1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,400 Host: This gentleman you're about to hear from. His name is 2 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:08,940 Ari Meisel. He has an amazing story. He was diagnosed with an 3 00:00:08,940 --> 00:00:12,780 incurable and very painful chronic condition, which we're 4 00:00:12,780 --> 00:00:15,990 going to talk about, and I'll let him tell you about it, and 5 00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:20,640 the strategy that he used to save his life and get his life 6 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:26,370 back also then turned into a system of productivity that he 7 00:00:26,370 --> 00:00:29,700 has built a huge online following around now teaching 8 00:00:29,700 --> 00:00:32,430 people how to do this. The system's called Less Doing and 9 00:00:32,430 --> 00:00:35,580 More Living. So Ari, thanks for being here. Just tell everyone 10 00:00:35,580 --> 00:00:38,910 like, what's your story? What was the condition you had to 11 00:00:38,910 --> 00:00:42,330 kind of tell us what the trajectory your life was on, and 12 00:00:42,330 --> 00:00:45,240 then what change you made, and what was the result of that? 13 00:00:45,570 --> 00:00:49,050 Ari Meisel: So, I was working in construction. I was in real 14 00:00:49,050 --> 00:00:51,360 estate development in upstate New York, and I was, I was 15 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,300 living a very hard lifestyle. I was working, you know, 1618, 16 00:00:54,300 --> 00:00:57,630 hours a day in not the safest conditions. I was smoking a pack 17 00:00:57,630 --> 00:00:59,640 of cigarettes a day. I was eating fast food, drinking 18 00:01:00,300 --> 00:01:04,440 stress beyond my mind, and basically broke myself. When I 19 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,020 was 23 I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which, as you 20 00:01:07,020 --> 00:01:10,830 mentioned, is an incurable illness, and it was a very, very 21 00:01:10,830 --> 00:01:14,340 rough for a few years, and I was on a lot of meds, and I kept 22 00:01:14,340 --> 00:01:16,950 getting sicker, and then basically had this big 23 00:01:16,950 --> 00:01:20,820 turnaround where I went on this long journey of self tracking 24 00:01:20,820 --> 00:01:24,600 and self experimentation. And about four months after that, I 25 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,060 got off my meds, and two months later, was in my first 26 00:01:27,060 --> 00:01:30,630 triathlon. And the way that that sort of all confluenced into 27 00:01:30,630 --> 00:01:33,870 creating what I do now is that I went from a place where I was 28 00:01:33,870 --> 00:01:36,810 working 18 hours a day to barely being able to do an hour of work 29 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:39,570 a day, and I was also stressed out of my mind. So less doing 30 00:01:39,570 --> 00:01:42,990 basically, was born out of this need to mitigate stress and get 31 00:01:42,990 --> 00:01:46,350 more done in one hour than I had been able to get done in a full 32 00:01:46,350 --> 00:01:47,160 day before. 33 00:01:47,700 --> 00:01:50,340 Host: And so before we dive into kind of how that applies in the 34 00:01:50,340 --> 00:01:52,680 professional world, what were some of the things that 35 00:01:52,710 --> 00:01:55,050 happened? What are some of the things that you did? 36 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:56,980 Ari Meisel: Well I did a lot of experimentation, but I ended up 37 00:01:56,980 --> 00:02:00,790 with a high fat, low sugar diet. So that was a big one exercise, 38 00:02:00,820 --> 00:02:04,660 not that I recommend Iron Man, but exercise to the extent that 39 00:02:04,660 --> 00:02:08,050 I was really ramping up my metabolism. So I was able, in my 40 00:02:08,050 --> 00:02:11,680 opinion, to burn through food a lot better. Which one of the 41 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:13,810 issues with Crohn's is that you end up getting obstructions 42 00:02:13,810 --> 00:02:15,670 because you have all the scarring. So that was helpful. 