Essentialism

My wife and I have been talking about essentialism this week, for our family and work lives. The concept is from a book she read that she wants me to read when I’m done reading The Everything Store about Amazon’s early days.

I’m in a hurry right now–doing my morning commute and writing routine–and don’t even know the name of the book, but it’s about focusing only on what matters. Basic stuff of fly-by social quotes we blindly Like without realizing the irony of blindly scrolling/liking social quotes about only doing the essentials each day.

To be fair, social is essential for some people and some jobs. But for most of us, too many things we do each day are non-essential to our personal or job goals.

At home, it’s binging TV instead of doing family time or working on your entrepreneurial and/or creative projects.

At work, it’s thinking meetings and tasks are more important than outcomes. The lie we all tell ourselves is that the process matters. But a process is just a construct that was/is created to drive an outcome. All of us are guilty of holding on tighter to process than outcomes at one time or another, and the bigger the company, the more process can become the thing.

When process becomes the thing, essentialism is out the window and people chase their tails.

Those setting the process think they’re winning, but when the process is the thing, process setters ultimately get slower or less focused outcomes. And those forced to follow a process for the sake of process will get tired, annoyed, and uninspired quickly.

Better to define outcomes and let yourself or your team form their own process. Also easier and more fun to hold ourselves and teams accountable for outcomes rather than processes.

These are my thoughts on essentialism before reading the book. Will be interesting to see how close/far this is.