Essentialism the Disciplined Pursuit of Less Book Review
At that place'southward skillful reason why the likes of Dan Pink (Bulldoze), Chris Guillebeau (The $100 Startup), Reid Hoffman (co-founder LinkedIn), Michael Hyatt (Platform) and a host of other smart people rave about Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less by Greg McKeown.
It'southward a book worth learning from.
McKeown wraps together disciplines for better personal leadership, insights on employee appointment, strategies for corporate success, with tips on better conclusion making and smart living. It's i of the few books I want to reread – even before I terminate the last chapter.
Here's my quick summary.
MINDFULNESS MARRIED WITH SMART PLANNING
McKeown uses the term "Essentialism" to wrap together the best practices of mindfulness with smart planning. "The result is that by investing in fewer things we have the satisfying feel of making pregnant progress in the things that thing the well-nigh"
He breaks his approach to Essentialism into 4 parts:
one. Essence – getting down to what information technology ways to motility from "non-essentialist" to essentialism
2. Explore – this is where we assess and experiment with changing our patterns and habits to gain some essentialism magic in our work and lives
three. Eliminate – the ongoing practice of eliminating any and all low-value distractions that take us away from being truly effective
4. Execute – where the rubber hits the road with daily practices and minor wins
1. Essence – what is the cadre mind-set up of an Essentialist?
Pick is a central theme in Essentialism. Assessing your electric current reality and making hard choices and then you are "…living by design, not by default." If you have been reading my blog yous will recognize The paradox of success. McKeown defines it equally "The more success yous get, the more distracted and unsuccessful yous are."
He boils the problem downward to iii issues:
• too many choices
• too much social pressure
• the idea that "yous can have it all"
We want more than, only nosotros are poorly prepared to take information technology when we become it. And then we work harder, run faster, sleep less, and complain more than. Our "pursuit of success tin can be the catalyst for [our] failure."
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In "How the mighty fall: and why some companies never give in", Jim Collins refers to this every bit "…the undisciplined pursuit of more."
Like Herb Kelleher famously refusing to add more services to Southwest Airlines flights, the Essentialist thinks almost everything is nonessential.
"If y'all don't prioritize your life, someone else will."
McKeown recommends we fight difficult to supervene upon the three unremarkably entrenched assumptions: "I have to," "It's all of import," and "I can exercise both"
with: "I choose to," "Only a few things really matter," and "I can practice anything but not everything."
ii. Explore – How tin can we discern the fiddling many from the vital few?
The archetype Eastern philosophy advice 'do less to get more' oft falls deafly on our To-Practice list mindset. We often blindly presume crossing more than tasks off our list moves us forward. The contrary is true. Time to reflect and think is "critical to distinguishing what is actually a trivial diversion from what is truly essential."
"Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize."
McKeown gives the example of the CEO who has all his 50 staff book off a full no-phone, no-email mean solar day for focus and planning. And Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, who schedules two hours of blank space on his agenda every twenty-four hours.
"Existence a journalist of your ain life will force you to finish hyper-focusing on all the minor details and run into the bigger picture"
Three suggestions for exploring Essentialism I liked are:
"I'm more than alarm and I think more clearly. I just experience then much better if I've had eight hours sleep" Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com
i. Go more sleep.
Malcolm Gladwell popularized the "10,000 hr rule" that separated the best performers (like the Beatles and violin virtuosos) from the just "adept." The bottom known distinction is that the best also slept the most (the best violinists slept on boilerplate eight.6 hrs – an hour more than than their American counterparts).
ii. Exist more ruthless maxim no.
In the words of CD Babe founder and popular TED talk presenter, Derek Sivers, your decisions should be "Either HELL YEAH! Or No
3. Employ the 90% rule.
"Call up of the unmarried most important criterion for that conclusion, and then merely give the pick a score between 0 and 100. If you rate information technology whatsoever lower than xc percent, then automatically modify the rating to 0 and simply decline it."
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four. Eliminate – how tin we cut out the little many?
McEeown's third phase toward Essentialism is to eliminate the footling, starting with possessions. He recommends when information technology comes to 'keep information technology' or 'toss it' yous ask this dealbreaker question: 'If I didn't already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?' I know for wearing apparel I haven't worn in months the answer would be 'not much.'
The process of elimination besides starts with getting clarity. "When there is a serious lack of clarity virtually what the squad stands for and what their goals and roles are, people feel confusion, stress, and frustration."
Next is daring to say 'no.' For this he gives the endearing story of the belatedly Stephen Covey turning downward a client's dinner appointment offer in lodge to keep a promised engagement with his daughter, Cynthia. "People are effective because they know how to say no." (Peter Drucker)
"If it isn't a clear yes, so it's a clear no."
Like the Concorde jet that kept operating, despite staggering financial costs, or you sitting through a stinker of a movie, or (even worse) staying in a toxic human relationship, a weird sunk-cost bias twists our thinking to what we have invested in. In psychology, information technology'southward known as as the endowment effect – we put more value on something we own. As McKeown puts information technology: "No one in the world has always done a rental auto."
Psychologist and Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman discovered students on campus trying to sell a coffee loving cup they owned would value it at least 100% more than ($5.25 versus $2.25), than those who were merely trying to sell a loving cup.
My favourite strategy for eliminating is coined 'reverse pilot', past Daniel Shapero, a manager from LinkedIn. Essentially, you remove something and see if it's missed (like your newsletter, a regular Tuesday meeting nobody seems to savour, or summary report nobody reads).
"No one in the globe has always done a rental car."
4. Execute – How tin can nosotros brand doing the vital few things almost effortless?
After essence, explore, and eliminate, comes learning how to execute equally an Essentialist on what is most important.
One hundred years ago the globe read (albeit with the transcontinental news filibuster of the twenty-four hours) of the fatal result of the bumbling, and non-so-slightly arrogant Robert Falcon Scott and the seemingly effortless conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen. Amundsen was a master at what McKeown calls: extreme grooming.
Start with your estimates of fourth dimension needed. Kahneman discovered that students regularly underestimated time needed to complete their senior thesis to the melody of 25%-100% (on average they estimated 27 to 48 days, depending on how well their piece of work went. The reality on average was 55 days – simply thirty% completed the job in the fourth dimension they estimated.)
"Curiously, people volition acknowledge to having a tendency to underestimate while simultaneously believing their electric current estimates are accurate."
In spirit of executing like an Essentialist, McKeown recommends the kind of successful habits that "make execution about effortless."
Like Michael Phelps famous pre-race routine, or my Plan Like A Pilot weekly planning, successful habits reduce your mental workload and, according to best-selling writer of The Ability of Habits, Charles Duhigg "means you accept all this mental activity you can devote to something else."
"Design a routine that enshrines what is essential, making execution nigh effortless."
Tell me in the comments below: do you desire to live more similar an Essentialist? What does that look like for you lot?
Source: https://hughculver.com/book-review-essentialism-greg-mckeown/
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