Ari Meisel had an awesome creativeLIVE course called “The Art of Less Doing” in 2013/11. From one of the signup materials, he provided very helpful and valuable summary of the course. And it’s good to share his idea.
What is Less Doing?
The idea of Less Doing is to reclaim your time and – more importantly – your mind, so you can do the things you want to do. Even little bits of time are important. It all adds up. By applying the practice of Less Doing to your life, you can free up the time and mental space to do the things you care about most.
The three keys to Less Doing are:
Optimize
For any challenge, the first thing to do is to optimize it. Break it down to its bare minimum, simplify it, and eliminate everything that’s not completely necessary. Once you’ve boiled the task down to its essentials, the goal is to break what’s left into bite-sized tasks that can be replicated and possibly delegated.
Automate
After you’ve optimized a task, the next step is to automate as much as possible. Use software or processes so you can get the task down without human involvement – just set it and forget it.
Outsource
Finally, for anything that’s left, outsource to a generalist or a specialist. It’s important to note that although outsourcing can do a lot for you, it comes after optimizing and automation. If you outsource an inefficient task, that doesn’t really help because it’s still inefficient. It’s much better to eliminate work by optimizing or automating whenever you can and only outsource what’s left.