Joe, welcome to the Essentialism Podcast. Thank you.

Now, the background is that you emailed me. I did. And for everyone who hasn't read that email,

tell me the story that tell everyone else's story you told me.

Okay, so I'm actually sitting in the place. So about four years ago I read your book, comes in

France. And I remember getting to the bit about where you talked about family and the importance

of family and how you nearly didn't make the birth of one of your children because you hadn't

prioritised it. And I remember bursting into tears and it was a real sort of critical moment in my

life where I realised I needed to make some changes. And I was very out of work, I couldn't

not work. And I got quite sick. And anyway, I did start practising essentialism.

And it's funny, I was just reading a blog, I wrote right at the beginning about how I was doing

deep work and focusing on important things. And it just feels like, you know, it was very much

at the beginning of my essentialism journey then. Anyway, so that, you know, I did practise

essentialism and it is a muscle that you have to practise for a long time. And then one day,

well, I was working for myself. And my mum had had some minor infections. She'd had antibiotics,

wasn't really working for her. So my mum was 67, not in brilliant health. And I've got a phone call

from my dad's saying, mum has just gone into hospital. She'd been in hospital the week before

and she'd come out and dad sounded knackered. And I was sitting at my desk and I just started

working for a new client. And I looked at the window and I've been practising what's the most

important thing thing. And that day, I thought, actually, the most important thing I need to do

is go down the hospital and see my mum and give my dad a break. And I called my dad and said,

I'm coming and he said, don't, you know, you've got a lot on your plate and I saw nothing I must.

And I took my laptop, which is, you know, never need to be far away from my laptop. I thought,

...