I’ve been on a reading kick lately. My morning routine right now involves pushups, reading business books and writing for Sidepreneurial. I handle WPamplify work at night and of course Ballantine during the day. The newest book I just read is Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I kept hearing about it on podcasts like Smart Passive Income and Entrepreneur on Fire so I felt like I HAD to see what all the buzz was about.
This is not necessarily a review of this book. It’s more about what I took away from the book. What I learned. What I will apply to my business and/or life. If you read this book too, you might have walked away with other key lessons…this is just my take on what struck a cord with me when reading it.
Key Takeaways
Here’a what I took away from reading this book:
- Only focus on the essential tasks that will move your business and/or life forward.
- Learn to say no.
- Stop spreading yourself thin with tasks that are not important.
- Only focusing on the essential — and learning to say no — helps you create laser focus in your business and/or life which amplifies your results.
Applying What I Learned
Here is how I’m going to apply what I learned from Essentialism to my work and hopefully this will spark some ideas for you as well.
Up until recently, I was juggling multiple projects. Ballantine is obviously my core responsibility, but I also had WPamplify…and a handful of niche website projects I was trying to build in dreams of the almighty passive income! Sidepreneurial is new as I type this, but I also had another blog called Internet Business Passion that I was trying to build, but my heart just wasn’t in it. So I had a lot going on. And a lot of stuff that was small and distracting.
What this book made me realize — and this isn’t particularly new as it’s been in the back of my mind for awhile now but reading this book made me take action — is that I’m spread too thin. My small niche websites are taking my focus away and the real long-term potential of the sites are minimal.
As a result, the change I’m making is only focusing on 3 total projects:
- Ballantine as the core because it’s my career and my main source of income for my family;
- WPamplify as my main side business because I’ve built it up to a real business with real income; and
- Sidepreneurial as my side blog project because I really want to connect with other sidepreneurs and help people.
These are the 3 things that excite me the most and, in terms of my work life, offer me the greatest potential of success and happiness. Plus, when I think about the wins I’ve had in affiliate marketing, eCommerce and my service businesses, it’s always happened when I was laser focused and not diluting myself with low-value projects.
In terms of my work at Ballantine, this book is making me re-evaluate my daily to-do list I work off of. What am I working on that is truly essential? Am I just adding items to my to-do list that are “busy work”? Sometimes this “busy work” still needs to get done, but can I delegate or outsource the work? So I’ll be looking at my to-do list now through a different filter.
Possible Side Benefit
I’m hoping that my new plan to only focus on 3 total projects…to say NO to tasks that aren’t essential and don’t move me forward towards my goals with Ballantine, WPamplify or Sidepreneurial…and to not spread myself thin…will free up some of my time and clear my mind as well. When I had all the other small side projects going on, my mind was always full (and distracted) with things I wanted to get done. My to-do list was annoyingly long.
Why am I hoping for this possible side benefit?
Because I know I need to be more present when I’m around my family. I’m very involved as a father and husband, and I think I do a decent job, but I’m definitely not always present and it’s something I need to work on. As time goes on, I’m realizing more and more what’s really important. Don’t get me wrong, I think being passionate about your work, giving it your all and achieving success is important, but really what’s truly ESSENTIAL is your family, personal relationships and your health.
