Doing more with less.
Choosing between buying the red car or the black car? Easy. Selecting a paint color for your living room walls? Much trickier. The more options, the harder it is to make a decision.
In the same vein, there’s a fine line between being busy and being too busy. Between being informed and being inundated with information. Between having enough and having too much of anything (think back to when you last overate, overindulged, or went on an impulsive shopping spree).
Modern-day essentialism recognizes that line.
While minimalism focuses on less, essentialism focuses on fit. Acknowledging that less can be better, the goal of essentialism is to be more deliberate, intentional, and mindful in making choices. Do your choices about how you spend your limited resources (like time, money, and energy) align with your priorities? Do they help you reach your goals? Do they bring you joy and fulfillment?
Debunking the myth of multitasking, diminishing the emphasis on materialism, and recognizing the dangerous pull of constant distractions, essentialism is more than a productivity hack. It’s a way of living a more purposeful - and meaningful - life.
The Perils of Distraction
Distractions prevent you from moving forward. From making progress. They cost you not only time but also - and perhaps more importantly - focus. That’s why multitasking is a misguided strategy in the race to “do it all.” Splitting your attention between concurrent activities or projects dilutes your ability to concentrate on any of them.
You wouldn’t likely allow people to walk in and out of your office while you’re making an important client presentation. Chances are, you’d close the door and silence your phone to ward off unwelcomed interruptions.
Interruptions - distractions - disrupt thoughts. They disrupt the flow. They take you off your game and force you to take the time and energy to return to your original course.
And while a meeting with clients is higher stakes than, say, sitting down at your laptop to compose an email, minimizing distractions throughout your day keeps you on your game. When you start an activity, you complete it. You give it your greatest effort - and get the best results - because nothing hijacks your attention.
Distractions aren’t limited to notifications from your phone or bosses walking into your office or even the choices in your closet.
The most powerful distractions are often the thoughts swirling around in your head, the ones that get in the way of fully experiencing the world around you—and that prevent you from living a rich, fulfilled life.
What is Modern-Day Essentialism?
Too much of anything—be it stuff, choices, responsibilities—is actually very restrictive. By contrast, focusing solely on the essentials affords you true freedom. It might help to think of essentialism as minimalism—with even greater intent.
Essentialism recognizes and respects the brain's limited capacity to process information by emphasizing and maximizing efficiency and removing unnecessary distractions.
As Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less, explains: “It isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s not about getting less done. It’s about getting only the right things done. It’s about challenging the core assumption of ‘we can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time’.”
When you take an essentialist approach, you make proactive, purposeful choices that allow you to cultivate an intentional life, minute by minute, day by day.
How Can You Define Essentialism for Yourself?
Essentialism is highly personalized. What you consider to be “essential” may be entirely different from your boss, best friend, or husband.
Finding what is essential to you is not always easy. First, you have to connect with your authentic self. Who are you? What is essential to your being in the absence of external forces and people in your environment?
