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ESSENTIALISM
- Essentialism is a systematic, disciplined method for identifying our greatest areas of contribution and for making those activities nearly effortless.
65
917 reads
"Entrepreneurs succeed when they say 'Yes' to the right project, at the right time, in the right way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying 'No' to all their other ideas. Essentialism offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards"
REID HOFFMAN
63
681 reads
DESIGN A PLAN TO ESCAPE
- First and foremost, you need a place to escape, Whatever place we choose will be our safe space.
- As you're choosing your space, you should be picky. Your area needs to be good enough to help you focus while completing your daily tasks. Not just any space will do.
- Having the right room for you will improve creativity while boosting productivity. With that in mind, it may take a while to build the space you want to use for your personal and professional projects.
- Finding your get-away room is the first step to achieving what you want in life without cluttering reality.
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616 reads
ESSENTIALISTS HAVE MORE OPTIONS THAN NON-ESSENTIALISTS
- Non-essentialists get excited by many things, leading them to react to everything in life. These individuals become distracted by their pursuit of anything and everything.
- Essentialists go all out for the things that light a fire within them. They don't focus on things that they care little about.
- To make time for exploration, you must use the private room you've created like Newton who quarantined inside his home for a year during the Great Plague. During this time, he formulated gravitational theory and became a famous mathematician.
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522 reads
IF IT ISN'T A CLEAR YES, THEN IT'S A CLEAR NO
- Often, we fall somewhere between 'Yes' and 'No' on decisions we need to make. We want to avoid saying 'Yes' but we don't to rule it out either for fear of missing out altogether.
- We should stop this back and forth. We should decide whether to say "Yes" or "No" unequivocally.
- We can't keep deciding on things half-heartedly. We're either in or out. There's no in-between with essentialism.
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443 reads
ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:
- What am I deeply passionate about?
- What taps into my talent?
- What meets a significant need in the world?
- Applying more rigid criteria to decision-making process will make it more likely for us to pick higher level choices. If we challenge how we think about a question, we're more likely to get a straight answer.
- If someone asks you to do something you're not interested in, your answer should be "NO" If someone asks you to do something that doesn't fit your talents, the answer should be "NO"
- Looking at things through a binary lens can helpĀ decide faster. It frees up time for things that matter.
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408 reads
DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE
- Find your life purpose, so you can work on that one thing, If you know that there's one thing for you to do, why would you work on anything but that one thing for the rest of your life?
- For example, your mission statement may be to help people live their lives to the max. With this mission in mind, you can decide what is and isn't worth your time.
- As you're practicing decision making, you may find that you're saying 'no' more often than 'yes.'
- PuttingĀ ten items on your plate instead of forty can make a big difference. You'll be able to give more of yourself to the things that matter.
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346 reads
Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, "What do I have to give up?" they ask, "What do I want to go big on?" The cumulative impact of this small change in thinking can be profound."
GREG MCKEOWN
64
328 reads
GET ENOUGH SLEEP
- Getting enough sleep may seem out of the blue, Sleep is essential to essentialism. Sleep is the dividing factor between talented people who do and don't get the work done.
- Whether we get all of our sleep at night or break up our rest into two long naps, we need to get enough deep sleep to help us drive ourselves through the day.
- Getting enough sleep isn't just about getting 7 - 9 hours a night. We need to getĀ qualityĀ sleep for those hours to count.Ā
- Sleeping 10 hours in one night will do nothing if only one of them is a quality hour to sleep.
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291 reads
MAKE A DAILY ROUTINE
- Essentialism is about everyday progress. Its the small steps that lead toward significant differences. We have to be patient enough to wait for the improvement to happen.
- The only thing that matters is that you're making forward progress towards the things you want to do. No one said that we have to finish our entire to-do list today.
- Essentialists design daily routines that yield more significant results in a shorter time. They still work as hard as others, but deliver better results. Between their motivation and time management, essentialists can do more thanĀ non-essentialists.
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292 reads
SET CLEAR BOUNDARIES
- To practice essentialism, we need clear boundaries. How are we going to remove things from our lives if we aren't willing to set boundaries around our wants?
- Unfortunately, saying 'no' is a weak spot for many of us. Prior generations have taught us to do what's expected and to let no one down. While it's great to help people out, it's not so great if that detracts from our lives.
- Setting boundaries is a fairly new thing for our generation. If there's someone who always expects you to be available for them, it's time put an end to it. You deserve more than being bossed around by someone else.
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275 reads
DO FEWER THINGS BETTER
- The number one lesson that we should learn after reading essentialism is that we need to do fewer things better. We should focus on a select number of things rather than trying to do everything at once.
- Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the 20 things that we're trying to get done, we can live to the fullest by working on our five favourite things. These are the things that give us life and purpose.
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273 reads
KEY INSIGHTS OF ESSENTIALISM
- DESIGGN A PLACE TO ESCAPE
- ESSENTIALISTS HAVE MORE OPTIONS THAN NON-ESSENTIALISTS.
- IF IT ISN'T A CLEAR YES, THEN IT'S A CLEAR NO
- DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFEĀ
- GET ENOUGH SLEEP
- MAKE A DAILY ROUTINE.
- SET CLEAR BOUNDARIES
- DO FEWER THINGS BETTER.
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343 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
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CURATOR'S NOTE
ESSENTIALISM
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Curious about different takes? Check out our Essentialism Summary book page to explore multiple unique summaries written by Deepstash users.
š©ššš 's ideas are part of this journey:
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