Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.

That may sound like a lot, but I accomplished all of this in small steps, one thing at a time. Again, I used the concept of One Goal—I focused on only one goal at a time, and put all of my energy into it.

Have too many projects? Limit them to three. Have too much stuff in your house? Limit yourself to two hundred items.

How can you determine which tasks have the most impact? There are generally two good ways of doing this. 1. Examine your task list. Take a look at everything on your list and ask yourself the following questions about each one: Will this have an impact that will last beyond this week or this month? How will it change my job, my career, my life? How

The problem with constantly trying to increase volume is that it doesn’t always produce the best results. Doing a huge number of things doesn’t mean you’re getting anything meaningful done.

The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables. It can be a daunting task if you have something important to convey.

it helps to ask yourself the following questions: Which areas of my life are overwhelming? What would I like to simplify? In addition to the tasks I need to accomplish in different areas, do I want to limit the number of possessions I have, what information I receive, or what responsibilities I have?

What you’ll need to do is do a review of your task list (method number one above) to choose the high-impact tasks, instead of trying to tackle everything regardless of how meaningful the tasks are to your life.

The lessons of the haiku, of applying limitations in order to force choices, of choosing the essential and finding the Power of Less—these are lessons we can apply not only to the tasks on our to-do lists, but to everything in our lives. If there’s any area of your life that is overwhelming you, and that you’d like to simplify, apply limitations.