Today, we are talking about doing less - but in a productive way. I know that sounds strange at first, but once you hear from Ari Meisel, author of productivity book Less Doing, you’ll think differently.

Ari had a crazy transition from construction in New York to being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease to competing in a triathlon in a super short amount of time. Less Doing, More Living is the motto that was born out of his experience.

Now he’s spending his time helping others optimize, automate and outsource everything in their lives so that they can be more effective, free of their time, and do the things that they want to do.

Key Points

At 1:00 - Danny digs into the path that brought Ari to the point of writing Less Doing. That path winds through a career in construction before taking his own health into his hands by figuring out how to succeed despite a diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Ari even ran a marathon after his diagnosis!

At 7:10 - The heart of Ari's book is about Less Doing, and the way to do less is to optimize, automate, and outsource. But what does that actually mean? What does that look like in a business context?

At 10:30 - Ari gives a great example of how he's automated his podcast editing podcast. It sounds complicated, but automating a process doesn't have to take a lot of time - or cost a lot of money. We've included the links to all the resources mentioned in this example in the Technologies section below.

At 17:14 - When Ari talks about less doing, some of his audience feel resistance to the ideas. The first is that people simply don't know what they might be able to outsource. The second is that people are too busy to take the time to stop and be un-busy long enough to implement Ari's teachings. Both are legitimate resistances, but Ari has a couple of ideas on how to get around them.

At 19:21 - Let's say that you are super excited about the idea of less doing (and let's face it - it's pretty enticing!). What is a good "first thing" to tackle when you set aside an hour or two to think about - and act on - this new idea? Hint: it has to do with how you address your inbox!

Technologies Mentioned In This Podcast

Dropbox - online cloud storage for all your files.

SortMyBox - automatically sorts files in your Dropbox folders based on keywords or extensions.

Zapier and IFFFT - two services that allow you to set up automatic integrations between web services in simple ways.

Fiverr - website where you can outsource various tasks for $5.00 each.

Wufoo Forms - a service where you can create free online forms.

SlideShare - a social media site designed for you to upload Powerpoint (and other) presentations to share or embed on your own website.

Wappwolf - service that allows you to connect Dropbox to other web-based services.

FollowUp.cc - email service that works with any platform and allows you to return messages to your inbox at a time and date that you choose (great for follow up!)

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