Learning From Literature

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Cover of Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown is a self-help book published in 2014.

In today’s society, we are praised for doing more and more, constantly taking on additional tasks for our bosses, customers, and even personal relationships like family and friends. However, an overextended lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean you will achieve greater results. Often, the more activities you are committed to, the more quality declines. BUT, when you clear your life of all unnecessary objects and commitments, you free up the mental space to work on the stuff that furthers your overall purpose. 

Essentialism is not about how to get more done; it’s about how only to get the right things done. McKeown advises on determining your purpose, cutting off anything that doesn’t relate, and making contributions as effortless as possible so you can live the most fulfilling life. The book is valuable professionally but even more so personally. You will not be busy but you’ll live an impactful life – only doing what matters to you.

Purchase the book by clicking this link!

Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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Part I — ESSENCE 

WHAT IS THE CORE MINDSET OF AN ESSENTIALIST?

The Essentialist
  • Goal = Not “get more done” → Only get the right stuff done 
  • Essentialist approach:
  1. Explore
    1. Determine your purpose
  2. Eliminate
    1. Cut off things that don’t relate
  3. Execute
    1. Make contributions as effortless as possible
  • If you don’t prioritize your life, someone will 
  • The undisciplined pursuit for more is a key reason for failure
    • More activities = More decline in quality
  • Why is it seen as good to say yes?
    • Too many choices
    • Too much social pressure
    • The idea that “you can have it all”
  • The same way your closet accumulates with clothes you don’t wear, life fills with activities / commitments you don’t need to live your best life
  • “LESS BUT BETTER”
Choose : The Invincible Power of Choice
  • Don’t do things by default (like go to graduate school, etc.)
    • INTENTIONALLY choose what you do
  • We overemphasize the external aspects of choices and underemphasize our internal ability to choose
  • Our ability to choose can never be taken away; only be forgotten
    • Doing everything is a form of learned helplessness
      • You don’t believe you have a choice in what to take on
  • Choices are hard
    • By definition, it involves saying no to something and that can feel like a loss
  • When we surrender our right to choose, we give others the power + permission to choose for us
Discern : The Unimportance of Practically Everything

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything”

John Maxwell
  • Doing less can actually produce better outcomes
    • Doing more doesn’t necessarily produce more (hard work has its limits)
  • It is harder than it sounds — we have been rewarded in the past by society for doing more and more and more
  • Distinguishing the vital functions can be applied to anything, large or small 
  • Discerning more = do less with greater reward
    • Take the time to explore all options 
    • The extra investment is justified because the return will be greater than the effort spent exploring
Tradeoff : Which Problem Do I Want?
  • Either make a hard choice yourself or allow others to decide for you (colleagues, boss, customers, etc.)
  • You can try to avoid the reality of trade-offs but you can’t escape them
    • By definition, a trade-off involves two things you want, so of course it’s difficult
    • Do you want more pay or more vacation? You can’t have it all
  • Realize trade offs are a part of life but not negative
    • “What do I have to give up?” → “What do I want to go big on?”

Part II — EXPLORE

HOW CAN WE DISCERN THE TRIVIAL MANY FROM THE VITAL FEW?

