Pg. 15: "It is not just the number of choices that has increased exponentially, it is also the strength and number of outside influences on our decisions that has increased. 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. Today, technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be focusing on. It is not just information it is opinion overload"
The idea that "you can have it all" - job descriptions that provide huge lists of required skills and experience, university applications that require dozens of extracurriculars
Now, the idea of "having it all" encourages stressed out people try to cram more activities than before
The word priority appeared in 1400s, singular. Meant the very first or prior thing and stayed singular for 500 hundred years. In 1900s, we pluralized the term
Cutting out really good opportunities, not just obvious time wasters
Explore and Evaluate
Eliminate
Execute
The Mind-Set of the Essentialist:
Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time
The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise and a very few things are exceptionally valuable
The reality of trade-offs: We can't have it all or do it all
Essentialists explore more options at first than non-essentialists [non-essentialists commit to everything without actually exploring]
Questions to ask when exploring and evaluating: "What do I feel deeply inspired by, What am I particularly talented at, what meets a significant need in the world?" [not looking for a plethora of good things to do, right thing, reason reason, right time]
Pg. 25: "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"
Explore, eliminate, execute - a cyclical process
The "power law" theory states that certain efforts produce exponentially more results than others
John Maxwell: "You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything"
Not "what do I have to give up? rather "What do I want to go big on?
Create the space to explore 100 questions and possibilities, we need to ESCAPE to focus
The word school derived from the Greek word schole or "leisure"
Modern school system born out of Industrial Revolution
Companies give lip service to the value of play, but don't create a playful culture
Modern corporations born out of Industrial Revolution were their entire reason for existing was to achieve efficiency in mass production of goods. Early managers looked to the military for inspiration. The language of the military is strong in corporations "front lines" and the word "company" is a term for a military unit!!
Play = doing anything simply of the joy of doing it
Stuart Brown: "Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity. Nothing fires up the brain like play"
Edward M. Hallowell says play has an effect on the executive function of the brain [so it stimulates the parts of the brain involved in careful reason and carefree exploration]
When Derek Sivers was trying to decide where to live, he ruled out locations that seemed pretty good until he visited New York and knew instantly it was the right place
When we ask the broad criteria "Is there a chance that I will wear this someday in the future?" when clearing out closets, the closet becomes cluttered. When we ask "Do I absolutely LOVE this?"
90 Percent Rule - what's the single most important criterion for that decision, then give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it lower than 90 percent, then change rating to 0 and reject it
Applying highly selective criteria is a trade-off, it forces YOU to choose which perfect option to wait for, rather than letting the universe and others choose for you, making decisions by design, not default
Ultra selective approach to decision making should be clear
Non-essentialists apply IMPLICIT criteria to decisions "if my manager asks me to do it, then I should do it" or "if other people in the company are doing it, I should be doing it" [social media era exasperates this by amplifying all the nonessential activities we "should" be doing]
Selective and explicit criteria
An essentialist uses explicit criteria like "is this EXACTLY what I am looking for?"
If it isn't a clear YES, then it's a clear NO
When an opportunity comes to you, what do you do? The book "Good to Great" says that if there's one thing you are passionate about - and that you can be best at - you should do JUST THAT ONE THING
One way to differentiate a company might be doing something no one else in the industry is doing and that you actually enjoy doing. You would have to say no to excellent opportunities that come to you even in bad economic times
When opportunities come your way, apply this SYSTEMATIC PROCESS:
Write down opportunity
Write down list of 3 "minimum criteria" the options need to pass in order to be considered
Write down a list of 3 "extreme criteria" the options would need to pass in order to be considered
If offer doesn't pass 2 of the 3 extreme criteria, answer is still no!!!
Our brain's sophisticated search engine - instead of searching for "good career opportunity" conduct an advanced search and ask 3 questions: "What am I deeply passionate about?" And "What taps my talent?" "What meets a need in the world?"
Pg. 149: "Tom Stafford describes a simple antidote to the endowment effect. 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? We can do the same for opportunities and commitment. Don't ask, "How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?" But rather, "If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?"
IF I WASN'T ALREADY INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT, HOW HARD WOULD I WORK TO GET ON IT?"
Adults have had a lifetime of exposure to the "don't waste" rule
Apply zero-based budgeting [every item in the proposed budget justified from scratch] to your commitments, instead of budgeting your time on the basis of existing commitments [projects, relationships]
a prototype [large-scale model which allows companies to test-run an idea or product without making a huge investment up front]
To get over the fear of uncommitting [or saying no] - run a "reverse pilot" which tests whether REMOVING an initiative or activity will have a negative result
Editing is an Essentialist craft
What makes a good editor? Exploring is like being a journalist [asking questions of yourself, listening, connecting the dots in order to discern what's essential and what's not], editing is like taking on the role of being an editor
An editor is persistent towards making every word count - "Are you saying what you want to say" and "Are you saying it as clearly and concisely as possible"
The goal of condensing is saying it as clearly and concisely as possible
Pg. 160: "But to be clear, condensing doesn't mean doing more at once, it simply means less waste. It means lowering the ratio of words to ideas, square feet to usefulness, or effort to results. Thus to apply the principle of condensing to our lives we need to shift the ratio of activity to meaning. We need to eliminate multiple meaningless activities and replace them with one very meaningful activity"
What an editor does is cut, condense, correct
We can correct by regularly comparing our activities or behaviors to our real intent
The "planning fallacy" - the tendency to underestimate how long a task will take, even when they have actually done the task before
Produce more by removing more
3 types of work:
Theoretical work - goal is truth
Practical work - goal is action
Poietical work - this type is the Essentialist way of approaching execution
Martin Heidegger - poiesis is âbringing forthâ
The Essentialist focuses on removing obstacles but we donât know what obstacles to remove until clear on the desired outcome. Ask yourself, âHow will you know when itâs done?â Make this outcome concrete
âMinimal viable progressâ - the smallest amount of progress that will be useful to the essentialist task Iâm trying to get done [requires very little effort]
âMinimal viable preparationâ - early and small, just 2 minutes!!
Ask yourself, âWhatâs the minimal amount I could do right now to prepare?â
Use a technique to visually see progress
Cue, routine, reward loop
Overhaul your triggers: associate the same cue that triggers the nonessential activity with something that is essential [alarm clock in the morning triggers you to check email, read instead]
A cue is a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode
Write in my journal what triggered moments of extreme presence and calm and what stuff brought me out of it. If I know what triggered it, I can re-create it
Greg said to his wife out loud, âWhat if I went to Stanford for my graduate work?â After he said that, he felt instantly clear that this was an essential task. He would start the application process to other places but stop after a few minutes. He concentrated all his energy despite getting other opportunities. He felt calm, not anxious about his choice