Summary Of The Book "Less Doing, More Living"

 Key Ideas covered in this Book are

• Keep track of your activities to see where you may begin saving time.
• To save space in your own brain, create an external brain.
• Save time and money by customising!
• Take command of your weekly schedule.
• Errands add up, so cut them out!
• Using the most up-to-date tools, you can stay on top of your finances.
• Set boundaries for yourself to improve your quality of life.
• To keep focused, divide your tasks into batches.

So, what's the catch? By becoming more efficient, you'll be able to free up more time for yourself.

We all wish we had more time to spend doing the things we enjoy, whether it's spending time with family or pursuing our passions. Despite these wishes, time seems to be something we never have enough of.

This is where the blinks enter the picture. They show you how to free up time in your calendar and mental space so that you can spend the majority of your time doing what you want. They teach you how to unleash waves of efficiency in everything you do, from arranging your finances to maintaining your health, by focusing on three central goals: Optimize, Automate, and Outsource.

You'll learn a lot in these blinks. Why you'll never have to book a seat in a restaurant again; why errands are no longer necessary; and how to make your smartphone into a portable bank manager.

Keep track of your activities to see where you may begin saving time.

You've probably heard of the 80-20 rule. It states that just 20% of your time and energy goes into accomplishing 80% of your goals. And this isn't limited to job or school. It applies to everything you do. So, how can we determine what time isn't worth investing?

One option is to begin tracking.

But who has time to sit back and watch their hectic schedule? Fortunately, there are tools available to help you keep track of your time.

RescueTime is a programme that keeps track of what you're doing on your computer throughout the day. RescueTime will assist you in blocking access to a website or application that is robbing you of your time. The issue has been resolved!

But what if you want to track your health as well as your productivity?

Use an old-school paper journal to keep track of everything you consume during the day. You may also acquire a pedometer and use it to track how many steps you take each day, or simply weigh yourself every day. Because the more information you have about your day, the faster you will be able to improve it.

But how do we enhance something as broad as our everyday routine? Consider it as a way to improve your procedures. Look to IKEA for inspiration. Whether it's a coffee table or a geometric lamp, each IKEA product comes with well-optimised instruction manuals for assembly.

These instructions have been reduced to their essence – a few simple, language-independent steps. It's time to approach your life in the same way that IKEA approaches their instruction manuals. Whatever the task, whether it’s writing emails or organising meetings, you should minimise the fuss and get it done in as few steps as possible.

To save space in your own brain, create an external brain.

We all want to think of ourselves as multi-tasking wizards with photographic memories. However, we often don't have enough mental space to juggle everything. If we only had an extra brain, life would be so much easier.

So, what's this? You are welcome to have one! Several new technologies have arisen to assist us in remembering all of those dates and details. Evernote, for example, is a note-taking tool that may be used for textual, visual, hand-drawn, or web-based notes. It's also unrestricted in terms of storage. Currently, the author has around 1800 notes in his Evernote account!

Evernote can be thought of as a mental backup system. Evernote, according to neuroscientists, organises information in a way that is quite comparable to the human brain, combining related thoughts into large, interconnected networks. But what if you already know how to arrange but would like to spend less time doing so?

Welcome to your personal virtual assistant. You can now hire a person or a group of persons and delegate work to them via the internet. Virtual assistants are also divided into two categories: on-demand and devoted.

A pool of assistants makes up an on-demand assistant service. Let's say you have a project that needs to be completed, such as proofreading a document or refining a PowerPoint presentation. It will be done by whoever is available in the pool. Fancy Hands allows you to get help with up to five activities for $25 per month. You can ask for help with an infinite number of chores per month for $95.

Dedicated assistants, on the other hand, will personally complete all of your responsibilities. This indicates a stronger bond; they'll get to know you better and eventually take on more challenging duties. Zirtual provides you with a devoted assistant for ten hours per month for $197 per month.

Save time and money by customising!

Let's say you've come up with a fantastic idea for the ideal bedroom shelf unit. You know you'll have to build it yourself, which will require purchasing materials, borrowing tools, and hours of preparation and cleanup. But, oh, if only there was a simpler and less expensive option! There is, however, a solution: 3D printing.

3D printing opens us to a whole new world of possibilities for customising things. Take, for example, Shapeways, a website where you can upload a 3D model and have it printed for you.

For example, the author wanted to make a bespoke bracket to hang his new MacMini on the wall. He drew a simple drawing of his concept and used the online outsourcing platform Fiverr to find someone who could turn it into a full 3D model. He then emailed the model to Shapeways, and a week later, he received the finished bracket in his mailbox.

