Rating: ⁷⁄₁₀ Read: 2014.06.17

Essentialism is not about how to make things work, but about choosing the right things to work on. If you work on your few priorities the progress will be more advanced then the other way. It’s important to say no to things, and to determine our own values and goals, otherwise another person will choose it for us.

• 3 posy of an essentialist
  • We have to choose for ourselves
  • Exclude the noise
  • We have to say no for the majority of things
• Sunk-cost bias: how much money’d you spend on things if you do not own
• Is this the most important thing that I can do now to achieve my goals?
• Due to the short span of our life, we have to choose and prioritise wisely
• Human tend to accept the default state, forget the other options
• Pareto efficacy
  • Warren Buffet plays only on a few market, despite his knowledge
• When buying things, think abou our time (16 hours equals this shoe)
• Compromise is inevitable, the question is what it will be, and what should I do with my time
• Escape
  • Reading, thinking, escape from the routines and gadget era regularly
    • Bill Gates: Think week every year
    • Twitter CEO, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet: Every day for a few hours
  • Estabilish a physical place, where you can concentrate
    • At Stanford in design place, there are no chairs to relax, to encourage interacts
  • Should we find the place and time for loneliness
• Play
  • Just for fun
  • Its important despite it looks unnecessary
  • Increase creativity due to posing new challenges
  • Decrease stress
  • Advance the executive functions (planning, analysing, delegating)
• Select
  • Either hell yeah or no
  • Have to be selective about things or the common things’ll sink our time
  • Create a few-rounded selection criteria before accepting anything
• Clarify
  • Clarify the goals, precise systems and values
  • But limit its numbers due to the pareto law
• Dare
  • Rake the courage to say no to various opportunities.
  • Fear-of-missing-out is overhyped
  • Focus on what would we give up if we accept the request
• Uncommit
  • Let things/goals/projects to fade, even if it hurts (Sunk-cost bias again)
  • Endowment effect: We value more things if its ours (for activities too!)
  • Omit the non-essential activities from your life, and see whether it has any negative consequences
• Edit
  • Be more efficient and concise in your everyday actions, physical things
• Limit
  • Make borders about our work. Eg.: Just personal things for Saturday
  • If we limit ourselves, others won’t able to do for us
  • If we solve another people’s problem, then It’ll be ours!
• Buffer
  • Extreme pre-planning
  • Avoid planning fallacy
  • What risks do you face on this project?
  • What is the worst-case scenario?
  • What would the social effects of this be?
  • What would the financial impact of this be?
  • How can you reduce risks?
• Progress
  • Make Goal-habit-system
  • Start small, reward the progress
• Flow
  • Create optimal routines
  • Eat that frog first
  • Mix the routines, due to avoid its boringness
  • Have thematical days