Dieter Rams, the famous Braun designer, believes that “almost everything is noise.”
Of course, he was referring to design (we’ll save that discussion for another blog post), but what about our businesses — and our lives? How much of it is just noise (nonessential), and how the heck to we quiet things down a bit?
According to Greg McKeown, Essentialism is about “how to get the right things done … it’s about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”
Based on this definition, I’ve been asking myself the following two questions:
- What are some of the nonessential things in my business that I can easily identify? Once identified, if it’s important enough to keep can I pass it on to a team member to handle — or even better automate? For it to be deemed “not important enough” to keep in play, it’s got to have low or no ramifications.
2. What are some essential things I can pass on to someone else or automate? Although this is a similar question to the first, there’s more at stake here. The essentials have to get done — but they all don’t need to be done by me.
And don’t forget, essentials in your home life (like cleaning, cooking, etc.) that are time sucks take you away from your business AND your family. Hiring someone to clean so you can work or have more energy/time for family is an excellent investment.
Is there one nonessential thing you can easily get rid of, delegate, or automate?
Is there one essential thing you can delegate or automate? Even if it involves some upfront work to free up your time down the road — so you can tackle things that can only be accomplished you?
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