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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of LessAmazon Videos

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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less Kindle Edition

by Greg Mckeown (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

19,996 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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THE LIFE-CHANGING NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • MORE THAN TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD • Now in a 10th anniversary edition featuring a new introduction and bonus 21-day challenge.

“Essentialism holds the keys to solving one of the great puzzles of life: How can we do less but accomplish more?”—Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again

Essentialism isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.

Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin?
Are you often busy but not productive?
Do you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.

Essentialism is more than a time-management technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.

By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for where to spend our precious time and energy, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices, instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.

Essentialism is not one more thing to do. It’s a whole new way of doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Join the millions of people who have used Essentialism to change their outlook on the world.

From the Publisher

It isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Essentialism will give you richer, sweeter results and put you in real control, giving greater precision to the pursuit of what truly matters.”—Forbes

“In this likeable and astute treatise on the art of doing less in order to do better...McKeown makes the content fresh and the solutions easy to implement. Following his lucid and smart directions will help readers find ‘the way of the essentialist.’”—Success

“Do you feel it, too? That relentless pressure to sample all the good things in life? To do all the ‘right’ things? The reality is, you don’t make progress that way. Instead, you’re in danger of spreading your efforts so thin that you make no impact at all. Greg McKeown believes the answer lies in paring life down to its essentials. He can’t tell you what’s essential to every life, but he can help you find the meaning in yours.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell is Human and Drive

“Entrepreneurs succeed when they say ‘yes’ to the right project, at the right time, in the right way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying ‘no’ to all their other ideas. Essentialism offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards.”—Reid Hoffman, co-founder/chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Start-up of You

“As a self-proclaimed ‘maximalist’ who always wants to do it all, this book challenged me and improved my life. If you want to work better, not just less, you should read it too.”—Chris Guillebeau, New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup

“Great design takes us beyond the complex, the unnecessary and confusing, to the simple, clear and meaningful. This is as true for the design of a life as it is for the design of a product. With Essentialism, Greg McKeown gives us the invaluable guidebook for just such a project.”—Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

“In Essentialism, Greg McKeown makes a compelling case for achieving more by doing less. He reminds us that clarity of focus and the ability to say ‘no’ are both critical and undervalued in business today.”—Jeff Weiner, ‎CEO, LinkedIn

“Essentialism is a powerful antidote to the current craziness that plagues our organizations and our lives. Read Greg McKeown’s words slowly, stop and think about how to apply them to your life—you will do less, do it better, and begin to feel the insanity start to slip away.”—Robert I. Sutton, Professor at Stanford University and author of Good Boss, Bad Boss and Scaling Up Excellence

“Essentialism is a rare gem that will change lives. Greg offers deep insights, rich context and actionable steps to living life at its fullest. I’ve started on the path to an Essentialist way of life, and the impact on my productivity and well-being is profound.”—Bill Rielly, Senior Vice President, Intel Security

About the Author

Greg McKeown writes, teaches, and speaks around the world on the importance of living and leading as an Essentialist. He has spoken at companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Symantec, and Twitter and is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn Influencer’s group. He co-created the course, Designing Life, Essentially at Stanford University, was a collaborator of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Multipliers and serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He holds an MBA from Stanford University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

The Essentialist

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

--Lin Yutang

Sam Elliot1 is a capable executive in Silicon Valley who found himself stretched too thin after his company was acquired by a larger, bureaucratic business.

1 Name has been changed.

He was in earnest about being a good citizen in his new role so he said yes to many requests without really thinking about it. But as a result he would spend the whole day rushing from one meeting and conference call to another trying to please everyone and get it all done. His stress went up as the quality of his work went down. It was like he was majoring in minor activities and as a result, his work became unsatisfying for him and frustrating for the people he was trying so hard to please.

