Dieter Rams - Less But Better

I started reading a new book today.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

I managed to devour 50 pages in the 20 minute bus journey home from work tonight and what I read resonated with a lot of my thoughts. So, I felt compelled to pop a quick blog post together, to share with my readers and followers.

The reason for this? Because I got to page 5 and read this:

“…Dieter’s design criteria can be summarised by a characteristically succinct principle, captured in just three German words: Weniger aber besser. The English translation is: Less is better…”

The book is all about questioning and deciding to say “NO”, especially in a world in which we sometimes feel we have to say yes to everything and spread ourselves so thin, we don’t gain much in all of the areas we are trying to ‘cover’.

I’ve always been a fan of simplicity and over the years I’ve learned that by saying no to things, I can focus and make a much better use of my time. Especially at work or with work.

The book goes on to describe:

“The way of the Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say ‘no’ more, or about pruning your inbox, or about mastering some new strategy in time management. It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?”

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

How do you focus and do less to spend more time on what’s important? Pop a comment in the box below.

Thanks for reading!

Pick up Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less


 

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