Parvati Magazine for MAPS, Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary, time management is important, Kate Northrup

Kate Northrup’s Book on Time Management Invites You to Do Less and Connect with Nature

Have you ever felt that the way you work is just not working? Does the thought of “leaning in” even more just leave you feeling exhausted? Bestselling author, speaker and entrepreneur Kate Northrup invites us to do less and achieve more, teaching why time management is important and how entrepreneurial women can combine ancient wisdom with modern business. Learn about the inspiration for her latest book and why connecting with nature is an integral part of her success.

Parvati Magazine:Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management!” is what you call your love letter to your Mom, Dr. Christiane Northrup. Can you tell us about that?

Kate Northrup: My mom was growing her career in an industry and at a time that didn’t allow her to follow the cyclical inclinations of her energy or to tap into her feminine flow. She was a pioneer in medicine as a woman and also believed that her worth was equal to how much she did and how much she pushed. I’ve since witnessed her heal this tendency to overwork and overdo, but I wrote this book because I wanted to heal the legacy of never feeling like we’ve done enough so that my daughters don’t need to live that reality.

Parvati Magazine: As stress and workaholism become common subjects of discussion, you talk about people having an addiction to “busyness”. What does that mean, and how is it possible to be more productive by doing less?

Kate Northrup: I believe that a lot of our busyness is confusing activity with accomplishment. Just because you’re doing something doesn’t mean it’s getting you results. Also, we stay in action a lot of the time so that we don’t have to feel the discomfort of being in stillness or silence… which is where most of our best insights and ideas (the most productive ones) actually come from. We can be more productive by doing less because our precious time and energy gets focused on the few things that really move the needle instead of being dispersed over a ton of things that don’t actually get us results but exhaust us instead.

Why Time Management is Important

Parvati Magazine: When you teach why time management is important, you share your “Four Phases of Creation” theory based on the seasons, the lunar cycle, the menstrual cycle, and the planting cycle. What do these phases of nature have to do with being successful in business?

Kate Northrup: Our businesses are systems, just like nature. And our bodies are responsible for things happening in our business. Our energy is literally the fuel for our businesses. As women, we go through four energetic phases each month, and so does the moon. These four phases cover everything needed for a project to come to completion: initiation, launch, completion, and pause. So when we follow our own energy and/or the moon and we also look at how our projects fit into these four phases on a more macro level, we can get into a cyclical momentum without burning out in our businesses.

Connecting with Nature to Do Less

Parvati Magazine: You have said “I’m a human being living on planet Earth in a body connected to nature”. Did you always feel this way? How has connecting with nature transformed your life and business?

Kate Northrup: I grew up on the coast of Maine and spent time living off the grid at several times, so I’ve always been deeply connected to nature. Connecting with nature outside of me, but more importantly, inside of me, has put me in touch with an energetic flow that doesn’t depend on my effort and will power alone, but instead is sourced from a flow that’s moving through me that I can just move with instead of against. I’ve been able to grow a bigger reach, publish my second book and get it done really quickly, while raising two children and keeping our income steady and growing it—all because I tapped into the flow of nature in my body.

Parvati Magazine: Do you have one last piece of wisdom to share with women who are still stuck on the treadmill of doing too much, and know there must be a better way?

Kate Northrup: I would remind you that your worth is not dependent on how much you get done and that you will never, in fact, get it all done. So you may as well find something else to define your worth (like who you are instead of what you do) and start living the way you want to now. Stop chasing the illusion of completion!


Kate Northrup has built a global multimedia digital empire with her husband, Mike Watts, that reaches hundreds of thousands globally.  Origin® Collective has over 1000 entrepreneur members, her first book “Money: A Love Story”, is published in 5 languages, and “Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Busy Moms” is now available.