1.3.04 - Do Less Get More

Do Less – Get More
Improving the efficacy, and quality of life by doing less

Less is the key to More: Less is the new More
The Japanese have an enchanting and beautiful way of arranging flowers, an art
form they call Ikebana. One of the key principles of Ikebana says: “it is the space
between things that matters.” Placing a flower or an object, considering its colour
and effect is only equal in importance to the gap, the space or the emptiness that
stands between that object and the others in the arrangement. Ikebana is
breathtaking and compelling… and so is a life lived the same way.
The ‘more myth’

Greg McKeown makes the observation that, “We are overvaluing the notion of doing it all, having it all,
achieving it all; the undisciplined pursuit of more.”. He’s right though, there’s a huge social push for being
busy, or keeping up the appearance of it.
Less is the key to More: Less is the new More

The answer to life isn’t more … it’s LESS. Less is the key to more of what you actually want. Less stress, more
happiness. Less stuff, more stuff you love. Fewer projects, more progress. Less work, more results.
Sleep - Optimizing brain utilization
Highest performing musicians slept more than their counterparts, learned faster and did less daily
practice. When you are resting, your brain is not doing nothing. It is running powerful unconscious
programs integrating, assimilating and consolidating memory, learning and pattern recognition. Dreams
are a great example of this.
Slow down and take pauses - Better communication
Slowing down our speech, taking pauses dramatically improves your charisma. Pausing for a full two
seconds after someone else has finished talking and before you speak is central to them recognising that
you have heard them. Learning how to slow your delivery, including pausing for dramatic effect, is
central to audience engagement.
Take Brakes - Better performance
The breaks you take can give you the edge to win and be more productive. Google has sleep pods,
Twitter have meditation rooms and companies worldwide are introducing regular work breaks to
improve productivity.
The breaks you take can give you the edge to win and be more productive. Between fight rounds in Tae
Kwan Do a competitor gets a 30 second break. What you do with that down time can make the
difference between winning and losing. Mike Tyson said the in between match break, the drink of water,
shoulder rub, the pep talk from his coach, could make or break the match.
Do nothing. Your successful team wants to know your secret - Better leadership
Effective leaders free up their time. This is not about being lazy.
There is some surprising research result about the power of doing less in leadership. This pleases the
Gen-X slackers, but the studies are not really talking about being lazy. Professor J. Keith Murningham
from Kellogg School of Management teaches that effective leaders free up their time. He says, “As a
leader, you should not only do less of the every day work, your goal should be to do nothing!” He takes
it further, “If your team is successful and see you… doing nothing, they will not think you are lazy, they
will want to know your secret.”
- http://www.frazerholmes.com/do-less-get-more
Tools and Techniques on Accomplishing “Do Less and Get More”

Working smart beats working hard. In some cases working more can actually damage the amount you get
accomplished. Working less and accomplishing more isn’t easy. It requires thinking creatively to find more
effective ways of doing things. But first you have to be open to the possibility that your methods aren’t as
efficient as they could be. Once you do that you can look for ways to get more accomplished without just
increasing your to-do list.
Pareto’s Law - The 80/20 Rule - “Twenty percent of your time generates eighty percent of your results”.
The Pareto principle, (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor
sparsely) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. i.e. 80 percent
of our typical activities contribute less than 20 percent to the value of our work. If you do only the most
important 20 percent of your tasks you still get most of the value.
Gamini Hettiarachchi Capacity Building Page 2 of 4

Parkinson’s Law - “Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion”
If you give yourself a week to complete a two hour task, then (psychologically speaking) the task will increase
in complexity and become more daunting so as to fill that week. It may not even fill the extra time with more
work, but just stress and tension about having to get it done. By assigning the right amount of time to a task, we
gain back more time and the task will reduce in complexity to its natural state.
Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle
Using Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently : Urgent and important time
management matrix
Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle helps you think about your

priorities, and determine which of your activities are important and which
are, essentially, distractions.
Energy Management
Energy management, as opposed to time management, forces you to think of results as a function of energy, not
time invested. Working intensely for a short period of time can accomplish more than working for days, tired
and distracted.
Only Use Sharp Tools
Don’t use rusty tools. Don’t waste your time doing things you don’t intend to be excellent at. Delegate them to
someone who does have a sharp tool. And for the things you do want to master, make it a priority to sharpen
your tool beyond what is necessary to cut. Skill saves time.
Rule with Numbers
Assumptions are the biggest waste of your time. When your intuitions about the world don’t match the way it
works, you can never be efficient. The only way to combat false assumptions is to test them and follow them up
with numbers. The results of a test can save you hundreds of hours if it shows a current process has no impact
or suggests a faster alternative.
Here are a few examples:

 A/B Tests – Test out two different methods simultaneously. This can allow you to know with greater
accuracy which method works best.
 Track Numbers – Don’t just weigh yourself or count calories, track them. See how they go up, down or
change over time.
The Marginal Rule of Quality
Is it better to be a perfectionist or sloppy?. You should stop working on a project when the extra input invested
gives less output than doing a comparable task.

Success Stories
“I never go into the office on weekends. My weekends are an important time to
unplug from the day-to-day and get a chance to think more deeply about me,
my family and my company . Weekends are a great chance to reflect and be
more introspective about bigger issues.”
Spencer Rascoff - Co-founder of Hotwire.com and CEO of Zillow
Weekend Break - Successful people do easily to Get More
 They Disconnect
 They Minimize Chores
 They Reflect
 They Exercise
 They Pursue a Passion
 They Spend Quality Time with Family
 They Schedule Micro-Adventures
 They Wake Up at the Same Time
 They Designate Mornings as Me Time
 They Prepare for the Upcoming Week
Efficacy - The ability to produce a desired or intended result.
Compiled by
Gamini Hettiarachchi,
B.Sc(Ind.Mgt), MCS, MIDPM(UK), PgD (HRM), MBA(Reading)
Consultant - Ministry of Public Management Reforms, Consultant – HETC Project,
Ministry of Higher Education Ministry of Education – CRC Capacity Building Project, British Council Validated Facilitator
Management Consultant / Human Capital Developer / Leaning Facilitator / Executive Coach
Office: No 1, Sunandarama Road, Kalubowila, Dehiwala, Colombo South, Sri Lanka /
Residence: No 461/458. “Lake Front”, City of Life, Kahathuduwa, Sri Lanka
072 5280654 / 011 5724676 [email protected] : Skype : gaminih.s4s

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Do Less – Get More

Improving the efficacy, and quality of life by doing less

The ‘more myth’

Less is the key to More: Less is the new More

Sleep - Optimizing brain utilization

Take Brakes - Better performance

Tools and Techniques on Accomplishing “Do Less and Get More”

Gamini Hettiarachchi Capacity Building Page 2 of 4

Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle

Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle helps you think about your

Only Use Sharp Tools

Rule with Numbers

Here are a few examples:

The Marginal Rule of Quality

Gamini Hettiarachchi Capacity Building Page 3 of 4

Spencer Rascoff - Co-founder of Hotwire.com and CEO of Zillow

Weekend Break - Successful people do easily to Get More

Efficacy - The ability to produce a desired or intended result.

Gamini Hettiarachchi Capacity Building Page 4 of 4

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