43 00:02:15,910 --> 00:02:19,750 And then it really all came back to stress, you know, because you 44 00:02:19,750 --> 00:02:23,140 can tell somebody, and I've replicated my results in dozens 45 00:02:23,140 --> 00:02:24,970 of other Crohn's patients at this point, but you can tell 46 00:02:24,970 --> 00:02:28,360 somebody, Hey, you want to feel better, eat this, take these 47 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:30,400 supplements and do these exercises, and it's 48 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:33,070 prescriptive, and they can do it or not do it. But if you say to 49 00:02:33,070 --> 00:02:37,090 somebody, okay, now you need to manage your stress, it's, it's 50 00:02:37,090 --> 00:02:39,490 way more nebulous. You know, it's a lot harder for people to 51 00:02:39,490 --> 00:02:42,550 sort of get their hands around that. So I wanted to create a 52 00:02:42,550 --> 00:02:47,230 really systematic way of doing that. So the overall framework, 53 00:02:47,230 --> 00:02:51,130 the baseline framework, is that I help people optimize, automate 54 00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:53,620 and outsource everything in their lives, including their 55 00:02:53,620 --> 00:02:56,260 health, in order to be more effective. And it's just a very 56 00:02:56,260 --> 00:02:59,920 important order for me, because most people in the modern world 57 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:02,020 have an experience with delegation, even if it's just 58 00:03:02,020 --> 00:03:04,720 telling your kids to do their chores. But the problem is, is 59 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:07,360 that a lot of people get into this mode where they tell 60 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,510 somebody to do something, and that's it. That's the end of it. 61 00:03:10,510 --> 00:03:13,930 And that's not true delegation. And really what you're just 62 00:03:13,930 --> 00:03:16,660 doing is basically sweeping the dirt under the rug. It doesn't 63 00:03:16,660 --> 00:03:19,480 make the problem any better. You're just shifting it to 64 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,660 someone else, and in most cases, that will come back to you 65 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,240 right. The pipes got to back up. So you have to optimize first. 66 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:27,610 And with optimization, what I'm really talking about with most 67 00:03:27,610 --> 00:03:29,830 people is tracking because there's so much going on in our 68 00:03:29,830 --> 00:03:32,560 lives, so many inputs, so much stuff, and a lot of the 69 00:03:32,590 --> 00:03:35,290 overwhelm that people experience is because they just don't know 70 00:03:35,290 --> 00:03:38,290 what's causing the overwhelm. So if you start to track things, 71 00:03:38,530 --> 00:03:40,750 and whether it's how many emails you sent yesterday, how many 72 00:03:40,780 --> 00:03:44,950 steps you took today, how much sleep you got, what you ate, how 73 00:03:44,950 --> 00:03:46,900 many phone calls you made, and how long they lasted, like all 74 00:03:46,900 --> 00:03:48,970 of this stuff that we do now can be tracked pretty much 75 00:03:48,970 --> 00:03:51,310 automatically, and even if you don't do anything with that 76 00:03:51,310 --> 00:03:55,090 information, just tracking it, it has been proven to be really 77 00:03:55,090 --> 00:03:57,070 powerful in terms of giving us back a little element of 78 00:03:57,070 --> 00:03:59,830 control. Hopefully, what you do with that information is start 79 00:03:59,830 --> 00:04:02,080 to identify how you were actually spending your time, 80 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,260 your money, your energy, your resources, and then look at the 81 00:04:05,260 --> 00:04:07,990 processes that you're going through to see areas that you 82 00:04:07,990 --> 00:04:10,510 can make