Paul Mani - Summary of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less: Busy Readers Conversation Starters

Summary

of

Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Greg McKeown

Conversation Starters Guide

Paul Mani

London Sky Press

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First Published in the United States of America 2019

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Table of Contents

E

ssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is a book written by Greg McKeown. The book serves as a guide for people to do the necessary things and drop the unessential. It advocates doing less but better. Strategies are offered to enable readers to shift from having a non-essentialist mindset to becoming an Essentialist.

The author starts the book with a story of Sam Elliot whose work performance suffered because he was doing too many things at the same time. He consulted a mentor who told him to focus only on the essential things, which he did, and his performance rating shot up. "In this example is the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter," McKeown writes. He asks the reader if he too has been trying to accomplish many things without getting real results. Still, in the same first chapter, McKeown tells another story, that of Dieter Rams who was the lead designer at Braun, the company that made turntables. Dieter made a new design for the turntable that was radically different from the traditional design, which made company members fear that they might go bankrupt. Dieter's design, however, became popular and is now imitated by other designers. McKeown says Dieter's design principle is explained in the German words Weniger aber besser. In English, it means "less but better." This, according to McKeown, is the way of the Essentialist. He or she is one who does a relentless pursuit of less but better. This pursuit is done in a disciplined way. He advises readers to constantly pause and ask whether one is investing ones time in the right activities. Learning to know the difference between the trivial and the vital is an important skill of the Essentialist. The author stresses that Essentialism is not about doing more things but doing the right things. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.

Simple yet effective line drawings to illustrate his points are included in the book. The author refers to these drawings to further elucidate his ideas. He also lists the characteristics of the Essentialist and Nonessentialist, putting them in two different columns for readers to easily understand. A wisdom quote from Lin Yutang is written at the start of Chapter One. It says The wisdom of Life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. The book has four parts composed of 20 chapters. Part One is entitled "Essence: What is the core mindset of an essentialist?" The chapters under this part discuss the importance of making good choices, discerning the important from the unimportant, and the trade-off of focusing on the right problem. Part Two is entitled "Explore: How can we discern the trivial many from the vital few?" The chapters in this part discuss "the perks of being unavailable,," being able to look at what really matters, paying attention to one's inner-child, protecting one's assets, and the power behind making a good choice. Part Three is entitled "Eliminate: How can we count out the trivial many?" The chapters are divided into the titles Clarify, Dare, Uncommit, Edit, and Limit. Part Four is entitled "Execute: How can we make doing the most vital few things almost effortless?" The chapters have the titles Buffer, Subtract, Progress, Flow, Focus, and Be. The Appendix features Leadership Essentials.

Publishers Weekly review says the book is "punctuated with zippy, thoughtful one-liners." It serves as a "smart, concise guide for the overcommitted and under-satisfied." Daniel H. Pink, the author of To Sell Is Human, says McKeown cant tell you what is essential to every life, but he can help you find meaning in yours. Reid Hoffman, a New York Times bestselling author, says the book offers concise and eloquent advice. Arianna Huffington says the book is a much-needed antidote to the stress, burnout, and compulsion to do everything. She recommends the book to people who want to regain control of their health, well-being, and happiness.

Forbes magazine tells readers to get ahead of the others who are still reading Lean In and Outliers. They can make their competitive jump with the book. Success Magazine says McKeown makes the content fresh and the solutions easy to implement. He has lucid and smart instructions that are helpful to readers.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is an instant New York Times bestseller. It is written by McKeown who co-authored the Wall Street Journal bestseller Multipliers.

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