In the midst of his frustration the company came to him and offered him an early retirement package. But he was in his early 50s and had no interest in completely retiring. He thought briefly about starting a consulting company doing what he was already doing. He even thought of selling his services back to his employer as a consultant. But none of these options seemed that appealing. So he went to speak with a mentor who gave him surprising advice: “Stay, but do what you would as a consultant and nothing else. And don’t tell anyone.” In other words, his mentor was advising him to do only those things that he deemed essential--and ignore everything else that was asked of him.

The executive followed the advice! He made a daily commitment towards cutting out the red tape. He began saying no.

He was tentative at first. He would evaluate requests based on the timid criteria, “Can I actually fulfill this request, given the time and resources I have?” If the answer was no then he would refuse the request. He was pleasantly surprised to find that while people would at first look a little disappointed, they seemed to respect his honesty.

Encouraged by his small wins he pushed back a bit more. Now when a request would come in he would pause and evaluate the request against a tougher criteria: “Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?”

If he couldn’t answer a definitive yes, then he would refuse the request. And once again to his delight, while his colleagues might initially seem disappointed, they soon began respecting him more for his refusal, not less.

Emboldened, he began to apply this selective criteria to everything, not just direct requests. In his past life he would always volunteer for presentations or assignments that came up last minute; now he found a way to not sign up for them. He used to be one of the first to jump in on an e‑mail trail, but now he just stepped back and let others jump in. He stopped attending conference calls that he only had a couple of minutes of interest in. He stopped sitting in on the weekly update call because he didn’t need the information. He stopped attending meetings on his calendar if he didn’t have a direct contribution to make. He explained to me, “Just because I was invited didn’t seem a good enough reason to attend.”

It felt self-indulgent at first. But by being selective he bought himself space, and in that space he found creative freedom. He could concentrate his efforts one project at a time. He could plan thoroughly. He could anticipate roadblocks and start to remove obstacles. Instead of spinning his wheels trying to get everything done, he could get the right things done. His newfound commitment to doing only the things that were truly important--and eliminating everything else--restored the quality of his work. Instead of making just a millimeter of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the things that were truly vital.

He continued this for several months. He immediately found that he not only got more of his day back at work, in the evenings he got even more time back at home. He said, “I got back my family life! I can go home at a decent time.” Now instead of being a slave to his phone he shuts it down. He goes to the gym. He goes out to eat with his wife.

To his great surprise, there were no negative repercussions to his experiment. His manager didn’t chastise him. His colleagues didn’t resent him. Quite the opposite; because he was left only with projects that were meaningful to him and actually valuable to the company, they began to respect and value his work more than ever. His work became fulfilling again. His performance ratings went up. He ended up with one of the largest bonuses of his career!

In this example is the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

What about you? How many times have you reacted to a request by saying yes without really thinking about it? How many times have you resented committing to do something and wondered, “Why did I sign up for this?” How often do you say yes simply to please? Or to avoid trouble? Or because “yes” had just become your default response?

Now let me ask you this: Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilized? Have you ever found yourself majoring in minor activities? Do you ever feel busy but not productive? Like you’re always in motion, but never getting anywhere?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the way of the Essentialist.

The Way of the Essentialist

Dieter Rams was the lead designer at Braun for many years. He is driven by the idea that almost everything is noise. He believes very few things are essential. His job is to filter through that noise until he gets to the essence. For example, as a young twenty-four-year-old at the company he was asked to collaborate on a record player. The norm at the time was to cover the turntable in a solid wooden lid or even to incorporate the player into a piece of living room furniture. Instead, he and his team removed the clutter and designed a player with a clear plastic cover on the top and nothing more. It was the first time such a design had been used, and it was so revolutionary people worried it might bankrupt the company because nobody would buy it. It took courage, as it always does, to eliminate the nonessential. By the sixties this aesthetic started to gain traction. In time it became the design every other record player followed.

Dieter’s design criteria can be summarized by a characteristically succinct principle, captured in just three German words: Weniger aber besser. The English translation is: Less but better. A more fitting definition of Essentialism would be hard to come by.

