Lexie Carroll’s Reviews > Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less > Status Update

Smooth execution is greatly facilitated by building in ample buffers and slack. Prepare early and amply. Don’t try to cram a ton of things in, and watch out for the planning fallacy (underestimating how long a task will take). As a rule, add 50% to your time estimates.

This book seems full of small self-contradictions. Fx editing: take a 2-sentence message and say it with 1. Example of furniture designer who made every piece have 2-3 functions. But then wait- “condensing doesn’t mean doing more at one”- but that’s exactly what you just illustrated with your last example. Then, he literally says “edit less.” Okay so do this thing, but also, don’t do it.

I’m horrified and even disgusted at Peter Drucker’s response (refusal) of an invitation to interview with a professor who he admired and respected, saying “the work of productivity consists of not doing anything that helps the work of other people, but spending all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do.” Selfish shortsighted isolationism at its finest. What a missed opportunity to learn.

CLARITY of our vision and COURAGE to actually enact it (including saying no) are needed to practice essentialism, especially in the brass tacks moments when tempting distractions arise.
( Story of Stephen R. Covey keeping his daughter date after invited to a spontaneous dinner with a past colleague).

“Protect the Asset”- the Asset is SELF. We can only give & produce if the self is taken care of.

***This principle also applies to how we see and utilize Earth’s natural resources. Earth is (not just) an asset (but can be thought of that way for this purpose). Overworking and pushing to the limit for immediate productivity don’t work for us, and it won’t work for (long term) sustaining of the Earth.

When we ignore the reality of trade-offs, and the fact that we cannot, in fact, do it all, then we unknowingly allow circumstances to decide for us. We have not leveraged our power of choice as well as we could, and the outcomes are usually disappointing. By trying to do it all we forfeit the power that comes with deliberate choice.

Essentialism is summed up succinctly as: “Less but better”
3 iterative steps to practice it:
1. Evaluate options
2. Eliminate the non-essential
3. Execute the essential