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Preload has nothing to do with the hardness or softness of the spring, you'll need a lighter spring or less damping for a softer ride.
What bike and what rear shock do you have?
You can't soften a spring, they only come in set weights. Twiggy riders need a light weight spring, fat feckers need a heavier spring. Fine for racing, but for most road bikes that have to deal with every weight of rider, plus any luggage and maybe a pillion, most springs will do an adequate job for whoever rides the bike. Damping is way more important to handling and comfort.
Very basically, preload adjusts the height the bike sits above the ground. More preload and the bike will sit further from the ground, less preload and the bike will sit nearer the ground.
Don't worry too much about static sag if that's what you're trying to adjust, that's fairly irrelevant for road riding. Rider sag is the more important one. That's the difference in the bike's height between having no one on it, and you being sat on it.
As a rough guide that's fine for any road riding you're likely to do, with you sat on the bike your suspension (front AND rear) should be using up about 1/3 of it's total travel.
So if you have 100mm of total travel in your front forks (from the front wheel off the ground hanging in the air to the suspension being as squashed as it will go) with you sat on the bike your suspension should give by 33mm. Does that make sense?
Twist of the wrist is a bit technical to get the basics from. There's a better book I can't remember the name of ATM, I'll have a look tomorrow.
As I say, rider sag only needs to be approximate, static sag is pretty irrelevant for a road bike, damping adjustability is the thing that makes a real difference... if your bike has it. Many road bikes aren't adjustable for this.