The Power of Essentialism in Stoicism – Do Better With Less

“If you seek tranquillity, do less.” Or (more accurately) do what’s essential”

Marcus Aurelius

The general understanding of productivity combines a number of great habits, willpower, and an inhuman level of energy into multiple disciplines simultaneously. If this is true, why does adding more tasks, obligations, and goals to your life make you far less productive and happy? The stoics were essentialists, not only in the literal application of energy but also in the alignment of our thoughts and reactions to objective criteria.

After reading Essentialism by Greg McKeown, I began to understand the finite nature of our energy and how ‘less, but better’ is the cornerstone of Stoicism’s ideology. Essentialism is reductive and aligns ourselves with how many things we say NO to rather than the quantity of how many yes’ we can handle.

Productivity should mean significant progress of few, not minimal progress of many. Essentialism cuts out all the noise, and leaves you with a few, extremely high-quality objectives you can pour significant amounts of energy into. Not only are you more productive in these disciplines, but you are also much happier too, with significantly fewer stressors.

Our Energy Is Finite & Dispersed

McKewon used the analogy of a sphere to represent our energy. Every action we put our energy into today represents an arrow leaving the sphere in as many directions: from making our bed, cooking a meal, scrolling on social media or ruminating. If we combine these arrows together, this forms the total time and energy we have in a given period. If we passively allow our energy to be used up for 100 different things, we cannot make any meaningful progress in any:

Rather than having 5 objectives for each day, four might be good tasks, but the fifth combines your greatest inspiration and contribution. Therefore, you have to say no to the other four. Now you have 5x your productivity, aligned those distinct arrows of energy and made significant progress in your greatest objective.

I have multiple competing aspirations in my life. I want to learn business, a new language, produce music, read a long list of books, commit to a martial art, and write a blog. These are all strong goals to have, but I cannot achieve any of them if I say yes to all of them. By reading this post, you know which aspiration I chose. By widening our perspective and timeline, I can focus on significant progress toward the next aspiration once this blog is complete.

Essentialism Of The Mind

Essentialism applies not just to the physical energy we put into goals but also to the mental energy we give certain thoughts and beliefs. In neuroscience, too, our brains are more effective at focusing on fewer things for longer than dividing our focus between many.

Understanding the spontaneity and transient nature of our thoughts is half the solution. When thoughts arise, we simply do not have the energy or knowledge to catch, analyse, rationalise, and choose to hold or discard them. Instead, essentialism removes this all-consuming step and reduces the burden to alignment or not with your essentialistic values.

Instead of analysing our thoughts, we simply check if they align with our healthiest belief system. I know from experience that letting go of a potent thought or emotion without wholly understanding it can cause confusion and discomfort, but there is a time to analyse and a better time to align instead.

Find Your Essential Few

Applying Essentialism to our daily goals means finding many things to say “no” to more so than yes. Write down three things to focus most of your energy on. The simplest alignment I take is common within the self-improvement space from Hamza: Business, Fitness, and Relationships.

Business: This is your purpose, a goal that actually inspires you, like writing, philosophy, health, music, and film. It does not have to be monetised, but having a purpose that also provides, is going to be the hardest but most fulfilling essential alignment.

Fitness: This is your physical and mental fitness. Activities include meditating, journaling, running, CrossFit, yoga, or any other activity that strengthens your body and mind. Exercise has been shown to be more effective than any antidepressant we have, and there is a pretty good reason for that. Seneca used the mantra, “The body should be treated rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.”

Relationships: This includes friendships, family, and romantic relationships. Being integrated and connected with people is foundational to our fulfilment, which is often overlooked in the self-improvement space.

Emotional vs Objective Criteria – The Wise and Foolish Builders

Stoics are often criticised for their attitude towards emotions. Emotions are part of the human experience; however, they are often short-sighted reactions to discomfort. Therefore, we should live by objectively good criteria, not just emotional reactions. Alignment with objective goods will also foster a positive emotional experience as a downstream effect.

Align your actions and thoughts with your essential goals. For example, if we have a thought of worthlessness or regret, this will not align with our goals, so we can reject it as unhelpful. If you feel like scrolling on Instagram instead of reading a book, you have a sure choice that aligns with your fulfilment independent of your emotional desires.

The parable of The Wise and Foolish Builders illustrates this. A house (identity) built on the foundations of rock (objective principle) will be unshaken by a torrent of waves (negative thoughts or circumstances). However, a house built on the foundations of emotions is like building a house on sand. As emotions are transient, temporary, and intangible, when a torrent hits these foundations, the house easily collapses, and its destruction is inevitable.

When life inevitably shakes us, if our identity aligns with an objective good, we may shudder, but the safety within our foundations means we will always realign and aim for something we know will bring us fulfilment. It is looking at yourself long-term and knowing neither wearing yourself thinner nor living to your emotional desires will be good for your future self; you can begin realigning yourself essentialistically and objectively.