Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less

by Greg Mckeown

The Essentialist

• From things you say yes, they a lot of things you say no

• Weniger ober bresser <-> less but better

• An essentialist asks himself, "Am I investing in the right activities?"

• There are far more activities and opportunities in the world than we have time and resources to invest.

• The way of the essentialist involves learning to tell the difference - learning to filter through all those options and selecting only those that are truly essential.

• Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it's about how to get the right things done.

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• The way of the Essentialist means living by design not by default

• The way of the essentialist is the path to being in control of our own choices "If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will"

• The paradox of success:

  • Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed in our endeavour.

  • Phase 2: When we have success, we gain a reputation as a "got to" person. We are presented with more options and opportunities.

  • Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, which is actually code for demand upon our time and energies, it leads to diffused efforts and we spread ourselves thinner and thinner

  • Phase 4: We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest levels of contribution.

• Curiously, overstating the point in order to make it the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure.

• Decision fatigue: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of decisions deteriorates.

Essence: What is the core mindset of an Essentialist

CHOOSE: The invincible power of choice

• We often think of choices as things, but a choice is not a thing. Our options are maybe things but a choice is an action.

• We have overemphasized the external aspect of choices (our options) and underemphasized our internal ability to choose (our actions) "The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away - it can only be forgotten"

• To become an essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose

• William James once wrote, "My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will"

• When we forget our ability to choose, we learn to be helpless

• The essentialist doesn't just recognize the power of choice he celebrates it.

DISCERN: The unimportance of practically everything

• Working hard is important but more effort does not necessarily yield more results. "Less but better" does

  • Pareto Principle: 20 percent of our efforts produce 80 percent of our results

  • Power law: certain efforts actually produce exponentially more results than others

• Essentialists take the time to explore all these options, these extra investments. It's justified because some things are so much more important than the effort invested in finding those things is tenfold

TRADE-OFFS: Which problem do I want?

• Straddling means keeping your existing strategy intact while simultaneously also trying to adopt the strategy of a competitor.

• A strategic position is not sustainable unless there are trade-offs with other positions

• The logic, which ignores the reality of trade-off is "I can do both"

• We can either make the hard choices for ourselves or allow others - whether our colleagues, our bosses, or our customers - to decide for us.

• We can try to avoid the reality of trade-offs but we can't escape them.

• A nonessentialist approaches every trade-off by asking "How can I do both?"

• Essentialists as the tougher but ultimately more liberating question, "Which problem do I want?"

• Essentialists see trade-offs as an intentional part of life, not as an intently negative part of life. Instead of asking, "What do I have to give up?" They ask, "What do I want to go big on?"

Explore: How can we discern the travel many from the vital few

"Without great solitude, no serious work is possible" Pablo Picasso

• it's critical to set aside time to take a breath, look around, and think. You need that level of clarity in order to innovate and grow

• Before you can evaluate what is and isn't essential, you first need to explore your options

• In order to have focus we need to escape to focus

• An essentialist focuses the way our eyes focus; not by fixating on something but by constantly adjusting and adapting to the field of vision

• The faster and busier things get, the more we need to build thinking time into our schedule. And the noisier things get, the more we need to build quiet reflection spaces in which we can truly focus.

LOOK: See what really matters

• Being a journalist in your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture.

• Discerning what is essential to explore requires us to be disciplined in how we scan and filter all the competing and conflicting facts, options, and opinions constantly vying for our attention

• Listen for what others do not hear

• Essentialists are powerful observes and listeners

• Knowing that the reality of trade-offs means they can't possibly pay attention to everything, they listen deliberately for what is not being explicitly stated. They read between the lines.

JOURNALING: Write less than you feel like writing

• Capture the headline

• Look for the lead in your day, your work, your life

• Small, incremental changes are hard to see in the moment but over time can have a huge cumulative effect

• Getting the essence of a story takes a deep understanding of the topic, its context, its fit into the bigger picture, and its relationship to be different fields

• The goal is to under the 'spiderweb' of the information because that is what allows you to spot any 'abnormal' or 'unusual' details or behaviour that didn't quite fit into the natural course of the information.

