# The Book in a Few Sentences "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" is a book written by Greg McKeown, which explores the philosophy of essentialism as an approach to dealing with information overload and the constant demand for our attention in both personal and professional life. Essentialism encourages people to focus on the things that are truly important to them, eliminating noise and distractions. The book presents several strategies and principles for embracing essentialism in different areas of life, in addition to offering practical advice for identifying essential activities, eliminating distractions and establishing healthy boundaries and routines. According to the author, by adopting essentialism we can achieve greater mental clarity, increase productivity and obtain a greater sense of accomplishment. By focusing only on the essential things, we can live a more meaningful life, with less stress and regrets. And according to him, this is the life that is truly worth living. # How This Book Changed Me I reread this book in English in mid-2023 while I was going through a turbulent period in which several activities demanded my attention at the same time that I wanted to add more activities to my daily life. Something that became clear to me is that it is impossible to achieve everything we want. Therefore, it is necessary to learn to prioritize the activities that are truly important to achieve our main objective (note here the focus on only one objective/goal). Therefore, this book made me reflect on my daily life and on which activities are important. I still have a lot to learn about this, but now I have a good structure to analyze my options carefully to make a more assertive decision. # Notes - [[Caminho do essencialista]] - [[Paradoxo do sucesso]] - [[Por que o não-essencialismo está em todo lugar]] - [[3 estágios do essencialismo]] - [[Core Mindset of an Essentialist]] - [[Essencialistas exploram mais opções]] - [[3 premissas erradas sobre nossas atividades]] - [[Possibilidades são diferentes de escolhas]] - [[Poucas coisas são importantes na vida]] - [[Não podemos ter tudo]] - [[Brincar é fundamental]] - [[Convicção nas tarefas é fundamental]] - [[Critérios seletivos explícitos]] - [[Falta de clareza pode ter duas razões]] - [[Criar uma intenção essencial]] - [[Viés de custo irrecuperável]] - [[Definir limites é importante]] # My 3 Favorite Highlights - The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn’t mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way. . - Look for the lead in your day, your week, your life. Small, incremental changes are difficult to see in the moment but over time can have a huge cumulative effect. - It is mind-bending to consider that in practical terms we only ever have now. We can't control the future in a literal sense, just the now. Of course, we learn from the past and can imagine the future. Yet only in the here and now can we actually execute on the things that really matter. # Highlights (232) --- “Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?” If he couldn’t answer a definitive yes, then he would refuse the request. — Page: 5 ^ref-43012 --- Instead of making just a millimeter of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the things that were truly vital. — Page: 6 ^ref-53869 --- the basic value proposition of 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. — Page: 6 ^ref-22360 --- Now let me ask you this: Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilized? Have you ever found yourself majoring in minor activities? Do you ever feel busy but not productive? Like you’re always in motion, but never getting anywhere? If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the way of the Essentialist. — Page: 6 ^ref-12125 This is the value proposition of the book --- The English translation is: Less but better. A more fitting definition of Essentialism would be hard to come by. — Page: 7 ^ref-42056 --- The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn’t mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way. — Page: 7 ^ref-29590 --- 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. — Page: 8 ^ref-14002 --- Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. 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. — Page: 8 ^ref-6256 --- The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead it requires us to grapple with real trade-offs and make tough decisions. — Page: 8 ^ref-56149 --- The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. — Page: 8 ^ref-11331 --- He seemed to find a new obsession every day, sometimes every hour. And in the process, he lost his ability to discern the vital few from the trivial many. — Page: 12 ^ref-45301 Sometimes I look like this --- It leads to what I call “the paradox of success,”2 which can be summed up in four predictable phases: PHASE 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavor. PHASE 2: When we have success, we gain a reputation as a “go to” person. We become “good old [insert name],” who is always there when you need him, and we are presented with increased options and opportunities. PHASE 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, which is actually code for demands upon our time and energies, it leads to diffused efforts. We get spread thinner and thinner. PHASE 4: We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place. — Page: 12 ^ref-1297 --- Why Nonessentialism Is Everywhere Several trends have combined to create a perfect Nonessentialist storm. Consider the following. — Page: 13 ^ref-25964 --- TOO MANY CHOICES We have all observed the exponential increase in choices over the last decade. Yet even in the midst of it, and perhaps because of it, we have lost sight of the most important ones. — Page: 13 ^ref-30921 --- Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates. — Page: 14 ^ref-4215 --- TOO MUCH SOCIAL PRESSURE — Page: 14 ^ref-31324 --- While much has been said and written about how hyperconnected we now are and how distracting this information overload can be, the larger issue