more efficient. The second part of automation is 83 00:04:10,510 --> 00:04:12,880 really my playground now, because so many things can be 84 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,510 automated today, we we can automate things now for free, in 85 00:04:16,510 --> 00:04:19,330 many cases that three months ago, a person had to do. It's 86 00:04:19,330 --> 00:04:22,120 just fascinating what technology has done for us. So you optimize 87 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,100 for us, then you automate what automate what you can and then 88 00:04:24,100 --> 00:04:26,710 if there's anything left over, that's the first time you look 89 00:04:26,710 --> 00:04:29,440 at outsourcing it to a specialist or generalist of some 90 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:29,710 kind. 91 00:04:30,190 --> 00:04:32,890 Host: In terms of measuring like, what are, what are some of 92 00:04:32,890 --> 00:04:36,970 the common things that you see or you find that you go these. 93 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,330 These are the things that people are doing that are causing them 94 00:04:40,330 --> 00:04:43,240 overwhelm that they don't realize are causing them 95 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:43,930 overwhelm? 96 00:04:44,290 --> 00:04:46,870 Ari Meisel: So there's two sides to that equation. Right on the 97 00:04:46,870 --> 00:04:49,420 one side, you have the day to day stuff that just annoys 98 00:04:49,420 --> 00:04:52,450 people, you know, like making lunch, making school lunch every 99 00:04:52,450 --> 00:04:55,300 day. That's something that's just, you know, it's difficult, 100 00:04:55,300 --> 00:04:57,310 especially for people who are nine to five jobs. It's 101 00:04:57,310 --> 00:05:00,220 stressful. It really is. And I have three young boys, and I. Do 102 00:05:00,220 --> 00:05:02,830 it. We do it every day, but it's also something that definitely 103 00:05:02,830 --> 00:05:05,320 can be made more efficient, and there are ways to do that. 104 00:05:05,740 --> 00:05:08,410 Paying bills, those are the kinds of things that almost 105 00:05:08,410 --> 00:05:11,800 everybody has experience with. How you commute to work is 106 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,800 something that can be made more efficient, whether it's not 107 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,290 necessarily the route, but there's a lot of things you can 108 00:05:17,290 --> 00:05:20,950 do while you are in transit that people don't necessarily think 109 00:05:20,950 --> 00:05:23,740 that they can get done especially like, for example, 110 00:05:23,770 --> 00:05:26,710 you could have a virtual assistant do all your email with 111 00:05:26,710 --> 00:05:29,440 you on the phone while you're driving, which is totally fine. 112 00:05:30,250 --> 00:05:33,040 You could dictate an entire book if you wanted to while you were 113 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:35,380 driving. You know, there's all sorts of things that you can get 114 00:05:35,380 --> 00:05:38,320 done in a commute. I mean, and a lot of people, that's a really 115 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:40,930 effective strategy. But then there's the other side of it. 116 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,980 There's the really big projects that people wrongly assume have 117 00:05:44,980 --> 00:05:48,820 to be done by them so they'll never get done. And they assume 118 00:05:48,820 --> 00:05:51,640 that because, like, who could possibly do this? But what they 119 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,250 don't realize is that there are tons of services or tons of ways 120 00:05:54,250 --> 00:05:56,950 to get that done. My father is a great example. I was having 121 00:05:56,950 --> 00:05:58,930 dinner with him last night, and he was saying that he's got this 122 00:05:58,930 --> 00:06:01,690 collection of photographs that he'd really like to sell. He's 123 00:06:01,690 --> 00:06:04,120 