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- Recorded, edited, and published nearly 50 YouTube videos<\/a>. These are rough, and I know it, but I’m learning from them \u2014 and having fun.<\/li>\n
- Given up alcohol. And recently, I’ve given up pot. I’m experimenting with complete sobriety for a while.<\/li>\n
- Lost nearly twenty pounds through simple, sensible eating (and calorie counting). This morning, I weighed in at 186.8, down 17.4 pounds since I started on July 28th.<\/li>\n
- Cleaned and organized nearly every space in my life, “editing” my belongings in an attempt to cut back to the essentials.<\/li>\n
- Worked hard in the yard. I’ve built a fence with one neighbor and am starting another fence with a second neighbor. Plus, I’ve continued our landscaping projects.<\/li>\n
- Begun reading again for pleasure. Yay!<\/em><\/li>\n
- And much, much more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I’ve had a busy three months. And while, yes, I’ve had a few bouts of depression, they’ve been minor and brief. Mostly, I’ve been happy and productive.<\/p>\n
Not much of that productivity has been directed at this website, and I’m okay with that. I know there’s plenty of personal finance inside me ready to be shared in due time.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it’s been rewarding to devote so much time to essentials, to the core concerns of my life.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Essentialism<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Essentialism](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/essentialism.jpg\" "\\"Essentialism")
<\/a>I’m currently reading Essentialism<\/em><\/a> by Greg McKeown. It’s a book about “the disciplined pursuit of less”. McKeown argues that instead of trying to get more things done, we’d be better served by getting the right<\/em> things done. I find that he’s articulating some of the choices I’ve made over the past three months, that he’s expressing the reasons for my change.<\/p>\n“Almost everything is noise,” McKeown writes. “Very few things are essential.” He argues that we should live by design, not by default. We should aim to make one-time decisions that obviate the need for dozens (or thousands!) of future decisions. We should determine where our “highest point of contribution” is, then focus on that.<\/p>\n
McKeown’s philosophy comprises three steps.<\/p>\n
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- Explore and evaluate.<\/strong> An essentialist, he says, exposes herself to new ideas. She’s curious. She explores the world and everything it has to offer. As she does, she evaluates the objects and opportunities that come her way, trying to identify those that are most aligned with her goals.<\/li>\n
- Eliminate.<\/strong> It’s not enough to explore and evaluate, though. An essentialist also has to learn to say no. As he explores and evaluates, he has to reject anything that distracts him from his purpose. “It’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution,” McKeown says. “You sill have to actively eliminate those that do not.\u201d This step is tough for me.<\/li>\n
- Execute.<\/strong> Finally, an essentialist must take action. He needs to develop a plan and follow through with it. From the book: “This is not a process you undertake once a year, once a month, or even once a week…It is a discipline<\/em> you apply each every time you are faced with a decision.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In other words, you must constantly and deliberately be exploring the world, then eliminate the noise, identify the handful of extraordinary opportunities, and pursue them with vigor.<\/p>\n
This is, in essence, what I’ve been doing for the past three months, although I haven’t had a name for it until now. I like what McKeown calls it: essentialism. I’ve been moving toward essentialism. And it’s producing great results!<\/p>\n
<\/span>Taming Email<\/span><\/h2>\n
My pursuit of essentialism started with a change to the way I handle email.<\/p>\n
For years now, email has been the bane of my existence. I hate it. I have several email accounts, each of which is flooded with people demanding my attention. It’s all so much “noise”, to use McKeown’s terminology.<\/p>\n
- Eliminate.<\/strong> It’s not enough to explore and evaluate, though. An essentialist also has to learn to say no. As he explores and evaluates, he has to reject anything that distracts him from his purpose. “It’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution,” McKeown says. “You sill have to actively eliminate those that do not.\u201d This step is tough for me.<\/li>\n