Applying Takeaways from the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Welcome to Part Two!

Last month I read (listened via Audible) to the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. So I’m sharing more of McKeown’s genius nuggets on what is essential.

I loved it and found a lot of the concepts and topics applicable to organizing and productivity. If you missed the first blog post you can catch up here.

More Essential Takeaways

Small & Steady

In the book McKeown talks about power in progress. Progress towards your goal is the win. You don’t only get one win when the goal is completed you are constantly achieving wins as you progress. He discusses making small changes or adjustments to your systems, schedules and life to create big impacts. I loved this!

It reminded me immediately of the saying “slow and steady” wins the race but its really small and steady. In small increments you will get closer to your goals.

In organizing, I say this to clients. You can make a big impact on a space with consistent small efforts. You can break down the task of organizing an entire room by working each day or week for even 15 minutes at a time. You are making progress. The more you sort, purge and take action on the closer you get to that goal of an organized room.

The same goes for a big work project, break it down into smaller chunks and consistently work on it. Another way to look at ‘small & steady’ is building a new habit. If you want to work on getting up early to work out or changing your routine, start small. Start waking up 5-10 minutes earlier for a week.

Be consistent and adjust your time as you get comfortable with it. It’s a small change but before you know it your body will be used to waking up an hour earlier and it wasn’t a huge shock to your system.

Think & Escape

Think and escape sound like they should not be one category and in the book they are separated but I think they really work well together.

McKeown states that the busier we get the more essential it is that we build in time to just think. He also says we need to schedule time to escape our routines and stressors of work and life. I think these go hand in hand. We actually are allowing our brains to think when we let ourselves escape. We need freedom to think.

We focus well most of the time but escaping allows us to imagine and using our imagination leads to creative thinking. So many people say they have their best ideas while running or exercising or outdoors. This is not a coincidence.

We stopped working our task list and let our creative juices flow. So I strongly suggest you grab your calendar and find some time to schedule an escape. It doesn’t have to be long. It could be 2 walks a week or a whole weekend in a tiny house alone. Just make time for it.

Awareness & Choices

McKeown says mindfulness gives you time and choices skillfully made give you freedom. Mindfulness is a big buzzword these days and might not resonate with everyone so let’s talk about being time aware. Are you aware of where you spend your time?

If you know where your time goes then you can make better choices about your time. That’s key. A lot of us don’t truly understand how we spend our day.

When I work with Productivity clients we track our time for about a week. It’s so important to know where your time goes. It is the only thing we can’t get back or make more of. So having that information is key to then making better decisions.

If you find you’re spending too much time chatting at work or binging television then you can make different decisions going forward if that does not align with your goals. I’m not saying better, I’m saying different.

If you know where your time goes and can make better choices you will feel better about time and feel like you have enough time. The most resonating statement McKeown makes is – people are a good use of time. See where your time is spent. You will never regret spending more time with people you care about and building relationships so prioritize people or things.

Final Thoughts on what is essential

I hope something resonated with you form both these takeaway blogs on what is essential. I think this book makes you think about what you really want out of life. So if you’re ready to dive in and explore that I suggest reading (or listening) to this book.

Think about these essentialism strategies and practices and implement them into your life to improve your life. Don’t try to overhaul your life to become an essentialist overnight.

That’s something that takes time and you constantly work on. Instead start small and pick something from this blog to apply to your life this week. See what it can do for you!

Contact me here or my social media for more!