B. Essentialism

Essentialism

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Highlights

THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS. —Lin Yutang — location: 105

“Stay, but do what you would as a consultant and nothing else. And don’t tell anyone.” — location: 116

German words: Weniger aber besser. The English translation is: Less but better. — location: 159

It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?” There are far more activities and opportunities in the world than we have time and resources to invest in. And although many of them may be good, or even very good, the fact is that most are trivial and few are vital. 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. — location: 163

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will. — location: 239

One reason is that in our society we are punished for good behavior (saying no) and rewarded for bad behavior (saying yes). The former is often awkward in the moment, and the latter is often celebrated in the moment. It leads to what I call “the paradox of success,” — location: 261

It is not just information overload; it is opinion overload. — location: 298

Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now be able to have multiple “first” things. — location: 308

“If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?” — location: 341

there is a way out. — location: 359

stop asking, “How can I make it all work?” and start asking the more honest question “Which problem do I want to solve?” — location: 378

Essentialists systematically explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any. — location: 385

Victor Hugo, the French dramatist and novelist, puts it, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” — location: 418

Everything changes when we give ourselves permission to be more selective in what we choose to do. — location: 420

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.” — location: 469

To become an Essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose. We need to recognize it as an invincible power within us, existing separate and distinct from any other thing, person, or force. — location: 544

we have been taught from a young age that hard work is key to producing results, — location: 571

Yet, for capable people who are already working hard, are there limits to the value of hard work? Is there a point at which doing more does not produce more? Is there a point at which doing less (but thinking more) will actually produce better outcomes? — location: 573

certain types of effort yield higher rewards than others. — location: 585

Working hard is important. But more effort does not necessarily yield more results. “Less but better” does. — location: 591

20 percent of our efforts produce 80 percent of results. Much later, in 1951, in his Quality-Control Handbook, Joseph Moses Juran, one of the fathers of the quality movement, expanded on this idea and called it “the Law of the Vital Few.”2 His observation was that you could massively improve the quality of a product by resolving a tiny fraction of the problems. — location: 601

Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.” — location: 616

John Maxwell has written, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”9 — location: 626

the many good opportunities we pursue are often far less valuable than the few truly great ones. — location: 632

An Essentialist, in other words, discerns more so he can do less. — location: 636

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. — location: 644

“You have to look at every opportunity and say, ‘Well, no…I’m sorry. We’re not going to do a thousand different things that really won’t contribute much to the end result we are trying to achieve.’ ” — location: 668

In the simplest terms, straddling means keeping your existing strategy intact while simultaneously also trying to adopt the strategy of a competitor. — location: 675

According to Porter, “A strategic position is not sustainable unless there are trade-offs with other positions.”3 By trying to operate by two incompatible strategies they started to undermine their ability to be competitive. — location: 682

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. — location: 742

Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, “What do I have to give up?” they ask, “What do I want to go big on?” — location: 755

Trade-offs are not something to be ignored or decried. They are something to be embraced and made deliberately, strategically, and thoughtfully. — location: 773

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. — location: 786

If you believe being overly busy and overextended is evidence of productivity, then you probably believe that creating space to explore, think, and reflect should be kept to a minimum. Yet these very activities are the antidote to the nonessential busyness that infects so many of us. Rather than trivial diversions, they are critical to distinguishing what is actually a trivial diversion from what is truly essential. — location: 794

Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. But their exploration is not an end in itself. The purpose of the exploration is to discern the vital few from the trivial many. — location: 798

WITHOUT GREAT SOLITUDE NO SERIOUS WORK IS POSSIBLE. —Pablo Picasso — location: 803

If his people are too busy to think, then they’re too busy, period. — location: 817

In order to have focus we need to escape to focus. — location: 847

Newton was asked how he had discovered the law of universal gravitation. ‘By thinking on it continually’ — location: 867

One practice I’ve found useful is simply to read something from classic literature (not a blog, or the newspaper, or the latest beach novel) for the first twenty minutes of the day. — location: 911

My preference is for inspirational literature, though such a choice is a personal one. But for the interested, here are some to consider: Zen, the Reason of Unreason; The Wisdom of Confucius; the Torah; the Holy Bible; Tao, to Know and Not Be Knowing; The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: An Explanatory Translation; As a Man Thinketh; The Essential Gandhi; Walden, or, Life in the Woods; the Book of Mormon; The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius; and the Upanishads. — location: 914

Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyperfocusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture. You can apply the skills of a journalist no matter what field you are in—you can even apply them to your personal life. By training yourself to look for “the lead,” you will suddenly find yourself able to see what you have missed. — location: 960

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. — location: 975

this: I write less than I feel like writing. — location: 1003

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. — location: 1027

tedium — location: 1059

The word school is derived from the Greek word schole, meaning “leisure.” Yet our modern school system, born in the Industrial Revolution, has removed the leisure—and much of the pleasure—out of learning. — location: 1068

“We have sold ourselves into a fast-food model of education, and it’s impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies….Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it’s the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”2 — location: 1071

Play, which I would define as anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as a means to an end—whether — location: 1082

“Play,” he says, “leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity.” As he succinctly puts it, “Nothing fires up the brain like play.” — location: 1087

play broadens the range of options available to us. It helps us to see possibilities we otherwise wouldn’t have seen and make connections we would otherwise not have made. — location: 1109

It gives us permission to expand our own stream of consciousness and come up with new stories. — location: 1111

play is an antidote to stress, — location: 1115

play has a positive effect on the executive function of the brain. — location: 1123

Play doesn’t just help us to explore what is essential. It is essential in and of itself. — location: 1146

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. — location: 1193

The real challenge for the person who thrives on challenges is not to work hard. — location: 1199

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. — location: 1217

Think about this: we would never say, ‘This person is a great worker! He’s drunk all the time!’ yet we continue to celebrate people who sacrifice sleep for work.”2 — location: 1259

when we wake up, our brains may have made new neural connections, thereby opening up a broader range of solutions to problems, literally overnight. — location: 1269

Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize. — location: 1310

put the decision to an extreme test: if we feel total and utter conviction to do something, then we say yes, — location: 1323

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. — location: 1342

I saw the quietest and most junior member of the team push back on the most senior executive. She simply said, “Should we be taking on this account, given the criteria we have?” — location: 1377