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn’t mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way.

The way of the Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say “no” more, or about pruning your in-box, or about mastering some new strategy in time management. It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?” There are far more activities and opportunities in in the world than we have time and resources to invest in. And although many of them may be good, or even very good, the fact is that most are trivial and few are vital. The way of the Essentialist involves learning to tell the difference--learning to filter through all those options and selecting only those that are truly essential.

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

The difference between the way of the Essentialist and the way of the Nonessentialist can be seen in figure 1 above. In both images the same amount of effort is exerted. In the image on the left, the energy is divided into many different activities. The result is that we have the unfulfilling experience of making a millimeter of progress in a million directions. In the image on the right, the energy is given to fewer activities. The result is that by investing in fewer things we have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most. The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead it requires us to grapple with real trade-offs and make tough decisions. In many cases we can learn to make one-time decisions that make a thousand future decisions so we don’t exhaust ourselves asking the same questions again and again.

The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

The way of the Essentialist is the path to being in control of our own choices. It is a path to new levels of success and meaning. It is the path on which we enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Despite all these benefits, however, there are too many forces conspiring to keep us from applying the disciplined pursuit of less but better, which may be why so many end up on the misdirected path of the Nonessentialist.

The Way of the Nonessentialist

On a bright, winter day in California I visited my wife, Anna, in the hospital. Even in the hospital Anna was radiant. But I also knew she was exhausted. It was the day after our precious daughter was born, healthy and happy at 7 pounds, 3 ounces.1

Yet what should have been one of the happiest, most serene days of my life was actually filled with tension. Even as my beautiful new baby lay in my wife’s tired arms, I was on the phone and on e‑mail with work, and I was feeling pressure to go to a client meeting. My colleague had written, “Friday between 1–2 would be a bad time to have a baby because I need you to come be at this meeting with X.” It was now Friday and though I was pretty certain (or at least I hoped) the e‑mail had been written in jest, I still felt pressure to attend.

Instinctively, I knew what to do. It was clearly a time to be there for my wife and newborn child. So when asked whether I planned to attend the meeting, I said with all the conviction I could muster . . .

“Yes.”

To my shame, while my wife lay in the hospital with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting. Afterward, my colleague said, “The client will respect you for making the decision to be here.” But the look on the clients’ faces did not evince respect. Instead, they mirrored how I felt. What was I doing there? I had said “yes” simply to please, and in doing so I had hurt my family, my integrity, and even the client relationship.

As it turned out, exactly nothing came of the client meeting. But even if it had, surely I would have made a fool’s bargain. In trying to keep everyone happy I had sacrificed what mattered most.

On reflection I discovered this important lesson:

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

That experience gave me renewed interest--read, inexhaustible obsession--in understanding why otherwise intelligent people make the choices they make in their personal and professional lives. “Why is it,” I wonder, “that we have so much more ability inside of us than we often choose to utilize?” And “How can we make the choices that allow us to tap into more of the potential inside ourselves, and in people everywhere?”

My mission to shed light on these questions had already led me to quit law school in England and travel, eventually, to California to do my graduate work at Stanford. It had led me to spend more than two years collaborating on a book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. And it went on to inspire me to start a strategy and leadership company in Silicon Valley, where I now work with some of the most capable people in some of the most interesting companies in the world, helping to set them on the path of the Essentialist.

In my work I have seen people all over the world who are consumed and overwhelmed by the pressures all around them. I have coached “successful” people in the quiet pain of trying desperately to do everything, perfectly, now. I have seen people trapped by controlling managers and unaware that they do not “have to” do all the thankless busywork they are asked to do. And I have worked tirelessly to understand why so many bright, smart, capable individuals remain snared in the death grip of the nonessential.

What I have found has surprised me.

I worked with one particularly driven executive who got into technology at a young age and loved it. He was quickly rewarded for his knowledge and passion with more and more opportunities. Eager to build on his success, he continued to read as much as he could and pursue all he could with gusto and enthusiasm. By the time I met him he was hyperactive, trying to learn it all and do it all. He seemed to find a new obsession every day, sometimes every hour. And in the process, he lost his ability to discern the vital few from the trivial many. Everything was important. As a result he was stretched thinner and thinner. He was making a millimeter of progress in a million directions. He was overworked and under-utilized. That’s when I sketched out for him the image on the left of figure 1.

He stared at it for the longest time in uncharacteristic silence. Then he said, with more than a hint of emotion, “That is the story of my life!” Then I sketched the image on the right. “What would happen if we could figure out the one thing you could do that would make the highest contribution?” I asked him. He responded sincerely: “That is the question.”

1. A version of this story was published in a blog post I wrote for Harvard Business Review called “If You Don’t Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will,” June 28, 2012, http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/how-to-say-no-to-a-controlling/.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00G1J1D28
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Currency; 1st edition (April 15, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 15, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8.6 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 290 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #19,831 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #10 in Time Management in Business
- #23 in Personal Success in Business
- #25 in Time Management (Books)

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Greg Mckeown

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Greg McKeown and his wife, Anna, are the proud parents of four children.

McKeown is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most”, which together have sold 3 million copies and been published in 40 languages.

Since it's publication, Essentialism has become a part of the wider culture. Kanye West declared himself an Essentialist on The Joe Rogan Podcast. It's Steve Harvey’s favorite book. Former First Lady of California, Maria Shriver, shares insights from the book at her coveted Sunday luncheons. Even presidential hopefuls have voiced their allegiance to its transformative power. In Brazil, Essentialism has been outselling Harry Potter. In Japan there are a series of graphic novels based on these ideas. At The Essentialism Academy people from over 100 countries take online classes. Hundreds of thousands receive McKeown's 1-Minute Wednesday newsletter. He's created The Essentialism Planner to help people put these ideas into practice on a daily basis. His podcast has grown into a living conversation with people the world over.

McKeown has become one of the most sought-after public speakers in the world. He has spoken to hundreds of organizations while traveling to more than 45 countries. His clients include Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nike, X and the Navy Seals.

He holds a Masters from Stanford University and is conducting doctoral research at the University of Cambridge about how to get the right things done together.

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and appreciate its powerful guidance on focusing on what's important, with nice visuals and an attractive layout. Moreover, the book is exceptionally timely, helping readers unclutter their lives and achieve better time management. However, customers disagree on the evidence level, with some finding it specific while others consider it impractical. Additionally, the book receives mixed feedback about its repetitiveness, with several customers finding it repetitive.

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964 customers mention "Readability"934 positive30 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and worth their time, with clear writing throughout. One customer notes that each chapter is concise, while another appreciates the book's structure.

"...It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only..." Read more

"...More Clarity – Life will become less about efficiently crossing off what was on your to-do list or rushing through everything on your schedule and..." Read more

"...McKeown writes in an easy to understand format and presents some ideas that are quite relatable, yet I couldn't help but feel like this book is..." Read more

"...34;I don't know what to do first" The book has a clear and simple premise that resonates with my own world view...." Read more

875 customers mention "Insight"871 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights, finding it a powerful guide that provides useful advice and practical ways to focus on what's important.

"...It will teach you a systematic way to discern what is important, eliminate what is not, and make doing the essential as effortless as possible...." Read more

"...the focus on what is truly important right now comes the ability to live life more fully, in the moment...." Read more

"...of Less by Greg McKeown offers encouragement and guidance to approach life from a direction that focuses on what is essential instead of trying to do..." Read more

"...There are many great practical ideas in this book which sets a clear course to help you find the essential activities that are right for you and..." Read more

61 customers mention "Appeal"50 positive11 negative

Customers find the book appealing, particularly appreciating its illustrations and attractive layout, with one customer noting it as a beautiful reminder.

