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Why do so many smart businesspeople work too hard, live too fast - and then feel strangely ambivalent about their success? Writer, speaker, and simplicity guru Elaine St. James, 54, thinks she knows the answer. The problem isn't that overstretched, overstressed people don't want to scale back their commitments. It's that they lack the courage of their convictions - or simply need a few techniques to get started. "It takes time to make time," St. James argues. "You can't figure out how to create time for the things you enjoy if you don't take time to rethink what you're doing now. Maintaining a complicated life is a great way to avoid changing it."

St. James herself is a case in point. Back in 1990, she was a high-powered real-estate investor with properties in southern California and Connecticut. She also ran a thriving seminar business and was the author of a popular book on real-estate investing. She was a huge success. But her life felt hugely out of control. She wasn't really satisfied in the real-estate business - even though she worked at it 10 to 12 hours a day. Her sprawling country home, which required countless hours of upkeep, felt like a burden rather than a blessing. Her husband, who loved his job, spent four hours a day commuting to it - so they could live in that burdensome home.

Why did she tolerate such misplaced priorities? Because she was so busy living her life that "it was impossible to imagine anything different." Slowly, though, things began to change. St. James vowed to work one hour less per day. She and her husband got rid of material possessions - books, equipment, furniture - that cluttered their home but added little to their lives. They moved across the country, into a house that was easier to maintain and just minutes from her husband's office. Over time, these small steps added up to a big change. "We've each created an extra 30 hours per week," she says. "It's hard to put a price tag on that much time."

For St. James, simplicity wasn't just a way to live. It became a way of life - and a way to make a living. She left real estate to build a career around her new passion. Hyperion published her first book on the topic four years ago. Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter is now in its 26th printing. She has written three sequels: Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Soul (Hyperion, 1995), Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More (Hyperion, 1996), and Simplifying Your Life with Kids: 100 Ways to Make Family Life Easier and More Fun (Andrews & McMeel, 1997). Together the books have sold more than 1.4 million copies. And St. James has emerged as a spiritual leader of the simplicity movement - a grassroots phenomenon that has spawned countless Web sites and newsletters, and whose values are winning over countless businesspeople who are rethinking life in the fast lane.

In an interview with Fast Company, St. James offered a set of principles and techniques to help simplify your life.