Modern world problems

Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Or maybe felt burned out? Or overscheduled?

What about feeling insanely busy but not productive?

Like you´re always in motion but getting nowhere.

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then you’re not alone.

Just as we have observed the exponential growth technology has gone through the last decade, there’s also been a similar exponential increase in choices.

And thanks to this never-ending stream of seemingly inescapable requests for our time, we’ve lost sight of what’s truly important.

Much has been said on how hyperconnected our world is and how detrimental this information overload can be, but little has been said about the increased social pressure that came with it.

With a click of a button, people are now able to share their opinion about what we should be focusing on and why.

It’s not just information overload; It’s opinion overload.

And as we face this “new world”, for the first time ever, humanity’s been left unprepared.

The preponderance of choice has overwhelmed our ability to manage it.

Decision fatigue, that’s what psychologists call it. The feeling of being overwhelmed by too many choices and making worst decisions as a result.

By living in a time were choice and expectations have increased exponentially, this results in a everlasting feeling of induced stressed as we try to cram yet more activities into our already overscheduled lives.

And we’re so deep into this time-starved reality that we’ve mananged to corrupt ancient semantics for the sake of our needs.

For nearly 500 years the word priority existed as a singular, meaning a thing that is regarded as the most important or urgent. But, it was in the 1900’s were humanity made a collective decision to change this to plural.  

So now, it’s not a rare sight to see people talk about priority-es.

So in the midst of this priority-crysis, a solution is born.

What author Greg McKeown calles Essentialism.

And what is that you may ask?

Well, let me use Greg’s definition for an easier understanding.

Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

So, why is Essentialism important?

The closet analogy

Here’s an exercise for you.

Get up and walk directly to your closet. Proceed to open the door and take a propper look inside.

Now, if you’re completely honest with me, then you’ll realize that there’s a big amount of clothes that you rarely use, and some of them have never been used at all.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that there’s only a 10%-20% of clothes that you use regularly, and the rest of them are a once a year outfits.

But take no blame with it. We naturally accumulate an endless amount of useless things throughout our lives. Clothes being one of them.

Unfortunately, just like our closet, our lives also get cluttered . In this case, with “well intended” commitments and activities who’s only purpose is to drive us away from what’s most important.

And the problem is that we´re sacrificing our most important asset, time, and sadly it’s quite limited.

Which means that the time we spend doing the Nonessential, is the time we lose from the Essential.

Terrible right?

That’s were Essentialism comes in.

Here’s how an Essentialist would approach the closet dilemma:

1. Explore and evaluate: Instead of asking “Is there a chance I will wear this someday in the future?”, you ask more disciplined and tough questions “Do I love this?” ”Do I look great in it?”. This is the equivalent of asking “Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution toward my goal?”

2. Eliminate: If you’re still unsure to throw some clothes away, specially due to the sunk-cost bias we have with things we own, ask this: “If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?”. In other words, it’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution; you still have to actively eliminate those that do not.

3. Execute: If you want your closet to stay tidy you need a regular routine for organizing it. This means having a bag for items to throw away, knowing your thrift shop attending hours, and more. In other words, once you’ve figured out which activities and efforts to keep - the ones that make you the highest level of contribution - you need a system to make executing your intentions as effortless as possible.

Though, unlike our closet, our lives are far more variable. And by relying on Essentialism, we´ll be able to handle the perpetual demands for our time.

The way of the Essentialist

In order to avoid getting snared in the death-grip of the nonessentials, we must follow the Essentialist framework which has 3 crucial steps:

• Explore: Discerning the trivial many from the vital few

• Eliminate: Cutting out the trivial many

• Execute: Removing obstacles and making execution effortless

For us to adopt this new framework we also need to change our perspective.

We need to stop glorifying being busy as a measurement of importance.

We need to stop saying Yes to every request that comes our way.

We need to say No more often.

We need to prioritize ourselves, above all.

We need to become an Essentialist.

Becoming an essentialist

For this, we must first understand the three realities without which Essentialist thinking would be neither relevant nor possible:

1. Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time.

2. The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.

3. The reality of trade-offs: We can’t have it all or do it all.

Understanding this concepts is key to fully embrace Essentialist thinking.

Choice

First we must acknowledge choice as an invincible power within us.

We need to realize chosing is not merely a thing, but an act.

And we may not always have control over our options, but we will always have control over how we choose among them.

Noice

The unimportance of practically everything

You see, once you start advancing in your adulthood, there’s two undeniable truths you’ll run accross:

1. The world ain’t fair

2. Working hard is important. But more effort does not necessarily yield more results.

It was more than 200 years ago when Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto came to a realization that would reach far beyond the limits of Economics.

