Have you ever added one more thing to your calendar, telling yourself you could handle it, only to end up exhausted without feeling any more accomplished? Lisa gets it, and this week she’s making the case for the opposite approach. One of her original mantras for Positively Productive has always been “Do less, live more, breathe easier”—counterintuitive advice from a productivity coach, but exactly the message she believes we need in a world that keeps insisting more is better.

In this episode, Lisa introduces the concept of essentialism, popularized by Greg McKeown in his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. She traces the philosophy back further, to 20th-century writer Lin Yutang’s idea that “the wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials,” and to the German design principle Weniger aber besser (“less but better”), which McKeown repurposes into a practical framework for how we spend our time and energy. She unpacks McKeown’s core, if uncomfortable, premise: you can’t do everything well, and trying to do everything actually waters down your ability to do anything exceptionally. Lisa reframes the default question “How do I get this all done?” into the harder, more useful one: “What is actually essential here?” She explains why choosing less is a discipline that runs counter to how we’re wired and rewarded, and offers practical tools for practicing it, including asking what you’d have to say no to before saying yes to something new, and a simple filter: if it’s not a clear, definite yes, then it’s a no—or as Lisa puts it, “if it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a hell no.” She connects essentialism to her ongoing conversation about decluttering, both physical and mental, and points listeners toward two related frameworks: the capsule thinking approach from episode 319 and the minimum effective day planning method from episode 306. She closes with a set of reflective questions to help you find your own starting point, since essentialism, by nature, looks different for everyone.

Essentialism, Lisa reminds us, isn’t about doing less because you can’t keep up. It’s a deliberate skill that gets stronger the more you practice it, and it’s the difference between managing everything and choosing the vital few things that actually matter.

Why Doing Less (But Better) Is Best

We live inside a loud world, sending loud messages, insisting that more is better.

More on the calendar. More on the to-do list. More commitments. More output.

So, like tried and true warriors, we keep adding. We keep trying.

And the strange thing is, adding more rarely makes us feel more accomplished. After all that, it only leaves us exhausted.

It’s an inevitable result to be exhausted when you’re trying to make room for everything, instead of choosing what actually matters to you.

The good news? There’s a different way.

One of Lisa’s Favorite Things: Telling People to Do Less

One of Lisa’s favorite things to do is tell people to do less, not more. It’s the opposite of what you’d expect from a productivity coach, she knows—but one of the original mantras for Positively Productive was “Do less, live more, breathe easier.”

The “do less” part is counterintuitive for conversations about being productive. And if you’re reading this, Lisa suspects you’re here for it too. You’re probably done with being told to do more, because how exactly are you expected to do that?

A Concept Called Essentialism

The framework behind this shift comes from a concept called essentialism, connected to Greg McKeown and his book by the same name—subtitled The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. That subtitle tells you a lot before you even turn to page one.

McKeown’s concept borrows a foundational philosophical idea: stripping away the non-essential to find core truth. He opens his book with a quote from 20th-century Chinese philosopher and writer Lin Yutang, who said, “The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

McKeown repurposes that idea into a practical personal development framework for productivity and life management. Lisa has been a fan since day one.

The phrase “less but better” actually traces back to a German design principle—Weniger aber besser—popularized by a designer who built an entire career on stripping products down to only what was essential, removing anything that didn’t serve a real purpose. It’s the same instinct McKeown applies to how we spend our time and energy.

Not less for the sake of less. Less so that what remains can actually do its job well—so that we can do our job well, so that we can live our lives well.

You Can’t Do Everything Well

At its core, McKeown asserts a simple, though potentially uncomfortable, idea: you can’t do everything well. Even with the most talent and effort, it won’t work.

Trying to do everything actually waters down your ability to do anything exceptionally. And that’s what we really need to strive for—that’s the missing element to an exceptional life.

Instead of using the default question, “How do I get this all done?”, McKeown’s framework asks a harder, more useful question:

What is actually essential here?

Or even more pointed: Which problem do I actually want to solve?

When you identify that, everything else gets permission to fall away.

This Takes Real Discipline

This is where the discipline comes in, and it is real discipline, because everything around us is pushing in the opposite direction.

We’re wired to want to prove we can handle more. We’re rewarded for it. Saying yes feels productive. Choosing less feels like giving up, or like admitting we’re actually less than because we can’t do it.

But choosing less isn’t a choice people need to make when they can’t keep up. It’s a deliberate skill that gets stronger the more you practice it. And that shift—from managing everything to choosing specific, special things—is where doing less starts producing more.

Practicing essentialism is a classic case of simple, but not necessarily easy. You build a recurring question into how you operate, and you hone your ability to identify what’s most important. McKeown describes it as learning to distinguish the vital few from the trivial many, and that distinction requires regular, honest evaluation.