is how our connectedness has increased the strength of social pressure. — Page: 14 ^ref-45081 --- THE IDEA THAT “YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL” — Page: 14 ^ref-2234 --- What is new is how especially damaging this myth is today, in a time when choice and expectations have increased exponentially. It results in stressed people trying to cram yet more activities into their already overscheduled lives. — Page: 14 ^ref-54213 --- But when we try to do it all and have it all, we find ourselves making trade-offs at the margins that we would never take on as our intentional strategy. — Page: 15 ^ref-3980 --- This requires, not just haphazardly saying no, but purposefully, deliberately, and strategically eliminating the nonessentials, and not just getting rid of the obvious time wasters, but cutting out some really good opportunities as well. — Page: 15 ^ref-61040 --- You can think of this book doing for your life and career what a professional organizer can do for your closet. — Page: 15 ^ref-28615 That is a bold statement --- Here’s how an Essentialist would approach that closet. — Page: 16 ^ref-12575 --- 1. EXPLORE AND EVALUATE Instead of asking, “Is there a chance I will wear this someday in the future?” you ask more disciplined, tough questions: “Do I love this?” and “Do I look great in it?” and “Do I wear this often?” If the answer is no, then you know it is a candidate for elimination. — Page: 16 ^ref-14433 --- In your personal or professional life, the equivalent of asking yourself which clothes you love is asking yourself, “Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution toward my — Page: 16 ^ref-40732 --- 1. ELIMINATE — Page: 16 ^ref-14652 --- After all, there is still a feeling of sunk-cost bias: studies have found that we tend to value things we already own more highly than they are worth and thus that we find them more difficult to get rid of. — Page: 17 ^ref-9363 --- In other words, it’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution; you still have to actively eliminate those that do not. — Page: 17 ^ref-25457 --- 1. EXECUTE — Page: 17 ^ref-28791 --- In other words, once you’ve figured out which activities and efforts to keep—the ones that make your highest level of contribution—you need a system to make executing your intentions as effortless as possible. — Page: 17 ^ref-57996 --- Essentialism is about creating a system for handling the closet of our lives. — Page: 18 ^ref-16586 --- It is a discipline you apply each and every time you are faced with a decision about whether to say yes or whether to politely decline. — Page: 18 ^ref-357 --- It’s about learning how to do less but better so you can achieve the highest possible return on every precious moment of your life. — Page: 18 ^ref-12604 --- It will teach you a method for being more efficient, productive, and effective in both personal and professional realms. — Page: 18 ^ref-47956 --- It will teach you a systematic way to discern what is important, eliminate what is not, and make doing the essential as effortless as possible. — Page: 18 ^ref-43180 --- ESSENCE: WHAT IS THE CORE MIND-SET OF AN ESSENTIALIST? — Page: 18 ^ref-457 --- 1. Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time. Without choice, there is no point in talking about trade-offs. 2. The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important. Because some things are so much more important, the effort in finding those things is worth it. 3. The reality of trade-offs: We can’t have it all or do it all. If we could, there would be no reason to evaluate or eliminate options. Once we accept the reality of trade-offs we stop asking, “How can I make it all work?” and start asking the more honest question “Which problem do I want to solve?” — Page: 19 ^ref-52683 --- That method consists of the following three simple steps. — Page: 19 ^ref-24483 --- STEP 1. EXPLORE: DISCERNING THE TRIVIAL MANY FROM THE VITAL FEW — Page: 19 ^ref-57881 --- One paradox of Essentialism is that Essentialists actually explore more options than their Nonessentialist counterparts. — Page: 19 ^ref-11964 --- Essentialists systematically explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any. — Page: 19 ^ref-3438 --- Instead, we can conduct an advanced search and ask three questions: “What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?” — Page: 20 ^ref-21977 --- We are looking for our highest level of contribution: the right thing the right way at the right time. — Page: 20 ^ref-21366 --- STEP 2. ELIMINATE: CUTTING OUT THE TRIVIAL MANY — Page: 20 ^ref-31814 --- So eliminating the nonessentials isn’t just about mental discipline. It’s about the emotional discipline necessary to say no to social pressure. — Page: 20 ^ref-24786 --- STEP 3. EXECUTE: REMOVING OBSTACLES AND MAKING EXECUTION EFFORTLESS — Page: 21 ^ref-2885 --- Instead of forcing execution, Essentialists invest the time they have saved into creating a system for removing obstacles and making execution as easy as possible. — Page: 21 ^ref-27721 --- As a quote attributed to Victor Hugo, the French dramatist and novelist, puts it, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” — Page: 21 ^ref-49978 This is a powerful quote that can be linked to the one that sys about the danger of an idea --- What if society encouraged us to reject what has been accurately described as doing things we detest, to buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like? — Page: 22 ^ref-32479 --- As poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” — Page: 23 ^ref-64776 --- Just imagine what would happen to our world if every person on the planet eliminated one good but nonessential activity and replaced it with something truly essential. — Page: 23 ^ref-2031 --- Essentialism is not a way to do one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything. — Page: 24 ^ref-37547 --- There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: “I have to,” “It’s all important,” and “I can do both.” — Page: 24 ^ref-31904 --- To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.” — Page: 