Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Essentialism is a practical guide to living a meaningful and focused life by discerning what truly matters and eliminating the non-essential. The book is structured into 4 key sections:

1. The essence - Understanding what essentialism means.

2. Explore - Discussing how we can discern the vital few from the trivial many.

3. Elimination - Removing the trivial many.

4. Execute - Living the essentialist life-style.

Chapter Summaries:

Chapter 1: The Essentialist Mindset

Essentialism Core:

• 1. Individual Choice: To be an essentialist you have to practice your right to choice. We must understand that choosing the non-essentials is choosing distraction.

• 2. The Prevalence Of Noise: Almost everything is noise, only few things actually matter in your life. Taking advantage of the Paretor Principle and looking for that 10% that actually makes our life meaningful.

• 3.The Reality Of Trade Offs: We cannot have it all and still do it all. Accepting trade-offs means we stop asking How can I make it all work? and we ask "Which problem am I ready to solve?"

Being Essentialist means you consciously choose to focus only on what matters to you going forward, nothing else. So we have tools we use to choose what makes our life meaningful, discern the fluff and the essentials & deciding which trade-offs were are ready to deal with as these three processes are actually what makes essentialism effective in our lifes.

Explore:

• ESCAPE
  

  • Essentialists are not always busy and available, they practice space to design, that means picking a time and place which nurtures your creative juices. Where you will sit and think, re-evaluate and digest what's been happening in your life.
  • In today's fast pace life, regular time to slow down is will refresh you and remove stress. Regularly get time to share and gain new knowledge, read.
    
  • Make time to let the mind mind it's own business.

• LOOK
  

  • Get out into the field and get as close to the subject matter as you need to. The knowledge we gain from being practical out performs what we think we know or been told.
  • Keep a journal. Initially write less than you have to, then move towards writing what's worth coming back to. Also read your journal from time to time, don't write to forget your notes.
  • Pay attention to the unusual details of things.
  • When being ask or having to ask a question, make sure you are clear about the question or the actual problem you trying to deal with. DO NOT ASSUME.
  • Look to find the bigger picture, invest time in gaining clarity. aim to be really clear about things no pretty clear.

• PLAY
  

  • Play is crucial as it stretches the mind and gives you routines of thinking that help you see things differently.
  • There is some wisdom that comes with embracing your inner child.
  • Create a play routine and plan for time to play.

• SLEEP
  

  • Sleep is one of the underrated activities in our society, but amazingly the efficient and effective 10% of the world is that way because they rest well.
  • Invest in restful sleep, add sleep time in your routine.
  • Essentialist respect the rejuvenate properties of resting and that what makes them effective.

• SELECT
  

  

  • Essentialist practice choosing through a proper selecting process - 90% rule.
  • If the commitment makes you feel 90% as if it impacts the essentials positively then we do it else we forget about it.
  • When looking at a chance, if it isn't a clear "yes", then by default its a "no" - don't commit to it.

Eliminate:

• CLARIFY

  • Humans need clarity to be effective and unified, when people don't know the team essentials they imagine a new essential and work on that this can sometimes derail people or cause political issues internally.
  • Essentialists ensure that the leadership and the essential intent is clear for the team at all times.
  • Whether you working on a team effort or personal endeavor seek to be really clear about the purpose and the process of what you are doing.
  • Create a essential intent, this statement is both inspirational & concrete. It's meaningful & measurable.
  • If you make the intent vague / too idealistic - it becomes demotivating. Keep it realistic and attainable.
  • the question to ask it If we could be truly excellent at one thing, what would that one thing be?
  • Be clear about what it looks like when we have successfully reached the goal.

• DARE
  

  • We have been taught to agree to everything, to please everyone for a brief moment all the while displeasing ourselves in the long run.
  • Practice saying "No" firmly, respectfully, gracefully - this is a sign of strength not weakness. Knowing when to say yes is a sign of self awareness not selfishness.
  • Those who cannot accept your graceful rejection lack maturity & are a danger to your intention, practice separating the decisions from the relationship

Courage is grace, under pressure.

• UNCOMMIT
  

  • Practice being honest / realistic about the gains of a commitment then making decisions based on the results not the feeling you associate with the commitment.
  • Beware the Endowment Effect, which is we tend to under-value what isn't yet ours yet over value what we already own, keep this in mind when re-assessing commitments and your progress
  • Practice being comfortable admitting your mistake & asking for clarity.
  • Pretend you down own it yet.
  • Get over the fear of waste
  • Instead, admit to failure / confusion to begin success.
  • Stop trying to force a fit.
  • Get a neutral second opinion.
  • Stop making casual commitments.
  • Pause before you speak.
  • Get over your FOMO- "fear or missing out".

Execute:

• BUFFER

  • The essentialist accepts the unpredictability of life & so creates buffers to safe guard against the planning fallacy.
    • a buffer is committing extra time to a task, when you have planned the time management logistics of a task - add 50% time on top of that.
  • We have to prepare till the end, don't be content with half baked plans & preparations. Essentialists plan for the worst case scenario & hope that it never happens.
    • When times are good and things are going as planned, plan and prep for when things are not going good, only then can you assume freedom.

• SUBTRACT
  

  When upgrading a system, its always better to do it from the assumption that part of the system needs changes not the entire thing. So sometimes removing isn't about removing non-essentials but the blockers of progress.

  1. Be clear about the essential intent.

     • don't allow yourself to be vague about what is the essential intent. Verify & question what you know.

  2. Identify the "slowest hiker"

     • Which is that thing that is holding you back and effecting the progress.

  3. Remove the obstacles

     • Find out what are the blockages causing "slowest hiker" to thrive & remove those.

• PROGRESS
  

Progress is making incremental achievements towards the goal. It starts small and grows over time. Essentialists always handle goals as smaller achievable tasks. small wins affirm our faith, so we have to decide what progress looks like.

• Adopt the attitude & behavior that affirms your vision and goal.
• Let's identify the minimum viable progress, what's the minimum mile stones towards the essential intent would you be happy with?
• Identify the day to day activities to do for us to make progress achieving those mile stones.
• Regularly check the progression / consistency of reaching these goals on a weekly or monthly basis.
• Regularly check if the process for reaching these goals is still the best process or not.

• FLOW
  

• Create a routine that will enshrine the essentials & make them effortless to get done.
• Remember that a habit is a process - { trigger -> routine -> reward }, so learn your triggers for all your different habits. If you choose not to make new one's recycle old triggers with new routines.
• When building routines you do it One new routine at a time, it also needs to be small progress since its not a quick fix thing.

Conclusion:

"Essentialism" offers a transformative approach to living a purposeful life by focusing on what truly matters. By implementing the principles outlined in each chapter, readers can cultivate a disciplined pursuit of less, make intentional choices, and live a more fulfilling and meaningful existence. The work encourages us to embrace the ongoing process of clarification to stay aligned with your evolving goals.