Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women

Product Information

Marie: Yes, yes. I also loved in the reminder, so much of this is really about the 80/20 principle. For anyone in our audience who’s unfamiliar, will you please give us a rundown of the 80/20 rule and then we can talk about how important it is to know your vital few. And thus, through many mis-steps, joyous ideation, customer service foibles and repairs, and giddy unwrapping moments, The Do Less Planner System was born. In Do Less, Kate uses her signature, crystal clear wisdom to insist that we stop wearing busyness as a badge of honor and begin to claim our time, our peace, our lives. The Our culture has raised us to believe that the more we do, the more valuable we are, and I am still a product of that culture. I still want to get great results and I know your listeners do, I know most of the world does. And so that piece about, it’s not about doing… A lot of people hear do less and they automatically think, do nothing, and it’s like, nope. Just what I mean is, do less of the things that don’t matter, do less of the things that drain you, do less of the things that don’t get you results, so you can do more of the things that energize you, that light you up, that get you amazing results. That’s what it means. This book had me pondering how I can shift that dialogue to create more space, stretch time, and be kinder to myself. Below, I will expand on some of my favorite concepts from Do Less.

I think a lot of the advice she gives is important but she doesn't always provide ways to apply it to one's own life. For example, she dedicates two chapters to learning to ask for help, without offering concrete steps on how to actually do so. So much of our experience of life has to do with our perception of what’s happening, not what’s actually happening. Don’t you think? Since Do Less came out, my DM’s and our inbox have been filling up with your questions about your period, the moon, and how this whole cyclical living and planning thing works for your specific situation. What’s one area of your life that you want to do less, but are afraid to try? What would be the worst case scenario if you experimented with doing less for a week? Leave a comment below and let me know. Marie: Yeah, yeah. No, it is. It’s really beautiful. Can we wrap up by having you read… I loved this, this last part of the book. Would you mind? I know reading on camera is sometimes like, pressure, but these are your words.Kate: It’s so important. I was at this annual convention that I had been going to every year since I was 18, so this is kind of like a family reunion in a way and I remember this feeling so distinctly. My husband and I had worked in our business, we had grown it, it had been a beautiful year, and yet I… and our life was awesome. It was really working and I would say I was really happy and yet I sat there during this awards ceremony with the people crossing the stage and the highlighting the success, which was beautiful. I was thrilled for them but I had this internal feeling of like, I should have done more. What’s wrong with me? I’m a failure. I should be up there. It has 3 main elements (and all of them are self-dated so you can start whenever you want and skip a day or two here and there):

This book gave me the permission and tools to change my relationship with time and enlightened me about the cyclical nature of the feminine. The book offers a series of 14 “experiments,” giving bite-sized steps to try incorporating the Do Less mindset. Time-bending is a practice where you can actually stretch the hours and minutes of your life through creating Kairos. With these tools you can create more space in your life anytime, even when–and especially when–it all feels like too much. OVER TO YOU: It’s like a spiral staircase — Yes, we’re revisiting a lot of the same things in the process, but we can continue upwards from what we learned in the culmination phase.” As other reviewers have noted, her advice can be pretty unorthodox: especially her belief that the lunar cycle and menstrual cycle are linked. However, I think that there is validity in adjusting one's schedule based on how mentally/physically/emotionally available someone is during a given time period.

Summary

Prior to my recent life changes, my relationship with time and energy had always been chaotic. A major realization I gained from this book is that no matter how chaotic or frantic I feel about time, it is going to pass by anyway. My mindset and inner dialogue affect me more than reality itself. The way I think and feel about the events in my day, perhaps rushing to a meeting, affects how I speak to myself; I am not kind, I make more mistakes, and I don’t put my best foot forward. The benefits of Doing Less: All of us, no matter our gender expression or chromosomal makeup, are cyclical beings to one degree or another. The social media algorithms (and the rest of the world) are organized around a 24-hour cycle, demanding of us that we show up at the same time every day with the same level of energy and focus as we had the day before…or ideally more. Women cycle hormonally every 28 days with four very specific types of productivity throughout this 28-day cycle. Men cycle hormonally every 24 hours. Our society is designed to operate in 24 hour periods. Our world expects us to show up as the same exact person every single day, but as far as hormones go, cycling females are not the same today as we were the day before. We can use our menstrual and/or lunar cycle as a blueprint to organize time and design our schedule with more flow, ease, and fun. THIS BLEW MY MIND!