24 ^ref-19131 --- We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action. — Page: 27 ^ref-14215 --- For too long, we have overemphasized the external aspect of choices (our options) and underemphasized our internal ability to choose (our actions). This is more than semantics. Think about it this way. Options (things) can be taken away, while our core ability to choose (free will) cannot be. — Page: 27 ^ref-12426 --- But the dogs that had been powerless in the last part of the experiment did not. These dogs didn’t adapt or adjust. They did nothing to try to avoid getting shocked. Why? They didn’t know they had any choice other than to take the shocks. They had learned helplessness. — Page: 28 ^ref-38183 --- I’ll be the first to admit that choices are hard. By definition they involve saying no to something or several somethings, and that can feel like a loss. — Page: 29 ^ref-54604 --- Yet choice is at the very core of what it means to be an Essentialist. — Page: 29 ^ref-62000 --- That is why the first and most crucial skill you will learn on this journey is to develop your ability to choose choice, in every area of your life. — Page: 29 ^ref-43319 --- The Essentialist doesn’t just recognize the power of choice, he celebrates it. 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. — Page: 30 ^ref-2368 --- Is there a point at which doing less (but thinking more) will actually produce better outcomes? — Page: 30 ^ref-16410 --- certain types of effort yield higher rewards than others. — Page: 31 ^ref-27007 --- It would have been easy to think of the jobs in terms of that ratio between time and reward. But I knew what really counted was the relationship between time and results. — Page: 31 ^ref-48963 --- Most people have heard of the “Pareto Principle,” the idea, introduced as far back as the 1790s by Vilfredo Pareto, that 20 percent of our efforts produce 80 percent of results. — Page: 32 ^ref-15391 --- Distinguishing the “trivial many” from the “vital few” can be applied to every kind of human endeavor large or small — Page: 33 ^ref-65423 --- According to the power law theory, certain efforts actually produce exponentially more results than others. — Page: 33 ^ref-60381 --- The overwhelming reality is: we live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. — Page: 34 ^ref-45113 --- Once we understand this, we start scanning our environment for those vital few and eagerly eliminate the trivial many. — Page: 34 ^ref-40750 --- Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important. — Page: 34 ^ref-34404 --- These trade-offs weren’t made by default but by design. Each and every one was made as part of a deliberate strategy to keep costs down. — Page: 36 ^ref-12765 Sometimes setting an especific characteristuc to a product is important --- In the simplest terms, straddling means keeping your existing strategy intact while simultaneously also trying to adopt the strategy of a competitor. — Page: 36 ^ref-18647 --- Their logic, which ignores the reality of trade-offs, is I can do both. The rather important problem is that this logic is false. — Page: 37 ^ref-54680 --- As a result, Johnson & Johnson swiftly decided to recall all Tylenol, even though it would have a massive impact (to the tune of $100 million, according to some reports) on their bottom line. The safety of customers or $100 million? Not an easy decision. But the Credo enabled a clearer sense of what was most essential. It enabled the tough trade-off to be made. — Page: 39 ^ref-22637 This semns like a easy choice once you put in the table that in tge end it is the costuner whobpays your bills. The damage would be huge if gheg did not act and there is probably a legislation that states that the medication should stop been sold while investigations happen --- It is easy to see why it’s so tempting to deny the reality of trade-offs. After all, by definition, a trade-off involves two things we want. — Page: 40 ^ref-56873 --- Obviously, when faced with the choice between two things we want, the preferred answer is yes to both. But as much as we’d like to, we simply cannot have it all. — Page: 40 ^ref-28834 --- As painful as they can sometimes be, trade-offs represent a significant opportunity. By forcing us to weigh both options and strategically select the best one for us, we significantly increase our chance of achieving the outcome we want. — Page: 41 ^ref-43753 --- The point is that these Essentialist parents had consciously decided their goal was for their son to go to Harvard and understood that that success required making strategic trade-offs. — Page: 41 ^ref-29794 Bot sure the kid felt the same way gooing around multiple tasks without havinf time to grasp ut or do it for fun not to be something "successfull" --- Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. — Page: 41 ^ref-21779 --- Of course, this was tongue-in-cheek; I am not here to suggest that living the way of the Essentialist requires us to decide between our families and our health and our work. What I am suggesting is that when faced with a decision where one option prioritizes family and another prioritizes friends, health, or work, we need to be prepared to ask, “Which problem do you want?” — Page: 42 ^ref-1352 That is th e important quedtion , but who does not try to do it all at ths same time? I really do not velieve that a common person does not try to keep up wkth health,family,wealth,frinds etc --- Trade-offs are not something to be ignored or decried. They are something to be embraced and made deliberately, strategically, and thoughtfully. — Page: 42 ^ref-63269 --- One paradox of Essentialism is that Essentialists actually explore more options than their Nonessentialist counterparts. — Page: 42 ^ref-11964 --- 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. — Page: 43 ^ref-5761 --- Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. — Page: 43 ^ref-43446 --- We need space to escape in order to discern the essential few from the trivial many. — Page: 45 ^ref-7090 Sometimes that is exactly what we need --- Before you can