010: Do Less and Live More with Ari Meisel

For years, Ari Meisel worked eighteen-hour days in the construction industry, but in 2006, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory disease of the digestive tract aggravated by stress and considered incurable. He was forced to find ways to get things done in less time because there were some days when he could only manage to work for an hour. He needed to simplify his life and somehow continue to be productive. Necessity drove Ari to optimize, automate, and outsource much of his life, and in the process, the system he calls Less Doing was born.

Through lifestyle changes, Ari eliminated all symptoms of Crohn’s and now considers himself cured of the disease. He typically has two scheduled workdays per week and spends the other five with his family. Less Doing is his business through which he helps other people optimize, automate, and outsource through teaching, coaching, and services.

Apart from his business, Ari also helps others overcome Crohn’s.

Please see Disclosure* (below) concerning affiliate links on this page.

Key Segments

• [00:20] Ari Meisel considers himself cured of Crohn’s disease because he put himself through a long process of self-tracking. When Ari got sick, he sometimes couldn’t work more than an hour a day. This is how Less Doing came about. Ari needed to find a way to get more down in an hour and mitigate the stress.
• [03:15] What can we do to be more productive using the resources Ari provides and recommends along the way? Ari has a company named Less Doing. He teaches people how to optimize, automate, and outsource everything in their lives. What does that mean? Everyone has outsourced something, even if it was just asking the kids to do a chore. The problem is that people skip right to outsourcing as the first line of defense when it should be the last. People need to optimize first to weed out inefficiencies and streamline. The second thing to do is automate in the vein of set-it-and-forget-it. Outsource only after you have optimized and automated.
• [04:30] How would Ari recommend people get started with his system? There are different paths. Ari has two coaching programs and a virtual assistant company. The Less Doing, More Living Podcast is a great way for people to find out who Ari is and what he does, but it is a launching point for people to take the next step. Visit Less Doing Call and get a free 30-minute coaching call with one of Ari’s Less Doing Certified coaches. This coaching call is where Ari tries to direct everyone to get them started. If they find the coaching valuable, they can get information about programs that might be a good fit.
• [05:50] Ari’s book Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier outlines the nine fundamentals of the system [more on the nine fundamentals below], and he is working on a second book that will cover more of the “why” of Less Doing.
• [07:10] Ari’s two coaching programs are his Boot Camp and his Master Mind. His Boot Camp is the for-everyone program. It’s all online, and there’s a weekly call with the whole group (currently 150 people). This program takes people through the nine fundamentals and adds other information. In the Master Mind coaching program, Ari works more personally with individuals (currently 14) to address their business, personal growth, or physical problems.
• [08:10] In 2015, Ari started the Less Doing Virtual Assistants service (the LessDoIsts). He considers the LessDoIsts to be on-demand project managers rather than just virtual assistants. The service is currently in stealth beta mode, but people can get on the waiting list. They are taking on 3 or 4 new clients each week. They have seen considerable interest and are scaling smoothly to get the kinks out of the system.
• [10:25] Ari begins each episode of the Less Doing Podcast with a discussion of interesting links. These are resources he feels may be of interest to his listeners. He provides a summary spreadsheet of these links as the Less Doing Podcast Links on his website (for the last 100 or so episodes when he has been doing proper show notes).
• [12:00] Ari and Dave Rael created the Less Doing WODCast, the first completely automated podcast. It is a workout podcast assembled and published daily by a program using pre-recorded workout segments, where each segment is based on a Tabata protocol (high-intensity interval training).
• [13:30] The nine fundamentals of the Less Doing system, as documented in each of the chapters of the book, are as follows: (1) the 80/20 rule, which is about tracking; (2) creating an external brain, which is about offloading thoughts; (3) customization, which is about creating custom solutions for common problems in your life; (4) choose your own workweek; (5) stop running errands; (6) batching; (7) organization; (8) finances; and (9) wellness.
• [14:55] Ari discusses contracting and beating Crohn’s disease. Ari does free consultations about once a month for people with Crohn’s. Ari states that it isn’t that hard to overcome Crohn’s with the right tools.
• [16:35] Ari recommends the book Emergency by Neil Strauss. This book was instrumental in helping him change his life. He found the book to be empowering when he was suffering from Crohn’s and feeling very powerless.
• [17:30] Many of Ari’s decisions in life and business are made based on how they will affect his time with his family. Ari finds that being with his family as much as he is provides him a lot of material for figuring out ways to be more productive, but it also gives him perspective on his life and business. He could spend more time working and make more money, but he wouldn’t be happy.

Resources Mentioned

• Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life – book by Neil Strauss about what to do when the societal systems we depend on are unavailable.
• Less Doing, More Living – Ari Meisel’s website. “Learn how to optimize, automate, and outsource everything in your life including your health.”
• Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier – book by Ari Meisel in which he presents the nine fundamental principles of his “Less Doing” philosophy. The nine fundamentals of the Less Doing system, as documented in each of the chapters of the book, are as follows: (1) the 80/20 rule, which is about tracking; (2) creating an external brain, which is about offloading thoughts; (3) customization, which is about creating custom solutions for common problems in your life; (4) choose your own workweek; (5) stop running errands; (6) batching; (7) organization; (8) finances; and (9) wellness.
• Less Doing, More Living Podcast – podcast by Ari Meisel about making everything in life easier.
• Less Doing Call – free 30-minute “discovery coaching call” with one of Ari Meisel’s Less Doing certified coaches.
• Less Doing Podcast Links – spreadsheet summarizing the links to resources Ari Meisel has shared in his Less Doing, More Living podcast (since he has been doing proper show notes).
• Less Doing Virtual Assistants – virtual assistants trained by Ari Meisel in his Less Doing system (LessDoIsts). Ari describes them as virtual project managers rather than virtual assistants. At the time of the interview, the service was still in stealth beta-mode, but people could get on the waiting list.
• Less Doing WODCast – an automated daily workout podcast by Ari Meisel and Dave Rael. Dave wrote a program to assemble a daily workout podcast from a group of pre-recorded workout segments, where each segment is based on a Tabata protocol (high-intensity interval training).
• SaaS Business Podcast – website for this podcast.

*Disclosure: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links. These commissions help to cover the cost of producing the podcast. I am affiliated only with companies I know and trust to deliver what you need. In most cases, affiliate links are to products and services I currently use or have used in the past. I would not recommend these resources if I did not sincerely believe that they would help you. I value you as a visitor/customer far more than any small commission I might earn from recommending a product or service. I recommend many more resources with which I am not affiliated than affiliated. In most cases where there is an affiliation, I will note it, but affiliations come and go, and the notes may not keep up.