Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier

Efficiency consultant Meisel can’t increase the length of our days, but he shows how to get those “have to” tasks off our plates so we can reclaim our time and minds to be able to pursue more enjoyable activities. Meisel’s “Less Doing” philosophy is built on nine fundamental principles, including how to create an external brain, initiate customization, and stop running errands, and clear the way toward an easier life. Readers will immediately recognize the wisdom of his approach and see that these tactics offer a big payout. Meisel doesn’t focus so much on working smarter or longer, but instead on working less while still getting the job done. He encourages creating a “manual of you” which distills all you do into an error-proof process that can be delegated (“think about IKEA’s product assembly manuals”). In addition, he tackles financial efficiency, organization, and batching (letting similar tasks accumulate and completing them at once) as key ways to reach “Less Doing” status. Meisel provides a concise and ingenious roadmap to doing less, getting more, and enjoying life. (Apr.)