Essentialism – Book Summary

A serious lack of clarity brings stress, confusion, and frustration in both individual and team environments.

McKeown explains that powerful planning and goal setting must be approached with the 2 angles in mind:

• Inspirational VS Boring
• Concrete VS Generic

If we don't go for inspirational and concrete goals we get frustrated: individuals lose enthusiasm and teams disintegrate without a powerful purpose. it takes time and courage to come up with an essential intent.

Speaking about courage, saying NO is extremely hard before it gets easy. When you know it's the right time to say NO separate the decision from the relationship.

For example, imagine your boss or your client demands too much from you stretching your ability to leave on time and be with your family. If you believe that your family is more important than working 24 x 7 and pleasing "the master" you might be happy to risk losing your job or the client. Why not find a new leader or a new client who will respect your boundaries ?

That's why it's so important to allocate regular time slots for thinking about such matters.

Here is a few graceful ways to say NO without feeling bad about it:

• Awkward pause - let the other person fill the gap and reverse the attempt to breaking the boundary
• Not now, maybe later - "I can't do it now, might find some time later, but can't promise anything"
• Artificial delay - "Let me check my calendar, I will come back to you"
• Yes, but let's deprioritize - If I take it on-board, what do I stop working on ?
• Use humor - find a funny way to say no: "My husband will feed the kids with rotten tomatoes again..."
• It's NO from me, but try another person - I can't commit, but here is another person who can help

McKeown explains the paradox of sunk-cost bias - our inability to stop investing time, money, or energy into something we know is not working simply because we are already sunk in a cost and we can't get back

Here is a list of actionable strategies to use to cut down losses quickly:

• Remove and assess - test if removing someone or something from your life makes any difference. Example: get off Facebook or LinkedIn for a month and see if anyone noticed it or cried about it. If not, you are free
• Admit mistakes - it makes you wiser and lets you move on instead of being stuck and suffering for no reason
• Get a second opinion - sometimes someone else can help you get out of the rut due to not being emotionally attached
• Pretend you don't own it yet - whatever it is you are afraid to lose, pretend you don't have it yet. How much would you pay for it or spend time on it now to get it ?

Blockbuster movies that win Oscars are edited ruthlessly before being released. Learn from the best and become an editor of your life by treating it as a movie. Ruthlessly remove what's not working from your life.

McKeown suggests the following process:

1. Cut - eliminate as many unnecessary options as possible
2. Condense - be clear and concise. Do more with less
3. Correct - correct your course when necessary when something doesn't work
4. Edit less - don't be obsessed with editing too much, don't overdo it

Protect your time from distractions and people who abuse your time by setting powerful boundaries. Build the wall to enjoy spending time on what matters the most to you

Do the following: 

• lock yourself in a room to eliminate personal interruptions
• disconnect from the world by leaving all your gadgets in a different room
• add a signature to your email that you only check it once or twice a day 
• use a pomodoro technique to protect your time and work deeply
• сomplete our mini-course on protecting the mind

Essentialists understand that life is unexpected and can hit very hard at any time and from any direction. They spend a substantial amount of time preparing for bad times and unexpected things. They know this safety net will pay off big way when the unexpected happens.

The author suggests the following techniques for planning:

• use extreme preparation - collect as much information as possible, but don't get stuck in perfection
• add 50% to critical estimates - take into account our poor ability to estimate correctly and our tendency to underestimate due to social pressures
• introduce scenario planning - identify risks, worst case scenarios, social effects, financial impacts, and other unexpected things. Think about how to reduce the risks and improve resilience.

Essentialists know the secret of moving fast in the crazy world of rapid change. Instead of working more they remove more. They look at the whole system as a chain, identify the weakest element, and eliminate it with passion. And after that? They rinse and repeat.

To win BIG in life start SMALL:

• adopt the concept of MVP - minimal viable progress to keep yourself motivated all the time
• ask yourself "What's is the smallest step I can take that will be valuable to the important task I am trying to achieve"
• split a major task into smaller chunks and start with the first one (exactly what Brian Tracy says in Eat That Frog book)
• visually reward progress by introducing a task management and task tracking system

McKeown says designing routines helps achieve important goals on auto-pilot. He refers to multiple research studies and explains why developing routines is critical:

• most of our actions are habitual meaning we do things on auto-pilot without even thinking about it
• when this happens the brain doesn't waste energy on making decisions which is good and leaves a lot of energy for creative work but the question is...
• what kind of habits and routines dominate in your life ? Good or Bad?
• habits have 3 parts: trigger, behaviour, reward. Identify the trigger and replace the behaviour to get the same reward

Here is an example on how to set a powerful routine of becoming an expert in your field by taking small daily actions:

• Step 1 - Preparation: prepare a list of educational materials upfront to eliminate any resistance in the future
• Step 2 - Trigger: you come home tired
• Step 3 - Behaviour: most people watch a TV to "decompress". Instead replace this behaviour with reading or watching educational materials you prepared in step 1. Here is why step 1 is crucial, when you are tired and no material is available watching a TV is much easier - it doesn't make you think. Looking for the material though requires quite a few steps which takes willpower but it's already depleted. Make it easy to do the right things.
• Step 4 - Reward: introduce a visual system for celebrating another small step towards becoming an expert in your field

To operate at peak performance levels requires you to be present by focusing on what is important right now. Therefore do the following:

• Eliminate multi-tasking - our brains can do 2 or more things at a time, they have to keep switching between the tasks
• Stop travelling to the past to relive painful experiences
• Prevent travels to the future to imagine terrible scenarios
• Stay in the present moment, right here and right now
• Ask yourself "What minimal progress can I achieve right NOW ?" Remember, the past can't be changed and the only time you have to build your future is now

Essentialism is not what you do, it's who you ARE. It's your new identity. 

Once you have understood the above principles at the emotional level, Essentialism becomes your nature.

If you are still not sure what Essentialism is and if you don't understand why saying NO to more people and "opportunities" is critical, by all means keep getting busier. Burning out is one of the best ways to eventually get it.

If however, you believe the time has come to simplify your life and ruthlessly eliminate the unimportant then start taking small steps (remember MVP ?) towards becoming the Essentialist. It takes time. But it's worth it.

You are either ready for Essentialism and you will find time  ​-OR- you are too busy getting busier and missing life. 

The choice is yours.