Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by Greg McKeown

Instead of making just a millimeter of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the things that were truly vital.

basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself 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.

Less but better

The way of the Essentialist involves learning to tell the difference—learning to filter through all those options and selecting only those that are truly essential.

Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things

by investing in fewer things we have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most.

Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

“How can we make the choices that allow us to tap into more of the potential inside ourselves, and in people everywhere?”

One reason is that in our society we are punished for good behavior (saying no) and rewarded for bad behavior (saying yes).

We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure. Put another way, success can distract us from focusing on the essential things that produce success in the first place.

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

for the first time, the preponderance of choice has overwhelmed our ability to manage it. We have lost our ability to filter what is important and what isn’t. Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the

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

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.

When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people—our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families—will choose for us,

We can either make our choices deliberately or allow other people’s agendas to control our lives.

it’s not enough to simply determine which activities and efforts don’t make the highest possible contribution; you still have to actively eliminate those that do not.

we can conduct an advanced search and ask three questions: “What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?”

It’s about the emotional discipline necessary to say no to social pressure.

“Less but better”

What if schools eliminated busywork and replaced it with important projects that made a difference to the whole community?

What if all students had time to think about their highest contribution to their future so that when they left high school they were not just starting on the race to nowhere?

What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance?

What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?

What if the whole world shifted from the undisciplined pursuit of more to the disciplined p...

poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”

three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”

while we may not always have control over our options, we always have control over how we choose among them.

The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away—it can only be forgotten.

They didn’t know they had any choice other than to take the shocks. They had learned helplessness.

When we forget our ability to choose, we learn to be helpless. Drip by drip we allow our power to be taken away until we end up becoming a function of other people’s choices—or even a function of our own past choices.

for capable people who are already working hard, are there limits to the value of hard work? Is there a point at which doing more does not produce more? Is there a point at which doing less (but thinking more) will actually produce better outcomes?

The overwhelming reality is: we live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. As John Maxwell has written, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”

An Essentialist, in other words, discerns more so he can do less.

Nonessentialist Essentialist Thinks almost everything is essential Views opportunities as basically equal Thinks almost everything is nonessential Distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many

Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important.

We’re not going to do a thousand different things that really won’t contribute much to the end result we are trying to achieve.’

The reality is, saying yes to any opportunity by definition requires saying no to several others.

“We value passion, innovation, execution, and leadership.” One of several problems with the list is, Who doesn’t value these things? Another problem is that this tells employees nothing about what the company values most. It says nothing about what choices employees should be making when these values are at odds.

Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, “What do I have to give up?” they ask, “What do I want to go big on?”

Because Essentialists will commit and “go big” on only the vital few ideas or activities, they explore more options at first to ensure they pick the right one later.

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.

GREAT SOLITUDE NO SERIOUS WORK IS POSSIBLE. —Pablo Picasso

He wrote: “I think it’s critical to set aside time to take a breath, look around, and think. You need that level of clarity in order to innovate and grow.”

In order to have focus we need to escape to focus.

They are forced to turn off their laptops and smartphones and instead to turn on the full power of their minds.

when did you last take time out of your busy day simply to sit and think?

“Can you remember what it was like to be bored? It doesn’t happen anymore.”