"...My favorite part is the illustrations, or should I say scribbles, that convey profound insights with drawings even I could do...." Read more

"...divides the essentialist concept into 4 easy to grasp actions is very appealing and approachable: I. Essence o Choose o Discern..." Read more

"...It's a designed lifestyle, a systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies in order to execute them almost..." Read more

"...It is self-aggrandizing in the fashion of false modesty. The style is easy to spot just as the book itself is in the big box stores like Barnes &..." Read more

50 customers mention "Pace"46 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's pace, describing it as exceptionally timely and a quick read that helps with time management.

"...– Gain in confidence in your ability to pause, push back and not rush in. Remember that if you do not prioritize your life, someone else will...." Read more

"This book hit me at the right time, and hit the spot just like a delicious meal...." Read more

"...and personally this has allowed me to be more focused, less frantic, more happy and more productive. Saying no is no small task however...." Read more

"...Easy, quick, informative and helpful. I have recommended it to my over achiever coworkers. Puts life into perspective!" Read more

42 customers mention "Clutter reduction"42 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate how the book helps them sort through and eliminate unnecessary tasks, reducing clutter and overwhelm in their lives.

"...where multi tasking is adored, this book gives a different perspective on how to de-clutter and simplify our lives...." Read more

"...It helped me blow away the chaff and see what I was missing because I was so frantically chasing what everyone else thought was important...." Read more

"...His tools also helped me eliminate or reduce the effort I put in to the non-essential in a way that has actually increased the respect and regard I..." Read more

"...Guess what, in order to do less, we should plan more, remove the foreseeable obstacles, set up new habits and execute, now. How wonderful!..." Read more

28 customers mention "Efficiency"23 positive5 negative

Customers appreciate the book's efficiency, noting that it helps them accomplish more with less, and one customer mentions improved productivity.

"...McKeown promises his book “will teach you a method for being more efficient, productive, and effective in both personal and professional realms...." Read more

"...Clear in an effort to better my day to day habits and become a more efficient worker...." Read more

"...Work effectively, not efficiently (the latter does not imply that you are working on THE most important things)..." Read more

"...It should also be noted that the pages turned effortlessly and without fail...." Read more

61 customers mention "Evidence level"27 positive34 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's evidence level, with some appreciating its appropriate examples and applicability in various life areas, while others find it too specific and impractical.

"...: chapter one, the author gets a little cheerleader-ish and sort-of belabors the point, like he is trying a bit too hard to sell you on the concept..." Read more

"...There are precise examples of what a non-essentialist does versus an essentialist...." Read more

"...Perhaps this is true over time, but implementing the authors advice is difficult and he does not devote nearly enough time to this topic...." Read more

"...It has an easy-to-follow style of writing and concrete examples...." Read more

45 customers mention "Book repetitiveness"0 positive45 negative

Customers find the book repetitive and boring, describing it as poorly-thought-out and a waste of time.

"...While it is not a perfect book, and while it benefits tremendously from adding a good dose of Christian thinking, it is one of the most helpful I’ve..." Read more

"...Now the negative part is that the story telling can drag on, and on… like a friend who doesn’t understand that they’ve already made their point but..." Read more

"...However, about two-thirds into it, it grew very monotonous. That's why I took off a star. He could have said the same with a lot less ink...." Read more

"...The real knock on this, for me, was the physical execution. Book itself was filthy when it arrived...." Read more

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Tim Challies
A Fantastic Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2014
Verified Purchase

Life is complicated. Life is full of responsibilities and opportunities, planned duties and serendipitous possibilities. There is so much we could do, but so little we can do. Many of us battle our whole lives to focus on those few, significant items that we should do must do, and yet so few of us ever feel like we are even nearly succeeding.

Help is here in the form of Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism. While it is not a perfect book, and while it benefits tremendously from adding a good dose of Christian thinking, it is one of the most helpful I’ve read on that constant battle to focus my time and energy on the right things.

