I've been re-reading Leo Babauta's "The Power of Less". It's a book that shows it age in certain parts (the references to Google Reader and Blackberry technology is adorable), but the rest of the advice in it is timeless. I just picked up the hardback version of the book because I find myself returning to it over and over again. The basic premise is that by simplifying and limiting all of the various parts of our lives (how many commitments we make with ourselves, the number of goals we have, the number of inputs we maintain, etc.) we can live a more purposeful life. I've been finding this true with my decluttering of my game and book collections along with removing applications on my phone (I'm more of a computer-person anyway). What's even better is that I don't have to think so hard about making choices for how I'm going to show up. I just went through and cleaned up my projects and next-actions lists to reflect one goal I have (and only one for now). That and I also decided that certain weeks would have certain repeating items instead of just dumping them all in the first week of the month. That dropped so much of my task list that all-told the number of projects and next-actions are less than 100. Usually I've been riding with about 150-200 and it's overwhelming. This list feels like something that I can accomplish this week. Perhaps not everything will get done, but at least it's manageable.

I'll keep playing with this, but it's a nice reminder that by doing less one can really focus on the things that matter.