Life Coaching Tips: Do Less, Achieve More

by Erica Ross-Krieger, M.A.

In my book, Seven Sacred Attitudes, I explain that the Do Less Attitude is founded upon the Chinese Law of Least Action.

This Law advises us to Do Less of the unimportant stuff. To Do Less of the unnecessary. To do only those things that have the greatest leverage for us-just as the wise ancient butcher did in China when he dismembered an entire ox with just four simple cuts of his knife.
So, can doing Less teach us to come to work More fully?

You bet.

The Do Less Attitude has to do with focus. It does not have to do with being lazy, letting important things slide through the cracks, or abdicating responsibility.

If you own your own business, you already know that you come to work more fully when you have a clear and focused vision of where you are heading, know which activities are closest to your bottom line and delegate or dismiss the tasks that are not the best use of your time. This is the Do Less Attitude in action.

If you manage your home, or work for someone else, the same idea applies. Doing more of the high-leverage tasks is the best use of your valuable time and energy.

You will come to work and life more fully when you adopt the Do Less Attitude, because there will be more of YOU (your energy, passion, creativity) available. You will be, as author Chin-ning Chu writes in her book, Do Less, Achieve More, "...elevated from the ordinary agitated state of consciousness into an extraordinary level where desired objectives and results unfold with an uncommon ease of effort, thus positively effecting our practical day-to-day performance in all arenas of life."

These days, when we are bombarded by more e-mail messages than ever before, new information arrives every minute, and everything seems to be urgent and in need of our attention, it can be easy to get distracted. But distraction is not a requirement.
The keys to focusing and the Do Less Attitude are:

* First, identify what is important (Hire a coach, work with a friend of colleague, take some time to yourself one weekend.) This means getting clear about which activities in your work environment are closest to your bottom line.* Identify the activities that you can delegate or dismiss.* Ask yourself what price you have been paying for trying to do everything.* Ask yourself how important it is for you to be more relaxed, productive and clear-minded at work.* Commit (preferably to someone else who is interested in your well-being) to saying No to those items that are not worth your precious energy.* Commit (also to someone who wants the best for you) to saying Yes to those items that have the biggest payoff to you (however you define this.)* Keep it simple at first. Cut out a few things at a time. Once you get the hang of this and make it a habit, the Do Less Attitude will become a new way of life...a new daily practice.
The question is: When would NOW be a good time to identify those high-leverage activities?
Focusing ExperimentsTry this: Sharpen your focusing skills. Experiment with one or both of the following activities and get into the habit of focusing.

1. The Color Game:When I was a child, my dad often took me to Candlestick Park during the summer to see the San Francisco Giants' play baseball. I remember sitting in the bleachers, hotdog in hand, looking around in amazement. But I wasn't amazed at the action on the baseball field.

What I saw in the stands was much more fascinating to me. The stands were the setting for the Color Game.

I would close my eyes, think of a color, and then look around the entire stadium and see just how much of that color was present. I'd say, "Dad, look how much blue there is! There are millions of blue shirts and hats."

Between cheers my dad would say, "What blue shirts? There are thousands of different colors out there."

I knew the secret though. He wasn't focusing. I saw an entire sea of blue.

Not much later I would choose another color and open my eyes and see all the shirts in yellow, or red, or green. This kept me occupied for all nine innings and sometimes into the extra innings.

I still play that game today. When I'm at crowded venues, or waiting on line, I will often look around and simply notice a particular color. Doing so keeps my focus sharp.

So when I am back in the office, and a dozen e-mail messages scream my name, a thousand distractions cross my mind and I must keep focused on the article I'm writing, I'm glad I practiced earlier with the Color Game.
Try it yourself today.

2. The Kitchen Timer:If you have been procrastinating on something important, or not able to get to it because you have easily become distracted, try this experiment. It will show you that just a short amount of focused time will leave you hungry for more.

An inexpensive kitchen timer, an alarm clock, a watch with an alarm will all work for this activity.

Tomorrow, head to your office or work space with your timer in hand.

Now identify one activity that needs your focus but has been difficult to dive into. You will be working on this task for 15 minutes, even if it requires longer for completion. Right now, you are just practicing the art of focusing for a short time period.

It might be a task you truthfully do not enjoy but know needs attention (such as cold-calling, sales reports, or a writing assignment). You know the one. It is the one where a million distractions pull you in the opposite direction. Yup, that one.

Assemble everything you need to begin the task.

Turn off the phone ringer and email alert buzzer, tell your assistant to hold your calls, tell your children the room is off limits, shut your door or somehow sequester yourself.

Now go ahead and set that timer for 15 minutes. Take a breath and begin. No stopping until the alarm goes off.

When it goes off, see what you notice.

Perhaps you feel you have just gotten started and want to go for another 15 minutes. Do so.
Perhaps you learned that the task is better done in 15-minute increments than it is when you work at it over longer periods that contain frequent interruptions.

Perhaps you discover that you are much happier when you focus.