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Book Details

Summary

Greg McKeown defines Essentialism as “Less but better”. The key takeaway is that only once you give yourself the 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.

My Notes

This is a well organized book, divided in four main parts. The first part establishes the need and mindset of an Essentialist. The second part delves into how to distinguish trivial from the essential. The third part then takes us through the strategies to cut out the trivial, and the final part discuss practical aspects on how to make the essential work an effortless work. The structure of the book is well thought of, and each part builds on the previous one

Part 1 : Essence

“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” This part discuss about the need and mindset of an Essentialist, and why we need to pursue this. Three main reasons why we need a disciplined and mindful pursuit of Essentialism:

  1. TOO MANY CHOICES. We have all observed the exponential increase in choices over the last decade. Yet even in the midst of it, and perhaps because of it, we have lost sight of the most important ones. As Peter Drucker said, “In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time—literally—substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.” We have lost our ability to filter what is important and what isn’t. Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.
  2. TOO MUCH SOCIAL PRESSURE It is not just the number of choices that has increased exponentially, it is also the strength and number of outside influences on our decisions that has increased. While much has been said and written about how hyperconnected we now are and how distracting this information overload can be, the larger issue is how our connectedness has increased the strength of social pressure. Today, technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be focusing on. It is not just information overload; it is opinion overload.
  3. THE IDEA THAT “YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL” The idea that we can have it all and do it all is not new. This myth has been peddled for so long, I believe virtually everyone alive today is infected with it. It is sold in advertising. It is championed in corporations. It is embedded in job descriptions that provide huge lists of required skills and experience as standard. It is embedded in university applications that require dozens of extracurricular activities.

Once an Australian nurse named Bronnie Ware, who cared for people in the last twelve weeks of their lives, recorded their most often discussed regrets. At the top of the list: “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” To harness the courage we need to get on the right path, it pays to reflect on how short life really is and what we want to accomplish in the little time we have left. As poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”

Part 2 : Explore

In Explore, Greg delves into strategies on how to distinguish noise/non-essential from the essential. Main argument is we need to pause, allow ourselves some time to think and decide. React, not respond.

Main Notes:

Part 3: Eliminate

In previous parts author makes the case for why essentialism is needed, and how to identify what is essential and what is not. In this part, strategies on how to cut down on the non-essential. I particularly liked the emotional aspects of saying no, as we humans are hard-wired to strive in a society, and saying no is not easy.

Main Notes:

Finding the discipline to say no to opportunities—often very good opportunities—that come your way in work and life is infinitely harder than throwing out old clothes in your closet. But find it you must, because remember that anytime you fail to say “no” to a nonessential, you are really saying yes by default. So once you have sufficiently explored your options, the question you should be asking yourself is not: “What, of my list of competing priorities, should I say yes to?” Instead, ask the essential question: “What will I say no to?” This is the question that will uncover your true priorities. It is the question that will reveal the best path forward for your team. It is the question that will uncover your true purpose and help you make the highest level of contribution not only to your own goals but to the mission of your organization. It is that question that can deliver the rare and precious clarity necessary to achieve game-changing breakthroughs in your career, and in your life.

Part 4 : Execute

Now when we’ve identified what is essential, eliminated the non-essential, this final part goes into how to make it work. This part is mainly focussed on productivity tips on how to get essential work done with the highest quality. This part is cumilation of many productity books.

Main Notes: