This past week I read a book titled The Power of Less by Leo Babauta.

Mr. Babauta lives in Guam and writes a popular blog titled ZenHabits.

Five years ago he was an out-of-shape smoker. Today he runs marathons. Five years ago he was in debt. Today he is debt-free and has a successful website with more than a million unique visitors a month. Five years ago he spent too little time with his (6) children. Today, they get his time before anything else.

His message?

Simplify your life. Expend your time only as it will support your objectives. Create limits. Learn to say “no.” Identify what is important to you and disengage from everything else. Focus on one thing at a time. No multi-tasking!

Plan in advance of each day the 3 big tasks you need to accomplish. Attack the first one as soon as you get out of bed (and have a cup of coffee – he drinks water). Then the next two. The rest of the day can be devoted to the small stuff.

Check your e-mail once a day. When you are working on an important task, cut out distractions – shut off your cell phone, isolate yourself, no e-mail “dings.”

Babauta uses a metaphor to make his point. He references the Japanese form of poetry called “haiku.” A haiku is a poem with only 17 syllables. Therefore the haiku poet must “carefully choose only the essential words and images needed to convey his idea.”

“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 the lessons we can apply not only to the tasks on our to-do lists, but to everything in our lives.”

Clearly there is something to Babauta’s message. I know for me when my mind (or desk or to-do list) is cluttered, I am far less effective than when I have one very clear objective and focus only on that.

In next week’s entry I will give you some insight into the thinking of America’s best-known productivity expert (David Allen, author of Getting Things Done). But, here’s a highlight:

“Your conscious mind, like the computer screen, is a focusing tool, not a storage place. You can think about only two or three things at once. … as with RAM (computer memory), there’s limited capacity; there’s only so much ‘stuff’ you can store in there and still have that part of your brain function at a high level. Most people walk around with their RAM bursting at the seams. They’re constantly distracted, their focus disturbed by their own internal mental overload.”

Jim Randel is the founder of The Skinny On book series. The Skinny On books are receiving rave reviews from readers, bloggers, journalists and educators. Randel’s newest book, The Skinny on Success, will be available in October with The Skinny on Time Management to follow in November.

Jim will also be appearing on QVC next Tuesday Sept 15th at 12:00pm EST on the Q Check “Stop the Stresses” segment. 3 books from his series, “The Skinny On” will be sold as a package including The Skinny on the Housing Crisis, The Skinny on Real Estate Investing and The Skinny on Willpower. Also bundled with the books will be an audio disc with tips on Real Estate Investing found exclusively on QVC. You can order the bundle via QVC on television or www.QVC.com.