Summary
Focus on what is important and declutter your life. The title summarizes this book almost perfectly. Basically declutter your life from things you don't need, focusing on what you want to have in your life. And try to reduce the amount of things that you want to a minimum, because it will make you overall happier. Decluttering is good.
Main Ideas
There is finite amount of time, but infinite amount of things. Things have relative worth against each other. We need to choose what to do, if we don't choose, we don't create value. There is a system for how to choose.
The essentialism loop:
- Find what matters.
- Remove everything else.
- Do what matters.
- Re-assess.
- Repeat.
In a way, this idea, at least for me, is better conveyed in a WaitButWhy post – How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You).