Essentialism

Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

Live by design, not by default.

The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away—It can only be forgotten.The Essentialist knows that when we surrender our right to choose, we give others not just the power but also the explicit permission to choose for us.

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs. It’s about deliberately choosing to be different.

Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life.

To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.

The 90% Rule: “As you evaluate an option, think about the single most important criterion for that decision, and then simply give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it any lower than 90, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it.”

An essentialist has the courage and confidence to admit his or her mistakes and uncommon, no matter the sunk costs.

The life of an Essentialist is a life lived without regret. If you have correctly identified what really matters, if you invest your time and energy in it, then it is difficult to regret the choices you make. You become proud of the life you have chosen to live.

Today Essentialism is not just something I do. An Essentialist is something I am steadily becoming. At first it was a few deliberate choices, then it grew into a lifestyle, and then it changed me, at my very core. I continue to discover almost daily that I can do less and less—in order to contribute more.

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

Instead of spending our limited supply of discipline on making the same decisions again and again, embedding our decisions into our routine allows us to channel that discipline toward some other essential activity.

If we create a routine that enshrines the essentials, we will begin to execute them on autopilot. Instead of consciously pursuing the essential, it will happen without our having to think about it.

Routine is one of the most powerful tools for removing obstacles.

A small, concrete win creates momentum and affirms our faith in our further success.

The nonessentials is always reacting to crises rather than anticipating them, he is forced to apply quick-fix solutions: the equivalent to plugging his finger into the hole of a leaking dam and hoping the whole things doesn’t burst.

If you don’t set boundaries—there won’t be any. Or even worse, there will be boundaries, but they’ll be set by default—or by another person—instead of by design.

What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?

Essentialism is a discipline, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done…it is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

People respect and admire those with the courage of conviction to say no.

The only thing we can expect (with any great certainty) is the unexpected. Therefore, we can either wait for the moment and react to it or we can prepare.

When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people—our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families—will choose for us.

Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

We can choose how to spend our energy and time. Without choice, there is no point in talking about trade-offs.

Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.

The way of the Essentialist is different. Instead of trying to accomplish it all—and all at once—and flaring out, the Essentialist starts small and celebrates progress.

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

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

The only way out of this trap is to learn to say no firmly, resolutely, and yet gracefully.

A clear 'no' can be more graceful than a vague or noncommittal 'yes'.

Essentialism is not a way to do one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything.

The pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure.

When we push back effectively, it shows people that our time is highly valuable.

When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people will choose for us.

You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.

By refusing to make trade-offs, she ended up spreading five projects’ worth of time and effort across seventeen projects.

If the opportunity doesn’t pass the first set of criteria, the answer is obviously no.

If the answer isn’t a definite yes then it should be a no.

We can’t have it all or do it all. If we could, there would be no reason to evaluate or eliminate options.

Every second spent worrying about a past or future moment distracts us from what is important in the here and now.

Multitasking itself is not the enemy of Essentialism; pretending we can 'multi focus' is.

Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will. But if you are determined to prioritize your own life you can. The power is yours. It is within you.

We need space to escape in order to discern the essential few from the trivial many.

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

Protect the asset.

One hour more of sleep equals several more hours of much higher productivity.

An Essentialist, on the other hand, is ridiculously selective on talent.

A clear ‘no’ can be more graceful than a vague or noncommittal ‘yes’.

Condensing means saying it as clearly and concisely as possible.

An editor’s job is not just to cut or condense but also to make something right.

The best managers prune as well as plant.

Recognizing and abandoning sunk costs can prevent further losses.

To get big results we must start small. So start with one change in your daily or weekly routine and then build on your progress from there.

Success can lead to more opportunities and more demands, which leads to diffused effort. Diffused effort undermines the very clarity that led to success in the first place.

Essentialists don’t default to Band-Aid solutions. Instead of looking for the most obvious or immediate obstacles, they look for the ones slowing down progress. They ask, ‘What is getting in the way of achieving what is essential?’…the Essentialist simply makes a one-time investment in removing obstacles.