“decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.5

the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure.

every habit is made up of a cue, a routine, and a reward.

As the saying goes, nobody in the history of the world has washed their rental car! This is because of something called “the endowment effect,” our tendency to undervalue things that aren’t ours and to overvalue things because we already own them.

Dalai Lama, another true Essentialist, has said: “If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness.”

Boundaries are a little like the walls of a sandcastle. The second we let one fall over, the rest of them come crashing down.

Think about this: we would never say, ‘This person is a great worker! He’s drunk all the time!’ yet we continue to celebrate people who sacrifice sleep for work.”2

I’ve found that most of them are just so used to being tired they have forgotten what it really feels like to be fully rested.

He uses the acronym FCS (a.k.a. FOCUS) to teach his philosophy to his employees. The letters stand for “Fewer things done better,” “Communicating the right information to the right people at the right time,” and “Speed and quality of decision making.”