• Now which questions are answered?

PLAY: Embrace the wisdom of your child

• Play - anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as a means to an end

• Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability and creativity

• Play expands our minds in ways that allow us to explore: to generate new ideas or see old ideas in a new light. It makes us more inquisitive

• Play fuel exploration in at least three specific ways:

  • broadens the range of options available to us

    • opens our minds and broadens our perspective

  • is an antitode to stress, and this is key because stress, in addition to being an enemy of productivity, can actually shut down the creative, inquisitive, exploratory parts of the brain

  • has a positive effect on the executive function of the brain

• Play doesn't just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself

SLEEP: Protect the asset

• The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves

• We need to pace ourselves, nurture ourselves, give ourselves fuel to explore, thrive and perform

• The way of the nonessentialist is to see sleep as yet another burden on one's already overextended, overcommitted, busy but not always productive life

• Essentialists instead see sleep as necessary for operating at high levels of contribution more of the time

• Essentialists choose to do one fewer thing right now in order to do more tomorrow

• Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize

• Sleep will enhance your ability to explore, make connections, and do less but better throughout your waking hours

SELECT: The power of extreme criteria

"No more Yes. It either 'Hell Yeah' or 'No' " Derek Sivers

• 90 percent rule: if you rate something lower than 90 percent then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it.

• The benefits of this ultra-selective approach to decision making all areas of our lives should be clear: when our selection criteria are too broad, we will find ourselves committing to too many options.

• If it isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no

• The systemic process you can use to apply selection criteria to opportunities:

  1. Write down the opportunity

  2. Write down a list of three "minimum criteria" the options would need to "pass" in order to be considered

  3. Write down a list of three ideas of "extreme criteria" the options would need to "pass" in order to be considered

• Questions to ask before diving into career options:

  • What am I deeply passionate about?

  • What taps my talent?

  • What meets a significant need in the world?

ELIMINATE: How can we cut out the many

• Killer questions:

  • if I didn't already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?

  • If I didn't have this opportunity what would I be willing to archive it?

• Instead of asking, "What, of my list of competing priorities, should I say yes to?" instead ask the essential question, "What will say no to?"

CLARIFY: ONE DECISION THAT MAKES A THOUSAND

• The fact is, motivation and cooperation deteriorate when there is a lack of purpose.

• When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and works and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress and frustration

• When there is a high level of clarity, on the other hand, people thrive.

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• In the top left quadrant, we have vision/mission statements like, "We want to change the world." : that sound inspirational but are so general they almost entirely ignored

• In the bottom left quadrant, we have a set of vague, general values like "innovation" - but these are typly bland and generic to inspire any passion

• Bottom right: short-term quarterly objectives we pay attention to

• An essential intent, on the other hand, is both inspirational and concrete, both meaningful and measurable

DARE: THE POWER OF A GRATEFUL "NO"

• The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing

• A reason it's hard to choose what is essential in the moment is as simple as innate fear of social awkwardness

• We can say yes and regret it for days, weeks, months or even years

• The point is to say no to the nonessentials so we can say yes to the things that really matter

• How to say a graceful 'no':

  • Separate the decision from the relationship

  • Saying "No" gracefully doesn't have to mean using the word no

  • Focus on the trade-offs

  • Remind yourself that everyone is selling something

  • Make your peace with the fact that saying "No" often requires trading popularity for respect

  • Remember that a clear "No" can be more graceful than a vague or noncommital "Yes"

  • The "No" repertoire

UNCOMMIT: WIN BIG BY CUTTING YOUR LOSSES

• Sunk-cost bias: the tendency to continue to invest time money or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, as sunk a cost that cannot be recouped.

