Too busy to read?

Because Essentialists will commit and "go big" on only the vital few ideas or activities, they explore more options at first to ensure they pick the right one later.

The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first was chronos. The second was kairos. The Greek god Chronos was imagined as an elderly, grey-haired man, and his name connotes the literal ticking clock, the chronological time, the kind we measure (and race about trying to use efficiently). Kairos is different. While it is difficult to translate precisely, it refers to time that is opportune, right, different. Chronos is quantitative; kairos is qualitative. The latter is experienced only when we are fully in the moment - when we exist in the now.

Say, "Yes. What should I deprioritise?" Saying no to a senior leader at work is almost unthinkable, even laughable, for many people. However, when saying yes is going to compromise your ability to make the highest level of contribution to your work, it is also your obligation. In this case it is not only reasonable to say no, it is essential. One effective way to do that is to remind your superiors what you would be neglecting if you said yes and force them to grapple with the trade-off.

run around with fire extinguishers in times of flood.

the faintest pencil is better than the strongest memory.

"We need to learn the slow 'yes' and the quick 'no.'

But while rhetoric can certainly inspire, we need to remember that concrete objectives have the power to elevate and inspire as well. A powerful essential intent inspires people partially because it is concrete enough to answer the question, "How will we know when we have succeeded?" ... the actor/social entrepreneur Brad Pitt, who, appalled by the lack of progress in rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, had started an organisation called "Make It Right" with the essential intent "to build 150 affordable, green, storm-resistant homes for families living in the Lower 9th Ward." That statement took the air out of the room. The concreteness of the objective made it real.

In this example is the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important. Because some things are so much more important, the effort in finding those things is worth it.

when a request would come in he would pause and evaluate the request against a tougher criteria: "Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?"

The work Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has done on creativity demonstrates how highly creative people use strict routines to free up their minds. "Most creative individuals find out early what their best rhythms are for sleeping, eating, and working, and abide by them even when it is tempting to do otherwise," Mihaly says. "They wear clothes that are comfortable, they interact only with people they find congenial, they do only things they think are important. Of course, such idiosyncrasies are not endearing to those they have to deal with.... But personalizing patterns of action helps to free the mind from the expectations that make demands on attention and allows intense concentration on matters that count."

Instead of asking, "Is there a chance I will wear this someday in the future?" you ask more disciplined, tough questions: "Do I love this?" and "Do I look great in it?" and "Do I wear this often?" If the answer is no, then you know it is a candidate for elimination.

Of the variety of explanations for why we underestimate the amount of time something will take, I believe social pressure is the most interesting. One study found that if people estimated anonymously how long it would take to complete a task they were no longer guilty of the planning fallacy.9 This implies that often we actually know we can't do things in a given time frame, but we don't want to admit it to someone.

we can easily do two things at the same time: wash the dishes and listen to the radio, eat and talk, clear the clutter on our desk while thinking about where to go for lunch, text message while watching television, and so on. What we can't do is concentrate on two things at the same time. When I talk about

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it's about how to get the right things done. It doesn't mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

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?"

explore, eliminate, execute

Bob Bowman, designed this physical routine with Phelps. But that's not all. He also gave Phelps a routine for what to think about as he went to sleep and first thing when he awoke. He called it "Watching the Videotape."2 There was no actual tape, of course. The "tape" was a visualisation of the perfect race. In exquisite detail and slow motion Phelps would visualise every moment from his starting position on top of the blocks, through each stroke, until he emerged from the pool, victorious, with water dripping off his face.

also suggest that once every ninety days or so you take an hour to read your journal entries from that period. But don't be overly focused on the details, like the budget meeting three weeks ago or last Thursday's pasta dinner. Instead, focus on the broader patterns or trends. Capture the headline. Look for the lead in your day, your week, your life. Small, incremental changes are hard to see in the moment but over time can have a huge cumulative effect.

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn't mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way.

The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the non-essentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.

These days the pace of our lives is only getting faster and faster. It is as if we are driving one inch behind another car at one hundred miles an hour. If that driver makes even the tiniest unexpected move - if he slows down even a little, or swerves even the smallest bit - we'll ram right into him. There is no room for error. As a result, execution is often highly stressful, frustrating, and forced. Here are a few tips for keeping your work - and sanity - from swerving off the road by creating a buffer.

STRATEGY IS ABOUT MAKING CHOICES, TRADE-OFFS. IT'S ABOUT DELIBERATELY CHOOSING TO BE DIFFERENT. --Michael Porter

evaluate requests based on the timid criteria, "Can I actually fulfil this request, given the time and resources I have?" If the answer was no then he would refuse the request.

Essentialists systematically explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any. Because they will commit and "go big" on one or two ideas or activities, they deliberately explore more options at first to ensure that they pick the right one later.

