Essentialism
I saw this book on a few lists and even Ryan Holiday recommended it. Since I normally like his thought process and seeing this pop up more and more, it was high time to thumb the pages (listen intensely) to Essentialism.
After Mark Manson’s books about not giving a f***, I considered it was the epitome of “I don’t care”. Nonetheless, throughout this book, it’s a class on how just to say no to stuff and focus on the priority. That’s right, singular priority. Only one. Not priorities.
As we can appear to multitask is because we can shift our focus repeatedly and rapidly to look like we are doing two things at once. However, Einstein’s theories point to no two actions are simultaneous. Even when seeming to be simultaneous, there is still a unit of time in between. Therefore, our minds operate in a similar way. We can jump back and forth, but we only can think about one thing at a time. That is your priority. That moment is used to set what is important right now. So here is what stood out to me going through each thought.
1) Learn to say no. The more you say yes to things, the less you are able to say yes to what is essential. It’s tough because we wish to please people and want other to regard us highly. When we say no, we allow that time to return to what is important to us.
2) Learning to say no also stops people from dropping problems on your door. Sometimes we think we help other by taking their burden, but we really stop their creative process to resolve the issue for themselves. You don’t have to save the day every time because they can just give up on fixing anything themselves and just let you do it.
3) What is essential? I think about this a lot before I started this book. But when you limit the number of non-essential things on your mind. Life feels easier. It’s like you can see the path in front of you because the detours and non-sought paths disappear. What is important to your life right this second? Don’t be as concerned about the past or future. What are you doing now and how to you wish to behave to the matter you face currently?
4) Remove the nonessential stuff that doesn’t add value to your life. Again, do you need all the stuff you have? How would your life change if most of it was gone. Gandhi passed away with only a few possessions. Do you need the best and newest things? Can you find joy in the stuff you have and understand that stuff doesn’t own you
5) Set up things like dominos. There are studies included understanding timelines and deadlines. We often think that we are efficient, but most time we don’t do projects or meetings with the right priority. Ever start a meeting with 15-20 minutes of “Hello” to realize you only have 10 minutes left to discuss the full project? Or when conversations fly off the deep end to nonrelated topics and noise. Be prepared with an agenda and organize the meeting to include this interaction time. Most people attending will be happy if an hour meeting takes 30 minutes.
6) Do the hard stuff first. Just like in “Eat That Frog”, get the tough project out of your way so you can get back to the important thing sooner. I think about this when I have to do laundry or dishes or to shoot videos. Just get the work done (at your best) and move on to the essential thing.
So, what is essential to me? Based on what is happening, in that moment, I focus on one of three things. What am I learning from this? What am I training to improve this? What am I teaching others about this? Learn, Train, Teach. This is what is essential to me. Its easy to remember and easy to explain, so I just need to continue to train myself this way. I want to build a life that’s tough yet not overwhelming.