Start small.

The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables. It can be a daunting task if you have something important to convey.

What you’ll need to do is do a review of your task list (method number one above) to choose the high-impact tasks, instead of trying to tackle everything regardless of how meaningful the tasks are to your life.

2. Start with your goals. If you start by identifying the things you really want to accomplish in the next year, you can plan your tasks so that you are doing things each day to further those goals along. Let’s say you have three long-term goals—each day, choose a task from your list that will move you closer to those goals. This will ensure that you

Principle 1: By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations. Principle 2: By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.

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 lessons we can apply not only to the tasks on our to-do lists, but to everything in our lives. If there’s any area of your life that is overwhelming you, and that you’d like to simplify, apply limitations.

it helps to ask yourself the following questions: Which areas of my life are overwhelming? What would I like to simplify? In addition to the tasks I need to accomplish in different areas, do I want to limit the number of possessions I have, what information I receive, or what responsibilities I have?

Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.

That may sound like a lot, but I accomplished all of this in small steps, one thing at a time. Again, I used the concept of One Goal—I focused on only one goal at a time, and put all of my energy into it.