evaluate what is and isn’t essential, you first need to explore your options. — Page: 45 ^ref-4312 --- For some reason there is a false association with the word focus. As with choice, people tend to think of focus as a thing. Yes, focus is something we have. But focus is also something we do. — Page: 46 ^ref-38059 --- It seems obvious, but when did you last take time out of your busy day simply to sit and think? — Page: 48 ^ref-3488 --- Of course, nobody likes to be bored. But by abolishing any chance of being bored we have also lost the time we used to have to think and process. — Page: 49 ^ref-38904 --- Whether you can invest two hours a day, two weeks a year, or even just five minutes every morning, it is important to make space to escape in your busy life. — Page: 51 ^ref-60201 --- “In that instant,” Ephron recalls, “I realized that journalism was not just about regurgitating the facts but about figuring out the point. It wasn’t enough to know the who, what, when, and where; you had to understand what it meant. And why it mattered.” — Page: 52 ^ref-26449 --- In every set of facts, something essential is hidden. — Page: 52 ^ref-3455 --- Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture. — Page: 53 ^ref-53348 --- We know instinctively that we cannot explore every single piece of information we encounter in our lives. — Page: 54 ^ref-48577 Not sure that I know this most of the times --- Essentialists are powerful observers 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. — Page: 54 ^ref-16292 --- Nonessentialists listen too. But they listen while preparing to say something. They get distracted by extraneous noise. They hyperfocus on inconsequential details. — Page: 55 ^ref-43071 --- Think of a journal as like a storage device for backing up our brain’s faulty hard drive. — Page: 56 ^ref-40950 --- Small, incremental changes are hard to see in the moment but over time can have a huge cumulative effect. Get Out into the Field Jane Chen was one of a team of students in a d.school class called “Design for Extreme Affordability.” — Page: 56 ^ref-20180 --- Look for the lead in your day, your week, your life. Small, incremental changes are hard to see in the moment but over time can have a huge cumulative effect. — Page: 56 ^ref-16830 --- She said, you need knowledge. Getting to the essence of a story takes a deep understanding of the topic, its context, its fit into the bigger picture, and its relationship to different fields. — Page: 57 ^ref-25366 --- Mariam Semaan is an award-winning journalist from Lebanon. — Page: 57 ^ref-59598 --- Often it’s easier to give a vague, blanket answer rather than to summon up the facts and information required to give a thoughtful, informed answer. Yet evasiveness only sends us down a nonessential spiral of further vagueness and misinformation. — Page: 58 ^ref-54702 --- Play, which I would define as anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as a means to an end—whether it’s flying a kite or listening to music or throwing around a baseball—might seem like a nonessential activity. — Page: 61 ^ref-6482 --- Yet of all animal species, Stuart Brown writes, humans are the biggest players of all. We are built to play and built through play. When we play, we are engaged in the purest expression of our humanity, the truest expression of our individuality. Is it any wonder that often the times we feel most alive, those that make up our best memories, are moments of play? — Page: 62 ^ref-16291 --- Play expands our minds in ways that allow us to explore: to germinate new ideas or see old ideas in a new light. — Page: 62 ^ref-51851 --- Play is fundamental to living the way of the Essentialist because it fuels exploration in at least three specific ways. — Page: 62 ^ref-375 --- First, play broadens the range of options available to us. — Page: 62 ^ref-33366 --- Second, play is an antidote 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 our brain. — Page: 62 ^ref-12111 --- Third, as Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who specializes in brain science, explains, play has a positive effect on the executive function of the brain. — Page: 63 ^ref-53274 --- Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning and carefree, unbound exploration. — Page: 63 ^ref-61645 --- The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest 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. — Page: 67 ^ref-48535 --- Well, while there are clearly people who can survive on fewer hours of sleep, I’ve found that most of them are just so used to being tired they have forgotten what it really feels like to be fully rested. — Page: 69 ^ref-17933 --- 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. — Page: 69 ^ref-36446 --- Essentialists instead see sleep as necessary for operating at high levels of contribution more of the time. — Page: 69 ^ref-42557 --- Essentialists choose to do one fewer thing right now in order to do more tomorrow. Yes, it is a trade-off. But cumulatively, this small trade-off can yield big rewards. — Page: 69 ^ref-61499 --- While sleep is often associated with giving rest to the body, recent research shows that sleep is really more about the brain. — Page: 71 ^ref-2702 --- In a nutshell, sleep is what allows us to operate at our highest level of contribution so that we can achieve more, in less time. — Page: 72 ^ref-1499 --- Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize. — Page: 74 ^ref-54369 --- It includes the challenge of filtering options that, at first glance, all look important. Yet as the logic of an Essentialist explains, in reality there are only a few things of exceptional value, with most everything else being of far less importance. — Page: 74 ^ref-62920 --- The key is to put the decision to an extreme test: if we feel total and utter conviction to do something, then we say yes, Derek-style. Anything less gets a thumbs down. — Page: 75 ^ref-11332 --- if something (or in this case someone) is just or almost good enough—that is, a 7 or an 8—then the answer should be a no. It was so liberating. — Page: 76 ^ref-61095 This sound to pretencious --- You can think of this as the 90 Percent Rule, and it’s one you can apply to just about every decision or dilemma. 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 percent, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it. — Page: 76 ^ref-12524 --- Sometimes it will, and sometimes it won’t, but the point is that the very act of applying selective criteria forces you to choose which perfect option to wait for, rather than letting other people, or the universe, choose for you. — Page: 76 ^ref-6756 Sometimes the universe will destroy you --- Making our criteria both selective and explicit affords us a systematic tool for discerning what is essential and filtering out the things that are not. — Page: 78 ^ref-60122 That is completly different from only allowing the best to pass through --- But if we just say yes because it is an easy reward, we run the risk of having to later say no to a more meaningful one. — Page: 81 ^ref-24246 --- in which he contends if there’s one thing you are passionate about—and that you can be best at—you should do just that one thing. — Page: 81 ^ref-46890 The problem with this is that you should look at the skills and not the actions itself. If not you could find yoursel in a situation where you are too good doing something obsolete. --- We aren’t looking for a plethora of good things to do. We are looking for the one where we can make our absolutely highest point of contribution. — Page: 82 ^ref-4539 --- Of course, finding the discipline to say no to opportunities—often very good opportunities—that come your way in work and life is infinitely harder than throwing out old clothes in your closet. But find it you must, because remember that anytime you fail to say “no” to a nonessential, you are really saying yes by default. — Page: 84 ^ref-56208 --- The first type of nonessential you’re going to learn how to eliminate is simply any activity that is misaligned with what you are intending to achieve. — Page: 86 ^ref-38930 The problem is to know what we are trying to achieve --- Executives I work with often suggest their company purpose or strategy is “pretty clear,” as if to say that is sufficient. But anyone who wears glasses knows there is a big difference between pretty clear and really clear! — Page: 86 ^ref-8095 --- When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration. — Page: 87 ^ref-62962 That sounds obvious to me. The problem is that while some may find it clear, others might not. --- I have noticed two common patterns that typically emerge when teams lack clarity of purpose. — Page: 87 ^ref-18074 --- In the first pattern, the team becomes overly focused on winning the attention of the manager. — Page: 87 ^ref-31689 --- PATTERN 2: IT’S ALL GOOD (WHICH IS BAD) — Page: 88 ^ref-27884 --- In the second pattern, teams without purpose become leaderless. With no clear direction, people pursue the things that advance their own short-term interests, with little awareness of how their activities contribute to (or in some cases, derail) the long-term mission of the team as a whole. — Page: 88 ^ref-58500 --- Likewise, five different jobs in five different industries do not add up to a forward-moving career. — Page: 88 ^ref-11750 Why not? Someone mkght want to challemge itself into differrent areas. Lokk at Da Vincibfor example. --- Instead, Martha and her team came up with this essential intent: “To get everyone in the U.K. online by the end of 2012.” — Page: 90 ^ref-50331 This sound like a long term goal. --- STOP WORDSMITHING AND START DECIDING — Page: 91 ^ref-32267 --- When developing statements of purpose—for your company, your team, or even yourself—there is a tendency to start obsessing about trivial stylistic details, — Page: 91 ^ref-49748 --- ASK, “HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN WE’RE DONE?” — Page: 91 ^ref-33601 --- A powerful essential intent inspires people partially because it is concrete enough to answer the question, “How will we know when we have succeeded?” — Page: 91 ^ref-35204 --- Creating an essential intent is hard. It takes courage, insight, and foresight to see which activities and efforts will add up to your single highest point of contribution. It takes asking tough questions, making real trade-offs, and exercising serious discipline to cut out the competing priorities that distract us from our true intention. Yet it is worth the effort because only with real clarity of purpose can people, teams, and organizations fully mobilize and achieve something truly excellent. — Page: 92 ^ref-53960 --- But the deeper I have looked at the subject of Essentialism the more clearly I have seen courage as key to the process of elimination. — Page: 94 ^ref-41219 --- One simple answer is we are unclear about what is essential. When this happens we become defenseless. On the other hand, when we have strong internal clarity it is almost as if we have a force field protecting us from the nonessentials coming at us from all directions. — Page: 96 ^ref-54958 --- A second reason why it is hard to choose what is essential in the moment is as simple as an innate fear of social awkwardness. — Page: 96 ^ref-7112 --- The only way out of this trap is to learn to say no firmly, resolutely, and yet gracefully. Because once we do, we find, not only that our fears of disappointing or angering others were exaggerated, but that people actually respect us more. — Page: 97 ^ref-36035 --- 8 A true Essentialist, Peter Drucker believed that “people are effective because they say no.” Nonessentialists — Page: 98 ^ref-52693 --- Nonessentialists say yes because of feelings of social awkwardness and pressure. They say yes automatically, without thinking, often in pursuit of the rush one gets from having pleased someone. — Page: 98 ^ref-59826 --- Of course, the point is not to say no to all requests. The point is to say no to the nonessentials so we can say yes to the things that really matter. It is to say no—frequently and gracefully—to everything but what is truly vital. — Page: 98 ^ref-51705 --- But part of