Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

by Greg McKeown

Part II: Effortless Action What is Effortless Action? Effortless Action means accomplishing more by trying less. You stop procrastinating and take the first obvious step. You arrive at the point of completion without overthinking. You make progress by pacing yourself rather than powering through. You overachieve without overexerting. DEFINE To get started on an essential project, first define what “done” looks like. Establish clear conditions for completion, get there, then stop. Take sixty seconds to focus on your desired outcome. Write a “Done for the Day” list. Limit it to items that would constitute meaningful progress. START Make the first action the most obvious one. Break the first obvious action down into the tiniest, concrete step. Then name it. Gain maximum learning from minimal viable effort. Start with a ten-minute microburst of focused activity to boost motivation and energy. SIMPLIFY To simplify the process, don’t simplify the steps: simply remove them. Recognize that not everything requires you to go the extra mile. Maximize the steps not taken. Measure progress in the tiniest of increments. PROGRESS When you start a project, start with rubbish. Adopt a “zero-draft” approach and just put some words, any words, on the page. Fail cheaply: make learning-sized mistakes. Protect your progress from the harsh critic in your head. PACE Set an effortless pace: slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Reject the false economy of “powering through.” Create the right range: I wi...

Part III: Effortless Results What are Effortless Results? You’ve continued to cultivate your Effortless State. You’ve started to take Effortless Action with clarity of objective, tiny, obvious first steps, and a consistent pace. You are achieving the results you want, more easily. But now you want those results to continue to flow to you, again and again, with as little additional effort as possible. You are ready to achieve Effortless Results. LEARN Learn principles, not just facts and methods. Understand first principles deeply and then apply them again and again. Stand on the shoulders of giants and leverage the best of what they know. Develop unique knowledge, and it will open the door to perpetual opportunity. LIFT Use teaching as a lever to harness the strength of ten. Achieve far-reaching impact by teaching others to teach. Live what you teach, and notice how much you learn. Tell stories that are easily understood and repeated. AUTOMATE Free up space in your brain by automating as many essential tasks as possible. Use checklists to get it right every time, without having to rely on memory. Seek single choices that eliminate future decisions. Take the high-tech path for the essential and the low-tech path for the nonessential. TRUST Leverage trust as the engine oil of frictionless and high-functioning teams. Make the right hire once, and it will continue to produce results again and again. Follow the Three I’s Rule: hire people with integrity, intelligence, and initi...

each new moment is a chance to start over. A chance to make a new choice.

life doesn’t have to be as hard and complicated as we make it.

No matter what challenges, obstacles, or hardships we encounter along the way, we can always look for the easier, simpler path.