By looking at the land distribution in Italy, and later at pea plants production, he realized that they all followed the same patterns of ditribution and what we call nowadays the 80/20 rule.

This rule states that 80% of outcomes often result from 20% of the causes.

And here lies one of the tenets of Essentialist thinking:

Trade-offs

The problem with trade-offs and the reason why it’s so tempting to deny their existence is because, by definition a trade-off involves two things we desire. And when faced with the choice of either one of them, the preferred answer will always be “both”.

But, as much as we’d like it, we cannot have it all.

But as a new-born Essentialist, you now understand the power of trade-offs. You realize they provide opportunities to chase after that 20%, to find and work on our highest point of contribution.

The 3 steps to becoming an Essentialist

1. Explore: Discerning the trivial many

The main idea here is as follows:

Essentialists explore far more than anyone else because they know it’s far more valuable to spend time trying to find the point of highest contribution, than lose time in anything else.

So, how and where should we explore?

Author Greg McKeown summarizes it perfectly:

So, here’s how you do it:

• Escape: “In order to have focus we need to escape to focus”. Become unavailable and schedule time to think.

• Look: “Only when we have a clear understanding of what we should do, can we make some real progress”. Have a clear understanding of what you’re goal is and you’ll know where to look and how to avoid the noise.

• Play: “Play,” he says, “leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity. Nothing fires up the brain like play”. Play is anything we do for the joy of doing, and that’s where your biggest point of impact is. You can’t outwork someone who’s enjoying it.

• Sleep: “Sleep doesn’t avoid productivity, it enhances it”. It’s all about protecting the asset. Without sleep, you’re not working properly. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

• Select: “If the answer isn’t a definite yes then it should be a no”. Whenever you’re pondering about doing something, think: if we feel total and utter conviction to do something, then we say yes. Anything less gets a thumbs down.

2. Eliminate: How to cut out the trivial many?

It’s not enough to know what to get rid off. The next step is doing so.

Here’s how:

• Clarity: “Motivation and cooperation deteriorate when there is a lack of purpose”. Know what you want and why. That way you won’t waste any extra resource.

• Dare: “People are effective because they say no”. Don’t fall for what psychologists call “normative comformity”. If you don’t want to do something, state it openly. It’s part of prioritizing yourself.

• Uncommit: “Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough”. Avoid the sunk-cost bias.

• Edit: “I must apologize: if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter”. Remember less is better. Value quality over quantity.

• Limit: “Their problem is not your problem”. Setting boundaries is essential to protect your time and your goals.

3. Execute: Doing the vital seem effortless

Going back to the closet metaphor, properly executing means having an efficient system which makes eliminating clothes seemless and effortless. That could mean having boxes to take the clothes in, knowing the schedules of donation centers, having the car ready, etc.

Essentialists invest the time they have saved by eliminating the nonessentials into designing a system to make execution almost effortless.

And here’s how you can do it:

• Buffer: “An essentialist expects the unexpected. It has a buffer for the unforeseen”. This is the power if extreme preparation. If you prepare for the worst case scenario, you’ll never be caught off guard.

• Subtract: “To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day”. Produce more by removing more.

• Progress: “Every day we do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow”. Small constant wins build momentum that will push you towards your next goal.

• Flow: “Making it look easy”. By building a routine we’re allowing our brain to free space from thinking, thus making the difficult become natural.

• Focus: “There is only now”. Ask yourself “what’s important now”. Everything else is out of our control.

Reduce yourself to zero

It’s not enough to know the principles of Essentialism, you need to live by them, otherwise it’s just lip service.

We need to take a leap into a new life, one devoided of acquiescent behaviors and lack of self prioritization.

Inside-out change. That´s what widely famous author Stephen R. Covey’s calls it in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The idea that true change starts from within. From a transformation of character.

Essentialism is not something you do, it´s the way you are.

And once you adopt an Essentialist thinkig you´ll realize that:

Remember this: whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, “What is essential?” Eliminate everything else.

This was a summay of a fantastic book by bestselling author Greg McKeown called Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less .

Greg McKeown is a bestselling author, speaker, and leadership expert known for his work on simplifying life and focusing on what truly matters. He is best recognized for his book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less", which has been translated into over 25 languages and widely praised for its practical advice on productivity and prioritization.

If you wish to learn more about sleep I strongly encourage you to read his book.

Also, here’s a link of my personal notes on his book in case you want a quicker dive into it:

Also, if you stumbled upon this post online, I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter where we review 1 book per week with the goal making knowledge accessible and easy to digest for everyone.

Morning Bites

Small Bites. Big Ideas.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next week.

Live for more,
Luis Beltran
Quito, Ecuador