In Essentialism, Greg McKeown, CEO of a Leadership and Strategy agency in Silicon Valley who has run courses at Apple, Google and Facebook, shows 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 assumption of ‘We can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it 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 shows you how to put Essentialism into practice in your own life, so you too can achieve something great.

Length: 274 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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"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."--Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell is Human and Drive

"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."--Reid Hoffman, co-founder/chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Start-up of You

"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.."--Adam Grant, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Give and Take

"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."--Chris Guillebeau, New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup

"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."--Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

"In Essentialism, Greg McKeown makes a compelling case for achieving more by doing less. He reminds us that clarity of focus and the ability to say 'no' are both critical and undervalued in business today."--Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

"Essentialism is a powerful antidote to the current craziness that plagues our organizations and our lives. Read Greg McKeown's words slowly, stop and think about how to apply them to your life - you will do less, do it better, and begin to feel the insanity start to slip away."--Robert I. Sutton, Professor at Stanford University and author of Good Boss, Bad Boss and Scaling Up Excellence.

"Essentialism is a rare gem that will change lives. Greg offers deep insights, rich context and actionable steps to living life at its fullest. I've started on the path to an Essentialist way of life, and the impact on my productivity and well-being is profound."--Bill Rielly, Senior Vice President, Intel Security

"In this likeable and astute treatise on the art of doing less in order to do better...McKeown makes the content fresh and the solutions easy to implement. Following his lucid and smart directions will help readers find "the way of the essentialist"--Success magazine

"Essentialism will give you richer, sweeter results and put you in real control, giving greater precision to the pursuit of what truly matters."--Forbes --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Greg McKeown writes, teaches, and speaks around the world on the importance of living and leading as an Essentialist. He has spoken at companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Symantec, and Twitter and is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn Influencer's group. He co-created the course, Designing Life, Essentially at Stanford University, was a collaborator of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Multipliers and serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He holds an MBA from Stanford University. www.gregmckeown.com --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1767 KB
Print Length: 274 pages
Publisher: Virgin Digital; 15 edition (17 April 2014)
Sold by: PRH UK
Language: English
ASIN: B00HELB6XI
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Customer Reviews: 2,295 customer ratings
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #20,493 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Claire Lingale

Some great ideas here but some irritants as well

Reviewed in Australia on 6 January 2020

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There's some thought provoking content but unfortunately the use of "he" and "him" distracts from the message. If you think this is a trivial matter, then I suggest you mentally replace with "she" and "her.". It would make more sense as the demographic is predominantly female as is the world population. But when you replace you can then see how jarring this is. It is not a small error but it's easily fixed. Please Greg, in this day and age we can do better.

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Sarah Carthew

Really good read

Reviewed in Australia on 30 January 2020

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Essentialism is a great reminder of how to keep the space and be effective to do whats essentially important in life. It guides the reader subconsciously on a journey as well as consciously to help them discover what is a priority. “The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years.” Would recommend.

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Mirika Gray

Brilliantly written

Reviewed in Australia on 22 August 2017

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This book really made me question why busy is made out to be such a good thing.

This was an essential book in my productivity journey and learning how to do the most important things.

This book teaches you how to 'choose' the most important things.

Last page caused some major life changes for me. No regrets, focus on what matters, my family, and eliminate everything else.

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Mark Bilbrough

A practical approach to focus on the important.

Reviewed in Australia on 31 May 2015

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I really enjoyed this book. I think this book provides a rounded view on focusing in on the stuff that is really important. I like the idea of exploring options but then distill down action on what is essential. I think this book would suit those that enjoyed 'The ONE Thing' by Gary Keller. I'm actively using the practices in the book to stop trying to do everything, and focus on doing things that matter.

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Joselyn Marie Brown

GREAT read and even better tips, inspiring, clear and concise. McKeown makes every word earn its way to the page!

Reviewed in Australia on 29 April 2015

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This book is really well written. The non Essentialist may feel uncomfortable with principles such as setting boundaries or saying no (to people or projects), certainly setting strict routines may be a struggle for those who like to keep things spontaneous, but the arguments are made very well. I am looking forward to implementing some of these tips even if they initially go against my personality type! ps there is a good tip for limiting screen-time for your kids too!

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Aiden Boyce

A brilliant book for non essentialist

Reviewed in Australia on 28 August 2018

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I loved this book, it was like looking at my self in the mirror. The upside, I’m now using some of the tools, tips and frameworks to change my ways...changing is a little uncomfortable but feeling braver and more positive every day:)

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marcello gamberoni

I wouldn't read it twice

Reviewed in Australia on 21 May 2020

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Bought this book because Sam Ovens (absolute legend) racomended it... Unluckily it wasn't as good as expected. A few nice points here and there but didn't feel like a life changing book

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Phoenix

Great read

Reviewed in Australia on 27 April 2020

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Great read and makes you rethink your life

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W Yang

Good sensible ideas - but would you CHOOSE to put them to practice?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2015

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Single most memorable passage:
"Charlie O. Simms taught a Journalism 101 class at Beverly Hills High School. He started... by explaining the concept of a "lead". He explained that a lead contains the why, what , when, and who of the piece. It covers the ESSENTIAL(my emphasis) information. Then he gave them their first assignment: write a lead to a story.
Simms began by presenting the facts of the story: "Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund 'Pa' Brown"
The students hammered away on their manual typewriters trying to keep up with the teacher's peace. Then they handed in their rapidly written leads. Each attempted to summarise the who, what where, and why as succinctly as possible: "Margaret Mead, Maynard Hutchins, and Governor Brown will address the faculty on ..."; "Next Thursday, the high school faculty will ..." Simms reviewed the students' leads and put them aside.
He then informed them that they were all wrong. The lead to the story, he said, was "There will be no school on Thursday."
"In that instant," Nora Ephron(of [Sleepless in Seattle] and [When Harry met Sally]) recalled, "I realised that journalism was not just about regurgitating the facts but about figuring out the POINT. It wasn't enough to know the who, what, when, and where; you had to understand what it MEANT. And why it MATTERED." Ephron added, "He taught me something that works just as well in life as it does in journalism." " p73-74

