Marc Lesser - Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less

If only I had had Marcs insight into my personal busyness earlier in my life, I would have been able to save thousands of heartbeats to spend with my grandchildren. The quiet perspective of Less will change how one works and how one lives.

Like all great ideas, Less is disarmingly simple: know who you are, what you want to accomplish and why, and just do it, with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of joy. 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.

An author who offers a book titled Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less either really knows what hes talking about or is perpetrating a commercial fraud. Marc Lesser knows, and 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 Marcs feet. Marc and I have practiced Zen Buddhism in the same community for over thirty years. Yet I was surprised on page after page by how much I learned (and needed to learn) from my calm and unassuming friend. Give your daily life and work a spring cleaning by following the practices and path suggested in this book.

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. Any reader will be able to take up the methods he proposes to great and immediate effect reducing stress and improving productivity with what really matters. Youll feel met and understood as you read and yet challenged to examine your actions, habits, and beliefs. Insights will abound, but the real payoff is taking them into your everyday life, and Marc shows dozens of ways to do that. Less goes way beyond most self-help books yet stays within everyones reach. Quite amazing.

Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration:
How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life

Copyright 2009 by Marc Lesser

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. It is not meant to take the place of diagnosis and treatment by a qualified medical practitioner or therapist. No expressed or implied guarantee as to the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given nor liability taken.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lesser, Marc.

Less : accomplishing more by doing less / Marc Lesser.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-57731-617-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Contemplation. 2. Rest. 3. Time management. I. Title.

BV5091.C7L46 2009

650.1dc22

2008044951

First printing, February 2009

ISBN 978-1-57731-617-6

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Lee, Jason, and Carol
You bring hope, beyond words

Having lost sight of our goals, we redouble our efforts.

THERE IS AN OLD STORY of a man riding very fast on a horse. As he rides past his friend standing on the side of the road, the friend yells, Where are you going? The rider turns toward his friend and yells, I dont know! Ask the horse!

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like that person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our daily incessant busyness too much to do and not enough time; the pressure to produce a to-do list and tick off items by each days end seems to decide the direction and quality of our existence for us. But if we approach our days in a different way, we can consciously change this out-of-control pattern. It requires only the courage to do less. This may sound easy, but doing less can actually be very hard. Too often we mistakenly believe that doing less makes us lazy and results in a lack of productivity. Instead, doing less helps us savor what we do accomplish. We learn to do less of what is extraneous and engage in fewer self-defeating behaviors, so we craft a productive life that we truly feel good about.

Just doing less for its own sake can be simple, startling, and transformative. Imagine having a real and unhurried conversation in the midst of an unrelenting workday with someone you care about. Imagine completing one discrete task at a time and feeling calm and happy about it. In this book, I offer a new approach what I call a Less Manifesto (and, by the way, that my name is Lesser is strictly a coincidence!) that follows a five-step practice. I focus mostly on our work life, but the approach is equally useful for our personal life. In fact, the two hemispheres of our work and personal lives constantly reflect on and affect each other, each changing and/or reinforcing the other. And while the program requires some explaining on my part and patience on yours, I promise it is simple and enjoyable to follow.

Every life has great meaning, but the meaning of our own can often be obscured by the fog of constant activity and plain bad habits. Recognize and change these, and we can again savor deeply the ways we contribute to the workplace, enjoy the sweetness of our lives, and share openly and generously with the ones we love. Less busyness leads to appreciating the sacredness of life. Doing less leads to more love, more effectiveness and internal calmness, and a greater ability to accomplish more of what matters most to us, and by extension to others and the world.