto' aimed at getting more of those kinds of things you can’t put your hands on: patience, love, kindness, generosity, and quiet self-reflection.”
— Body + Soul magazine

Product Description

A certain kind of busyness is crucial to life, allowing us to earn a living, create art, and achieve success. But too often it consumes us and we become crazy busy, nonstop busy, and we expend extraneous effort that gets us nowhere. Marc Lesser’s new book shows us the benefits of doing less in a world that has increasingly embraced more — more desire, more activity, more things, more exhaustion. Less is about stopping, about the possibility of finding composure in the midst of activity. The ideas and practices that Lesser outlines offer a radical yet simple approach to transforming a lifestyle based on endless to-do lists into a more meaningful approach that is truly more productive in every sense.

[JLJ - As good as any other, introduction to Zen and meditation. Approach these concepts with an open mind. Will these concepts work for you? How will you know unless you try them? This book presents strong arguments in favor of exploring this practice.]

p.3 This book is about the benefits of doing less in a world that has increasingly embraced a crazy kind of more... This book presents a different, calmer, and surprisingly productive way of approaching our work and life... Why, in fact, are we so busy?

p.5 One of my teachers... [at the San Francisco Zen Center] one day asked me, "Do you want to know the three most important tasks of a human being?" I did not hesitate to answer yes. "There are three tasks that matter in this lifetime... The first task, though not the most important task, is to quiet the busyness in your mind. The second is to find your song. And the third task is to sing your song."

p.6 Quieting the busyness in our mind can open the door to experiencing the sacredness of life in general and our own wondrous life even in the midst of everyday activities. It is something we can practice at any time, in any moment when we want to let go of the activity-driven busyness that can make us feel so depleted.

p.6-7 Finding your song describes your ability to access your deep power - which is your appreciation for being alive. This embraces both who you are and all that you have right now as well as the greater possibilities you imagine and envision for the future. We can hear our song only when our minds are quiet, when we can reflect on what is truly engaging and important to us

p.7-8 Part of my song... is to help others find and sing theirs by teaching the art of doing less. To me that means helping people

p.8 My hope is that the more we learn to quiet the busyness in our mind, discover our own song, and transform ourselves by expressing it, we will accomplish more of what really matters - to ourselves and to the welfare of the world... When you are not working, do you have difficulty focusing and calming down? Do you feel a sense of emptiness?

If the answer is yes to most of these questions, you might want to consider developing a more sustainable approach to work and activity in general.

p.13 when we approach any task in the right spirit, we become more successful and efficient at it.

p.15 I would propose that we always accomplish more when we approach each moment and task in an open, relaxed, and fully engaged manner... this can become one of our most important and useful aspirations and measures of success.

p.23 one of my favorite quotes by Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, which is that despite our wishes, comparisons, and complaints, in a profound way "we all have just the right amount of problems." The challenge, and the real opportunity, is to develop the flexibility and responsiveness to fully meet, engage, and appreciate these so-called problems.

p.29-30 It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. - William of Ockham, 1288-1348 ...

The Less Manifesto focuses on engaging less in five self-defeating habits in order to experience more ease - more composure and better results - within ourselves and with others. This can translate into more productivity... The five categories... fear assumptions distractions resistance busyness

p.36 Sometimes what looks like slowing down may in fact get us faster to a far more effective outcome.

p.45 I have been digesting and applying this lesson for much of my life. That lesson is this: if the metal doesn't bend, don't hammer harder - apply more heat. Particularly concerning ourselves, our beliefs, and our relationships, everything is malleable... Where do we find this heat? ... by letting go of relative time and entering absolute time through focused attention and mindfulness practice. Much like the process of applying heat to metal, retreats, meditation, and mindfulness practices act to soften ideas, views, and emotions that have become hardened.

p.46 Meditation could be described as the simple and radical practice of sitting. It's the practice of learning to see and receive what is right in front of you and accepting it. Slowing down, sitting, breathing deeply, and opening your awareness allows you to discover more textures, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions - and this awareness can be brought back to the world to change your experience of it.

p.47 For me, to sit quietly for thirty minutes each morning is much like the act of brushing my teeth. It's not so much about doing something special or extra; it's just that I would feel odd if I didn't spend time in this way each morning. It's basic maintenance, providing me with greater composure and clarity about the day's possibilities and inevitable disappointments that I would have if I did not sit quietly.

Meditation is a bridge between not doing and doing, a tool that we bring from one state to the other so that "doing" is improved by having access to our quiet, calm center.

p.48 But imagine: Wouldn't it be refreshing to take time at the beginning of each day to simply appreciate being alive - time with no expectations, time with absolutely nothing to accomplish, time outside of your judgments? Imagine just appreciating your breath and your body, being open to and aware of the magnificence and mystery of your human existence. Imagine just observing and being curious about the thoughts, problems, emotions, and complex stories that make up your "I".

p.51 Mindfulness involves simply giving yourself over to your senses... is more like the practice of emptying - letting go of your preconceived ideas, getting "out of your head," and awakening your senses to what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.