Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Greg McKeown
20140415

About This Book

This book will show you how to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect from you. It 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.

The Essentialist

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.

01.   The Essentialist   [here]

Part I: Essence

To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace three false assumptions with three core truths:

Nonessentialist

– I have to
– It’s all important
– I can do both

Essentialist

– I choose to
– Only a few things really matter
– I can do anything but not everything

These simple truths awaken us from our nonessential stupor. They free us to pursue what really matters. They enable us to live at our highest level of contribution.

02.   CHOOSE: The Invincible Power of Choice   [here]
03.   DISCERN: The Unimportance of Practically Everything   [here]
04.   TRADE-OFF: Which Problem Do I Want?   [here]

Part II: Explore

In Part Two, we will discuss five practices for exploring what is essential. The gravitational pull of Nonessentialism can be so strong that it can be tempting to skip over or skim over this step. Yet this step, in itself, is essential to the disciplined pursuit of less. 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.

05.   ESCAPE: The Perks of Being Unavailable   [here]
06.   LOOK: See What Really Matters   [here]
07.   PLAY: Embrace the Wisdom of Your Inner Child   [here]
08.   SLEEP: Protect the Asset   [here]
09.   SELECT: The Power of Extreme Criteria   [here]

Part III: Eliminate

Part Three will show you how to eliminate the nonessentials so you can make a higher level of contribution toward the things that are actually vital. And not only that, but you’ll learn to do it in a way that actually garners you more respect from colleagues, bosses, clients, and peers.

10.   CLARIFY: One Decision That Makes a Thousand   [here]
11.   DARE: The Power of a Graceful “No”   [here]
12.   UNCOMMIT: Win Big by Cutting Your Losses   [here]
13.   EDIT: The Invisible Art   [here]
14.   LIMIT: The Freedom of Setting Boundaries   [here]

Part IV: Execute

In this part, you will learn how to make executing the right things–the essential things–as easy and frictionless as possible.

15.   BUFFER: The Unfair Advantage   [here]
16.   SUBTRACT: Bring Forth More by Removing Obstacles   [here]
17.   PROGRESS: The Power of Small Wins   [here]
18.   FLOW: The Genius of Routine   [here]
19.   FOCUS: What’s Important Now?   [here]
20.   BE: The Essentialist Life   [here]