The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.
Animated Summary by Productivity Game & OnePercentBetter
Key Takeaways
The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.
It is not a time management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.
By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy—instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
"Success can distract us from focusing on the essential things that produce success in the first place."
The Way of the Essentialist
Less But Better less stuff can give you easier choices and make your day more successful. Look at the end result: what do you want the result to be? Define for yourself, what is better? Your end result should always be your priority.
What are your BIG 3? What are your priorities/values in life? Simplify your life down to 3 essentials. You don’t have to cut up your time into equal sections, but what you need to do is put the most time & effort into whats most important to you.
Learned Helplessness being conditioned in a negative way which causes us to lose sight of our ability to choose.
Evaluate the Trade-offs We first need to realize that we aren’t helpless and we have a choice. To realize that we have the ability to choose, we need to recognize the trade-off inherent to every situation.
We quickly get into the trap of making default decisions which are typically short-term comfort for long-term dissatisfaction. We say yes just because it’s an easy reward, but we run the risk of having to later say no to a more meaningful one.
We can either say no and regret it for a few minutes or we can say yes and regret it for days, weeks, months or even years.
Hell yes or no approach We are presented with hundreds of options a day. Essentialists look at those options and ask themselves “What trade-offs am I willing to make?” What problem do I want to solve? How does this benefit you?
You want to make sure everything you say yes to has a positive effect to your priorities and on your goals in life. If it doesn’t, say no. If you want to be highly disciplined and take on less, but do more, you need to say no to the majority of things and yes to only a few.
On a scale of 1-10, there are many things that come in at a 7 or 8 and are good opportunities that we hate to let pass, but we need to adopt what Derek Sivers says a hell yes or a no approach. We need to learn the art of letting go to 7s or 8s to only do 9s and 10s.
You can use this method for anything. Only consider the highest grade values. This helps make sure you only acquire what you need, not what you want. (90-10 Model)
"For every 100 great opportunities that are brought to me, I say no to 99 of them."
New Perspective on “No” In learning to see No in a new way, I first need to realize that when I’m saying no to someone, I’m saying no to the request. We commonly associate the rejection of the request to mean the rejection of that person.
Realize that saying no doesn’t have to damage the relationship. It could actually strengthen it if you come across in a sincere way and able to articulate your priorities and conviction maintaining them. People respect and may even be inspired by that.
- Keep a Journal be diligent about keeping a journal will help you gain perspective, notice patterns and see what really matters day to day.
- The Art of the Awkward Pause if you are about to instinctively say yes to a request just pause for a little bit longer, 3-4 seconds. This helps let the person know that you are seriously considering it and also gives you time to think of the trade-offs that you’re going to make by saying yes.
Protect the Habits
1. Protect the Essential
Priorities Remain Priorities. We need to make space in our day to strengthen our ability to be selective and recognize the trade-offs. We need to reserve time to think. We need space in our day to differentiate between the options that we have. It’s a time where you think strategically how you are approaching your life.
2. Protect Playtime
A study of over 6,000 people showed that play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity. Nothing fires up the brain like play. (interactions, games, activities, sports etc)
"Play helps us to see possibilities we otherwise wouldn't have seen and make connections we otherwise would not have made. It opens our minds and broadens our perspective. It helps us challenge old assumptions and makes us more receptive to untested ideas."
3. Protect Sleeptime
Sleep affects our judgment and awareness. The less sleep we get the more non-essential things are able to creep into our lives. With quality sleep, your awareness of choice dramatically goes up.
"Every major mistake that I have made has happened as a result of sleep deprivation."
Live life by design, not by default. You want to design your life around your priorities and goals, not around what other people expect from you.
Two types of people in this world:
1. Type that is always running, struggling and trying to get stuff done for other people
2. The type that create their life by design. They know their goals and priorities and work from there.
Make tough trade-offs and actively prune out what’s non-essential to make room for the essential.
Video by Better Than Yesterday
Key Takeaways
In today’s world, being busy is the new norm. We have a ton of projects we would like to do, and whenever something new comes up, we try to fit it in our already overflowing schedules. We believe that if we just work more and work harder, we can do it all.
However, being busy doesn’t mean we’re actually doing things that are important. The truth is that most things that we do, aren’t important at all, but instead are completely trivial. The antidote to this overwhelming busyness is essentialism.
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 time and energy, to get your desired results.
First we need to understand that our lives are filled with trade-offs. When we say “Yes” to any opportunity, we unknowingly say “No” to several others.
