227. Ari Meisel: More Productivity, Less Doing

<p>Ari Meisel (<a href= "https://twitter.com/arimeisel">@arimeisel</a>) created a productivity system out of necessity. He was suffering from a chronic and life-threatening illness that was so severe, he had no choice but to make the most out of every ounce of energy he had.</p> <p>He took everything in his life and he applied what he now calls “OAO.” He Optimized, Automated, and Outsourced everything he could. Through his own system, which is now called <a href= "https://lessdoing.com/">Less Doing</a>, he was able to track the symptoms of his illness, and what triggered those symptoms.</p> <p>This helped Ari work his way to a clean bill of health. He eventually competed in an Ironman competition.</p> <p>I talked to Ari several years ago, after I first discovered the Less Doing system. That webinar conversation is <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/posts/masterclass-ari-26198138">available to Patreon backers</a> of certain levels.</p> <p>Now, as I am working on my next book, <em>Mind Management, Not Time Management</em>, I wanted to talk to Ari again. I realize that so much of what I’ve learned and developed over the past several years is built upon what I learned from Ari’s Less Doing system.</p> <p>If you’re going to love your work, you have to do less of what doesn’t matter, and more of what does matter.</p> <p>In this conversation, you’ll learn:</p> <ul> <li>Why does OAO – Optimize, Automate, and Outsource – have to be done in order. Avoid the common mistakes people make when they try to “scale up” broken systems?</li> <li>Ari says there are deep-seated psychological reasons behind why we procrastinate. What are some of those reasons? You might learn something surprising about yourself.</li> <li>You’ve heard me talk about <a href= "https://kadavy.net/blog/posts/weekly-routine-podcast/">weekly routines instead of daily routines</a> on the podcast before. We’ll dig deep into how Ari organizes his three-day, fifteen-hour work week. For example, why is Thursday his content day?</li> </ul> <p><em>Photo: <a href= "h