Essentialism Book Summary:
Essentialism by Greg McKeown examines how to accomplish better results by doing less. Practical solutions and advice on setting priorities, learn to eliminate the unnecessary and cultivate the things that keep you happy and fulfilled.
Related Book Summaries to Essentialism:
Designing Your Life – Bill Burnett
The Year Of Living Danishly – Helen Russell
Essentialism Quotes:
Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will.
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.
You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.
Essentialism Book Summary Big Ideas:
The Foundation Of Essentialism
Our days and lives can easily become packed to the brim with to-do’s, ideas, projects and commitments. What we usually lack is a prioritisation within these time sinks. Sometimes, even with ruthless prioritisation there are still just too many!
This overload can become a huge burden, weighing down on us through the day, impacting both our productivity and happiness. By adopting the principles of Essentialism we can start to change these outcomes.
The Four Parts Of Essentialism
Do less, but do it better. You need to become better at saying no to things so that they never become something to cost you your precious time. You also need to become better at cutting existing things that are either ineffective or just not important. Cut them off your to-do lists and focus on what remains, focus on doing what’s left to a much higher standard.
Reject the notion that we should accomplish everything. You need to choose specific directions that you wish to excel in. Don’t be swept up in other people’s plans or ideas, stick to what you’ve chosen. Choose what matters most and set off down that path, ignoring the others. You cannot become a world class pianist and a rocket scientist. The time cost is to high if your trying to become both. You’ll likely instead wind up burnt out and quitting both, when instead you could choose just one to focus on and make significant progress towards that goal each day.
Constantly question yourself and update your plans accordingly. The filtering of tasks and projects from your life will never really stop. Things have a tendency to creep in over time, like weeds in a garden. Staying on top of this process means more time back for the things that really matter again. You could even consider making this part of your weekly review if your a fan of GTD.
Once you’ve chosen your important tasks, do not waste time getting rid of the rest. Remember this is an ongoing process, work at it over time and figure out what is most important to you.
The Upside Of Boredom
Boredom used to be something that we avoided at all cost. We filled any little bits of free time with our phones or social media. At first glance, using more of our time seems like a great thing. But there is an upside to boredom.
Sometimes a stretch of solitary time alone with our thoughts is just what we need. It can give you the time you need to think about what needs to be done, to ‘sort through’ your thoughts. It’s not always about being bored, sometimes it’s about scheduling yourself time to think.
Use your schedule to give yourself a time allocated each day for thinking, for being alone with your thoughts. Use it to make sure the tasks your filling your day with are in line with what’s essential and to allow yourself time to filter out those that are not.
Book Summary Notes:
- These days we feel like should be able to have it all, do it all and be it all. Truth is we can’t.
- Trying this will leave us feeling empty of accomplishment and defeated at the end of each day because we couldn’t fit in everything we ‘just had to do.’
- Our lives can be so full of tasks that it’s hard to see what’s actually important.
- Overload hinders productivity and creativity.
- Task overwhelm has become a fact of life for many people.
- If we don’t choose what is important, someone else will choose for us.
- By focusing on less, we can do better at the remaining tasks.
- In order to maintain focus on the big picture, schedule yourself breaks during the day for thought.
- Leisure, play and rest are an important part of our lives. Don’t forget them. These all fight stress and help bolster our creativity.
- Sleep is not a luxury. It’s a priority.
- One way to cut back on things is to say “if this is not a clear yes, then it’s a no.”
- Learn to cut your losses if something is not working and focus on the areas that are.
- If something is slowing you down, get rid of it. Being an Essentialist is more than just focusing on the right things you also need to be able to them efficiently. Find ways to speed thing up, or outsource them, maybe someone else is better suited to doing the task.