McKeown believes in what he calls Essentialism and describes the basic value proposition in this way: “only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.” The Essentialist pursues fewer but better opportunities and is rigidly disciplined in rejecting the many to devote himself to the few. It is “not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.”

The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

Now that sounds good! That sounds like what we all want—a clear design to our lives that simplifies decision-making and amplifies each of the opportunities we pursue.

McKeown leads the reader to Essentialism in four parts:

Essence. He begins by looking to the essence of Essentialism and the realities that make Essentialism a necessary but difficult practice today.

Explore. Here he describes the way an Essentialist needs to think so he can pursue the highest possible contribution toward the best goals.

Eliminate. Having determined the best goals, the Essentialist now needs to begin eliminating anything that will compete with the pursuit of those goals. “It’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution; you still have to actively eliminate those that do not.”

Execute. And then comes the heart of it all—living in such a way that you now execute on those few goals, and continuing to follow the discipline of it.

McKeown promises his book “will teach you a method for being more efficient, productive, and effective in both personal and professional realms. It will teach you a systematic way to discern what is important, eliminate what is not, and make doing the essential as effortless as possible. In short, it will teach you how to apply the disciplined pursuit of less to every area of your life.”

And I think it can do that. It is chock-full of excellent insights and quoteable phrases. It is the kind of book you can use to implement systems in your life, or the kind of book you can plunder for its big and important ideas.

Yet the Christian reader will want to read it with some discernment. This is a book that benefits from an infusion of the biblical ethos. As the book reaches its end, McKeown expands Essentialism to all of life and here he stops quoting business gurus and begins quoting religious gurus; the last chapter is easily the weakest and one that can be skipped without any great loss.

Reading the book through a Christian lens improves it significantly. McKeown writes about people who always say “yes” and are afraid to say “no.” That sounds like a classic diagnosis of fear of man, a person so motivated by the praise of man that he takes on too much and says no to too little so he can win the praise of other people.

Not only that, but God has a way of diverting us from what we believe are our most important tasks. He diverts us to tasks he determines are even more important, and a too-rigid adherence to Essentialism may keep a Christian from allowing and embracing those divine interruptions. Read the gospels and the book of Acts and you will see how Jesus and the Apostles were extremely focused, but also very willing to depart from their plans. Implementing Essentialism too rigidly may just lead to a self-centered life rather than a life of service to others.

Reading through that Christian lens also allows us to see that Essentialism can be a means through which we honor and glorify God. It propels us to consider where God has specially gifted and equipped us to serve him and his people. Again, “Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.” The principles of Essentialism, read and applied through the Bible, will help us understand how we are uniquely created and burdened by God to meet specific needs. And, equally helpfully, it will steer us away from those areas where we cannot contribute nearly as well.

I heartily recommend the book, provided you read with Essentialism in one hand, and the Bible in the other.

Let me close with a few of my favorite quotes:

In many cases we can learn to make one-time decisions that make a thousand future decisions so we don’t exhaust ourselves asking the same questions again and again.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

We can either make our choices deliberately or allow other people’s agendas to control our lives.

There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: “I have to,” “It’s all important,” and “I can do both.”

If … people are too busy to think, then they’re too busy, period.

Making our criteria both selective and explicit affords us a systematic tool for discerning what is essential and filtering out the things that are not.

Motivation and cooperation deteriorate when there is a lack of purpose.

Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.

“We need to learn the slow ‘yes’ and the quick ‘no.’ ”

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Venki
The way of the essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It is about constantly to ask “Am I ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014
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In a world where multi tasking is adored, this book gives a different perspective on how to de-clutter and simplify our lives.

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the non-essentials. The way of the essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It is about constantly to ask “Am I investing in the right activities?”

There are far more activities, opportunities in the world than we have time and resources to invest in. The way of the Essentialist involves learning to tell the difference – learning to filter through all the options and selection only those that are truly essential.

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done, but it is about how to get the right things done. It is about making the wisest possible investment of our time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

Essentialist – Core mind-set of an Essentialist
An Essentialist has to be operate with a different mind-set. The core mind-set of essentialist are:

Individual Choice – We can choose how to spend our energy and time. Without choice there is no point in talking about trade-offs. The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away – it can only be forgotten.
Prevalence of Noise – Almost everything is noise and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important. A non-Essentialist things almost everything is essential. An Essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential.
Reality of trade-offs – We can’t have it all or do it all. If we could, there would be no reason to evaluate or eliminate the options.
The way of essentialist is the path to being in control of your choices.

In todays world of competing priorities the mindset is that “You can have it all”. The Essentialist approach would be:

Explore and Evaluate – Will the activity that I am investing make the highest possible contribution toward my goal?
Exploring meant the ability to discern the vital few from the trivial many. Evaluate what really matters.
ESCAPE – The Perks of being unavailable
LOOK – See what really matters
PLAY – Embrace the wisdom of your inner child
SLEEP – Protect the Asset
SELECT – The Power of Extreme Criteria
Eliminate – It is simply not enough to determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution; you would have to actively eliminate those that do not.
How can we cut out the trivial many ?
CLARIFY – One Decision that makes a Thousand
DARE – Power of a Graceful “No”
UNCOMMIT – Win Big by Cutting Your Losses
EDIT – The Invisible Art
LIMIT – The freedom of setting boundaries
Execute – Once you have figured out the activities and efforts to keep, we need a system to make the executing as effortless as possible.
How can we make doing the vital few things almost effortless?
BUFFER – The unfair advantage
SUBTRACT – Bring forth more by removing obstacles
PROGRESS – Power of Small Wins
FLOW – Genius of Routine
FOCUS – What’s important now ?
BE – The Essentialist Life
The most important message from this book is –
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”

The disciplined pursuit of less each and every time you are faced with a decision about whether to say yes or whether to politely decline. It is a method for making the tough trade-off between lots of good things and a few really great things.

Essentialism is about learning how to do less but better so you can achieve the highest possible return on every precious moment of your life.

This book will show you how to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect from you, by disciplined pursuit of less to every area of your life.

Summary:

In summary the disciplined pursuit of less can change your life for the better in the following ways:

More Clarity – Life will become less about efficiently crossing off what was on your to-do list or rushing through everything on your schedule and more about changing what you put on there in the first place.
More Control – Gain in confidence in your ability to pause, push back and not rush in. Remember that if you do not prioritize your life, someone else will. But if you are determined to prioritize your own life you can. The power is within you.
More Joy in the Journey – With the focus on what is truly important right now comes the ability to live life more fully, in the moment.
The life of an Essentialist is a life of meaning. It is a life that really matters. The life of an Essentialist is a life lived without regret. If you have correctly identified what really matters, if you invest time and energy in it, then it is difficult to regret the choices you make. You become proud of the life you have chosen to live.

If there is one think you take away from the book, whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, “What is Essential?” Eliminate everything else.

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Joe Bathelt
Useful advice for our hectic times
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2021
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Our world seems to be moving faster and faster. We are bombarded by endless information and rapidly multiplying demands on our time and attention. Many people struggle to cope with their bottomless to-do lists and their ever-expanding to-read piles. As a consequence, many people feel scattered or even burned out. In “Essentialism”, Grey McKeown provides an antidote by arguing that we should focus on the essential. Thereby, we can concentrate our efforts on the things that truly matter and ignore all of the noise. He goes into practical advice and illustrates the approach of the essentialist to many of life’s quandaries. The book is highly readable because of the many case examples that will resonate with many readers. The chapters are also kept short and to the point. That makes it easy to absorb the main message. However, I thought that book boiled down to a few central points that can be summarised in a page or two. However, this might be because I read quite a few books on similar topics and was, therefore, familiar with the content of some of the chapters. For instance, Deep Work by Cal Newport and Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky cover similar ground. Altogether, I think the book is an excellent choice for anyone who feels on the edge of burn-out and wants to take some time to reflect on a better approach to work and life.

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Giulia
Best book ever
Reviewed in Italy on March 13, 2024
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I have re read this book already twice and it’s so direct and well written it’s one on my favourites on the subject

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Trainer Ajith
A beautiful book
Reviewed in India on December 31, 2021
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Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Book Summary : Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

1. Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.” Essentialism is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?

2. Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

3. The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the non-essentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage. The way of the Essentialist is the path to being in control of our own choices. It is a path to new levels of success and meaning. It is the path on which we enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

4. If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will. "When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people – our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families – will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important.

5. Before saying yes to anything, ask yourself, “Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution towards my goal?”

6. Essentialists ask, “What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?

7. Essentialists invest the time they have saved into creating a system for removing obstacles and making execution as easy as possible.

8. Essentialism is not a way to do one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything. It is a way of thinking.

9. There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: ‘I have to,’ ‘It’s all important,’ and ‘I can do both.’ To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything. Ask yourself, “If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?”

10. To become an Essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose. When we forget our ability to choose, we learn to be helpless. Drip by drip we allow our power to be taken away until we end up becoming a function of other people’s choices—or even a function of our own past choices.”

11. A non-Essentialist thinks almost everything is essential. An Essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential. We live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important.

12. Trade-Off—Which Problem Do I Want? : A non-Essentialist approaches every trade-off by asking, ‘How can I do both?’ Essentialists ask the tougher but ultimately more liberating question, ‘Which problem do I want? Instead of asking, ‘What do I have to give up?’ Essentialists ask, ‘What do I want to go big on?’”

13. To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.”

14. Look—See What Really Matters : “Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture. One of the most obvious and yet powerful ways to become a journalist of our own lives is simply to keep a journal.”

15. Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritise. Select -The Power of Extreme Criteria : The 90 Percent Rule: “As you evaluate an option, think about the single most important criterion for that decision, and then simply give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it any lower than 90 percent, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it. If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.

16. The killer question when deciding what activities to eliminate is: “If I didn’t have this opportunity, what would I be willing to do to acquire it?

17. Dare—The Power of a Graceful “No” : “Only once we separate the decision from the relationship can we make a clear decision and then separately find the courage and compassion to communicate it.” Essentialists accept they cannot be popular with everyone all of the time.

18. Uncommit—Win Big by Cutting Your Losses : Sunk-cost bias is the tendency to continue to invest time, money, or energy into something we know is a losing proposition simply because we have already incurred, or sunk, a cost that cannot be recouped. An Essentialist has the courage and confidence to admit his or her mistakes and uncommit, no matter the sunk costs.

19. Don’t ask, “How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?” but rather, “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?” Similarly, we can ask, “If I wasn’t already involved in this project, how hard would I work to get on it? Essentialists accept the reality that we can never fully anticipate or prepare for every scenario or eventuality; the future is simply too unpredictable.

20. Progress—The Power of Small Wins : “Instead of trying to accomplish it all—and all at once—and flaring out, the Essentialist starts small and celebrates progress. Instead of going for the big, flashy wins that don’t really matter, the Essentialist pursues small and simple wins in areas that are essential.”

Whatever decision or challenge or crossroads you face in your life, simply ask yourself, “What is essential?” Eliminate everything else.

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Boo
Insightful book! Must-read!
Reviewed in Singapore on July 20, 2021
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Really loved this book. Got lots of insights! I can keep rereading it.

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Guillermo Mendoza
Ok
Reviewed in Spain on January 17, 2025
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Decente

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A Fantastic Read

The way of the essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It is about constantly to ask “Am I ...

Useful advice for our hectic times

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A beautiful book

Insightful book! Must-read!

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