Essentialism
Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown.
🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
Do you feel like you are always busy but not productive? Always in motion but never getting anywhere? Greg says the way out is Essentialism.
The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead, it requires us to grapple with the real trade-offs and make tough decisions.
The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.
🎨 Impressions
This book is a great concept and idea. The idea of feeling better, doing things meaningfully and changing our outlook to be more Essentialist is great ideal to aspire to. However at points, the book feels a bit repetitive and basic. The ideas are not revolutionary and it seems to challenging to implement all the ideas and becoming an Essentialist. That said, it offers some thought-provoking ideas on how we maybe overfill our lives and we are worse off as a result.
How I Discovered It
This book is often highly recommended. The disciplined pursuit of less but more is an idea we have all heard of though phrases such as 'less is more.' This book pads out and explores those ideas in a practical sense and I was keen to see how less could be more.
Who Should Read It?
If you are feeling busy but not productive, or overwhelmed with the volume of to-do lists you have, feel like you are not prioritising the right stuff or want a new way of thinking this is the book.
✍️ My Top 3 Quotes
Essentialism if not a way to do one more thing. It is a way to do everything differently. It is a way of thinking.
Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.
If you don't prioritise your life, someone else will.
📒 Summary + Notes
The Essentialist
Do you feel like you are always busy but not productive? Always in motion but never getting anywhere? Greg says the way out is Essentialism.
The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead, it requires us to grapple with the real trade-offs and make tough decisions.
The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.
There is so much noise in the world. New fashion; gadgets; shows; entertainment. But we buy into the idea that we need it all. Own everything advertised. Being an Essentialist is without all the noise, it only contains the essentials.
By being selective we can buy space and in this space find creative freedom. We can concentrate efforts on one project at a time. We can plan thoroughly. We can anticipate roadblocks and start to move obstacles. Instead of spinning our wheels to get everything done, we can get the right things done. This newfound commitment to doing only the things that were truly important - and eliminating everything else - restores the quality of our work.
The paradox of success: When we have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavour. We gain a reputation as the 'go to' person and are presented with more opportunities and options. However, this increases demand on your time and energy leading to diffused efforts. We become distracted from what would be our highest level of contribution and success.
There are too many choices in todays world and too much outside external pressure on these choices. It is not just information overload, but opinion overload.
Essence
Ask what do I feel deeply inspired by? What am I particularly talented in? What meets a significant need in the world?
Instead of asking "what do I want to give up", ask "what do I want to go big on"
Trade-offs are not something that should be ignored or decried. They should be embraced, be made deliberately and strategically and thoughtfully.
Explore
Explore, listen, debate, question and think. But this exploration is for the purpose of discerning the vital few from the trivial many.
If people are too busy to think, they are too busy, period. We only get this space by design - not default.
Essentialists create the time and space to explore options so they get clear on their goals and can identify the activities/efforts that’ll create the biggest contribution.
Eliminate
We tend to value things we already own more highly than they are worth, so struggle to get rid of them.
If an answer isn't a definite yes, it should be a no.
Once you have distinguished the vital few from the trivial majority, you must cut the trivial from your life. This will involve developing the courage and skill to say “no” gracefully and to uncommit from unproductive obligations, cut away the nonessentials, and set boundaries to take control of your life.
Execute
Essentialism should become a way of living. It is continuously choosing to do fewer things, better, over trying to do it all and saying yes to everything. We need to make the choose to feel content and decide how we spend our time, to pursue the fewer but better things and to eliminate distractions.
Build buffers and contingencies and be systematic in your approach to address constraints that hold you back. Win big through small steps and use habits to get in the flow state of focus. What's the most crucial right now.