like, but I have to photograph him. And then I was like, Dad, 124 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,150 we can have literally two people come and do that whole thing for 125 00:06:07,150 --> 00:06:09,580 you, from the photographing it to the cataloging, to the 126 00:06:09,580 --> 00:06:12,070 putting it on eBay to the shipping. I was like, you can 127 00:06:12,070 --> 00:06:15,430 just say, do it, and I can get this done with no effort on 128 00:06:15,430 --> 00:06:18,130 either of our parts. And it's so it's that kind of thing too, 129 00:06:18,130 --> 00:06:21,370 where people just, they just don't and it's not their fault. 130 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,650 They're just not aware of the fact that there are these 131 00:06:23,650 --> 00:06:26,350 services and there's people that are available to do this stuff 132 00:06:26,350 --> 00:06:26,680 for you. 133 00:06:27,010 --> 00:06:29,350 Host: So I want to talk to you about the world of virtual 134 00:06:29,350 --> 00:06:32,740 assistants. Tell us, like, what do we need to know about them? 135 00:06:32,740 --> 00:06:35,770 Where are they? How do you use them? What do you use them for? 136 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:38,439 Ari Meisel: Okay, so it's great question. I'll tell you what the 137 00:06:38,489 --> 00:06:41,538 industry looked like and what there is now. So the landscape, 138 00:06:41,588 --> 00:06:44,688 as it was, was there were two kinds of virtual assistants, and 139 00:06:44,737 --> 00:06:47,837 I've been a huge, huge fan of virtual assistant services for a 140 00:06:47,887 --> 00:06:50,836 long time. I've tested 23 of them over the last five years, 141 00:06:50,886 --> 00:06:53,735 and learned a lot, obviously, from doing that. I actually 142 00:06:53,785 --> 00:06:57,035 think that everybody should work with a virtual assistant at some 143 00:06:57,085 --> 00:07:00,284 point, especially if you're in a nine to five job or a corporate 144 00:07:00,334 --> 00:07:03,233 environment, because it's a learning experience for you in 145 00:07:03,283 --> 00:07:06,133 terms of how you effectively communicate and delegate the 146 00:07:06,183 --> 00:07:09,182 things that you want done. So there are two kinds of virtual 147 00:07:09,232 --> 00:07:12,131 assistants. There's the on demand assistant, which is the, 148 00:07:12,181 --> 00:07:14,981 well, actually, I'll start with the other one. There's a 149 00:07:15,031 --> 00:07:17,930 dedicated assistant, which is fairly straightforward. It's 150 00:07:17,980 --> 00:07:21,079 where you're dealing with one person, and they get to know you 151 00:07:21,129 --> 00:07:24,079 and and, by the way, just to define virtual assistant, it's 152 00:07:24,129 --> 00:07:26,928 really just an assistant who isn't in the room with you. 153 00:07:26,978 --> 00:07:30,027 That's basically what it means. It could be across the across 154 00:07:30,077 --> 00:07:33,077 town, or across the globe. And historically, five years ago, 155 00:07:33,127 --> 00:07:36,226 I'd say, if you really, if you wanted a virtual assistant, you 156 00:07:36,276 --> 00:07:39,475 went to India. That was just the way it was. There was companies 157 00:07:39,525 --> 00:07:42,524 like ask Sunday you had Friday tasks, today tasks every day. 158 00:07:42,574 --> 00:07:45,724 There was a bunch of them. And that was the place. But now it's 159 00:07:45,774 --> 00:07:49,023 the last place that I would want to get a virtual assistant from, 160 00:07:49,073 --> 00:07:51,972 because the labor market for virtual assistants there just 161 00:07:52,022 --> 00:07:55,122 got completely flooded, and the quality went down quite a bit, 162 00:07:55,172 --> 00:07:57,721 which, by the way, is an interesting observation on 163 00:07:57,771 --> 00:08:00,870 outsourcing in general. Because if you want to go to India for 164 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,820 outsourcing now, SEO is great where, and this stuff shifts 165 00:08:03,870 --> 00:08:07,069 around, like