When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration. When there is a high level of clarity, on the other hand, people thrive.

From chemistry we know that gases expand to fill the space they are in; similarly, we've all experienced how projects and commitments tend to expand - despite our best efforts - to fill the amount of time allotted to them.

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? By systematically identifying and removing this "constraint" you'll be able to significantly reduce the friction keeping you from executing what is essential.

That is, until we look at a less well-known finding from the same study: that the second most important factor differentiating the best violinists from the good violinists was actually sleep. The best violinists slept an average of 8.6 hours in every twenty-four-hour period: about an hour longer than average. Over the period of a week they also spent an average of 2.8 hours napping in the after-noon: about two hours longer than the average. Sleep, the authors of the study concluded, allowed these top performers to regenerate so that they could practise with greater concentration. So yes, while they practised more, they also got more out of those hours of practise because they were better rested.

MOST OF WHAT EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE - OUR ACTIONS, AND ALL OTHER FORCES, RESOURCES, AND IDEAS - HAS LITTLE VALUE AND YIELDS LITTLE RESULT; ON THE OTHER HAND, A FEW THINGS WORK FANTASTICALLY WELL AND HAVE TREMENDOUS IMPACT. --Richard Koch

"Only a few things really matter," and "I can do anything but not everything."

The reality is, saying yes to any opportunity by definition requires saying no to several others.

GIVE ME SIX HOURS TO CHOP DOWN A TREE AND I WILL SPEND THE FIRST FOUR SHARPENING THE AXE. --Attributed to Abraham Lincoln

THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS. --Lin Yutang

Less but better.

"I must apologise: if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter."

So we introduced a token system.9 The children were given ten tokens at the beginning of the week. These could each be traded in for either thirty minutes of screen time or fifty cents at the end of the week, adding up to $5 or five hours of screen time a week. If a child read a book for thirty minutes, he or she would earn an additional token, which could also be traded in for screen time or for money. The results were incredible: overnight, screen time went down 90 per cent, reading went up by the same amount, and the overall effort we had to put into policing the system went way, way down. In other words, non-essential activity dramatically decreased and essential activity dramatically increased. Once a small amount of initial effort was invested to set up the system, it worked without friction.

To quote Tony Blair, what if they could be tough on crime but also tough on the causes of crime?

"Focus on the hardest thing first." After all, as Ray said to me: "We already have too much to think about. Why not eliminate some of them by establishing a routine?"

SEPARATE THE DECISION FROM THE RELATIONSHIP When people ask us to do something, we can confuse the request with our relationship with them. Sometimes they seem so interconnected, we forget that denying the request is not the same as denying the person. Only once we separate the decision from the relationship can we make a clear decision and then separately find the courage and compassion to communicate it.

His newfound commitment to doing only the things that were truly important - and eliminating everything else - restored the quality of his work. Instead of making just a millimetre of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the things that were truly vital.

The Latin root of the word decision - cis or cid - literally means "to cut" or "to kill."

add a 50 per cent buffer to the amount of time we estimate it will take to complete a task or project

As the Dalai Lama, another true Essentialist, has said: "If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness."

EVERY DAY DO SOMETHING THAT WILL INCH YOU CLOSER TO A BETTER TOMORROW. --Doug Firebaugh

David Thoreau (who wrote, "I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; ... so simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real").5

HALF OF THE TROUBLES OF THIS LIFE CAN BE TRACED TO SAYING YES TOO QUICKLY AND not saying no soon enough.

REMEMBER THAT A CLEAR "NO" CAN BE MORE GRACEFUL THAN A VAGUE OR NONCOMMITTAL "YES" As anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of this situation knows, a clear "I am going to pass on this" is far better than not getting back to someone or stringing them along with some noncommittal answer like "I will try to make this work" or "I might be able to" when you know they can't. Being vague is not the same as being graceful, and delaying the eventual "no" will only make it that much harder - and the recipient that much more resentful.

The awkward pause. Instead of being controlled by the threat of an awkward silence, own it. Use it as a tool.

The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away - it can only be forgotten.

The soft "no" (or the "no but"). I recently received an e-mail inviting me to coffee. I replied: "I am consumed with writing my book right now :) But I would love to get together once the book is finished. Let me know if we can get together towards the end of the summer."

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing"

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"

"If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?"

either we can say no and regret it for a few minutes, or we can say yes and regret it for days, weeks, months, or even years. The only way out of this trap is to learn to say no firmly, resolutely, and yet gracefully. Because once we do, we find, not only that our fears of disappointing or angering others were exaggerated, but that people actually respect us more. Since becoming an Essentialist I have found it almost universally true that people respect and admire those with the courage of conviction to say no.