How to Practice This Approach

To practice essentialism, consider the following:

Before saying yes to something new, ask what you’d have to say no to in order to do that new thing well. (Lisa shares more about when to say no in episode 234, if that’s a challenge for you.)

When reviewing your commitments, separate what’s truly essential from what you’ve inherited out of habit or guilt. One of Lisa’s favorite phrases about urgency is asking, “Who’s urgent is it?”

Select what makes sense for you. What matters to you? What are you good at? You have to think about what’s essential versus what’s been handed to you and expected. Digging down deep to what matters to you is the key.

You can also try a simple filter, an if-then statement that may be a challenge to implement at first, but will help you declutter so many trivial things once you get the hang of it:

If it’s not a clear, definite yes, then it’s a no.

Or, to put it more bluntly, the way Lisa likes to say it: If it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a hell no.

Will you get it right every time? Hell no. And that’s not even the goal at first. What you’re trying to do is make the evaluation a habit. Think about it before you start doing. Ask yourself: does this belong? After you practice it, you’ll get better and better at these choices—and likely better and better at saying no.

The Unicorn Who Isn’t Actually Stretched Thin

You’ve probably met someone who seems remarkably focused. Not frantic, not stretched too thin, not apologizing for being behind. And you think, what kind of unicorn magic sorcery is this?

In a world where we’re being pulled in different directions constantly, it can seem foreign to find someone that chill, especially when they don’t necessarily have a different schedule, more hours, or even extra help than you’d expect. That’s what most of us are dealing with.

This is where essentialism makes the difference. They’ve made decisions about what truly matters, and by honoring that, they appear calmer, clearer, and less reactive. It’s a combination of lessening what you feel obligated to do and being confident in what you’ve decided.

The Best Way to Get Something Done

One of Lisa’s favorite tongue-in-cheek bits of advice: the best way to get something done is to remove it from your to-do list in the first place. Teasing, but true.

The same goes for decluttering the stuff around you—this is why Lisa talks about decluttering all the time. If you remove it, you don’t have to take any more time or energy for it. We are stewards of everything we own, and that takes time and energy to organize and care for those things. The less we need to keep, the easier everything is to maintain.

And the same goes for our to-do lists and our calendars. This is what Lisa means by whole life decluttering. If you’d like to dig into decluttering of all kinds, head to positivelyproductive.com/podcast and select the declutter playlist.

You may also want to check out episode 319, where Lisa offers the capsule thinking framework—it applies the same “less but better” lens specifically to commitments and projects. If you’re a capsule wardrobe fan, you’ll really like that one.

Another practical tool that fits naturally into this discussion is the minimum effective day planning approach: identifying the few things that, if they happened, would make the day feel worthwhile, even if nothing else got done. Episode 306 walks you through the process of planning a day that works for you, and there’s a training available on the resources page of positivelyproductive.com as well.

Where Do You Start?

If you like the idea of welcoming essentialism into your life, the next obvious question is: where do you start?

The most useful first step isn’t the same for everyone—sorry, but that’s kind of the point. Essentialism is personal by nature. What’s essential for your life depends on your values, your season of life, your capacity. It’s not intended to look like anyone else’s.

So instead of suggesting a single starting point, here are a few questions to help you find your own:

Where in your life are you most overcommitted? Where are you stretched the most?
What’s one thing you keep saying yes to that you’d actually like to say no to?
If you could only do three things well this week, what would they be?

Start with those questions, and find your next best step to welcome essentialism into your life.

Final Thoughts

If you want to learn more about the concept, Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is on Lisa’s recommended reading list at positivelyproductive.com/resources (scroll down to the podcast resources link, where all the books mentioned on the show are listed).

And if you’d like help figuring this all out, a clarity call might be your best next step. You can learn more at positivelyproductive.com/clarity-call, or head to the coaching page on positivelyproductive.com, which walks you through everything from clarity calls to accountability sessions, strategy sessions, and async coaching—on-demand coaching through an app like Voxer or WhatsApp, so you can get support exactly when you need it, without adding another thing to your calendar.

As you move through your week, look for what’s essential in your life, and focus on that. Let the rest fall away.

In a world that rewards more, choosing less takes courage. The good news is, it also works.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me! And don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Positively Living^Ⓡ and Lisa at https://positivelyproductive.com/podcast/

Stop trying to fit into someone else’s productivity rules! Grab my free Productivity Toolkit, a collection of workbooks designed to help you explore how you work, uncover what truly matters to you, and create your very own energy-friendly systems. Get it here: www.positivelyproductive.com/plpkit

CONNECT WITH LISA ZAWROTNY:

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Episode 234 [Strategy Call] Handling Invisible Stressors in a Demanding Life with Janis Isaman

Episode 319 Applying a Capsule Wardrobe Mindset to Life

Episode 306 Planning a Day That Works for You

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Declutter Playlist

Positively Productive Resources Library