Have you begun thinking about New Year’s resolutions? What will be your goal for 2017? Maybe it’s spending less time at work and more time with family and friends. Feeling less stress is another idea.
Your goal could be to just simplify life. After all, who couldn’t benefit from eliminating the unnecessary of everyday life that leaves you overwhelmed and over-worked?
Weeding through the minutia to focus more on what you enjoy most is the crux of essentialism, as explained in Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.
“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 our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential,” McKeown explains.
So, how do you go about adopting essentialism? McKeown breaks it down into a three-step process: exploration, elimination, and execution.
Exploration
Explore what makes you happy. Review what’s happening in your life and identify what makes you happy and what you dislike. This exercise can be applied to both professional and personal worlds as well as activities or objects. Begin the process by answering questions such as:
- What do I enjoy the most and least about my job?
- Which hobbies do I look forward to?
- Which tasks do I avoid or postpone?
- What would be my ideal job, and how can I get from here to there?
- How much time do I spend at work versus home? How can I change it?
- Which professional memberships provide me with useful information and support?
- What situations trigger stress?
Don’t rush through your answers. Rather, contemplate on identifying motivating factors so you can focus more on the positives.
Elimination
It’s time to purge your surroundings of unnecessary or stress-producing elements so you have more room to act on the areas you wish to explore.
- Relinquish control over little details. Oftentimes we create stress for ourselves by not accepting the fact that there are different paths to a desired outcome. After delegating tasks to staff, allow them to determine a successful path.
- People outgrow interests for one reason or another. If you haven’t participated in a certain hobby for months (or years), perhaps it’s time to move on. Donate equipment that’s in good shape so someone else can enjoy the activity.
- Pare down professional memberships to organizations you actively participate in. Also, reduce reading materials to those you read on a regular basis. Seeing a growing stack of journals “you meant to read” can induce anxiety about not having enough time.
- Weed out social media contacts. What’s more, gauge how much time you spend on Facebook or responding to Twitter and how you feel afterward. If you think you’re wasting time on social media or getting agitated by it, pull back or take a hiatus.
• Clean out your spaces at home and work. Sorting through a junk drawer may sound like a superfluous activity, but it can have a cleansing effect. Also, a decluttered environment can help one focus more clearly.
Execution
After clarifying areas you’d like to focus on and eliminating the extraneous, you’re poised to take action toward your goals.
- Don’t jump into things too quickly. The key is to make mindful decisions that support the essential elements you’ve identified and not detract from them because they weren’t thought through.
- Give yourself permission to say no. Only agree to commitments that help propel you toward goals. For example, if your objective is to have more control over your professional schedule, consider taking locum tenens jobs, which empower you to determine how often you accept assignments.
- Plan time for yourself. Practicing essentialism doesn’t mean you’ll never be busy, but it does mean you don’t create unnecessary busyness that swallows up free time.
Learn more about how locum tenens might help you implement essentialism for the new year by contacting a Weatherby Healthcare consultant today.