If you think that's a success, consider this: the author then used the Shapeways eCommerce platform to sell his MacMini bracket, earning $400 from six sales. Customization, on the other hand, will not only save and earn you money. You will have more free time as a result of this.

Consider Vitamins on Demand, a service that collects all of your prescription drugs and vitamins and puts them into daily packs. Say goodbye to cramming all of your pill bottles into your suitcase and stressing about whether you have them all. Instead, simply grab the necessary amount of packets and head out the door!

Do you need another example? Consider how difficult it is to locate a suit that fits. Sign up for Indochino if you want to cut that time in half. This company makes bespoke clothes and will walk you through the process of getting your measurements so you can use them time and again for a suit that fits perfectly.

Take command of your weekly schedule.

There was certainly some hyperbole involved when Tim Ferriss released The 4-Hour Workweek — you simply cannot write a book if you just work four hours per week! Nonetheless, the author made an essential point: you must make your workweek your own by deciding what you will accomplish and when you will do it. So, what's the first thing you should do?

Determine which hours of the day are the best for you to work. You will become more effective as a result of this. Some people prefer to work at night, while others prefer to work in the morning. Some people prefer to work a little every day, while others prefer to cram a lot into shorter periods. Everyone has a different way of working, so find out what works best for you!

It's also critical to determine what's holding you back. External causes, such as a late supplier or indecisive clients, are frequently to blame. What is the solution? Reduce the time you have to interact with your clients. This will not only make your day more efficient, but it will also force your clients to be more efficient. You'll be able to thank yourself later!

There's also another aspect of your workweek that eats up your time: meeting scheduling. Did you know that the typical meeting planning procedure necessitates the exchange of seven emails? Fortunately, apps like ScheduleOnce will help you get that meeting arranged the first time around, as the name implies.

You can make your calendar public in the app so that you and your coworkers can locate meeting dates that are convenient for everyone involved.

Errands add up, so cut them out!

You'd be surprised at how much time you spend doing errands each month if you had a clear idea. But, seriously, a quick trip to the corner store for toilet paper or dish soap? I mean, what's the big deal? The truth is that these errands add up. You must eliminate those errands if you wish to increase your productivity. But where do you begin?

Signing up for an online delivery service is a terrific way to start. For example, Amazon's Subscribe & Save programme sends essentials like toilet paper, razors, shampoo, and laundry detergent to your door at predetermined intervals. If you go through two tubes of toothpaste every month, have those two tubes delivered to you at the end of each month, and you'll never have to waste time shopping for toothpaste again.

Though toilet paper is an apparent requirement, you can get a variety of other critical products delivered. For example, the author guarantees that his smoke detectors always function by ordering for an order of nine-volt batteries to arrive every six months via Subscribe & Save.

However, some errands cannot be automated. Those that catch you off guard and force you to rush out and complete them before it's too late. You don't have to waste time on these, either, owing to outsourcing. TaskRabbit is a great example of an online outsourcing marketplace for those small, unforeseen tasks, such as running to the store for groceries or rushing to get your computer or car fixed.

This is how the author used the service: For his nephew's second birthday, his nephew in Los Angeles requested a slide. The author, who resides in New York, hired TaskRabbit to hire someone in Los Angeles to buy the slide from an IKEA in Long Beach, transport it to his nephew's parents' home, and put it together. For about $47, you may give someone a truly unique present.

Using the most up-to-date tools, you can stay on top of your finances.

We discovered the importance of recording things like your time and food habits in the first blink. However, spending a lot of time tracking everything isn't necessarily a good idea. Trying to keep track of your finances, for example, maybe exhausting and stressful. Keeping track of your spending can be difficult, especially if you have many bank accounts and credit cards, not to mention loans, mortgages, and stocks and bonds.

So why not use some new technologies to cut down on the time you spend obsessing over your budget? Mint.com is an excellent resource for managing your finances and keeping track of your financial situation.

Simply supply Mint.com with your account information and logins for bank accounts, loans, and credit cards, and they'll notify you through email when a balance is approaching zero, or if a large deposit or withdrawal has been made from an account, as well as ensuring that you're getting paid.

Mint.com can also show you how you spend your money and time by providing a classified and complete picture of your finances. Mint.com can even propose budgets based on your previous spending habits!

BillShrink is another revolutionary new product that might help you stop stressing and start saving. BillShrink only requires a few personal facts, like your checking account information, driving patterns, how frequently you use your telephone, and how much you spend on other services like movie streaming and magazine subscriptions.

Based on this data, Billshrink recommends cost-effective alternatives and estimates how much money you'll save over the next two years; they also notify you of new bargains and offers. But don't be surprised if you find you're saving more than you thought: when the author first used BillShrink, he discovered he could save $14,000 in two years!

