Tag: organization

Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier by Ari Meisel

Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier by Ari Meisel

“The idea of Less Doing is to reclaim your time and- more important- your mind, so you can do the things you want to do.” pg xv

Ari Meisel, a self-professed “achievement architect”, outlines ways to streamline your chores, finances, and more in order to free up time for the activities, and people, that are most important to you.

“I don’t want you to run errands, ever ever ever again. They’re not efficient, and there’s no way to make them efficient.” pg 69

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Many of his suggestions are common now, like setting up an automatic delivery from Amazon for your regularly needed household items like toilet paper and paper towels. But when I considered that this book was published in 2014, then it seemed like a stroke of genius.

However, that won’t necessarily be useful to readers who are looking for more updated suggestions to make their lives that much more efficient- except for a few of his timeless strategies. For example, measure and monitor how much time it takes you to do things so then you can figure out where your time is going to.

Not rocket science, but helpful.

The one suggestion of his that I found most intriguing was his idea of creating an ‘external brain’. Basically, you write notes, diary entries, clip electronic articles and organize it in a program (he likes Evernote) so that you can access it again quickly if you would like.

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“… you can create an ‘external brain’ that stores everything reliably, offers instant access, and frees your mind for more interesting work.” pg 18

I thought this approach could be very helpful for someone like me who reads and researches different topics all the time, for the fun of it, but also for professional content creators who are looking for their next blog post or YouTube video, etc.

How much easier would it be to be able to access all of your previous research rather than having to start over from scratch each time?

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On the other hand, there is a massive amount of time required to both create this external brain and keep it updated. I suppose the investment only makes sense depending on what you’re eventually going to use the database for.

Recommended with reservations for readers who are looking for ways to streamline their lives.

Thanks for reading!

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

“Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.” pg 73, ebook

The One Thing contains simple, ridiculously obvious advice- find your passion, make time for it and live it. But, if it’s really that easy, then why aren’t more of us doing it?

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“Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.” pg 8, ebook

This book has helped me to adjust my focus so that I spend more of my time on what I love, writing. That being said, there are still chores that must be done, a family business to tend to, a child to raise and numerous other responsibilities that chip away at time that I can give to my one thing.

And, as author Gary Keller points out, this isn’t a big deal. Everybody has their big ONE THING but smaller one things in other areas of their lives. You can use the same focusing principles on each to improve your life in each sphere.

What’s the one thing you can do to improve your family life? Health? Diet? etc., etc.

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This book also taught me that a majority of my output comes from a very small percentage of my actions, something that I had never considered before. Like I said, obvious in hindsight now that I know it, but it wasn’t something I instinctively knew.

“Happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.” pg 98, ebook

I read tons of non-fiction and self help titles. Have they all improved my life? No. Do I always learn something from them? Generally.

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For me, the fun is in the search.

Read The One Thing if you want to learn some methods to narrow your focus and advance what is most important to you in your life. If you already know how to do that, this isn’t the title for you.

Thanks for reading!

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Ingrid Fetell Lee shares how to bring more joy into your life through the appreciation of ordinary things. Using tools like color selection, feng shui, gardening and room design, you can utilize your environment to foster an inner sense of joy and well being.

I think anything that increases joy and appreciation in my life is a good thing. I found it interesting almost every other book I’ve read on this subject focuses on the inner aspects of joy, the ones that won’t fade. But Lee convinced me there is something to appreciate and cultivate in the outer world as well. We may all be spiritual beings but we’re living very physical lives.

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I knew little to nothing about interior design or some of the more troubling aspects of minimalism. But I do like to move through spaces that feel warm and lived in.

I can see the appeal of simplifying a space down to just a few items, but I wouldn’t want to stay there very long. Lee helped me understand some of my intuitive feelings about minimalism and why maximalism has the opposite effect, at least on me.

Lee also talks about the joy one can find in quirkiness versus convention. The caveat being that you have to be in a space or group of people who allow such things to exist rather than quashing them at the start. Different colors, unexpected materials, strangely-shaped furniture — if introduced to your every day environment can bring joy and a sense of relief from staid normalcy.

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This book really got me thinking about what joy I take in my surroundings and why or why not. Recommended for readers interested in interior design, gardening, or those looking for small ways in which to introduce a little more joy into their every day lives.

Thanks for reading!