Escape : The Perks of Being Available
  • Explore more while doing less
    • If you say yes to everything, you’re too busy to examine every opportunity
    • Only commit to vital activities so you have time to explore more options and ensure you pick the right ones
  • To be able to explore your options, you need space to escape
    • We don’t get that space by default, only by design
  • Space + Listening + Playing + Sleeping + Selecting are seen as trivial distractions
    • These activities are actually the antidote to busyness
    • Overextended is not evidence of productivity
  • The busier things get, the more we need space to think
Look : See What Really Matters
  • Focus only on your purpose – look at only what is important
    • Not clarifying only leads to further nonessential efforts
  • Focus on the broader patterns / trends
    • Small incremental changes are hard to see in the moment but overtime can have a cumulative effect
Play : Embrace The Wisdom of Your Inner Child
  • Play is proven to fuel exploration by:
    • Broadening the range of options available + help see new possibilities
    • Reduce stress
      • Stress shuts down the creative, inquisitive, exploratory parts of our brain
    • Have a positive effect on executive function
  • Play is called unnecessary, childish, and a waste of time in the very places it should be most encouraged (rigid, corporate environments)
  • Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning + carefree, unbound exploration
    • Isaac Newton was at play in his mind when he conceived the force of gravity
    • Watson & Crick were playing with possible shapes of DNA molecules when they stumbled upon the double-helix structure
Sleep : Protect The Asset
  • The best asset we have for making a contribution is ourselves
    • If we underinvest in ourselves (mind, body, spirit), we damage the one tool we really need
    • You wouldn’t misuse one of your machines so don’t misuse yourself
  • One of the most common ways people damage themselves is through a lack of sleep
    • It is harder to think, plan, prioritize, make decisions, see the bigger picture, and discern the essential from trivial
    • A week of sleeping 5 hours a night induces an impairment equal to a BAC of 0.1%
  • Sleep is necessary for operating at higher levels
    • More sleep = better cognitive ability
  • Pushing yourself to the limit is easy. The harder challenge is to NOT do something and rest
  • Successful People + Sleep
    • Bill Clinton claimed that every major mistake he made in his life happened as a result of sleep deprivation
    • Jeff Bezos tries to get at least eight hours a night
    • Erin Callan (former CFO of Lehman Brothers) sleeps 12 hours on the weekend
Select : The Power of Extreme Criteria
  • “If it isn’t a definite yes, then it is a definite no”
  • Acknowledge the reality of tradeoffs
    • Know you can’t do everything
  • Make decisions by design, not default
  • Don’t settle now at the expense of future opportunities
  • If you rank any decision / dilemma under at least a 9/10 → Don’t continue
  • Make criteria selective + explicit so you have a “filter system” instead of how just you feel at the moment
  • Selection process :
    • Write down opportunity 
    • Write down 3 minimum criteria (minimum to be considered)
    • Write down 3 extreme criteria (what would ideal approved situation look like)
    • Opportunities should pass at least 2/3 of extreme criteria to be considered

Part III — ELIMINATE

HOW CAN WE CUT OUT THE TRIVIAL MANY?

Clarify : One Decision That Makes A Thousand
  • Have a clear sense of purpose so you know what activities are most meaningful
  • Eliminate any activity misaligned with your purpose
  • When there is a lack of clarity:
    • You pursue short-term interests with little awareness of the long-term mission
    • You live a less fulfilling life
    • Effort goes into demonstrating self-importance
      • Overvalue nonessentials – a nicer car / house, number of followers, etc.
  • Answer — “If we can truly be excellent at only one thing, what would it be?”
  • Answer — “How do we know when we have succeeded?”
  • Designing a purpose takes courage, insight, and foresight
Dare : The Power of a Graceful “No”

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”

Stephen Covey
  • Failing to do say no can cause us to miss out on something far more important 
  • There is strong social pressure to follow nonessentials
  • A deep conviction of purpose / value lets you be confident to say no
  • Why is it so hard?
    • Inclarity of purpose
    • Innate fear of social awkwardness
  • Impacts of saying “no”
    • Short Term = slight impact on relationship
    • Long Term = shows our time is highly valuable, builds respect 
    • Fear of disappointing / angering others is exaggerated
  • Don’t confuse a request with your relationship
    • Denying the request is not the same as denying the person
  • 8 ways to say “No”
    • The Awkward Pause
    • The Soft No
    • “Let me check my calendar and get back to you”
    • Use Email Bounce-backs
    • “Yes, what should I Deprioritize?
    • Say it with humor
    • “You are welcome to ____, I’m willing to ____”
    • “I can’t ___, but ____ might be interested and has the capability to help you”
Uncommitt : Win Big by Cutting Your Losses
  • Sunk Cost Bias
  • The Endowment Effect
    • Tip — Pretend you don’t own it yet
  • Get over the learned fear of waste
  • Admit mistakes / failure to begin success
    • Only when we admit a mistake can we make it a part of our past
    • Admitting a mistake = Admitting we are now wiser than we were
  • Get a neutral second opinion
    • Someone not emotionally involved + unaffected by the outcome can give unbiased advice
  • Get over the fear of missing out
    • Test whether removing an activity will have any negative consequences
Edit : The Invisible Art
  • Good editors make it hard not to see what’s important because they eliminate everything but the essentials
  • Use subtraction to actually add life
    • Cut things out that cloud / make it harder to reach your ultimate purpose
    • Less to do = increased ability to focus on things that matter
  • Condense
    • Downsizing
    • Less effort to get results
  • Correct
    • Having a clear purpose
    • Regularly compare activities / behaviors to your purpose
Limit : The Freedom of Setting Boundaries
  • Set boundaries
    • Get clear about expectations, accountability, and outcomes
    • If you don’t set boundaries, there won’t be any… or worse, boundaries will set by default or someone else
  • Don’t make an exception
    • If you make an exception once, you open yourself up to it again
  • Boundaries are empowering
  • Protect your time from being hijacked 
  • Frees you from the burden of having to say no
  • How do you set good boundaries?
    • Don’t rob people of their problems
      • Help is good but once we totally take their problem, we are enabling
    • Make a list of your deal breakers
      • If you can’t articulate your boundaries to yourself, it is unrealistic to expect other people to figure them out, much less respect them
    • Craft social contracts
      • It’s easier to set boundaries in advance rather than during the moment

