Essentialism
By: Peregrine Tse
Tags: Minimalism, Leadership, Essentialism, Entrepreneurship

Essentialism is to your mind what Marie Kondo is to your wardrobe. McKeown’s mantra — ‘the disciplined pursuit of less, but better’ — seems apt in a modern western world full of anxiety and excess, where many of us feel ‘overworked and underutilised’.

What are the best insights and quotes from Essentialism?

‘We can multi-task, but we can’t multi-focus’; concentrating on two things at once doesn’t work;

‘Don’t ask ‘What do I want to give up?’ but ‘What do I want to go big on?’ — the latter makes the former fall into place;

‘A graceful ‘no’ is better than a vague maybe’; ‘Trade popularity for respect’ by being clear, focused, honest and consistent with people;

‘Film directors edit their scripts and scenes to make it easy to see what’s important as you engage with their work’; you can edit your life so other people can see what’s important to you, impacting how they engage with you;

‘Obligations don’t come with an expiry date’, so be clear what you are and aren’t committing to.

I don’t have time to read it — what are the book’s main messages?

1. The imperative: why Essentialism?

a. We can’t do everything, and we can’t have it all, so we must choose where we focus (or have it chosen for us);

b. Therefore, we should choose to ‘have less, but better’, as this makes more impact, with less stress, using our limited time and resources;

c. ‘Choosing less’ has always been difficult. Humans are biased towards valuing things we already have, whether we need them or not ( the ‘endowment effect’), biased toward the status quo, and biased towards sunk cost (which results in throwing good money after bad);

d. In the modern world, choosing well is now even more difficult. There are more choices to be made, more options, and more sources of social (media) pressure to make the same choices as others. This results in decision fatigue.

2. The choices: what is ‘essential’?

a. Choosing ‘less but better’ requires thought and experimentation before deciding where to focus. This requires deliberately creating space; for focused thinking time, problem solving, reframing the questions we are really striving to answer, listening and ‘playing’.

b. ‘Play’ is doing anything for the joy of simply doing it, rather than working toward an end result. However, this experimentation and exploration broadens our awareness of possibilities, has positive impacts on executive brain function, and allows us to evaluate a range of options on which to focus.

c. This is followed by choosing where to focus, committing to it in a written ‘Essential Intent’ which is both concrete and personally inspiring. This set of choices is not one imposed by default by our surroundings, but by design. They are an identification of the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time. This will include ‘multipliers’ (certain activities which have exponentially more impact on achieving your goals than others)’.

d. McKeown recommends making these choices, by asking:

‘Will this make highest possible contribution?’

‘Do I feel deeply inspired by this?’

‘Am I particularly talented in this field?’

‘Does this meet a significant need?’

and using roleplay or other thought experiments to navigate trade-offs (i.e. where choosing X means I can’t have Y).

e. This is followed by eliminating the remaining non-essentials we have accumulated. Cutting out good but unaligned options and opportunities is critical. McKeown’s recommendations for this include:

Stopping making casual commitments, and instead requiring yourself to be at least 90% sure — rather than 70/80% — before committing to anything;

Using ‘extreme criteria’ to set thresholds which investments of time must meet;

Condensing existing activities to remove less meaningful aspects;

Taking a ‘zero based budgeting’ approach to each commitment, seeing if it can be justified from scratch before ‘cutting your losses’; and

Getting a neutral second opinion.

f. Making choices in a vacuum is relatively easy. Putting them into practice is much more difficult. Implementation can begin with planned interim steps away from things you’ve chosen to cut, and experiments with stopping things, but the most difficult choices should be set in motion first.

3. The maintenance: how is essentialism sustained?

a. Perpetuating those choices on an ongoing basis requires a system of habits and tools which ‘unfairly’ tip the balance toward the important, in the face of constant new demands.

b. Rhythms and patterns of life can help maintain focus on and refine goals, such as having a personal ‘quarterly off-site’, or having a theme for each day e.g. Jack Dorsey of Twitter’s ‘Tuesday’s for product development, Thursday’s for partnerships’.

c. Developing patterns of thinking can help defend against pressure to compromise on choices, such as focusing on what the cost on our long term goals will be, and remembering that ‘once an exception is made, the rule is gone’.

d. McKeown provides a series of recommendations on things to do, think and say under pressure to make choices which compromise your goals. Here’s a selection:

Give yourself time by slowing the process down, by breathing, and pausing for five seconds before you speak, giving yourself time to think,

Where appropriate and helpful, put in initial filtering mechanisms, such as offering to ‘check your calendar and get back’ or putting in place auto-reply emails,

Develop the ability to deliver a ‘graceful no’, truthfully, and with humour if appropriate. You may be ‘overcommitted’, or ‘flattered, but sure this isn’t for me,’ and

Learn the art of the ‘No but’, suggesting someone who might be interested in the opportunity, or offering something that you would be willing to do instead.

e. Finally, sleep is essential for protecting the ability to prioritise, as well as maintaining energy levels, mental and emotional discipline, creativity, and problem solving ability. No surprises there, although McKeown points out that:

Viewing sleep as a strategic challenge, rather than some kind of weakness, could help;

Lacking sleep has similar symptoms to being drunk; and

The oft quoted 10,000 hours study — referencing what’s required to be an expert- has a secondary finding; those experts averaged 8.6 hours of sleep. These experts therefore got more value out of their 10,000 hours than the equivalent person who wasn’t well rested.

I get the idea — is it worth a read?

Essentialism can apply to everything from how you journal (less each day, but better with a review every quarter), to how you recruit (better to be one person short than hire one wrong person). It’s a wise, quotable, and thought-provoking read.