Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by Greg McKeown

First, write down the opportunity. Second, write down a list of three “minimum criteria” the options would need to “pass” in order to be considered. Third, write down a list of three ideal or “extreme criteria” the options would need to “pass” in order to be considered.

his earlier success had distracted him from his clarity of purpose.

motivation and cooperation deteriorate when there is a lack of purpose.

we have a set of vague, general values – like “innovation,” “leadership,” and “teamwork” – but these are typically too bland and generic to inspire any passion.

An essential intent, on the other hand, is both inspirational and concrete, both meaningful and measurable.

“If we could be truly excellent at only one thing, what would it be?”

“How will we know when we have succeeded?”

Says yes only to the things that really matter

Essentialists choose “no” more often than they say no.

everyone is selling something – an idea, a viewpoint, an opinion – in exchange

When we push back effectively, it shows people that our time is highly valuable.

remind your superiors what you would be neglecting if you said yes and force them to grapple with the trade-off.

learn to jettison the people and things of her life that just didn’t matter,

Saying no is its own leadership capability.

Have you ever continued to invest time or effort in a non-essential project instead of cutting your losses?

our tendency to undervalue things that aren’t ours and to overvalue things because we already own them.

Abandoning a project that you’ve invested a lot in feels like you’ve wasted everything, and waste is something we’re told to avoid,”

zero-based budgeting, they use zero as the baseline. In other words, every item in the proposed budget must be justified from scratch.

In a reverse pilot you test whether removing an initiative or activity will have any negative consequences.

taking on the role of an editor in your life and leadership.

editing involves cutting out things that confuse the reader and cloud the message or story.

Instead of saying it in two sentences, can you say it in one?

Are you saying what you want to say? and, Are you saying it as clearly and concisely as possible?”

make corrections by coming back to our core purpose.

the best editors don’t feel the need to change everything.

When we are added onto an e-mail thread, for example, we can resist our usual temptation to be the first to “reply all”. When sitting in a meeting, we can resist the urge to add our two cents. We can wait. We can observe.

When her manager, Hyori, asked Jin-Yung to create the script and all the slides for their joint presentation at the board meeting, Jin-Yung put in several fifteen-hour days

What presentation takes this much prep?!

when people make their problem our problem, we aren’t helping them; we’re enabling them.

Make a list of your dealbreakers

write down any time you feel violated or put upon by someone’s request.

projects and commitments tend to expand – despite our best efforts – to fill the amount of time allotted to them.

How many times have you seen someone try to fit too many slides into too little time?

The Essentialist looks ahead. She plans. She prepares for different contingencies. She expects the unexpected. She creates a buffer to prepare for the unforeseen, thus giving herself some wiggle room

Practises extreme and early preparation

use the good times to create a buffer for the bad.

USE EXTREME PREPARATION

add a 50 per cent buffer to the amount of time we estimate it will take to complete a task or project

(1) What risks do you face on this project? (2) What is the worst-case scenario? (3) What would the social effects of this be? (4) What would the financial impact of this be? and (5) How can you invest to reduce risks or strengthen financial or social resilience?

What is the obstacle that is keeping you back from achieving what really matters to you? By systematically identifying and removing this “constraint” you’ll be able to significantly reduce the friction keeping you from executing what is essential.

“What is getting in the way of achieving what is essential?”

An Essentialist produces more – brings forth more – by removing more instead of doing more.

We can’t know what obstacles to remove until we are clear on the desired outcome.

“What are all the obstacles standing between me and getting this done?” and “What is keeping me from completing this?” Make a list of these obstacles.

Prioritise the list using the question, “What is the obstacle that, if removed, would make the majority of other obstacles disappear?”

at any one time there is only ever one priority;

“Done is better than perfect.”

By removing the primary obstacle you have made every other aspect of the job easier.

All it takes is a small shove, then momentum will naturally build.

the Essentialist starts small and celebrates progress.

Starts small and gets big