Part IV — EXECUTE

HOW CAN WE MAKE DOING THE VITAL FEW THINGS ALMOST EFFORTLESS?

Buffer : The Unfair Advantage
  • The only thing we can expect with any great certainty is the unexpected
    • We can either wait for the moment and react, or prepare by creating a buffer
  • When there is no buffer, execution is often highly stressful, frustrating, and forced
  • Don’t assume a best-case scenario
  • Use extreme preparation
  • Tips for creating a buffer:
    • Add 50% to your estimates
    • Conduct scenario planning:
      • What risk do we face and where?
      • What is the worst case scenario?
      • What would the social effects be?
      • What would the financial impact be?
      • How can you invest to strengthen financial/social resilience?
Subtract : The Unfair Advantage
  • Constraints = obstacles holding the whole system back
    • If you don’t address the constraints, you will not become more efficient
  • Don’t look for the most obvious / immediate obstacles, look for the ones slowing progress
  • How?
    • Be clear about your purpose
    • Identify the slowest hiker
      • What are the obstacles standing between me and getting this done – make a list
      • “Productive” activities like doing research / emailing people can be obstacles
    • Remove the obstacle
Progress : Bring Forth More by Removing Obstacles
  • The more we reach for the stars, the harder it is to get off the ground
  • Start small and celebrate progress
    • When we want to create major change, we often think we need to leave with something huge
    • The most effective form of human motivation is progress
  • Techniques:
    • Focus on minimal viable progress
      • Done is better than perfect
    • Do the minimal viable preparation
      • You can start small and early or late and big
      • Take a goal / deadline you have and ask yourself what is the minimal amount I can do right now to prepare
    • Reward progress
      • Positively reinforcing successes allow you to reap more satisfaction out of the process
Flow : The Genius of Routine
  • Design a routine that makes essential activities the default 
  • Routine is one of the most powerful tools for overcoming obstacles
    • Without routine, nonessential distractions will overpower us
    • With a routine, you don’t have to expend energy prioritizing, just follow it
  • The right routines can enhance innovation / creativity by giving us extra energy
  • Most creative individuals find out early their best rhythms for sleeping, eating, and working, and abide by them even when it is tempting to do otherwise
    • They wear clothes that are comfortable, interact only with people they find congenial, and only do things that are important
    • This frees up the mind from unnecessary things and allows concentration on matters that count
  • You can mix up your routines – just remember to center them around the essential
  • Schedule the most difficult tasks first in the day
  • Tackle your routines one by one
    • Don’t overhaul multiple routines at the same time
    • Start with one change and build from there
Focus : What’s Important Now?
  • “What’s important now?”
    • Success will come over time if you put in work in the present
  • Think about what you can control
  • You cannot focus on 2+ things at once
    • Multitasking is not bad, you can easily do two things at once → Science shows you can only fully concentrate on one thing at a time
  • How?
    • Find what is most important right now + do it
    • Get the future out of your head
      • Make a future to-do list — You won’t forget these ideas but alleviates that stressful distracting feeling
      • Prioritize
      • Work through the list one by one until complete
Be : The Essentialist Life

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life”

Socrates
  • Essentialism is not something you do, it is a lifestyle
  • Warning – it is easy to get caught up in the paradox of success
    • Clarity of purpose → Success → New opportunities → Options unintentionally distract us + Clarity becomes clouded + We end up spread too thin = Success became a catalyst for failure
  • You will not be busy but you will be living an impactful life 
  • A life lived without regret
    • If you have correctly identified what really matters, if you invest your time and energy in it, then it is difficult to regret the choices you make

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