Book [20 ] Essentialism by Greg Mckeown

Essentialism provides advice on how to decide what truly matters and is worth focusing on. In a world with an ever-expanding menu of distractions, the skills of proactive choice and saying “no” are increasingly important. Greg explains that the key to this mindset, is to shift from asking, “How can I make it all work?” to “What are the vital few things that are essential to me?”. This book has given me a framework to routinely reflect on how I spend my time, resulting in less time spent on what’s non-essential (as defined by me) and peace of mind that my actions are the result of deliberate choices.

You should read this book if you…

• feel overwhelmed with too much to do
• want a better approach to decide how to spend your time
• could improve upon your ability to say “no”

Additional Information

Year Published: 2014
Book Ranking (from 1-10): 8 – Very Good – In depth insights on a specific topic
Ease of Read (from 1-5): 2 – Quick read

Key Highlights

1. Essentialism means living by design, not default, by choosing the vital few things that are most important
2. Conduct an advanced search of what is essential: What do I feel deeply inspired by? What am I particularly talented at? What meets a significant need in the world?
3. The ability to choose cannot be taken or given away, only forgotten. Learned helplessness is when we give up because we convinced ourselves nothing we can do will make the situation better
4. The best journalists do not simply relay information rather provide value by discovering what really matters to people (which you can apply to your own life)
5. Alternatives to a hard no: 1) awkward pause, 2) no, but, 3) let me check my calendar, 4) email bounce back, 5) yes, what should I deprioritize, 6) use humor, 7) “you are welcome to X, I am willing to Y”, 8) suggest someone else
6. Executive leadership: being the Chief Editor: taking hundreds of inputs and deciding the few that make sense for what we’re doing
7. Don’t always do what your boss tells you to do but rather what you think they really want
8. Non-essentialist force execution, essentialist design systems to make execution almost effortless
9. Identify buffers (how to reduce risk or strengthen resilience) and “slowest hikers” (obstacles that keep you from achieving what matters most)
10. We can easily do two things at the same time, but cannot focus on two things at the same time