PDF Summary:Do Less, Get More, by Shaa Wasmund

Productivity comes at a cost. Our happiest days are spent in childhood and retirement, but we work ourselves to exhaustion during the intervening decades because society says we should. Happiness, when it comes, is fleeting and doesn’t stick, because there’s always a buzz in the back of your head saying you should be more productive.

In Do Less, Get More, Shaa Wasmund says it doesn’t have to be like that. You can enjoy your life now by denying the mandate to be busy all the time. In this guide, we’ll go through Wasmund’s process of kicking the busyness habit: Determine what matters, cut out everything else, and get to work on the things that really count. We’ll also place Wasmund’s writing in the context of other writers on productivity and happiness, such as Simon Sinek, Arthur C. Brooks, and Marie Kondo.

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Delete What You Don’t Need

Once you’ve done the work of identifying who and what matters most to you in life, then comes the hard part—getting rid of everything else. Wasmund cautions that that’s a big task, so don’t try to do it all at once. Instead, she says to pause your routine—take a day off if you need it—and think about where chaos, confusion, and busyness show up in your life. Then, pick one aspect of life to start on, and don’t be afraid to ask others for help. In this section, we’ll look at how to reduce the unwanted commitments, energy drains, and schedule crowding in any facet of your life by focusing on one project at a time, learning not to say “yes” to everything, and clearing the mental and physical mess that accumulates around you over time.

(Shortform note: In Minimalism, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus offer similar advice, finding meaning by stripping life down to its essentials. Instead of targeting energy drains, though, they focus on five specific areas of life to improve: health, relationships, passions, growth, and what you contribute to others. Like Wasmund, they recommend pausing to evaluate your life as a whole, which you can start by identifying your anchors—the things or situations that make you feel stuck. These may include the energy drains Wasmund describes, or they may be physical possessions that keep you emotionally trapped in the past.)

One Thing at a Time

Wasmund says you’re much more likely to successfully pare down your commitments if you target one aspect of your life at a time—whether that’s your workload, the time you give to friends, or how thin you stretch yourself for your family. One reason is to avoid decision paralysis. There are many choices you’ll have to make regarding where to direct your energy and what to cut out of your life, and trying to tackle your whole life at once will present you with too many options to sort through. Having too wide an array of options can also tempt you down the path of drowning yourself in research and overthinking as a way to avoid making hard decisions.

(Shortform note: In The Art of Thinking Clearly, entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli expands on the problem of decision paralysis you’ll run into by trying to change too much at once. He agrees with Wasmund that having too many options makes you prone to information overload, but he also suggests that when faced with too many choices, you lower the standards by which you make decisions. This happens because when there are too many criteria to judge your choices by—such as deciding which of the many distractions you’ll focus on removing from your life first—your brain will compensate by disregarding most of the deciding factors, including many that are relevant, in favor of those that give you the quickest way out of the decision loop.)

Remember, the main purpose of picking one area of your life to work on isn’t to determine what you don’t want to do—it’s to figure out what you want to do the most and let everything else fall by the wayside. One of Wasmund’s suggestions is to write down all your possible priorities on note cards or stickies as a way to get them out of your head, so you can clearly see them in front of you. For instance, if you want to streamline your social life, write down all the people and social groups that take up your time outside of work and family. Then, you can more easily sort them into those that give you energy and meaning, those that are neutral, and those that drain you. From there, it should be clear which ones are most deserving of your attention.

(Shortform note: Wasmund’s approach is simple and direct, but if you find that it doesn’t go deep enough, another tack you might consider is to find your ikigai, from the Japanese word for a person’s reason for existing. According to authors Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, each of us has a different ikigai; yours could center on an art, a sport, your job, or something else. While García and Miralles say you shouldn’t try too hard to find your ikigai—rather, you should let it find you—author Anthony Raymond suggests four basic criteria yours will meet: You love doing it, you’re good at it, it benefits others, and you can make money at it. That said, the last of Raymond’s criteria may not apply to an ikigai that isn’t career-related.)

Patience Is Key

Lastly, Wasmund strongly recommends that you accept that this process won’t go perfectly. What’s important is that you move as quickly as you can from the ideation and planning stage to putting your new focus into action. It may be that you make the wrong decision at first, such as choosing the wrong subset of your friends to spend time with. That’s fine—life rarely goes as planned, so you should expect to adapt along the way. However, making change is often scary—especially when that includes letting go of people and things—and thinking too long about the process can easily let that fear fester to the point that it stops you from acting at all.

(Shortform note: Wasmund presents missteps and course corrections on your way to simplifying your life as things to be accepted, but in Principles, businessman Ray Dalio says you should fully embrace them instead. While acknowledging that making mistakes is painful, he insists that feeling that pain is critical to finding the right way forward; it’s nature’s reminder that there’s something to learn. It’s more important to recognize mistakes and learn from them, than to cover them up and make your problems worse. Dalio sums it up in a simple equation: “Pain plus reflection equals progress.”)

Stop Saying Yes

For many of us, the hardest part of removing obligations and energy drains from our lives is saying “no.” To emphasize why this is a crucial skill to learn, Wasmund writes that the cost of saying “yes” is often more than it’s worth. Of course you want to be a good friend, family member, and teammate at work, and that often entails agreeing to help others or take on duties that benefit everyone. The problem comes when you always say “yes”—to the point that you ignore your own needs, goals, and health. Once you’re trapped in that pattern, your schedule gets crowded, your stress goes up, your effectiveness goes down, and you start to resent the people you once valued as they add more and more to your to-do list.

Wasmund suggests that the root cause of saying “yes” too much is fear—that you’ll be rejected, that you’ll disappoint others, or that people will think less of you for saying “no.” These fears, she argues, are largely the product of cultural conditioning, not rational fact. What you can do is evaluate each request as it comes. If a task is essential, you’re able to do it, and you genuinely want to (because it lines up with your values and goals), then say yes. However, if the task doesn’t produce a net good, someone else can do it better than you, and your knee-jerk reaction to say “yes” is out of duty or fear, then stop yourself and say “no.”

Say No Without Giving a F∗ck

As with our cultural fixation on “more,” the difficulty Wasmund says we have with saying “no” is also cultural, according to Mark Manson in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F∗ck. Society, he says, tells us to be positive and accepting of everything—to always say yes. However, the more things we agree to, the less satisfied we are, because we keep thinking of what we’re giving up and if we’d be happier with a different choice. Manson says that you’ll get more out of life if you focus on a narrower and deeper range of commitments and opportunities. This lets you focus on what’s most important and achieve more than if your efforts are scattered.

As for the fear of rejection—both of yourself and others—that goes along with saying no, Manson argues that rejection is a social skill that’s essential to building healthy relationships. When we’re comfortable saying no and getting no for an answer, that means our relationships are based on honesty and openness, whereas if you don’t practice rejection, you’ll get stuck in situations that make you unhappy. As scary as it may be, saying no is essential to building trust. When people can disagree and tolerate rejection, even about the simplest things, it means their relationship isn’t conditional or dependent on keeping each other happy.

The trick, according to Wasmund, is to learn to say no without triggering the fear and guilt that may come with it. First, she suggests starting small—turn down trivial requests to acclimate yourself to the idea that it’s OK. Second, learn to frame your “no” in a way that doesn’t come across (or feel to you) like a flat-out rejection. For instance, you can say no to a specific request while proposing an alternative, such as “I can’t do that today, but perhaps sometime later” or “I can’t help with that, but I know someone who might.” Whatever tack you take, Wasmund stresses that you don’t have to explain yourself—you have the right to say “no” without having to justify it.

(Shortform note: In Essentialism, Greg McKeown offers several mindset shifts to make Wasmund’s tips for saying no easier. First, remember that you’re rejecting one request, not the other person, and keep in mind the trade-off you’d have to accept if you’d said yes. Basically, think of it as a transaction—by making a request, the other person is selling something in exchange for your time, but is it something you really want to buy? Emotionally, you’ll have to accept that saying no might temporarily make you unpopular with them, but it’s best if you don’t leave them hanging. McKeown says that people are much more receptive to a definitive no than they are to a wishy-washy “maybe” that you back out on.)

