These are notes and lessons I've gleaned from the book, Essentialism by Greg Mckeown. 

The Essentialist way of living requires you to trim the fat, to cut out things and 'sacrifice' things you do not deem very important. These things tend to be activities that society 'requires' you to take part in, and therefore it can be difficult to extricate yourself. The book wants to tell you that you have a choice to opt out and focus on what really matters to you.

My gripe with this idea is that not everyone has the privilege to wait for the perfect opportunity to come up. However, when it does present itself, you want to make sure you have space and time in your life to receive it. The first steps you can make is to be more focused in your daily life. This book can be very extreme and perhaps come across as rather condescending to someone who is not as privileged to wait or look for other opportunities. 

It's a catch-22 situation though- we will never know if life would be better if you chose one decision over another. For example, some essentialist ideas do not seem to work if you are in urgent situations. For example, if you are jobless and in need of money, you may jump at any opportunity for a job. In the long term of course the theory is to find a job that fits you and pays you well, but life is rarely so neat. Nevertheless I get where the writer is coming from, but I feel that this advice will benefit people who are in a comfortable situation and able to cruise along until something better comes up.

For myself, I used to be guilty of jumping at opportunities, and sometimes they turn out to be mistakes that drag on for years. Nowadays I try to take issues into deeper consideration before arriving at a conclusion. 

I've been watching reading and watching Sherlock Holmes recently (the books and the BBC film series). Sherlock is definitely an essentialist! He is a keen observer and catches what is not present or not being said. This is a great skill to have!

 

The book uses decluttering ideas as well. Many people know the sunk cost fallacy but not many find the strength to make the decisions they know they need to make. For myself, I find that recycling/upcycling values tend to clash with the 'chuck-it -out' mentality of decluttering.

The writer also offers a look into his life of essentialism, placing family first. Here are some examples he shared.

• Choosing to push back a work deadline in order to go camping with his children.
• Choosing to say no to a speaking opportunity to have a date night with his wife.
• Choosing to turn down work offers because he knows that it meant time away from family.

These are not easy decisions for the layman to make. But with practice, the writer suggests, our decision making will become stronger. Subtract the distractions and leave only the essential