Set boundaries for yourself to improve your quality of life.

We've all been there: a desk piled high with papers; a floor accessible only by a short passage through a tangle of clutter. And when you're surrounded by all that stuff, you'll never be able to find exactly what you're looking for when you need it. This headache, on the other hand, is unnecessary! Simply by establishing boundaries for yourself, you can conquer them.

Begin by establishing a ceiling. This will assist you in locating and tracking your belongings. Take, for example, the author's electronic gear collection, which previously took up an entire closet. The closet, however, became overcrowded with time and finding a certain cable required hauling the entire mess out of the closet and onto the floor. When the author recognised that things had gone out of hand, he determined to do something about it.

So he said his goodbyes to his electronics and sold most of them on eBay. The remaining items all fit into one box, which became the upper limit. If he buys a new piece of electronic equipment, he'll have to get go of something else. His hoard will be more controlled and neat, and he will always be able to find what he requires.

You can utilise upper limits to keep track of activities you could be overdoing (like Facebook browsing), and you can also make sure you're doing more of the things that improve your quality of life, like exercising, meditating, and travelling.

How? By lowering the threshold. For example, the author has set a lower limit of at least one trip per month, at least 30 miles of running per week, and at least three days of cooking at home per week. Setting lower limits for your leisure time in this manner ensures that your time is not always consumed by work.

To keep focused, divide your tasks into batches.

Have you ever been in the middle of anything only to be stopped by a distracting text or email? It disrupts your concentration and makes you irritable. There is, however, a solution to prevent your attention from being shattered in this way: batching.

Batching is a simple technique that involves grouping comparable jobs together and executing them in batches rather than one at a time. It'll be easier to concentrate on what you're doing right now if you do it this way. Some people employ batching by electing to only respond to emails within the first 10 minutes of each hour, rather than responding to them as they arrive. Instead of paying his payments as they come in, the author pays all of his bills for the week on Fridays.

Naturally, once you start batching, you'll discover how much time certain tasks require. Keep track of when things appear to take longer than they should, as this indicates that you may need to optimise. Getting rid of unneeded paperwork is a fantastic place to start. Sure, there's a lot of discussion about living in a paperless society, but we still have to deal with paper every day. That is why internet tools exist: to assist us in reducing paperwork even further.

Postal Methods might assist you if you ever need to transmit a document via mail. All you need to do now is upload your file. The business prints it for you, places it in a stamped envelope, and drops it in the mail. This will save you a lot of time, and who enjoys licking stamps?

The ultimate productivity secret is good health.

It's as easy as this: getting adequate sleep and eating a healthy diet influences how much energy you'll have to accomplish your goals. There are no productivity programmes that can change this! When you don't get enough sleep, your body produces a hormone called ghrelin, which has an awful name. Ghrelin promotes appetite while decreasing levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates metabolism. We will become fatigued if our metabolism does not perform properly.

There are two basic things you may take to improve your sleep quality. To begin, take D-vitamins every day with your breakfast. Second, avoid using devices that emit blue light in the hour before bedtimes, such as TVs, iPads, and computers.

It's also simple to begin living a healthier lifestyle. Just eliminate fats, right? Wrong. Many people still consider fat to be the adversary, but the real offender here is sugar. Without fat, our brains cannot work, and too much sugar hinders us from receiving vitamins A, D, E, and K. So, no more squandering time on processed foods and sugary treats! Start looking for natural alternatives and up your consumption of "healthy" fats like olive oil and avocados.

It's time to start thinking about getting your body moving after you've made sure you're getting enough sleep and eating correctly. It's simply not an acceptable excuse to claim that you're too stressed to exercise. Exercise does, in fact, lower stress, and you'll find that a decent fitness regimen will help you manage better with each passing day. Create your own workout plan that incorporates three different forms of movement.

First and foremost, there should be a strength and skill component, such as rock climbing or parkour. Second, include high-intensity interval training, which consists of a short period of maximum exertion followed by an active rest period. Finally, you should do some form of mobility exercise, such as yoga or simply a good old-fashioned stretching session.

Summary at the end The book's main message is that, while life today appears to be stressful, there are ways to cut through the clutter and take control of your time. You'll be saving time for the things you love in no time with the help of simple approaches and creating new products and services.

De-clutter your email as soon as possible! Use your e-mail service's filter to put all e-mails that contain the keyword "Unsubscribe" but do not contain the words "FW" or "RE" in a folder called Optional. This will remove a large number of non-essential and distracting e-mails from your inbox, which you can review when you have more time.

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