Tidy Up Your Life

One more way Wasmund says you can reduce the pressure of “more” in your life is to create a less messy environment for your mind and body. She suggests starting with your physical surroundings—pick one area you spend a lot of time in, such as your office or your living room, and clear out the junk and knicknacks that have built up over time—stacks of mail, walls of sticky notes, or drawers full of hoarded office supplies. Even if you’ve become accustomed to the piles of things around you, each of them represents a potential “to-do” that’s taking up space in your mind, whether you acknowledge it or not. Once it’s gone, you may be surprised by how much invisible pressure it relieves.

(Shortform note: The act of cleaning as a mental health boost gained mainstream popularity with Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Kondo’s process is to discard stuff first, then organize what’s left. However, she disagrees with Wasmund that you should start small—Kondo says to declutter your whole house or office in one go, even if it takes months to do so. Rather than going area by area, as Wasmund advises, Kondo says to clean up by category: For instance, discard and sort through all your clothes at once, or all your books, or all your office supplies. She says not to start with a category that carries a lot of emotional baggage—instead, begin with low-stakes categories and work your way up from there. )

Detach From Tech and Work

The next thing Wasmund recommends is to clean up the digital mess on your devices. You can start by removing apps and files you don’t need, but the end goal is to set firm boundaries on how much you let technology impinge on your schedule and your life. This includes the “useful” apps, such as email and news sites you check every day. In the modern attention economy, everything on your phone and your desktop is designed for maximum engagement, which means they’re purposely there to distract you. If you set hard limits on when you check your email or the news, and how much time you spend on social media, you’ll find that you’re not missing out on anything—and you’ll have more mental space to engage with what matters.

(Shortform note: The digital mess that Wasmund derides is so embedded in our lives that it may be hard to imagine going without it, but in Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky say you can. As digital app designers, they argue that the best way to fight these distractions is to delete all social media apps, games, and even your email from your phone. At the very least, you should turn off all notifications and remove every app from your home screen. That way, you have to intentionally choose when and for how long you’ll use each app, instead of letting apps demand your attention. Your phone and other digital devices should be tools that serve you, not the other way around, but modern app design is so intrusive that the remedy can feel extreme.)

A third mess Wasmund says you need to tackle is your schedule. If you’re going to devote most of your energy to the handful of things that matter most, there may still be a lot of nonessential tasks you’re in some way responsible for. The solution: Get someone else to do what you don’t want to. For some, delegation can be a hard skill to master, but it’s also extremely freeing once you learn it. Don’t let fear and perfectionism get in your way—thinking “No one can do this but me” may serve your ego, but it doesn’t serve your mental health or long-term goals. As with everything, try it out one task at a time—define what needs done, find a way to outsource it, and judge the results for yourself.

(Shortform note: In Free to Focus, leadership expert Michael Hyatt backs up Wasmund’s words about the power of delegation, while acknowledging the difficulties—such as finding and training the right people. Hyatt notes that there are types of delegation, each of which demands different levels of autonomy and responsibility. The most basic is when you simply want a task done. The next type is when you want someone to study a particular problem, which requires you to give them enough autonomy to explore the issue as they see fit. The final type is when you empower someone to make and implement decisions without your approval. Even so, with this level of delegation, it’s common to monitor what decisions they make and what results they get.)

Prioritize the Present

So far, we’ve talked about the importance of identifying what goals, activities, and relationships you value most, as well as how you can go about trimming the things you don’t need, so you can get more out of less. The next question, and one that may be giving you pause, is “When’s the best time to go about it?” Wasmund’s answer is an unequivocal “Now.” At any given moment (for instance, right now, while reading this guide) ask yourself if what you’re doing now is bringing you closer to whatever you want—whether that’s career success, more time with your family, or completing that novel you’ve always meant to write. Asking this question makes you think about your time as a resource that’s meant to serve you, not someone else.

(Shortform note: Despite reams of philosophical and psychological advice backing up Wasmund’s emphasis on living in the Now, it’s often hard to put into practice. In Your Erroneous Zones, Wayne Dyer explains why. He says that we often trap ourselves in the past by holding onto memories, guilt, and self-limiting beliefs that don’t serve us. Self-defeating labels (such as that you’re bad at something) or feelings of shame over long-ago events block us from new experiences and opportunities. On the other hand, anxiety keeps us focused on the future. Though Dyer says planning for the future is a practical use of the present, thinking too much about it can paralyze you with worries over things that are out of your control.)

The problem is the nagging voice in our heads that says “later will be better” for anything we’re unsure about. Wasmund describes this as a trap that makes our present happiness conditional on something that hasn’t happened yet—“I’ll ask for that raise after I’ve put some more years in,” “I’ll travel the world after I retire.” However, the inner voice that says this is merely fear in disguise, and when we give in to “later,” that’s just an excuse to mask our fear. After all, anything meaningful you may want involves risk, and risk always involves a certain degree of danger. “Later” implies that that danger will diminish in the future, but that’s untrue. The bigger danger, according to Wasmund, is missing an opportunity in the present.

(Shortform note: While Wasmund’s advice against procrastinating on happiness may be largely true, “now” isn’t necessarily the best time for every change. In Jump and Find Joy, TV host Hoda Kotb argues that timing is of the essence. Like Wasmund, she writes that instead of waiting for some precondition to occur, you can enact a change for the better at any time. What Kotb adds is that you have to stay open so that you recognize when the right moment for change arrives. To do that, you’ll have to accept that change isn’t an occasional disruption to a stable life; rather, it’s the engine of a meaningful one. If you can do that, then waiting for the right moment to change isn’t procrastination—it’s precision.)

Fun Is a Priority

It may sound as if Wasmund’s recommending using every waking moment to be productive, the opposite of “do less, get more.” However, she insists that you also have to value your time for rest, hobbies, and fun. To reach your most meaningful goals, you’ll need to keep your body and mind intact. Therefore, don’t think of time off as a detour from something more important. It’s an essential restorative so you’ll be in peak condition when you do come back to “getting stuff done.” Her one caution is to use your time off in a way that isn’t a net drain in itself (like eating a plate of cookies). Exercise, time outdoors, reading a good book, or doing something creative are all great ways to charge your batteries that leave you better off than before.

(Shortform note: Doing things you enjoy is restorative, but Wasmund is right that not all “fun” is created equal. Science writer Catherine Price backs this up in The Power of Fun. She separates distractions and passive entertainment from what she calls True Fun, which lives in the overlap of playfulness, connection, and flow. Playfulness happens when you approach something with an attitude of curiosity and a willingness to experiment. Connection is the sense of belonging that comes from conversations with friends, spending time in nature, or playing with a beloved pet. Lastly, flow is a state of complete absorption in an activity where you lose track of time. Price argues that opportunities for flow in particular are crucial for a long, fulfilling life.)

Do the Right Work

So, as we’ve discussed, it’s time to get started. By now, you’ve thought about your top priorities, including the area of your life you’ll work on first, and you’ve considered several ways to make room for those priorities. Wasmund follows all this up with advice for what comes next: Set aside a specific time for what matters, make use of your strengths, and pick the proper tools for what you need to do.

Your Priorities Come First

Wasmund writes that whatever you’ve chosen as your most important goal has to be put on your schedule. If not, everything else will crowd it out by default. If your goal is to make progress on a project at work, schedule that first before you commit (or say no) to anything else. If your priority is to reconnect with old friends, schedule a time to meet up or at least give them a call. If your goal is to spend more time with your family, then schedule uninterrupted family time that nothing else is allowed to override. This calls back to Wasmund’s earlier discussion of values—just as your goals must reflect them, so too must your schedule. Anything that interferes with those values should spark the question “Do I really want to do this?”

(Shortform note: Many productivity experts, including Stephen R. Covey, Daniel Goleman, and Cal Newport, have written extensively on making one goal the focus of your attention. In Make Time, Knapp and Zeratsky call this your “highlight”—a daily focus that’s your chief priority. It doesn’t have to be the same thing every day; in fact, it probably won’t be. What’s key is that by choosing your focus, you get to set your own priorities instead of responding to external demands. Like Wasmund, Knapp and Zeratsky insist that your daily focus must be protected. This involves setting boundaries with other people, technology, and anything else that might distract you from it—and your schedule is a great tool to leverage for that.)

In the interest of self-improvement, you may be drawn to set aside time to work on your weaknesses, whether that’s public speaking, organizational skills, or your ability to read a spreadsheet. While all that is laudable, Wasmund argues that you get more out of less effort when you leverage your strengths. When you lean into what you’re best at, it lets you be your authentic self, especially if you can use your strengths for what excites you. Whenever you run into a problem on your way to a goal that you value, see if you can use your particular strengths to overcome it. When one of your weaknesses gets in the way, Wasmund says not to be shy about asking someone else for assistance, rather than grinding away at it yourself.

(Shortform note: While Wasmund’s advice to lean into your strengths makes sense if you’re trying to achieve short-term gains, it may do so at the cost of long-term learning. In Limitless Mind, educator Jo Boaler explains that struggling to learn a skill and making mistakes are integral parts of cognitive development. Indeed, struggling with an area where you’re “weak” is how the brain develops new neural pathways and makes unexpected connections between ideas. Staying in your cognitive comfort zone robs you of this opportunity, while wrestling with unfamiliar concepts creates avenues for problem-solving and acquiring even more knowledge.)

Pick the Tools for the Job

To get more out of doing less, Wasmund says to pick the best tools for the job, whatever the job might be. “Tools,” in this case, refers to any skills, connections, actions, or devices that can accomplish what you want with the least amount of hassle. If you want some quality family time, the proper tool might be a weekly outing to a park. If you’re trying to kindle a romance, the tool might be a candlelight dinner. If you’re vying for a promotion, the best tool might be a persuasive conversation with your boss. Most medium- or long-term goals will probably require multiple tools, so the questions to ask are “What can I do right now?” and “How can I free up the room to get it done?” The answers should tell you which tools to reach for.

(Shortform note: While the right tools might be instinctive for many of the situations Wasmund describes, you may want to formalize the process for problems that require more thought, especially in a workplace environment. The authors of Critical Thinking, Logic & Problem Solving suggest a multi-step method, which begins with analyzing the problem itself. You can then use a tool like a logic tree to visually lay out potential solutions, and you’ll select one after weighing their pros and cons. Next, you’ll want to implement your solution, but that’s not the end of the process—afterward, you should evaluate the results to determine what went right, what didn’t, and if you should use the same “tool” as a solution in the future.)

Thanks to the wonders of the 21st century, the number of tools we have available is exploding. Though sometimes it seems we’re drowning in apps and devices, Wasmund says to take advantage of technology if it can genuinely help you. Calendar apps, note-taking apps, health trackers, news alerts, and the like all have their uses, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Everyone’s needs are different, so Wasmund suggests that you experiment with what digital tools might be most appropriate for reaching your goals, find one that works, and ignore all the rest.

(Shortform note: The digital tools Wasmund lists are very useful—otherwise, they wouldn’t be so popular—but many come with a hidden mental cost. In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr traces the development of communication technology since well before the digital age, and he concludes that whatever tool we use, be that a smartphone or a manual typewriter, rewires our brains so that we adapt and even become dependent on it. Carr argues that the ease of use Wasmund touts for advanced technology has resulted in a widespread loss of our ability to concentrate, engage with information, and retain what we’ve learned. Digital media is now unavoidable, but Carr might recommend being mindful of how much thinking you cede to your devices.)

The final thing to be mindful of is the inevitability of change. Your strengths, goals, and the tools you use to reach them will all evolve over time, sometimes slowly and sometimes in a hurry. For this reason, Wasmund suggests that you shouldn’t lock yourself into one way of doing things or one set of priorities. Instead, keep your eyes on what you really value—what’s most important in your life—and adapt everything else around that. Doing so will get you the most “bang for your buck” out of whatever you choose to do and pursue. In the end, Wasmund says that you’ll have a richer life with energy, time, and health left to spare.

(Shortform note: Few people embody Wasmund’s last bit of advice more than comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke. In 100 Rules for Living to 100, he describes the many ways he’s evolved to stay engaged and even youthful across his many years, yet throughout his life, he’s found that some of the tools he’s used remain the same. Among these are the need to find humor everywhere as a way to deal with life’s absurdities and frustrations. Another is to lean on and nurture deep relationships—with a close romantic partner, a community you belong to, and anyone you can help with your mere presence. Lastly, he says to keep working and doing what you love, even if what that means to you changes over time.)