• Avoiding Commitment Traps:

  • Beware of the endowment effect

    • not valuing what's ours and overvaluing what is already ours

  • Pretend you don't own it yet

  • Get over the fear of waste

  • Instead, admit failure to begin success

  • Stop trying to force a fit

  • Get a neutral second opinion

  • Apply zero-based budgeting

  • Stop making casual commitments

  • From now on, pause before you speak

  • Get over the fear of missing out

  • To fight this fear, run a reverse plot

EDIT: THE INVISIBLE ART

• Clearly, editing - which involves the strict elimination of the trivial unimportant, or irrelevant - is an essentialist craft

• A good editor is someone who uses deliberate subtraction to actually ad life to the ideas, setting, plot and characters

• Good editing increases your ability to focus on and give energy to the things that really matter

• Editing life principles:

  • Cut out options

  • Condense

  • Correct

  • Edit Less

LIMIT: THE FREEDOM OF SETTING BOUNDARIES

• If you don't set boundaries - there won't be any

• When people make their problem our problem, we aren't helping them; we're enabling them

• Craft social contracts so you don't waste time saddling with people with burden some requests

EXECUTE: HOW CAN WE MAKE DOING THE VITAL FEW THINGS ALMOST EFFORTLESS?

• While nonessentialist tend to force execution, essentialists invest the time they have saved by eliminating the nonessentials into designing a system to make execution almost effortless

BUFFER: THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

• Buffer: something that prevents two things from coming into contact and harming each other

• The way of essentialist uses the good times to create a buffer for the bad

• Tips to keep your work - and sanity from swerving off the road:

  • use extreme preparation

    • Plot a calendar of all projects, assignments and events

  • Add 50 percent to your time estimates

  • Conduct scenario planning

    1. What risks do you face on this project?

    2. What is the worst-case scenario?

    3. What should be the social effects of this be?

    4. What would the financial impact of this be?

    5. How can you invest to reduce risks or strengthen financial or social resilience?

SUBTRACT: BRING FORTH MORE BY REMOVING OBSTACLES

"To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day" Lao-tzu

• By systematically identifying and removing this "constraint" you'll be able to significantly reduce the friction keeping you from executing what is essential.

• An essentialist produces more - brings forth more - by removing more instead of doing more

• How to subtract:

  • Be clear about the essential intent

  • Identify the "slowest hiker"

  • Remove the obstacle

PROGRESS: THE POWER OF SMALL WINS

• The biggest motivator is progress

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• What is the smallest amount of progress that will be useful and valuable to the essential task we are trying to get done

• You can start early and small or late and big

• Late and bug means doing it all last minute

• Early and small means starting at the earliest possible moment with minimal possible time investment

• When we start small and reward progress, we end up achieving more than when we set big, lofty and often impossible goals

FLOW: THE GENIUS OF ROUTINE

• The essentialist designs a routine that makes achieving what you have identified as essential the default position

• Essentialist still has to work hard but with the right routine in place each effort yields exponentially greater results

• If we create a routine that enshrines the essentials, we will begin to execute them on autopilot

• With repetition, the routine is mastered and the activity becomes second nature

• How we discard routines that keep us locked in nonessential things:

• Overhaul your triggers triggers

• Create new triggers

• Do the most difficult thing first

• Mix up routines

• Tackle your routines one by one

FOCUS: WHAT'S IMPORTANT NOW

• Losing means you lost focus, you didn't concentrate on what was essential

• To operate at your highest level of contribution requires that you deliberately tune in to what is important in the here in and now

• Being in the moment doesn't mean doing one task but focusing on the moment

• Multitasking itself is not the enemy of essentialism; pretending we can multi-focus is

• How to be in the now:

  • Figure out what is the most important right now

  • Get the future out of your head

  • Prioritize

"In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present" Lao Tzu

BE: THE ESSENTIALIST LIFE

• Essentialism is one more thing to add to your already overstuffed life

I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day;... so simplify the problem life, distinguish the necessary and the real ~ David Thoreau

• As this idea (Essentialism) becomes emotionally true, they take on the power to change you

• "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he"

If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness ~ Dalai Lama