Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller

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Essentialism

By: Greg McKeown

Narrated by: Greg McKeown

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Brought to you by Penguin.

Have you ever found yourself struggling with information overload?

Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilised?

Do you ever feel busy but not productive?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is to become an essentialist.

In Essentialism, Greg McKeown, CEO of a leadership and strategy agency in Silicon Valley who has run courses at Apple, Google and Facebook, tells you how to achieve what he calls the disciplined pursuit of less. Being an essentialist is about a disciplined way of thinking. It means challenging the core assumptions of "we can have it all" and "I have to do everything" and replacing them with the pursuit of "the right thing in the right way at the right time".

By applying a more selective criteria for what is essential, the pursuit of less allows us to regain control of our own choices so we can channel our time, energy and effort into making the highest possible contribution toward the goals and activities that matter.

Using the experience and insight of working with the leaders of the most innovative companies and organisations in the world, McKeown narrates and tells you how to put Essentialism into practice in your own life, so you, too, can achieve something great.

© Greg McKeown 2014 (P) Penguin Audio 2015

Greg McKeownGreg McKeownVirgin Digital

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Critic Reviews

Greg McKeown’s excellent new book is a much-needed antidote to the stress, burnout and compulsion to “do everything,” that infects us all. It is an essential read for anyone who wants to regain control of their health, wellbeing, and happiness

Do you feel it, too? That relentless pressure to sample all the good things in life? To do all the 'right' things? The reality is, you don’t make progress that way. Instead, you’re in danger of spreading your efforts so thin that you make no impact at all. Greg McKeown believes the answer lies in paring life down to its essentials. He can’t tell you what’s essential to every life, but he can help you find the meaning in yours.

Entrepreneurs succeed when they say "yes" to the right project, at the right time, in the right way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying "no" to all their other ideas. Essentialism offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards

Essentialism holds the keys to solving one of the great puzzles of life: how can we do less but accomplish more? A timely, essential read for anyone who feels overcommitted, overloaded, or overworked—in other words, everyone. It has already changed the way that I think about my own priorities, and if more leaders embraced this philosophy, our jobs and our lives would be less stressful and more productive. So drop what you’re doing and read it.

As a self-proclaimed "maximalist" who always wants to do it all, this book challenged me and improved my life. If you want to work better, not just less, you should read it too.

Great design takes us beyond the complex, the unnecessary and confusing, to the simple, clear and meaningful. This is as true for the design of a life as it is for the design of a product. With Essentialism, Greg McKeown gives us the invaluable guidebook for just such a project.

Most relevant

I'm like an adult with ADD. My mind is easily distracted by things. My attempts at using organizational systems (like GTD) tended to do no more than generate massive to-do lists that I found difficult to prioritize. In my mind, EVERYTHING was important.
Mark has helped me to get in the habit of asking the right questions so that far fewer items end up on my list now. They're often tough questions to answer at times, however the sense of freedom that comes from being more on purpose, more in control, and more willing to say 'No!' is very liberating.
This approach helps me to 'audit' my headspace - keeping an eye on where my energy is being directed.
Like most 'self help' books, there's plenty of examples, but it's up to the reader to stop and consider how the issue is relevant to them. An example with a 'corporate' context can still have just as much relevance in one's personal life - e.g. 'Sunk Cost Bias'.
I highly recommend taking notes and making a true 'study' of this and how the ideas apply to your own life. A pity there isn't some form of 'workbook'.
I've read it twice now, and heard it once in full. I find the concepts so fundamentally important, there's either a printed, digital or audio copy always close at hand to continually reinforce the messages.
Definitely 'essential' reading/listening.