Reading ‘Essentialism’ by Greg McKeown.

This week, I read the New York Times best-selling book 'Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less' by Greg McKeown. In the book McKeown describes an approach similar to minimalism in how we spend our time.

McKeown is an author, public speaker and business strategist. Originally born in London, he earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, in California. Now, McKeown devotes himself to talking about why success is found in some people and teams and not others. One of these efforts is found in the book, Essentialism.

First, I believe it’s important that we take a look at how we normally approach our time.

When asked the question "How are you?", many of us reply "I'm so busy these days." We wear it as a badge of honour, as proof of our hard work and hustle. Some go as far as to say "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" We see this as something to be celebrated. Being lazy is bad so being busy must be good. "Go you! You're achieving success in life. You're the opposite of lazy!" However, I'd like to put to you the words of Dave Ramsey: "We spend more time than we have to do things we detest, to buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like."

McKeown challenges this narrative and asks us if we actually spend our time doing the things that we deem important to us - "The disciplined pursuit of less." We must priorities those few things that are truly important to us and eliminate the rest. The things that really matter: our family, friends, passions and purpose etc.

“The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” —Lin Yutang

Personally, although I believed I managed my time wisely I had a lot to learn from this book. Reading Essentialism opened my eyes to beneficial ways of thinking that I had not even considered. - 3 core principles stuck out to me: (1) Explore: Find what matters, (2) Eliminate: The importance of saying 'no' and (3) Execute: Having a mindset and implementing systems.

Explore: Find what matters

Why?

There is only one, truly limited resource that is most precious to all. Time.

Focusing our time (and thus, our energy) into fewer but more important things will allow us to allocate more of our energy to them. When you think about it, this trade-off just makes sense. - "Instead of making just a millimeter of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the things that were truly vital."

I like to think of a large hamster ball with 3 hamsters in there. If the hamsters run in opposing directions, it cancels out and the ball goes nowhere. However even one hamster can move the ball in one direction, and if all 3 hamsters collaborate, they can move the ball faster. The hamsters are like our efforts.

How?

But, as an essentialist, how do we discern what direction to go in? (1) Counterintuitively, when we are faced with a choice to make, we have to deliberately explore more options than we are presented with! This allows us to be absolutely sure about the one or two things that we will commit to and 'go big' on. These are deliberate decisions in place of impulse reactions. (2) We need to apply tougher criteria when choosing what we spend our time doing. Question it. Spend time with it. Debate it. And then choose. - It's like panning for gold instead of grabbing a handful of dirt and hoping for the best.

McKeown tells us: “we can conduct an advanced search and ask three questions: ‘What do I feel deeply inspired by?’ and ‘What am I particularly talented at?’ and ‘What meets a significant need in the world?’

I would summarise this in one question: "Is this worth my time in pursuing what’s important to me?"

Eliminate: Saying ‘No’

"Cutting out the trivial many" as McKeown puts it. This is the cutting away of those smaller arrows in the diagram above that allows us to focus our efforts on the ‘vital few’. And yes, this will involve saying 'No'. We might have to say no directly to someone and we may have to push against social expectations. - Doing this well takes courage. A ‘no’ can disappoint but fundamentally it is self-respect. If we don't take control of our own time, someone else will.

McKeown’s 3 steps:

Step 1: Affirm the relationship. e.g. “It really is good to hear from you.”

Step 2: Thank the person sincerely for the opportunity. e.g. *“*Thank you ever so much for thinking of me! It sounds like such a brilliant project. I am complimented that you thought of me.”

Step 3: Decline firmly and politely. e.g. For several reasons I need to pass on this at the moment.

Examples may include: "No, I can't make it to that meeting, I have plans with my family." "No thanks, I can't do drinks tonight. I have an important day tomorrow." "No, I'm afraid I can't babysit your child this week, I have other priorities."

Saying no is like any other skill, it can be honed through practice. It is arguably one of the most important skills to develop. It allows you to do as seen in the diagram above: to focus on what is truly important to you.

A 'no' garners respect from others. In the book, McKeown tells us a story of missing his child's birth to attend a work meeting. Imagine how his co-workers and even his boss saw him. He allowed others to control his time. Instead, when you are assertive and protective of your time, people will respect that.

Execute: Mindset and Systems

Buffers

One example that McKeown gives in the book is this concept of buffers. The definition of a buffer is something that forms a barrier between two clashing things to prevent shock or harm.

One example that McKeown talks about in the book is the buffer space we use when driving out cars: In order to be able to react in time, we put enough distance between ourselves and the car in front of us. If we get distracted and forget to maintain our ‘buffer zone’, we end up having to slam the breaks, swerve or potentially colliding with another vehicle.

The same applies to our lives. When we plan for events and commitments we need to give ourselves a ‘buffer zone’ of time. In much the same way, this prevents us from crashing into the next thing and dealing with those consequences.

The Slowest Hiker

Another concept is to subtract: bring forth more by removing obstacles. McKeown tells a story of a scout leader, Alex, leading a troop of boys on a hiking trip. The troop must get to the campsite before sunset, so they must move quickly. However, the boys have different speeds and quickly start to separate. Initially, Alex tells the quicker boys to wait for the rest to catch up. This works temporarily but as soon as they continue walking, that gap returns.

Alex tries a new approach: He puts the slowest hiker (Herbie) at the front and arranges the rest in order of speed with the faster hiker at the back. Now, all the boys are safe together in a single file line and every boy can keep up with the boy in front. But now, the troop is only as fast as the slowest hiker. They might not get to camp in time.

Alex realises that any help he can give to the slowest hiker speeds up the whole group. E.g. he takes some weight out of Herbie’s bag and distributes it amongst the other hikers. If Herbie moves even a little faster, the whole troop moves faster.

McKeown says this: “The question is this: What is the “slowest hiker” in your job or your life? What is the obstacle that is keeping you back from achieving what really matters to you?”

Conclusions

Surprisingly, this was a difficult article to write. There are many things in this book that are well worth talking about and one article isn’t enough for that. But in essence: 'Essentialism' provides us with a definition of how we can find success in our own lives - and I don't mean money and fame. I believe that knowing what's important in life: our loved ones, our passions, our goals, and dedicating our time to those things is what a successful life, looks like.

If you’re the kind of person that is constantly swamped in work and commitments, I definitely recommend you pick up this book.

I’ll leave you with this summary from McKeown: "It's about how to figure out what is essential, eliminate what's not and create a system for making it as effortless as possible to do what you've identified as being very important."