Are you doing a lot but not achieving as much as you’d expect?

It’s like treading water. You invest a lot of energy but never get far.

If you want to achieve the most in the least amount of time, you should stick to only doing what’s essential to reaching your goal.

Knowing what not to do, deciding to ignore it, is one of the most valuable abilities you can acquire (and make a habit of) on your road to success.

To know what to say no to, you need to know the essence of your idea.

Essentialism sees each entity as having a fundamental set of characteristics that makes it what it is and how it functions.

Your idea is such an entity, and you need to discover the fundamental “things” within your idea that make it work. The Idea DNA that all other ones depend upon to make your idea work.

You can see an example of the essence of a dating app idea in this diagram.

Of course, there are many more moving parts to this idea, but they are dependent on these fundamental ones.

Don’t forget that the context of your idea, its goal, your personal goal, the problem it solves, and any other knowledge you acquire during your journey to making it happen, can and will change.

When the context changes, you need to reexamine and rediscover the essence of your idea within the new context, and recreate its DNA.

When you have the DNA of your idea, you can say no to many things, and concentrate on what’s right for your idea and its success.

It takes courage to say no, and it’s hard to do it consistently. Knowing your Idea DNA makes it easier by giving you the clarity you need to make the right decision quickly.

It’s the difference between thinking, “I should...” and “I want to...” 

If you don’t exactly know what to do with your time, someone or something else will decide for you.

To quote Dieter Rams: “Weniger aber besser.” In English: “Less but better.”

Do you know the true essence of your idea?!