Essentialism

When you are more selective about what is essential in your life, Essentialism empowers you to regain control over how you make decisions and use your time, energy, and attention.

“Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone,” you can live by Essentialism.

The Essentialist lives to pursue “less but better.” get the right things done as opposed to getting more things done.

• Too Many Choices: diminishes our ability to make quality decisions.
• Too Much Social Pressure: overloads us with too much information.
• Idea That “You Can Do It All:” means that nothing is a priority.

The Mindset to have:

• I choose to
• only a few things really matter
• I can do anything but not everything

Hard meaningful work, getting organized effort does not necessarily correlate to more results. “Less but better does.”

• Nonessentialist: “It’s all important.” – thinks that almost everything is essential; views opportunities equally

• Essentialist: “It’s all mostly unimportant.”  – thinks that almost everything is nonessential; distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many

• Nonessentialist: “I can do it all.” – believes they can do it all without having trade-offs

• Essentialist: “What can I go big on?” – asks about trade-offs and where to focus efforts

How to discern(find) vital few among trivial many?

Explore many options at first to ensure you commit to the vital few things later.

• Escape: have at least 10 minutes of self-reflection and mindfulness
• keep a journal and reflect on yourself
• fully immerse yourself in that field
• Sleep is a priority that results in much more productivity. Have a specific sleeping routine and sleep 8 hours a day. try to go to sleep and wake up at same time.
• “if it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”

How to cut out trivial many?

• Individuals focus on the trivial many, fail to achieve their mission, and experience stress, confusion, and frustration.

Essential Intent – one decision that eliminates a thousand later decisions that are:

• Essential: If we could be truly excellent at only one thing, what would it be?
• Inspirational: How will we know when we have succeeded?
• Intentional: Does it guide your greater sense of purpose?

Learn to “say no firmly, resolutely, and yet gracefully."

These guidelines can help you say “No” gracefully:

• Differentiate the Decision from your relationship with the other person.
• Communicate “No” Nonverbally by refusing someone clearly and politely.
• Focus on the Trade-off, or the opportunity cost you are giving up when you say yes.
• Remember that Everyone is Selling an idea, perspective, or opinion for your time.
• Value Long-Term Respect as saying “no” often causes short-term popularity loss.
• Use Clear “No’s” to be more graceful than using a vague or noncommittal “Yes.”

“No” Repertoire: Here are eight tactics to further help you say “no” with grace:

1. The awkward pause – Count to three before delivering your response or wait for them.
2. Say, “Let me check my calendar and get back to you.” – Pause to check availability.
3. Use email bouncebacks – Sets expectations for your absence or unresponsiveness.
4. Say, “Yes, what should I deprioritize? – Makes your leadership aware of the trade-off.
5. Say it with humor – Defuses the situation and disarms the other with laughter.
6. Say, “You are welcome to X. I am willing to Y.” – Give some support to their request.
7. “I can’t do it, but X might be interested.” – Direct them to someone who can help.

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, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recouped”

“To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day.”

Apply these four simple principles to edit the nonessentials out of your life:

• Cut: Remove the options or activities that get in the way, even if they seem reasonable.
• Condense: Do more with less to shift the ratio of your activity to be more meaningful.
• Correct: Make course corrections to revert activity or behavior back to our purpose.
• Edit Less: Have the discipline not to change everything and leave certain things be.

Set Boundaries from other people’s agenda:

• Avoid Solving their Issues as you become an enabler and prevent them from solving.
• Boundaries Provide Freedom in terms of clear limits and options for you and others.
• Find Your Dealbreakers or the requests or activities that you will refuse to say yes to.
• Craft Social Contracts or an agreement outlining your goals, priorities, and boundaries.

How to invest time on essentials?

Account for unexpected outcomes; prepare for the execution Use these tips to help you create a buffer to stay focused:

• Use Good Times to save resources and prepare for the eventual bad times.

• Use Extreme Preparation for the most extreme and challenging scenarios.

• Add 50% to Your Time Estimate as we tend to underestimate how long a task takes.

• Focus on Minimal Viable Progress: Remember that “done is better than perfect.”

• Visually Reward Progress: Create a tracker, as seeing progression is powerful.

• “Eat That Frog” (book summary): Do the most challenging task first thing in the morning.

• Mix Up Your Routines: Avoid routine fatigue by changing routines on different days.

• Tackle Routines One-by-One: Focus on one desired habit until it becomes automatic.

• Nonessentialist – worries about the future or stresses about the past

• Essentialist – focuses on the present and enjoys the moment

Many think they can multi-focus; however, you can’t “concentrate on two things at the same time.” Instead, you should be present with one thing at a time.

• Pause to Prioritize: When overwhelmed, step back to determine what is the most important task at that moment.
• Get It Out of Your Head: When stuck in the future, write down the ideas in your head to clear your mind to focus on the current task.
• Prioritize: Using your list, determine what is most essential and work until it’s done.