living the way of the Essentialist is realizing respect is far more valuable than popularity in the long run. — Page: 100 ^ref-15590 --- Sunk-cost bias is 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. — Page: 105 ^ref-15648 --- An Essentialist has the courage and confidence to admit his or her mistakes and uncommit, no matter the sunk costs. — Page: 106 ^ref-19037 --- Whether or not you get any use or enjoyment out of them, subconsciously, the very fact that they are yours makes you value them more highly than you would if they didn’t belong to you. — Page: 107 ^ref-40572 --- Instead of asking, “How much do I value this item?” we should ask, “If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?” — Page: 108 ^ref-30138 --- “Abandoning a project that you’ve invested a lot in feels like you’ve wasted everything, and waste is something we’re told to avoid,” Arkes said. — Page: 108 ^ref-52633 --- When we get so emotionally hung up on trying to force something that is not the right fit, we can often benefit from a sounding board. Someone who is not emotionally involved in the situation and unaffected by the choice we make can give us the permission to stop forcing something that is clearly not working out. — Page: 109 ^ref-459 --- The tendency to continue doing something simply because we have always done it is sometimes called the “status quo bias.” — Page: 110 ^ref-2935 --- You can apply zero-based budgeting to your own endeavors. Instead of trying to budget your time on the basis of existing commitments, assume that all bets are off. All previous commitments are gone. — Page: 111 ^ref-59228 --- Every use of time, energy, or resources has to justify itself anew. If it no longer fits, eliminate it altogether. — Page: 111 ^ref-50068 --- by running what Daniel Shapero, a director at LinkedIn, calls a “reverse pilot.”10 In a reverse pilot you test whether removing an initiative or activity will have any negative consequences. — Page: 112 ^ref-56971 --- Even using these techniques, it’s true that “uncommitting” can be harder than simply not committing in the first place. — Page: 112 ^ref-35409 --- Yet learning how to do so—in ways that will garner you respect for your courage, focus, and discipline—is crucial to becoming an Essentialist. — Page: 113 ^ref-33288 --- Clearly, editing—which involves the strict elimination of the trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant—is an Essentialist craft. — Page: 114 ^ref-56350 --- In other words, a good film editor makes it hard not to see what’s important because she eliminates everything but the elements that absolutely need to be there. — Page: 114 ^ref-10522 --- So it makes sense that the next stage in the Essentialist process, eliminating the nonessentials, means taking on the role of an editor in your life and leadership. — Page: 114 ^ref-24963 --- What I mean is that a good editor is someone who uses deliberate subtraction to actually add life to the ideas, setting, plot, and characters. — Page: 115 ^ref-35237 --- Likewise, in life, disciplined editing can help add to your level of contribution. It increases your ability to focus on and give energy to the things that really matter. It lends the most meaningful relationships and activities more space to blossom. — Page: 115 ^ref-41476 --- Nevertheless, four simple principles inherent in editing do apply to editing the nonessentials out of our lives. — Page: 116 ^ref-15200 --- To state the obvious, editing involves cutting out things that confuse the reader and cloud the message or story. It is a matter of record that well-edited movies and books are easy on the eye and the brain. — Page: 116 ^ref-34961 --- Yes, making the choice to eliminate something good can be painful. But eventually, every cut produces joy—maybe not in the moment but afterwards, when we realize that every additional moment we have gained can be spent on something better. — Page: 116 ^ref-64991 --- As Alan D. Williams observed in the essay “What Is an Editor?” there are “two basic questions the editor should be addressing to the author: Are you saying what you want to say? and, Are you saying it as clearly and concisely as possible?” — Page: 117 ^ref-15751 --- An editor’s job is not just to cut or condense but also to make something right. — Page: 118 ^ref-7396 --- To do this well, an editor must have a clear sense of the overarching purpose of the work he or she is editing. — Page: 118 ^ref-17135 --- EDIT LESS This may seem a little counterintuitive. But the best editors don’t feel the need to change everything. They know that sometimes having the discipline to leave certain things exactly as they are is the best use of their editorial judgment. — Page: 118 ^ref-63985 --- Becoming an editor in our lives also includes knowing when to show restraint. One way we can do this is by editing our tendency to step in. — Page: 118 ^ref-57306 --- Becoming an Essentialist means making cutting, condensing, and correcting a natural part of our daily routine—making editing a natural cadence in our lives. — Page: 119 ^ref-9935 --- But what most people don’t realize is that the problem is not just that the boundaries have been blurred; it’s that the boundary of work has edged insidiously into family territory. — Page: 120 ^ref-41386 --- I won’t deny that setting boundaries can be hard. — Page: 121 ^ref-63376 --- However, not pushing back costs more: our ability to choose what is most essential in life. — Page: 121 ^ref-16014 The importa thing is to understand what are the risks of setting a particular boundary. --- After all, 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. — Page: 122 ^ref-61846 --- Essentialists, on the other hand, see boundaries as empowering. They recognize that boundaries protect their time from being hijacked and often free them from the burden of having to say no to things that further others’ objectives instead of their own. — Page: 122 ^ref-18567 --- But when people make their problem our problem, we aren’t helping them; we’re enabling them. Once we take their problem for them, all we’re doing