The Power of Less

  Career Development   New Practitioners   ProjectsAtWork  

“Essentialism” is more than a time-management or productivity technique. It is a systemic discipline that drives us to ask questions that go deeper than “Is this meeting important?” and venture “Is this project actually going to make a difference in our organization?” And it requires the scheduling of “blank space.”

Have you ever found yourself saying, "The day got away from me?" You set goals; you have a strategy; you think know what's most important. Then, somehow, your day is hijacked by other people's agendas.

It's like fish nibbling away at a giant carcass on the floor of the ocean. One little fish or two won't make much of a dent in the big body. But when all the other fish get wind of its availability, they descend in mass and within minutes the carcass is gone. Only in this case the carcass is you. Your day, your week, your month, and even your life can get away from you if you let it.  When you continually find yourself at the mercy of other's agendas, it's often because you're trying to do everything, rather than discerning what is truly essential.

Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less writes, "Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systemic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then …

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