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

Less Doing, More Living outlines some fundamental tools and methods for being efficient in every sphere of life, from sleeping to working. The end goal is for you to be able spend just 20 percent of your time on work, with the other 80 going toward recreation and self-improvement.

Chapter 3: Increase your efficiency at work by limiting the amount of time and attention you devote to clients and tasks

Most people feel that there are too few hours in the day to do all the things they’d like to. Of course, the secret to making the most of the time we have is being efficient and allocating the right amount of time to each task. But how can you do this in practice?

One common problem is that you probably have lots of people - clients, colleagues, etc. - constantly interrupting you to demand your attention, which can make it difficult to focus on any one task in particular.

But, luckily, there’s a way to give yourself some breath- ing room in this respect: you can shorten the window of time that you’re available for the requests of others.

At work, for example, you can decide to limit the time you’re available for clients to just two or three days a week. This will force clients to adapt to your schedule, allowing you to focus on your work without interruptions. If you make this change, you’ll soon find yourself working much more efficiently, which benefits everyone, including your clients.

Another way you can increase your efficiency is by set- ting yourself limits on every task you undertake.

For example, you can set an upper and lower limit for how many hours you work each day. You can also do the same for how much time you spend on Facebook.

Setting such limits helps you predict how long you can do something, which in turn helps you be more efficient.

And setting limits need not only apply to the time you spend doing things: you can also decide, for example, that you’ll never let more than ten unread emails pile up in your inbox before dealing with them or that you’ll only spend a certain amount of money on restaurants each month.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People introduces the habits which single out people who deal particularly effectively with the world around them. The author believes that people who lead successful and fulfilling lives do not pursue the state of individual independence as their ultimate goal, but instead align themselves internally with universal principles such as honesty and integrity.

Chapter 1 : In order to change, you have to address your character and not your behaviour

Generally speaking there are two routes to self-improvement and to changing your own life. One way is addressing the skills necessary for a certain desired behavior; i.e., by studying communication skills or time-management techniques. Alternatively, you can take the long way round by digging a bit deeper and working on your own character: the fundamental habits and belief systems which form your view of the world.

The first approach is effectively an attempt to take a shortcut to success: becoming rich without working for your money, or achieving personal growth without under- going any real development. Yet real personal growth cannot be reached via shortcuts. On the road to true effectiveness, you cannot afford to skip a single step. This is true for accomplishments such as playing tennis or the piano, and just as true for the emotional development of a person as well as the development of their character.

If you really want to change, you need to work "from the inside out." Only once you’ve drastically changed yourself can you start to change the world around you. If, for example, you would like to have a happy marriage, you must first become a more positive person yourself. 

If you want to be seen as a trustworthy person, it is no good working on your communication skills, you have to work instead on actually becoming a more trustworthy person. Instead of scratching the surface, you have to really address your inner character.

In order to change, you have to address your character and not your behavior. 

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