is taking away their ability to solve it. — Page: 123 ^ref-1516 --- Whoever it is that’s trying to siphon off your time and energies for their own purpose, the only solution is to put up fences. And not at the moment the request is made—you need to put up your fences well in advance, clearly demarcating what’s off limits so you can head off time wasters and boundary pushers at the pass. — Page: 124 ^ref-65472 --- Similarly, when we don’t set clear boundaries in our lives we can end up imprisoned by the limits others have set for us. When we have clear boundaries, on the other hand, we are free to select from the whole area—or the whole range of options—that we have deliberately chosen to explore. — Page: 124 ^ref-63233 --- Thus we worked through a “social contract,” not unlike the one Jin-Yung and her boss worked out in the opening story. Simply having an understanding up front about what we were really trying to achieve and what our boundaries were kept us from wasting each other’s time, saddling each other with burdensome requests, and distracting each other from the things that were essential to us. — Page: 125 ^ref-1789 --- While Nonessentialists tend to force execution, Essentialists invest the time they have saved by eliminating the nonessentials into designing a system to make execution almost effortless. — Page: 126 ^ref-6003 --- In this simple story is one the most powerful practices Essentialists employ to ensure effortless execution. — Page: 127 ^ref-33420 Create a buffer or emergency fund --- 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. We can create a buffer. — Page: 128 ^ref-40883 --- The way of the Essentialist, on the other hand, is to use the good times to create a buffer for the bad. — Page: 131 ^ref-27358 --- Have you ever underestimated how long a task will take? If you have, you are far from alone. The term for this very common phenomenon is the “planning fallacy.” — Page: 133 ^ref-51120 --- Of the variety of explanations for why we underestimate the amount of time something will take, I believe social pressure is the most interesting. — Page: 134 ^ref-45235 --- This implies that often we actually know we can’t do things in a given time frame, but we don’t want to admit it to someone. — Page: 134 ^ref-14109 --- One way to protect against this is simply to add a 50 percent buffer to the amount of time we estimate it will take to complete a task or project (if 50 percent seems overly generous, consider how frequently things actually do take us 50 percent longer than expected). — Page: 134 ^ref-45588 --- Erwann Michel-Kerjan, the managing director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at Wharton, recommends that everyone, starting with heads of state, develop a risk management strategy. — Page: 135 ^ref-30896 --- When Erwann works with national governments to create their risk management strategies, he suggests they start by asking five questions: (1) What risks do we face and where? (2) What assets and populations are exposed and to what degree? (3) How vulnerable are they? (4) What financial burden do these risks place on individuals, businesses, and the government budget? and (5) How best can we invest to reduce risks and strengthen economic and social resilience? — Page: 135 ^ref-34973 --- The question is this: What is the “slowest hiker” in your job or your life? What is the obstacle that is keeping you back from achieving what really matters to you? By systematically identifying and removing this “constraint” you’ll be able to significantly reduce the friction keeping you from executing what is essential. — Page: 137 ^ref-19651 --- 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. — Page: 138 ^ref-38326 --- Aristotle talked about three kinds of work, whereas in our modern world we tend to emphasize only two. The first is theoretical work, for which the end goal is truth. The second is practical work, where the objective is action. But there is a third: it is poietical work.2 The philosopher Martin Heidegger described poiesis as a “bringing-forth.”3 This third type of work is the Essentialist way of approaching execution: — Page: 138 ^ref-15058 --- When we don’t know what we’re really trying to achieve, all change is arbitrary. — Page: 139 ^ref-57250 --- There are often multiple obstacles to achieving any essential intent. However, at any one time there is only ever one priority; removing arbitrary obstacles can have no effect whatsoever if the primary one still doesn’t budge. — Page: 140 ^ref-65257 --- By removing the primary obstacle you have made every other aspect of the job easier. — Page: 140 ^ref-12304 --- The Nonessentialist operates under the false logic that the more he strives, the more he will achieve, but the reality is, the more we reach for the stars, the harder it is to get ourselves off the ground. — Page: 143 ^ref-28295 --- 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. — Page: 143 ^ref-21447 --- 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. — Page: 144 ^ref-22098 --- Instead of starting big and then flaring out with nothing to show for it other than time and energy wasted, to really get essential things done we need to start small and build momentum. — Page: 145 ^ref-54128 --- We have a choice. We can use our energies to set up a system that makes execution of goodness easy, or we can resign ourselves to a system that actually makes it harder to do what is good. — Page: 146 ^ref-61182 --- “What is the smallest amount of progress that will be useful and valuable to the essential task we are trying to get done?” — Page: 147 ^ref-45468 --- There are two opposing ways to approach an important goal or deadline. You can start early and small or start late and big. “Late and big” means doing it all at the last minute: pulling an all-nighter and “making it happen.” “Early and small” means starting at the earliest possible moment with the minimal possible time investment. — Page: 148 ^ref-34161 --- There is something powerful about visibly seeing progress toward a goal. Don’t be above applying the same technique to