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The Art of Less Doing cover

The Art of Less Doing

Ari Meisel•2016

  1. Chappy's Book Notes•332 books

The Art of Less Doing

Ari Meisel•2016

Length
2h 46m•~150 pages
Read
Oct 16th - 17th '23
Productivity
•

The summary and key takeaways below are auto-generated. I ran an AI pass based strictly on my handwritten notes for this book. I haven't done my own pass over them yet.

I read a book once and take handwritten notes as I go, then leave them alone. Weeks or months later I come back and write the key points and summary from those notes.

The delay is on purpose. Having to rebuild a book out of my own notes does far more for my recall than a second read-through would.

This one has only gotten as far as the AI pass. I'll come back and redo the takeaways and summary myself soon!

Summary

Productivity follows a three-step hierarchy: optimize, automate, outsource. First, apply the Pareto principle and track your time to find the 20% of effort driving 80% of results. Stop multitasking, find your hour of flow, and set self-imposed limits — Parkinson's law guarantees work expands to fill available time. Then automate ruthlessly with tools like IFTTT and Zapier, applying first principles to question why each task exists. Finally, outsource through virtual assistants, building the delegation muscle by aiming to delegate 70% of tasks year over year. Think 10x, not 2x. Set maximum limits, not minimums. And consider the optimize → automate → outsource pipeline from day one.

Key Takeaways

  • Apply this framework to every task from day one, not as an afterthought
  • Review everything after optimizing using the 3 Ds: delete, defer, deal
  • Should delegate 70% of tasks year over year to build the delegation muscle
  • Track your time to identify the 20% of effort producing 80% of results
  • Don't multitask — it takes 23 minutes to get back into a flow state
  • Know your hour of flow and protect it; list downtime tasks for your brain-dead hours
  • Parkinson's law: work fills whatever time you give it — constrain ruthlessly
  • Think 10x, not 2x — radical constraints produce radical solutions
  • Set maximum limits, not minimums; declutter everything
  • IFTTT, Zapier, and similar tools handle repetitive workflows
  • Apply first principles: ask third-person 'why?' for every task before automating
  • Habits are the ultimate automation — couple new habits with existing routines
  • On-demand virtual assistants can handle the tasks you can't automate
  • Build delegation as a muscle — start small and increase over time
  • Use the 5 whys to get to the root of what actually needs doing

Notes

1: Optimize

1: Know thyself

  • Pareto principle
  • Information: track your time
  • Don’t multitask

2: The external brain

  • System to record ideas, knowledge
  • Zeigarnik effect: take breaks
  • Pomodoro technique: sprint with breaks

3: The hour of power

  • Know your “hour of flow”
  • List of downtime tasks for “brain dead hour”

4: Setting limits

  • The power of self-imposed limits
  • Parkinson’s law: work fills time
  • Declutter
  • Think 10x, not 2x
  • Set max limits, not min limits

2: Automate

5: The decision matrix

  • Review everything after optimizing
  • 3 Ds: delete, defer, deal
  • Should delegate 70% of tasks YoY
  • 23 minutes to get into flow state
  • Habits

6: Set it and forget it

  • Relentlessly optimize
  • IFTT, Zapier
  • First principles: third-person why? for tasks

7: Habit coupling

  • Maximize everyday tasks: share it!
  • Batching

3: Outsource

8: The virtual assistant

  • On-demand virtual assistants
  • Take a leadership role of your own life
  • Build the delegation muscle

9: Outsourcing your outsourcing

  • Optimize → automate → outsource
  • ↑ think through this from day one
  • 5 whys