My 7 Takeaways from Essentialism by Greg McKeown

If You Don’t Prioritize Your Life Someone Else Will

A lot of us are overwhelmed. There is simply too much going on. We seek clarity, we seek direction. For some, it is the simple, but elegant advice by Jocko Willink, Navy Seals style. For others, the solution is the sophisticated rules of Jordan Peterson. Some use a combination of tools and methods gleaned from different sources. Something that worked for me was David Allen’s Getting Things Done (see my key takeaways here). But figuring out what method works for you is only one part of the equation. Deciding what to apply it to, or how to choose the target we are going to pursue is another.

Enter Essentialism by Greg McKeown. Written in 2014, the book is dedicated to the concept of essentialism in the context of personal development. The concept is not unique, see for example The One Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan. A lot of good, sensible advice is on focusing effort on one or few areas to get the most out of the said effort. We have seen that from Peter F. Drucker (getting the right things done) and Stephen Covey (putting first things first). Rule 7 of Jordan Peterson’s 12 More Rules for Life states — “work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens”.

McKeown aims to provide us with a complete framework of how to go about selecting and executing those few things that can make the most substantial impact on our lives. If I am being completely honest, there were parts of the book where he tries to fit a bit too much into a single volume. That said, I liked the book very much. The concept is clear and it simply works. In this article, I go over my 7 key takeaways from McKeown’s book:

1. Disciplined Pursuit of Less. There is a reason why this is the subtitle of the book. This is the main message of the book — focus on what is essential. Stop trying to do it all and stop saying yes to everyone and everything. As McKeown puts it: “You can do anything but not everything”. An essentialist is a person who understands that almost everything in life is nothing but noise and that only very few things are essential. This conclusion helps narrow the list of things one should focus on. This is the key because once you say yes to something, it usually means saying no to several other things. The point is to try to make the highest possible contribution toward what matters. To you, to those around you, to the world.

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” — John Maxwell.

This, I find, is the best way to take control of our otherwise chaotic lives. To the extent possible, we need to be the ones choosing how we spend our time. Yes, it is not always possible. Not everything is up to us. But many things are. I choose to, rather than I have to.

Remember the horse Boxer from George Orwell’s Animal Farm? His standard reaction to every problem was: “I will work harder”. And do you remember what happened to Boxer at the end? Yes, not a happy ending. When you spread yourself too thin, you are overworked. When you are overworked, you are usually underutilized.

This simple image below is what McKeown uses to illustrate how far we can go if we concentrate our efforts on one or a few things. As simple and impactful as images go.

2. Essence. McKeown first explores the core mindset of what it means to be an essentialist. He starts with determining what is essential. This is our ability to choose the problem or problems which we want to handle. I am not a big fan of going with one’s passion, I think that is misguided advice, but that is perhaps a topic for another article. I prefer to go with curiosity. What am I truly interested to dive into? Another concept that I find works very well, though may not be very clear off the bat is resonance. Find what resonates with you and pursue that. You don’t even need to know why it resonates with you. As you spend time and energy on the topic, you will decide whether it is something worth pursuing or not.

3. Explore. The author then goes into a framework to help the reader “discern the trivial many from the vital few”. Sometimes deciding is difficult. You just don’t know. What language to study? What degree to pursue? Here is a personal challenge — what to study in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a complex martial art notorious for having hundreds upon hundreds of techniques. McKeown proposes several ways to go about it. The advice that I found most helpful was to escape — carve out some space to think. Isolation can help manufacture focus and achieve clarity. Thinking time has to be planned and built into our schedule. To figure out what matters most to us, we need to observe, listen, and pay attention.

4. Importance of play. I loved this part of the book where the author suggests “to embrace the wisdom of your inner child”. McKeown defines play as anything we do simply for the joy of doing it rather than with a specific objective in mind. Play helps relieve stress, helps explore options, and is an essential aspect of exploration. We should try to explore, playfully, without taking on the stress of decision-making. As we play, we are more likely to stumble upon what is it that we truly want to pursue. This is something that I practice often in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, during sparring rounds. Sometimes I simply let the sparring go wherever it goes, playfully. Without trying to dictate the outcome, without trying to win. There is a lot to learn from such an approach to practice because sometimes it is precisely these types of sessions that give me valuable feedback about what I need to concentrate on in my learning.

5. Eliminate. This, I think is key. If you want to reach clarity, we need to decide what we are saying no to. There is so much going on in our lives that subtracting might be the single most important aspect of our time and energy management. Sometimes we decide not to get into something (avoid casual commitments). Sometimes we need to decide to get out after spending some time on an issue (cut your losses, don’t fall for the sunk-cost bias). It has so many applications, I don’t know where to start. We are talking about something as mundane as decluttering our physical space (along the lines of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying). We are talking about setting criteria for allowing things into our lives, such as Derek Sivers’ “If it isn’t a clear yes (or hell yeah), then it is a clear no” in his book Anything You Want. We need to choose what to fail at (my article on the subject here). We are talking about how you allocate your time at work, particularly about some of the worst time consumers — meetings. Just because I am invited, is not a good enough reason to attend a meeting.

For the longest time, I struggled with this. Saying no was very difficult for me and every yes would keep adding extra work and effort to my already busy life.

NO IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. — Anne Lamott

No. This powerful tool allows us to carve out time to think, to strategize. It introduces “slack” (using Tom De Marco’s term) — time and space that allow us to be flexible and adaptable. To explore life. To try new things.

McKeown gives an example of what is perhaps the best rejection I have ever seen. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of “Flow”, once wrote to Peter F. Drucker asking to interview him. The reply included this: “I hope you will not think me presumptuous or rude if I say that one of the secrets of productivity… is to have a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours — productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do and to do well.”

Wow.

6. Execute. I think it is very important that McKeown does not stop at choosing and planning, but talks about executing. Without timely and effective execution we risk losing our focus. Distractions are always all around us and we need to press forward on what we have already decided to do. McKeown offers some practical tools to help handle the execution part of essentialism. One tool is making sure there are buffers against difficulties and failure. One such thing is extreme and early preparation. Preparation is fundamental — not least because in addition to just helping us get on with the activity we are executing, it has tremendous potential to create what might be seen as luck (see here).

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it — Stephen Leacock

Another important element is the power of small wins. We often concentrate on big wins, but small wins do accumulate and help maintain motivation and momentum. Nothing motivates quite like progress. It helps build confidence and faith in the positive outcome.

Above all, execution is about delivering the product. Finalizing the work. Or as Seth Godin puts it — shipping it (see my related article here).

7. Essentialist versus non-essentialist. The visual below offers a telling difference between someone who makes conscious choices about what to engage in and what not to and those who just let life take over.

I challenge you to find someone who would want to be on the left side of the image above.

All in all, a great read. The concepts described in this book make sense both at the personal level, as well as at the level of groups of people. Whether you are learning something or running a company, it makes sense to pursue clarity and focus by practicing essentialism.

Of course, every once in a while, it does not hurt to go wild and pursue things that do not connect with what you believe is essential for you. So explore and play — do not forget these things in the dogged pursuit of your objectives. Sometimes serendipity (read here) might introduce new essentials into your life.

Live by design, not by default. At least most of the time. Don’t forget: