✅MORE is the enemy of better: unlocking extraordinary results through subtraction

TUNE IN TO LEARN: 
 
What if the secret to achieving extraordinary results lies not in doing more, but in doing less? 
 
Join me on today's episode as we uncover the transformative power of subtraction.   
 
Through personal experiences and insights from historical figures and modern research, we'll explore how focusing on fewer tasks with greater intention can lead to mastery. 
 
Touching on Kevin Kelly's "1,000 True Fans" and the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai, we'll discuss the importance of identifying your unique contributions through self-reflection and experimentation, and YES, through doing less. 
 
You'll gain practical strategies inspired by Leidy Klotz's "Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less" and Cal Newport's "Slow Productivity" to streamline your life and focus on what truly matters. 
 
In this thought-provoking episode, we dive into the essence of prioritizing core elements and routines essential to maintaining creativity, productivity, and well-being.   
 
Learn from influential figures like Brené Brown, Maria Shankar, and Rick Rubin, who underscore the importance of seemingly non-essential activities vital to their success.   
 
By mastering the art of selectivity in our noisy world, you'll discover the powerful impact of meditation, self-reflection, and subtracting obstacles from your life.  
 
Tune in, and take the first step towards a more focused, intentional, and meaningful living.  
 
🙏Share these insights with someone who could benefit from this approach and help spread the wisdom.  

Transcript

The Art of Doing Less

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of your Brain's Coach podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your Brain's Coach and it is my job here to bring to you all the best, cutting-edge, most important, useful, interesting and advanced and exciting all the brain-body tools so you could take better control of your thoughts, of your actions, of your emotions and, yes and most importantly, yes, guys, your actions, so you could shape your life yourself, your experience, in the most meaningful, fulfilling way. What are we thinking this Monday, folks, after this session of self-reflection, continuing on our topic of Friday, about how we get stuck in the same patterns and how self-reflection is a practice that will help us get unstuck and grow. Instead, we're continuing on that conversation. So, after I did my self-reflection on June 1st, I realized that my biggest problem is doing less. It's doing less of stuff, but doing stuff that matters better, and the only way to do things better is to dedicate more time, more mind space, more energy, more resources. And we cannot do that when we are rushed from one to-do list, one to-do item on our to-do list, to another.

Speaker 1 1:34

Mastery and extraordinary, non-ordinary results and achievements. They do not come from rushing. They are actually based on really good journalism and research that I'm learning through books. Great things are a result of unrushed projects. That, from the perspective of not modern days I think that's actually going to go into the past but previous decades and years and centuries of productivity, what was considered to be productive is when you try to squeeze in as many items on your calendar as possible and just do, do, do, do, do, do, do, right. That's where, actually, what time management is all about? How to do more of things, whereas modern productivity based on research, that actually goes back into history, into centuries of history of discoveries in math and physics and all the fields and the best writers and philosophers. They never rushed, they never tried to squeeze in as many appointments and things as possible on their to-do list. They tried to create more time to remove stuff. They tried to subtract.

Speaker 1 3:03

So self-reflection led me to a place of truly landing on this page in my life, where I'm like Angela if you want to get to the next level, if you want to grow, if you want to deliver something exceptional, then you got to do less. You got to look at your schedule and stop thinking how can I add more, how can I squeeze in more things and instead think and ask yourself how can I do less? If there was one thing I would focus on this week, what would that thing be? And how can I remove as much stuff that doesn't really matter? Based on my experience, based on where I see myself going, how can I remove more of that stuff?

Speaker 1 3:49

And it's hard, guys, especially if you are a type A personality who wants to achieve and do a lot. It's going to be super hard for you. It's like betraying your own self, signing up to be lazy. But trust yourself, you're not going to be lazy. You're already A-type. Your brain will make you do things and your challenge is just like it's mine is to remove stuff that is not essentially you.

Speaker 1 4:20

Kevin Kelly has this concept. If you don't know who Kevin Kelly is too long to explain, just Google him. Kevin Kelly and 1,000 true fans has this concept of not trying to do everything, but try to do what only you can do, and that's going to be an intersection of this concept of ikigai what you're good at, what the world needs, what you can make money off. So that's going to be the intersection, and you're also not going to just land on it. It's actually going to be a hard process of discovering what it is only you can do and you can do it super well. And when you figure that out, when you discover that and that again goes back to self-reflection and doing the Ikigai exercise and maybe discovering your why exercises it's going to come through work and also you have to try a lot of things.

Speaker 1 5:16

A lot of people ask me, angela, how do you know what you want to do? And you seem to be so clear on your life's vision, your life's mission, no matter the hardships, et cetera. And that's because I tried at least 10 different professions and I'm still trying all the different projects and pivots and quitting one thing over another. That's a process. You're not going to land on it in one day and that's why self-reflection is also that important. But the point of today guys, look at your schedule, even if it's Tuesday, wednesday or whatever day it is, and ask yourself not how I can do more, everything that I can think of, but how can I do less? How can I do what only I can do? How can I subtract, not add? And it's not coincidence that I, for the past few weeks and maybe even months, I've been drawn to resources that teach you how to do less and how to do better because of that.

Speaker 1 6:23

So there is a great book that I just finished Subtract. Let me read you the subtitle actually Subtract the Untapped Science of Less by Lady Klotz Slow Productivity the Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport. There is a podcast that just came out on Hidden Brain Podcast, an episode that just came out, innovation 2.0 Do Less, which where the podcast host interviews the author of the book Subtract the Untapped Science of Less, and there is fascinating research and those guys Cal Newport, lady Clods, scientists, journalists did really great work to bring real-life examples that again go back to like centuries back, showing how people who achieved great results like Isaac Newton and the theory of, I believe, gravity right Not that great with physics, but all these greats that we admire, again going back centuries in history they were actually, from the perspective of modern time management, very inefficient. They did not try to squeeze in everything and optimize everything in a sense that optimize things that should not be done in the first place. They created a lot of time and tried to eliminate as many of other commitments as possible so they can dedicate as much as possible of their mind space to that unique thing, that idea, that project that they felt like was the representation of their true self, of their core self. So what am I thinking about this Monday? How can I do less? What can I subtract? And if I could focus on just one thing this week, then what would that be? What is my priority? Not priorities what is the focus? So then I can unrush, dedicate as much time, as much of me, to that as possible.

Speaker 1 8:34

And I also listened to this beautiful podcast on Maria Shankar I believe that's the author A Slight Change of Plans, if you're curious, with Brené Brown there to lead and Atlas of the Heart. And there are so many great books that I've read by her. And yeah, brené Brown, she is an expert, although I don't think she likes the word expert, but she writes and speaks a lot about vulnerability and living life true to ourself, our messy, imperfect human self. And you also listen to their podcast and how they were saying that focusing on your core elements doesn't mean just work. For me, I need to exercise, I need to sleep well, I need to have a lot of nature and a lot of alone time and I cannot compromise on that. I need to learn a lot. I have a joke with people who know me and with myself Don't feed me. Give me something to learn.

Speaker 1 9:39

So subtracting and removing. So subtracting and removing, which is not your essence, also means leaving keeping the things that make you you. Just because somebody thinks that this is not essential, not core, you should skip it. You should just focus on the most important things. They're not you. They don't understand how to live your life fully. So your mind, your heart, your body function, so your essentials. Don't skip those, please. Do not Just like Albert Einstein did, his hourly walks or all the great writers and scientists have their routines that for the rest of the world seems like this is just so silly, such a waste of time, but for them, that was what made them them. What is their core element, what is their essential Without that, like with Maria Shankar on the podcast.

Speaker 1 10:44

She talks about how, yes, I would get more ratings, more listeners to my podcast if I produced more episodes, but then I wouldn't have time to do the research and the reading and the thinking to the same quality that produce the high quality work that I do in the first place and that is so very important to understand that the great thing that comes out of you comes from doing the things that are not optimized but they are so essential to you. Or Rick Rubin, one of the most creative people, producers, out there. He walks also for hours and just looks at things and ponders and has a lot of thinking and lazy time when he's just present and for the outside world, seemingly doing nothing, being lazy quote unquote but that's what makes him the most creative person and sometimes you know he already has the result. You might think it's easy for Rick Rubin, but it's also true that in order to get there, you need to prioritize your core elements, your true essence, and without results, you still need to be able to say this is me, and I'm not compromising on what's essential to me, whether that's hour-long walks or all the sleep you can get, or exercising first thing in the morning, like doing meditation, whatever that is doing. Nature walks. What is you? Please keep that, because that will create the output, the result that the rest of the world will admire. And do not let anyone tell you what is essential and what you should skip, because they're not you. As simple as that. So that's my thinking on subtraction.

Speaker 1 12:40

Again, a few resources that I'm going to link in the show notes Subtract the Untapped Science of Less book by Lady Clots. Slow Productivity, the Lost Art of Accomplishing Without Burnout by Cal Newport. Innovation 2.0, do Less. Short episode on Hidden Brain Podcast. By the way, hidden Brain Podcast is just such a jam. It's just so inside pot and it's short and there is no advertising.

Speaker 1 13:10

And yeah, anyhow, I'm going to be in the show notes and a couple of things that I'd like to leave you with. First, a quote. First a quote Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away, antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of Little Prince. So perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away. And I'm not saying let's shoot for the perfection all the time. Let's shoot for the perfection all the time, but realize that removing is what is the way to your greatness. And, by the way, on removing text in things like newsletters or writing shorter copies, shorter emails, did you know that when you remove words from your text or from your sentences, you allow the working memory? Like in your brain, there is this working memory that keeps stuff processing while you are in conversation or doing stuff. So the shorter the sentences are, the easier it is for the brain to process them, processing fluency, and that will make it more likely that people consume your stuff and do something with it. So that's a nerdy, neat insight that I think you can use to shorten your writing and your sentences.

Mastering Selectivity in a Noisy World

Speaker 1 14:38

The next thing to make the change easier burn the boats. Remove all the obstacles that are in the way. What it means is don't ask yourself why, what should I do to make a habit or this new action of doing less happen. Instead, ask yourself why haven't done this already and start by subtracting. That's it for today, guys.

Speaker 1 15:06

Hope you found a ton of insights and you connected to this episode and you felt that it's very relevant to your life. I personally believe it's going to be relevant to every single human being, and it is relevant right now, as in our world there is more distraction, more stuff, more noise. So learning how to be picky and selective and how to do less that's actually the skill that I believe every single human being will need to master, and the practices to get there are things like meditation, self-reflection, to do less, to have more time for the important things. Well, that's it for today. Have an awesome week ahead. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes this week. Please do share this episode with at least one person, to talk about it, to share it, to teach each other and to help this podcast reach more curious ears. Talk to you soon, stay tuned, stay awesome and till next time.