Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

by Greg McKeown

When you simply can’t try any harder, it’s time to find a different path.

our culture glorifies burnout as a measure of success and self-worth.

prioritize the most important things first,

Motivation is not enough because it is a limited resource.

make the most essential activities the easiest ones.

clear the clutter in our heads and our hearts.

Perfectionism makes essential projects hard to start, self-doubt makes them hard to finish, and trying to do too much, too fast, makes it hard to sustain momentum.

Whenever your efforts yield a one-time benefit, you are getting a linear result.

With residual results you put in the effort once and reap the benefits again and again.

when we apply Effortless Action to high-leverage activities, the return on our effort compounds,

when your brain is filled with clutter—like outdated assumptions, negative emotions, and toxic thought patterns—you have less mental energy available to perform what’s most essential.

The Effortless State is one in which you are physically rested, emotionally unburdened, and mentally energized. You are completely present, attentive, and focused

They had taken work that used to be simple and made it maddeningly, unnecessarily complicated.

ask, “Is there an easier way?”

modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are “essential and hard” and things that are “easy and trivial.”

we all automatically accept that the “right” way is, inevitably, the harder one.

trying too hard makes it harder to get the results you want.

When I’d failed, it was rarely because I hadn’t tried hard enough, it was because I’d been trying too hard.

Inversion can help you discover obvious insights you have missed because you’re looking at the problem from only one point of view.

It means asking, “What if this could be easy?” It means learning to solve problems from a state of focus, clarity, and calm.

Asking the question “What if this could be easy?” is a way to reset our thinking.

part of doing strategy is to solve the easiest problem.”

“It’s also our collective delusion that overwork and burnout are the price we must pay in order to succeed,”

“What’s the simplest way to achieve this result?”

reduce the lag time between the action and satisfaction by pairing the essential activity with a reward.

we can break down the processes into those steps, we may find ways to make the steps more bearable, or better yet, fun.”

list of twenty building blocks of joy

Habits explain “what” you do, but rituals are about “how” you do it.

Our rituals are habits with a soul. They have the power to transform a tedious task into an experience that creates joy.

Complaining is the quintessential example of something that is “easy but trivial.” In fact, it’s one of the easiest things for us to do. But toxic thoughts like these, however trivial, quickly accumulate. And the more mental space they occupy, the harder it becomes to return to the Effortless State.

a system is self-sustaining if it requires less and less investment of energy over time.

What job have I hired this grudge to do?

we often hire a grudge to fulfill an emotional need that is not currently being met.

There are times we hire a grudge to give us attention. When people hear our story of victimhood, we get their support and sympathy. We are thus incentivized to tell our story again and again.

We think the grudge creates emotional armor.

With grudges, we should hire slow (or not at all) and fire fast.

When we let go of our need to punish those who’ve hurt us, it’s not the culprit who is freed. We are freed.

regular spurts of “doing nothing” are the best way to achieve that.

peak physical and mental performance requires a rhythm of exerting and renewing energy—

Do not do more today than you can completely recover from today.

Healthy adults spend an average of 13 to 23 percent of their night in deep sleep.

Sleep quality, on the other hand, is how much uninterrupted sleep you get overall.

the key is the timing of the bath or shower: ninety minutes before bedtime.

in a 90-minute nap, you can get the same [learning] benefits as an eight-hour sleep period,”

If you are seeking inspiration, the easiest thing you can do is rest your eyes.

when people fear being judged, it drowns out their inner voice.

the moment our judgments and opinions are voiced, they compete for the limited mental space others need to draw their own conclusions.

But in the Effortless State, it becomes far easier to give the gift of our intentional focus

Prepare Your Space (two minutes) Find a quiet place. Turn off your phone.

Rest Your Body (two minutes) Sit comfortably with your back straight. Close your eyes. Roll your shoulders. Move your head from side to side. Release tension