Today I have finished “Essentialism,” and here are my thoughts about it in the essential amount:
The essence of essentialism is to say either “HELL YES” or “No” to any responsibility life throws at us. Meaning that the criteria for saying “yes” must be a high return on investment and clarity, or it is simply a “no.” The reason is simple: You don’t have enough time for everything, and you need to find the impactful work that creates the most significant impact to optimally use your time, body, and mind.
To work on the most important things, one needs to do the following continuously:
- Be able to say No. Saying no is to choose respect over-popularity. Be mindful of how you use it. Don’t keep saying no to your boss or your friends. Saying no must be for the greater good, not just for your laziness.
- Actively cut responsibilities that are only clutter.
- Focus on less to deliver more.
- Fight the commit bias, sunk cost, endowment effect mental fallacies.
- Remove obstacles in your life, your teams, and your organization.
- Actively separate signal from noise.
- Make deliberate decisions.
Essentialism works with internalizing that you can choose, and options are not the same thing as choosing. Choosing is free. And, most of the time, it is not taken away from you but only forgotten.