Saturday, November 24, 2018

Essentialism by Greg McKeown


I’ve had friends complain about feeling spread thin. They’re doing so many things that they’re doing none of them well. The worst part of it is, they spend a lot of time on things that just don’t seem that important. I’ve felt that way myself.

According to Greg McKeown, there is an answer to this problem, but it takes discipline. He describes it in his book, Essentialism.

The practice of essentialism begins with a mindset. First, you control how you spend your time and energy. If you don’t control it, someone else will. Next, very few things are important. Finally, life is about tradeoffs, and choosing to do some things also means choosing not to do other things.

I other words, you can’t have it all. You can concentrate on the things that matter most. In this way, you can get more value out of what you do while doing less.

The discipline of essentialism begins with applying this way of thinking all the time. McKeown devotes close to half of the book to fleshing out this mindset before moving on to the process of applying it.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that that doing “less but better” involves taking time to think. Because it boils downs to the decisions you make, it’s worthwhile to make time and space to think. You have to know what is important, meaningful and valuable to you before you can start making choices about what to agree too and what to cut out. We get into trouble by saying yes to too many things without weighing the decision first.

You have to discipline yourself to cut out the less important stuff. You have to say no a lot. Perhaps some of the best advice McKeown offers is tips on saying no to people.

Oddly, McKeown doesn’t focus on making things happen in the manner of others writing about productivity. Instead, he suggests clearing the path. Find and eliminate constraints. Protect your time by allowing for plenty of it; be realistic about how much time and energy things really require. Pay attention to what is important right now. In order to spend time on the important things, you need to make space for it and protect that space. Over time, you can build systems and habits that help you.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested

McKeown, Greg. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. New York: Crown Business, 2014.

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