Essentialism

There’s a lot of talk today about minimalism.

From the de-cluttering of Marie Kondo to the relentless emphasis on the Minimum Effective Dose by Tim Ferriss, many people are recognizing the truth that sometimes less is more.

Essentialism is right in line with this notion, but with the added emphasis on making sure you are improving things. The idea can be summed up in three words: less, but better.

I read the audio book on this one, which was a good choice because it is read by the author, Greg McKeown, and his English accent is delightful (I’m a sucker for most varieties of English accents).

I’ll admit though, this book is probably one that I will need to listen to again. It is incredibly simple to understand, but I can tell that it will take repeated exposure to these topics for them to really sink in and begin to transform my life.

I really believe that the stuff covered in the book has the power to be life changing if applied properly, but I think that applying it will be tricky business.

Seth Godin says that the better a book is, the more often you need to listen to it, and this one warrants further listening.

Here are the notes that I took:

• Essentialism is the the relentless pursuit of “less but better.”
• Many things in life are unnecessary. You need to endeavor to separate the vital few from the trivial many.
• Live by design, not by default.
• “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
• The undisciplined pursuit of “more” (which out culture is actively engaged in), can be a key reason for failure.
• Decision fatigue: the more decisions we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decision deteriorate.
• Peter Drucker says that we live in a time where the number of choices available to us has exceeded our ability to choose.
• In addition to information overload, we have opinion overload as we are able to be exposed to more points of view than ever before
• The word “priority” came into the English language in the 1400’s. It was singular. It stayed singular for 500 years. Only in the 1900’s did we start talking about “priorities” –plural.
• Without a disciplined approach, it’s hard for a non-essentialist to de-clutter their closet. They ask questions like “is there a chance that I might wear this someday in the future?” The essentialist asks more disciplined, tough questions such as “Do I love this?” “Do I look great in it?” “Do I wear it often?”
• Sunk cost bias: we value things that we own more than they are worth. A good question to ask in the example of de-cluttering is “if I didn’t already own this, how much would I pay to acquire it?”
• The cyclical process: explore, eliminate, execute.
• “What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measure of being important?”
• “We don’t always have control over our options, but we have control of how we choose among them.”
• Options can be taken away, but our ability to choose can’t be taken away, or even given away, it can only be forgotten.
• Warren Buffet got 90% of his wealth from 10 investments. He doesn’t trade as much as other investors, but his trades pay off big.
• “A non-essentialist thinks that almost everything is essential, and essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential.”
• Straddling: trying to keep your existing strategy while simultaneously mimicking that of a competitor. Instead of straddling, you should come up with a focused strategy that makes conscious trade-offs.
• Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. They do this to separate the trivial many from the vital few.
• “A non-essentialist is too busy doing to think about life. An essentialist creates space to think and explore life.”
• When was the last time you set aside distraction-free time in a distraction-free place just to think?
• During your distraction-free thinking time, he recommends you start with reading 20 minutes of classic literature. Anything that was written before our hyper-connected era that seems timeless.
• “The faintest pencil is better than the strongest memory.”
• His tip for developing a journaling habit: write less than you want to until the habit is solidly in place
• “Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement.” -Sir Ken Robinson
• His definition of play: anything that we do for the joy of doing it and not as a means to an end.
• Stuart Brown, the founder of the national institute for play, has concluded that play has the power to improve everything, from personal health to relationships to education. Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity. As e says: “Nothing fires up the brain like play.”
• “A non-essentialst thinks play is trivial. An essentialist knows play essential.”
• “The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we invest in ourselves –and by that I mean our minds, our bodies, and our spirits– we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contribution.”
• “Our highest priority is our ability to prioritize.”
• Apply tougher criteria. First come up with a list of three minimum criteria, then a list of three extreme criteria. If an option doesn’t meet all three minimum criteria and 2 of 3 extreme criteria, eliminate it.
• As yourself when considering pursuing an opportunity: If I didn’t have this opportunity, what would I do to acquire it?
• Clarity about what is essential fuels us to say “no” to the non-essentials
• The thought of saying “no” (to anything) brings us physical discomfort. The only thing we can to is to give a firm “no” with no justifications.
• “Essentialists choose ‘no’ more often than they say ‘no.'”
• Saying “no” usually involves trading popularity for respect.
• When we push back effectively, it shows that our time is valuable.
• One good way to give a partial “no”: “I can do X, but not Y.”
• As the old saying goes: “no one ever washes a rental car.” We value the things that we own more highly than if they didn’t belong to us. This applies to activities as well as belongings. If you own a project, it becomes harder to quit.
• Don’t ask “how much do I value this thing/project?” ask “if I didn’t own it, how much would I pay for it?” “If I weren’t on this project, how hard would I work to get on it?”
• “Admit failure to begin success.”
• “There should be no shame is admitting to a mistake. After all, we are really only admitting that we are now wiser than we once were.”
• The status quo bias: the tendency to do what you’ve always done.
• The non-essentialists think that you improve something by adding. The essentialist thinks that taking something away is the way to improve something.
• “A non-essentialist sees boundaries as constraining. An essentialist sees boundaries as liberating.”
• An essentialist should practice extreme and early preparation, creating a buffer between themselves and unforeseen events. Use good times to create a buffer for bad times.
• Add a 50% buffer for projects when forecasting how long something will take. If it will take you 10 minutes to get to a meeting, leave 15 minutes before it starts.
• You can’t prepare for every eventuality. Buffers reduce the friction of an adverse event.
• “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.” -Lao Tzu
• Identify constraints: he talks about a scout leader who looks like he isn’t going to be able to get his troop somewhere on time. They keep needing to turn back for the slowest kid s who are falling behind. He puts the slowest kids at the front to keep the group together, but now the whole group is constrained by the slowest boy. He empties the slowest boy’s pack and distributes it to everyone else. The slowest boy gets faster and as a result, the group gets faster and makes it on time.
• “A non-essentialist does more. An essentialist brings forth more.”
• “Research has shown that of all forms of human motivation, the most effective one is progress. Why? Because a small, concrete win creates momentum and affirms our faith in our further success.”
• In the 1968 Harvard Business Review article “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Frederick Herzberg shows shows research revealing that the two primary motivators for people are achievement, and recognition for achievement.
• Focus on minimum viable progress: what is the smallest amount of progress that will be useful for the essential task that I am working on?
• You can eiether start early and small, or late and big. Late and big is procrastination.
• It’s a good idea to visually reward progress (think of the big thermometer that shows progress toward a fundraising goal)
• “Routine in an intelligent man is a sign of ambition.” -W.H. Auden
• Michael Phelps had a pre-race routine that started the night before. He would visualize the perfect race at night and then in the morning he would get to the facility 2 hours before the event and do the same warm-us and rituals and  listen to the same music. By the time the actually race came along, it was just the next step in a to-do list that had been executed flawlessly to that point.
• Nearly 40% of our choices are deeply unconscious
• Focus on the hardest thing first.
• The “WIN” acronym: What’s Important Now?
• There is a difference between being beaten and losing. When you are beaten, they were better. When you lose, it’s because you lost focus.
• The Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Cronos is  quantitative, kairos is qualitative. Kairos is about opportunity; living in the moment.
• We can do two things at the same time, but we can’t concentrate on two things at the same time. The problem isn’t thinking that we can multi-task, but that we can multi-focus.
• Until you know what is most important right now, the most important thing is thinking about what the most important thing is.

You can get the book here: