Getting More by Doing Less in 2011

I’ve been dreaming about this post for awhile.

It’s been beckoning me before I go to sleep. Haunting me while on bike rides.

It’s been dropping me hints throughout these last few months in 2010.

And then the day I decided to write about it, the ever famous Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta beat me to the punch with his, “Finding the Elusive Work-Life Balance.” But that’s okay. His post is awesome, but I hope mine will offer the same topic in a different light.

“What is this weird circle with a bunch of clips and pushpins below,” you might be asking?

Well, it’s my piece of the pie. The way that I’ve been living my life. Sadly, it looks like a big creative mess. You see that white blur in the background? That’s how much time I spent on spirituality last year. And the orange? It was all the energy I spent on work. I don’t know if you can tell, but it consumed most of my energy. With pink devoted to health, green to finances, yellow to fun, and blue to friends and family.

Maybe it’s not the perfect representation, but seeing it visually helped me to realize just how little time I was spending on the things that mattered most and HOW MUCH TIME I was spending with not just the things that were less important but that were draining me.

That’s why in 2011, I decided it was imperative that I started changing things around here. No more daily work hours until after midnight. No more answering emails after 10 pm. This year I realized how important my health is because while I can always work toward my career goals, I may not live long enough to enjoy the consequences of all the hard work I put into them.

Most writers and entrepreneurs are doing the opposite this year.

They are determined to make 2011 a success. Working harder than ever, feeling the excitement of being busy, transforming themselves into workhorses not stopping for a cup of tea or to be present in the moment. There’s no time for that.

I understand because I was there in 2010. I was the one feeling like I was always trying to catch up-catch up with my Twitter followers, catch up with my fellow freelancers.

But in the end, it left me weak, drained, sick and unable to be the best me that I wanted most to be.

So here is my challenge and I invite you to challenge yourself too:

My goal for 2011 is to get more out of life by doing less. In a series of blogs, I will be posting ways to do this along with how I’m holding up in the process. Will I still be able to make a business a success by doing less? We’ll see.

Blogging here will force me to make the changes I need to live a happier, healthier life. And I hope we can support one another on this very important journey.

What do you think?

Are you in?