The Big Idea: Do less but achieve more by focusing on the true essentials.
- Most of what typical people do is non-essential.
- Ignore what typical people do, because typical people tend to focus on being busy — not on doing the right things.
- Treat your time has highly valuable.
- If you value your time, then you can’t say yes to everything
- 80/20 rule means some of your efforts yield most of your results.
- Since we all have limited time, those high-yield efforts are the most essential ones.
- Southwest became dominant because Herb Kelleher focused on the essentials and said no to non-essentials: destinations not on the map, meals, first-class.
- If you don’t prioritize your time, others will do it for you.
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- Escape: create a time and a space where you can escape interruptions for deep work
- Look: learn to find the signal in the noise
- Play: play broadens your range and sparks innovation
- Sleep: good sleep leads to good decisions, creative thinking, and high performance
- Select: carefully choose what opportunities to explore; it’s either hell yeah or no
- Clarify: know your intent; make decisions that eliminates other decisions
- Dare: say no firmly/gracefully and people will respect you
- Uncommit: don’t be afraid to cut your losses and change direction
- Edit: cut out the nonessential to focus on the essential
- Limit: create boundaries to create freedom (eg. checklists)
- Buffer: give yourself a margin of error
- Subtract: remove unnecessary obstacles
- Progress: start small, keep it simple, build a system for long-term success
- Flow: implement routines that makes execution effortless
- Focus: All I do is WIN = What’s Important Now?
- Be: Don’t do essentialism, be an essentialist
