Do less, accomplish more

So said my yoga teacher, Tom.

I took his advice. Thus I haven’t been writing many blog postings but I did finish my hardcore first revisions on Escape, Captive’s sequel (I also completed the actual first draft of the whole book). Now it’s all polishing and perfecting, which is a lot less work than earlier efforts.

For, I was juggling too much and not finishing enough. And it’s absolutely true that anyone’s mind, even mine (though I aspire to more) can only handle so many disparate efforts at once. My projects as of late have also been complex, requiring deep analysis and a written output…which is hard, grueling and doesn’t time share attention well.

I’m posting today because after reaching a milestone yesterday on Escape I’m taking a much needed day off to clear my mind. Due to my kid schedule (50 percent of the time) I tend to balance my work week based on when they’re around and not a traditional week. My downtime is thus usually just when I’m too tired to do more or when they need my attention. Or yoga.

Finishing one thing and doing it well – before moving on to another big project - really is a better approach than trying to do it all, if you have that luxury. I stumble when I try to just finish independent of quality. Grabbing a book draft from ten years ago, giving it a quick run and polish then throwing it unprepared in the Amazon competition got me what it deserved…it didn’t win (nor did it deserve to win). But, I also got two reviews which helped me identify what wasn’t working in the draft (besides the bad writing) and so thus when I direct my full attention on fixing it I have a starting point. Do less but accomplish more by focusing….

That clutter of goals, desires, hopes, ambitions, delusions, denial and boredom scuttle effectiveness and it’s that doing less which Tom identified. Be present, be in the moment and give what you are experiencing or doing now your utter attention. It’s the concept with which I struggle all the time in yoga but I’m slowly learning. I’m persuading myself now as I plan out my Saturday, hence the posting, as much to remind myself as for any other reason.

So I didn’t blog for a month or two. Anyone miss me? I doubt it as there is just so much amazing writing to read online now. Plus, I’m still on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and wow…

But soon, within weeks, I’ll have another completed book to show for my time spent doing less.