Essentialism is the disciplined pursuit of less, the practice of identifying the signal in the sea of noise, separating the vital few from the trivial many.

By mastering this practice we can become masters of productivity and time management, simply because we know how and where to focus our energy and efforts.

Lesson 1 in this episode, is the “Don’t Bury The Lead” exercise. Tune in to see how well you do 😉

Essentialism Vs. Non Essentialism

Non-Essentialists

  • Pays attention to the loudest voice
  • Hears everything being said
  • Is overwhelmed by all the information

Essentialists

  • Pay attention to the signal in the noise
  • Hear what is not being said
  • Scans to find the essence of the information

Essentialism In Practice: Huckberry Case Study

Huckberry is a rapidly growing curator of outdoor and active lifestyle gear that equips and inspires __ for the activities they love most.

Essentialism is required reading at Huckberry, and we sat down with Executive Director of Marketing and Partnerships, Ben O’Meara for look behind the curtain to see how they’ve been able to enjoy so much success so quickly.

Part of that conversation included an in-depth look at how Huckberry practices the art of Essentialism in the design, marketing, and the day to day operations for their high performing organization. We’ve included that clip in this short podcast episode.

Multitaskers = “Suckers For Irrelevancy”

For those still not convinced that less, but better is the way to go, here are two studies from Stanford University that show how multitasking decreases productivity and memory retention.

According to the researchers, there is no such thing as multitasking, it’s actually constant task switching or juggling. This practice results in less efficient work output and even lowers scores on memory tests due to a decreased ability to organize information for recall.

The researchers concluded that those who engage in multitasking are “suckers for irrelevancy”.

One more important note, the more we do this, the more we program our brains to seek these irrelevant, trivial noises rather than focusing on the vital few signals. **cough, constant email checking and social media scrolling, cough **

Links & Resources