if you want to get graphic design done now, Eastern 166 00:08:07,119 --> 00:08:10,268 Europe is fantastic. Poland is great for programmers right now, 167 00:08:10,318 --> 00:08:13,368 and Costa Rica is fantastic for call centers. But that wasn't 168 00:08:13,418 --> 00:08:16,367 the case two years ago. And I don't know why that is, but I 169 00:08:16,417 --> 00:08:19,616 just see these things if you if you do want to go out of country 170 00:08:19,666 --> 00:08:22,365 for virtual assistant now, most people would go to the 171 00:08:22,415 --> 00:08:25,515 Philippines. The only problem with that the Filipino language, 172 00:08:25,565 --> 00:08:28,564 Tagalog is extremely facial expression based. So when you're 173 00:08:28,614 --> 00:08:31,513 communicating with a native Filipino speaker over email or 174 00:08:31,563 --> 00:08:34,613 over a text message or chat, they what happens is they end up 175 00:08:34,663 --> 00:08:37,712 taking the instructions very, very literally. So that's okay, 176 00:08:37,762 --> 00:08:40,961 but that usually means that you have to be very specific to with 177 00:08:41,011 --> 00:08:43,811 what you're saying. Fortunately, now you can get virtual 178 00:08:43,861 --> 00:08:47,010 assistants that are US based and which is great for a number of 179 00:08:47,060 --> 00:08:49,809 reasons. Obviously, you get native us speakers. You get 180 00:08:49,859 --> 00:08:52,909 people who have a little bit better cultural context for some 181 00:08:52,959 --> 00:08:55,858 of the things that you might have them do. Timezone is the 182 00:08:55,908 --> 00:08:59,157 third one. So that's a dedicated system where you have one person 183 00:08:59,207 --> 00:09:02,207 you're always talking to them, that you can train them. They 184 00:09:02,256 --> 00:09:05,306 can learn how you like doing things, who you like to talk to, 185 00:09:05,356 --> 00:09:07,905 where you like to go for meetings, all that kind of 186 00:09:07,955 --> 00:09:10,955 stuff. The other side of it is what's known as the on demand 187 00:09:11,005 --> 00:09:13,854 virtual assistant, and that would be something like fancy 188 00:09:13,904 --> 00:09:16,853 hands, which I do recommend. It's a great company, and with 189 00:09:16,903 --> 00:09:19,903 fancy hands, what you get is access to over 3000 assistants. 190 00:09:19,953 --> 00:09:22,952 And you put your task into a pool so you email it or leave a 191 00:09:23,002 --> 00:09:26,201 voicemail, and any one of those assistants can pick it up, do it 192 00:09:26,251 --> 00:09:29,000 and move on prem. Now, the benefit to that is that it's 193 00:09:29,050 --> 00:09:31,700 usually a lot cheaper, enormously cheaper, to have On 194 00:09:31,750 --> 00:09:34,899 Demand assistance. You get 24/7, response time, because there's 195 00:09:34,949 --> 00:09:37,898 always somebody awake that's ready to do something. You get 196 00:09:37,948 --> 00:09:40,698 much faster response time. Typically within 10 minutes, 197 00:09:40,748 --> 00:09:43,397 you'll have somebody on something, and you get people 198 00:09:43,447 --> 00:09:46,147 from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill sets, the 199 00:09:46,197 --> 00:09:49,396 downside is that they're limited to tasks that take less than 20 200 00:09:49,446 --> 00:09:52,295 minutes, because, you know, it just that's the way it is. 201 00:09:52,345 --> 00:09:55,245 There's no continuity. So if you're not good at describing 202 00:09:55,295 --> 00:09:58,444 your tasks, then you're going to have an issue. They can't make 203 00:09:58,494 --> 00:10:01,593 big purchases for you. So what we have now, which is the let's 204 00:10:01,643 --> 00:10:03,943 do us, is a hybrid. We. Basically have a dozen 205 00:10:03,993 --> 00:10:07,142 assistants working with us right now, and what you get when you 206 00:10:07,192 --> 00:10:10,291 work with us is access to the whole team. And because they are 207 00:10:10,341 --> 00:10:12,891 trained in less doing methodology, they can you can 208 00:10:12,941 --> 00:10:15,790 work with that team as if it was working with a dedicated 209 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,789 assistant. So every time they do tasks for clients, they're 210 00:10:18,839 --> 00:10:21,689 helping create those processes and optimize them. They're 211 00:10:21,739 --> 00:10:24,788 adding information to a very detailed client dossier, so that 212 00:10:24,838 --> 00:10:27,937 even if somebody were to quit or get sick or move on whatever, 213 00:10:27,987 --> 00:10:31,186 then it doesn't matter, because we've created all this knowledge 214 00:10:31,236 --> 00:10:34,086 base on how to work with that client. And of course, that 215 00:10:34,136 --> 00:10:37,035 information is transferable to other clients. So what that 216 00:10:37,085 --> 00:10:39,934 means is that we actually are more like on demand project 217 00:10:39,984 --> 00:10:42,884 managers, because you could never tell a virtual assistant 218 00:10:42,934 --> 00:10:45,983 produce a podcast. That's just way too big of a thing. We can 219 00:10:46,033 --> 00:10:48,932 do that. So what we're trying to, what I've been basically 220 00:10:48,982 --> 00:10:51,932 trying to position this as, is something that the market is 221 00:10:51,982 --> 00:10:54,781 missing, where people can say what they want done and we 222 00:10:54,831 --> 00:10:57,780 figure out the rest, so they don't have to know how to hire 223 00:10:57,830 --> 00:11:00,880 people or what the best resource is to get particular aspects 224 00:11:00,930 --> 00:11:01,980 done, we can do that. 225 00:11:01,980 --> 00:11:05,487 Host: What kind of cost range are you looking for? For this 226 00:11:05,553 --> 00:11:06,480 kind of thing? 227 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:08,691 Ari Meisel: Typically with the Philippines, you're looking at 228 00:11:08,736 --> 00:11:11,219 between eight and $20 an hour, and you have to look at, 229 00:11:11,264 --> 00:11:13,837 obviously, a cost benefit analysis in terms of quality of 230 00:11:13,882 --> 00:11:16,816 the labor and the skill set that you're getting. And you know, if 231 00:11:16,861 --> 00:11:19,434 somebody's a quarter of the price, but it takes them four 232 00:11:19,479 --> 00:11:22,052 times as long, or they have to redo it four times. That's 233 00:11:22,097 --> 00:11:23,000 obviously a problem. 234 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,814 Host: The question is, how much rework is has to be done? How 235 00:11:25,865 --> 00:11:28,884 much training, just the fear that somebody else who doesn't 236 00:11:28,935 --> 00:11:32,158 work in my company every day is going to actually be able to do 237 00:11:32,210 --> 00:11:33,080 this effectively. 238 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,621 Ari Meisel: Well and see that, which is one of my favorite 239 00:11:35,677 --> 00:11:39,158 things to do for people, because I have taken I've never seen a 240 00:11:39,213 --> 00:11:41,976 process that I could not systematize in a way that 241 00:11:42,032 --> 00:11:45,513 somebody could do it without any training. And I mean that, you 242 00:11:45,568 --> 00:11:49,160 know, so from very, very complex processes, too, it's really just 243 00:11:49,216 --> 00:11:52,365 a matter of breaking it down to its most basic chunks and 244 00:11:52,421 --> 00:11:55,902 automating as much as possible, by the way, so that there is no 245 00:11:55,957 --> 00:11:58,997 that, you know, we don't even have to worry about human 246 00:11:59,052 --> 00:12:02,533 involvement that could possibly mess up something, and then the 247 00:12:02,589 --> 00:12:05,628 stuff that's left to actually be done by a human is not 248 00:12:05,683 --> 00:12:09,054 stupefied, but it's really just made into a checklist that is 249 00:12:09,109 --> 00:12:12,204 easy enough to follow. And doctors, surgeons and pilots, 250 00:12:12,259 --> 00:12:15,630 who have done procedures 1000s of times, still use checklists 251 00:12:15,685 --> 00:12:19,056 so that they don't miss things. Proper delegation is when you 252 00:12:19,111 --> 00:12:22,427 effectively communicate your needs to somebody to the extent 253 00:12:22,482 --> 00:12:25,743 that they can take it and run with it to the point of being 254 00:12:25,798 --> 00:12:29,279 able to overcome certain hurdles on their own without having to 255 00:12:29,335 --> 00:12:32,705 come back to you so that you can go back to doing what you do 256 00:12:32,761 --> 00:12:34,640 best and not managing that person. 257 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,904 Host: Interesting. Let's just talk about the inbox. That's the 258 00:12:37,961 --> 00:12:41,568 big, mammoth beast that everyone struggles with and creates the 259 00:12:41,626 --> 00:12:44,890 stress for the professional world, and you have the Inbox 260 00:12:44,947 --> 00:12:45,520 Zero plan. 261 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:48,154 Ari Meisel: Yeah, absolutely. So really simple, three Ds. You can 262 00:12:48,203 --> 00:12:51,135 only deal with an email once, and this, and it's one of the 263 00:12:51,185 --> 00:12:53,968 three Ds. The first one is to delete it because it's not 264 00:12:54,018 --> 00:12:57,000 relevant or doesn't require a response. And I would tell you 265 00:12:57,050 --> 00:13:00,032 that 40% of the emails that people respond to don't actually 266 00:13:00,081 --> 00:13:03,063 require a response. If you've ever found yourself sending an 267 00:13:03,113 --> 00:13:05,946 email that said, thanks, or great, don't The second is to 268 00:13:05,995 --> 00:13:09,077 deal with it. If you can deal with something in the next three 269 00:13:09,126 --> 00:13:12,357 minutes, deal with it right now, because there won't be a magical 270 00:13:12,407 --> 00:13:15,488 three minutes later. And I don't mean click it, mark it unread 271 00:13:15,538 --> 00:13:18,520 and be like, Okay, I'll come right back to it. No. Deal with 272 00:13:18,569 --> 00:13:21,800 it right now. That could include a little subset D, which will be 273 00:13:21,849 --> 00:13:24,782 delegating it so you can pass that off to an assistant or a 274 00:13:24,831 --> 00:13:27,366 spouse or a coworker, and the third one is the most 275 00:13:27,416 --> 00:13:30,248 interesting. So if you can't delete it and you can't deal 276 00:13:30,298 --> 00:13:33,429 with it right now, then you need to defer it to a time that you 277 00:13:33,479 --> 00:13:36,461 can more effectively deal with it. And for that, I recommend 278 00:13:36,511 --> 00:13:39,592 something called Follow up.cc so you can forward that email to 279 00:13:39,642 --> 00:13:42,723 8pm at follow up.cc or Thursday at follow up.cc or one week at 280 00:13:42,773 --> 00:13:45,655 follow up.cc whatever time period you think might make the 281 00:13:45,705 --> 00:13:48,836 most sense for you to actually be able to effectively deal with 282 00:13:48,886 --> 00:13:51,967 that, and it will then come back to your inbox at that time so 283 00:13:52,017 --> 00:13:54,800 that you can and the most effective time to deal with it 284 00:13:54,849 --> 00:13:57,881 is not just because you have free time. It's also because you 285 00:13:57,931 --> 00:14:00,863 are maybe in a better state to do that, or because you have 286 00:14:00,913 --> 00:14:04,044 more information, or whatever it might be, and that's basically 287 00:14:04,093 --> 00:14:04,740 the strategy. 288 00:14:04,740 --> 00:14:07,840 Host: Well Ari, I think where do you want people to go to connect 289 00:14:07,893 --> 00:14:11,151 and learn more about you and all the different things that you 290 00:14:11,204 --> 00:14:11,940 have going on? 291 00:14:11,940 --> 00:14:15,199 Ari Meisel: They can just go to lessdoing.com, they can find out 292 00:14:15,261 --> 00:14:18,960 about the podcast, the book, the blog, everything is there. 293 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,188 Host: Well, Ari, keep inspiring people and keep preaching the 294 00:14:22,247 --> 00:14:23,480 good word, my friend. 295 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:24,620 Ari Meisel: Always a pleasure to talk to you.