your own essential goals, at home or at work. — Page: 149 ^ref-12398 --- The way of the Nonessentialist is to think the essentials only get done when they are forced. That execution is a matter of raw effort alone. You labor to make it happen. You push through. — Page: 151 ^ref-36807 --- The way of the Essentialist is different. The Essentialist designs a routine that makes achieving what you have identified as essential the default position. — Page: 151 ^ref-34023 --- Routine is one of the most powerful tools for removing obstacles. Without routine, the pull of nonessential distractions will overpower us. But if we create a routine that enshrines the essentials, we will begin to execute them on autopilot. — Page: 152 ^ref-16212 --- We must simply expend a small amount of initial energy to create the routine, and then all that is left to do is follow it. — Page: 152 ^ref-5015 --- Our ability to execute the essential improves with practice, just like any other ability. — Page: 153 ^ref-18813 --- According to researchers at Duke University, nearly 40 percent of our choices are deeply unconscious.7 We don’t think about them in the usual sense. There is both danger and opportunity in this. — Page: 154 ^ref-45818 --- What this means is that if we want to change our routine, we don’t really need to change the behavior. Rather, we need to find the cue that is triggering the nonessential activity or behavior and find a way to associate that same cue with something that is essential. — Page: 156 ^ref-10754 --- I don’t want to imply that any of this is easy. Many of our nonessential routines are deep and emotional. They have been formed in the furnace of some strong emotions. The idea that we can just snap our fingers and replace them with a new one is naive. — Page: 158 ^ref-26095 --- When he says, “win,” he’s also referring to a single question, with its apt acronym, that guides what he expects from his players: “What’s important now?” — Page: 159 ^ref-27459 --- or feel stress about what may be ahead of us. Yet every second spent worrying about a past or future moment distracts us from what is important in the here and now. — Page: 160 ^ref-57384 --- It is mind-bending to consider that in practical terms we only ever have now. We can’t control the future in a literal sense, just the now. Of course, we learn from the past and can imagine the future. Yet only in the here and now can we actually execute on the things that really matter. — Page: 160 ^ref-35011 --- Nonessentialists tend to be so preoccupied with past successes and failures, as well as future challenges and opportunities, that they miss the present moment. — Page: 161 ^ref-43762 --- The way of the Essentialist is to tune into the present. To experience life in kairos, not just chronos. To focus on the things that are truly important—not yesterday or tomorrow, but right now. — Page: 161 ^ref-38301 --- Essentialists live their whole lives in this manner. And because they do, they can apply their full energy to the job at hand. They don’t diffuse their efforts with distractions. They know that execution is easy if you work hard at it and hard if you work easy at it. — Page: 162 ^ref-34315 --- What we can’t do is concentrate on two things at the same time. When I talk about being present, I’m not talking about doing only one thing at a time. I’m talking about being focused on one thing at a time. Multitasking itself is not the enemy of Essentialism; pretending we can “multifocus” is. — Page: 163 ^ref-55891 --- When faced with so many tasks and obligations that you can’t figure out which to tackle first, stop. Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is most important this very second—not what’s most important tomorrow or even an hour from now. If you’re not sure, make a list of everything vying for your attention and cross off anything that is not important right now. — Page: 164 ^ref-10248 --- So now, as he gets to the door of his house, he applies what he calls “the pause that refreshes.” This technique is easy. He stops for just a moment. He closes his eyes. He breathes in and out once: deeply and slowly. As he exhales, he lets the work issues fall away. This allows him to walk through the front door to his family with more singleness of purpose. It supports the sentiment attributed to Lao Tzu: “In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.” — Page: 165 ^ref-38063 --- There are two ways of thinking about Essentialism. The first is to think of it as something you do occasionally. The second is to think of it as something you are. — Page: 168 ^ref-48542 --- People with Essentialism at their core get far more from their investment than those who absorb it only at the surface level. Indeed, the benefits become cumulative. Every choice we make to pursue the essential and eliminate the nonessential builds on itself, making that choice more and more habitual until it becomes virtually second nature. With time, that inner core expands outwards until it has all but eclipsed the part of us still mired in the nonessential. — Page: 170 ^ref-35358 --- When we look back on our careers and our lives, would we rather see a long laundry list of “accomplishments” that don’t really matter or just a few major accomplishments that have real meaning and significance? — Page: 170 ^ref-51833 --- Today Essentialism is not just something I do. An Essentialist is something I am steadily becoming. — Page: 172 ^ref-2554 --- The list goes on, but the point I want to make here is that focusing on the essentials is a choice. It is your choice. That in itself is incredibly liberating. — Page: 173 ^ref-44101 --- Life will become less about efficiently crossing off what was on your to-do list or rushing through everything on your schedule and more about changing what you put on there in the first place. Every day it becomes more clear than the day before how the essential things are so much more important than the next most important thing in line. As a result, the execution of those essentials becomes more and more effortless. — Page: 174 ^ref-45045 ---