More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Greg McKeown
Read between
July 24 - August 27, 2025
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.
The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.
pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?”
living by design, not by default.
Pauses to discern what really matters
If you don’t prioritise your life, someone else will.
“the undisciplined pursuit of more”
Only in the 1900s did we pluralise the term and start talking about priorities.
One leader told me of his experience in a company that talked of “Pri-1, Pri-2, Pri-3, Pri-4, and Pri-5.” This gave the impression of many things being the priority but actually meant nothing was.
we tend to value things we already own more highly than they are worth
We can choose how to spend our energy and time.
Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.
We can’t have it all or do it all.
STEP 1. EXPLORE: DISCERNING THE TRIVIAL MANY FROM THE VITAL FEW
“What do I feel deeply inspired by?” and “What am I particularly talented at?” and “What meets a significant need in the world?”
STEP 2. ELIMINATE: CUTTING OUT THE TRIVIAL MANY
“Less but better”
“I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”
The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away – it can only be forgotten.
Views opportunities as basically equal
Distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many
Essentialists ask the tougher but ultimately more liberating question, “Which problem do I want?” An Essentialist makes trade-offs deliberately.
“What do I want to go big on?”
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.
focus is something we have. But focus is also something we do.
read something from classic literature (not a blog, or the newspaper, or the latest beach novel) for the first twenty minutes of the day.
select something that was written before our hyperconnected era and yet seems timeless.
it is important to make space to escape in your busy life.
Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture.
listen for what others do not hear.
Pays attention to the signal in the noise
Scans to find the essence of the information
simply to keep a journal.
the faintest pencil is better than the strongest memory.
“less but better”
once every ninety days or so you take an hour to read your journal entries from that period.
Look for the lead in your day, your week, your life.
Knows play is essential
Knows play sparks exploration
Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning and carefree, unbound exploration.
What did you do as a child that excited you? How can you recreate that today?
The real challenge for the person who thrives on challenges is not to work hard.
Essentialists choose to do one fewer thing right now in order to do more tomorrow.
One hour more of sleep equals several more hours of much higher productivity.
Sleep enables the highest levels of mental contribution.
mastery takes focused and deliberate effort,
The best violinists slept an average of 8.6 hours in every twenty-four-hour period:
“If the answer isn’t a definite yes then it should be a no.”
ask, “Do I absolutely love this?”
think about the single most important criterion for that decision, and then simply give the option a score between 0 and 100. If you rate it any lower than 90 per cent, then automatically change the rating to 0 and simply reject it.
This feels open to significant bias.