- For example, if my colleague asks me to go out with him for a few drinks and I say “Yes”, I’m saying actually “No” to a dozen other things I could spend my time on. Like building my own business, exercising at the gym or reading a book.
- Likewise, if I say “No” to my friend’s request, I’m saying “Yes” to other things. The preferred answer would be “Yes” to reading a book, and “Yes” to going out with my friend. Obviously I would love to do both of those things. But as much as I’d like to, I can’t do everything. None of us can.
Instead we have to choose what we’re going to spend our time on. That’s the reality of trade-offs. And when we don’t deliberately choose where to focus our energy and time; our friends, bosses or family, will choose for us.
This is why we need to stop saying “Yes” to everything and everyone. Instead, we should learn to say “No” to the requests that we know will take away our time from the things that are actually important.
Saying “No” to requests can be difficult. You might feel guilty. You don’t want to let someone down and you’re worried about damaging the relationship with that person.
However, how many times did you regret saying “Yes” to a request, when you really wanted to say “No”? Saying “No”, might sting in the moment, but it’s better than saying “Yes” and regretting it afterwards.
There are so many times I wish I would have denied certain requests. The only reason I didn’t, is because I wanted to please the other person. But what happened is, I ended up despising them, because I felt like they were wasting my time and energy
However, the fault is mine for saying “Yes” in the first place, when I knew the answer should have been a firm “No”. But at least now I realize that if I don’t prioritize my own life, someone else will.
Now whenever a new opportunity comes my way, I always pause and think about all the things I would be saying “No” to, if I accept the request. If it’s not worth the trade-off, then I’ll refuse it.
Of course, you shouldn’t deny all requests you get. The point is to say “No” to the things that are non-essential, so we can say “Yes” to the things that actually matter to us. And the fact is that most things don’t matter.
The Pareto's 80/20 principle
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Pareto’s 80/20 principle before. The principle states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts. And the remaining 20% of results, come from 80% of our efforts.
So it makes sense to identify which 20% of actions will give us the 80% of results we want.
However, many capable people are kept from getting to the next level, because they can’t let go of this belief that everything is important. So they waste 80% of their time chasing the remaining 20% of results.
Because of that, they don’t even have the time to stop and identify which 20% will give them the 80%. It’s almost like a loop. They don’t have the time, to figure out how they could stop wasting time.
Don’t get me wrong, working hard is important. But working hard on the wrong things is a waste of time and energy, therefore should be avoided. That’s why, what you don’t do, is just as important as what you do. More effort does not get you more results. Working on the right things does.
An essentalist will allow himself to think and identify what’s vital and what’s trivial to his goals. He will then eliminate and avoid the trivial things, so he can have more time and energy for things that are important to him.
Evaluate The Trade-Offs
However applying the 80/20 principle is not something you do just once. It’s an ongoing process. You see, when you’re making massive progress and you’re getting tons of success, more and more opportunities will come your way.
More people will want to partner with you, more clients will want to work with you. This might sound like a good problem to have. This is what you would want after all, right? But this newfound success can become a catalyst for failure.
There’s nothing wrong with pursuing new opportunities. Unless of course, you start taking on projects that are not important, but are trivial. They start taking up more and more of your time, and the essential things, those that got you your success in the first place, fall by the side.
That’s the paradox of success. This is why you need to identify what’s important and what’s not, regularly. And you need to make deliberate trade-offs.
Non-essentialists might think that they don’t have to make trade-offs. But they soon find out that there isn’t enough time in their day to pursue all of their new options. And then they try to carve out more time, by cutting their most essential asset: sleep.
Non-essentialists say: “Yeah I only sleep for 5 hours every night.” like it’s a badge of honor. They try to convince themselves and others, that they’re productive and important, because they only have time to sleep 5 hours a night. But this is a fool’s bargain.
While this might result into more time spent awake, they end up with less energy and are not as productive. Getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night, results into the same mental capacity as being legally drunk.
Basically they’re making the same poor decisions, like a drunk person would. And I don’t think anyone would idolize some drunk in their office. Yet for some reason we idolize not sleeping enough.
This attempt at trying to create more time, results into cutting out the essentials things. And that of course, leads to failure.
That’s why essentialists take their time to identify, over and over, which opportunities are worth their time. Then they make the deliberate trade-offs and say “No” to the things that don’t matter. And they make sure to never sacrifice what’s important to them.
Not adapting an essentialist mindset will keep you away from what you want out of life. The fact is, you simply don’t have enough time and energy to waste it on things that are not important. And if you don’t prioritize your own life, someone else will.