Disclaimer - I have not read a whole lot of management/self-improvement books, so I cannot say that I am a very good judge of the genre. There is a danger that this book is actually littered with tired old cliches that I hadn't noticed, in which case I shouldn't have bothered you with this. That said -

Self-improvement books are a strange breed - myself included, you so often see people who read one and then complain that the book only wrote about the really obvious things. In the same sense, however, homo sapiens are a strange breed who never quite do what they know to be the obviously good things for themselves. grin emoticon Enter, then, the study of management - the study on "coordination of the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives by using available resources efficiently and effectively". Sounds like self-improvement on a larger scale, but with the added benefit of providing results from well-designed research.

The author is a management consultant with an MBA degree from Stanford. Perhaps naturally, the book often reads like a business strategy book with plenty of case studies from the corporate world, but as Ephron says, those methods can easily be used for life in general. The book's message can be neatly summed up in one sentence - "Figure out what is really important and essential in your life, and eliminate everything else to focus your efforts and achieve maximum output/contribution to society". The rest of the book is just filled up by how to achieve that goal.

While 'the rest of the book' is coherently structured with a logical, well-suited flow and sensible, well-researched suggestions backed up by sociology/psychology research findings(these days it seems impossible to read something that doesn't quote [Flow] by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and [Thinking Fast and Slow] by Daniel Kahneman, although probably due to my reading interests. Perhaps I should just give up and add them to the reading list), some solutions that the author suggests will just sound implausible. One example is the importance of being able to say no to your boss so that you can concentrate on something more essential. Obviously, I cannot imagine myself doing so to my bosses, consultant surgeons. For some other solutions, I thought they can only be done when one is reasonably financially secure, so that he/she can take the risk/hit by cutting out/declining all the non-essential activities that regularly plague our lives. However, (as my stock-phrase goes) if we are to look at the moon instead of the finger pointing at the moon...

The part that really inspires me in this book is its single-minded pursuit and the determination for what constitutes the most important thing in our lives; what makes our lives meaningful for us(as illustrated in the above anecdote), and what will ultimately enable us to be useful to the rest of the humanity. Sure, it may not always be obvious to all of us, and the method of elimination the book suggests may not guarantee to lead us to an answer. In fact, our lives may quite possibly be meaningless! :-D Nevertheless, for me it is certainly worth a try.

The other aspects that left a strong impression for me was the authors repeated emphasis on how pursuing Essentialism is a choice, and the importance of EMOTIONAL(not intellectual) acceptance of the book's ideas for them to work - which is to say, as discussed at the beginning, it is not because we don't know what to do why we don't do them. There is always a choice, and we simply choose not to.

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Colm Jennings

Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2019

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Again, this is one of those books that I took in bite sized chunks. Read a bit, consider and try to put into practice until my actions were becoming habitual. You choose to improve or you don't.

1. I have become much better at saying no, but saying it nicely or without actually using the word!
2. I have become better at getting things done and prioritising what is and is not important to me (although that is still work in progress)
3. I have become better at time management.
4. I procrastinate less (not totally gone, but also work in progress)

All in all a very useful and thought provoking guide to help you take back control of areas of your life. It has certainly helped reduce my stresses and anxiety in life and I would strongly recommend reading if you are stressed or anxious.

19 people found this helpful

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MISS C HORAK

5 Star Journey Back to the Essential

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2018

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I don’t often give books five stars, but this one deserves it if only because it brought me back to earth at a time when it was sorely needed.

I have, by definition, lived life as an essentialist for quite some time in many respects and yet recently came upon some circumstances, which made me start thinking everything but the essential was essential.

Through thoughtful insights, interesting stories and an easy to read style this book helped guide me back to a place where really only the essential gets taken into account and the rest becomes easier to eliminate.

Thank you Greg.

15 people found this helpful

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Maria Davies

Milking the Point

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2017

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I think the author is rather milking the point, which is against the ethos of his subject matter. I feel an easier read on the subject is Gary Keller's The One Thing.

22 people found this helpful

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Gazza

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2020

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Looking forward to reading this book and acquiring ways of plucking out the ‘essentials’ to life rather than being continually bogged down by irrelevancies. As a quotation states at the start of the book: “If you don’t prioritise your own life, then someone else will.”

Must admit, Greg McKeown’s story at the beginning, when he finds himself with a client, rather than with his wife and newly born child, is a real eye-opener for people who find it hard to say no. It seems, from my brief reading of text so far, that it was such experiences that lead McKeown to research the topic of why people make the choices they do, and the reason why he wrote this book.

The reviews I’ve read so far are a bit of a mixed bag, though mainly on the positive side. Some view the book as wonderful and insightful. Others see it as no more than commonsense, with what is stated being reminiscent of nothing other than an overly long blog post.

Anyhow, the catchy phrase of Essentialism has got me hooked. Can’t wait to see what I make of it myself.

I will update my review when I’ve completed the book.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A long blog post

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 July 2019

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Some nice ideas in this book but not very well written and most of them are just not practical unless you have the money to skip off the south of France for 6 months. Also using Rosa Parks & Gandhi as examples feels a bit crass especially when you put them next to another examples in the book like saying no because they had to plan a wedding. All the ideas in the book could easily fit into a shot blog. All in all ok but nothing really new or useful for 99% of us that actually have bosses and need to pay the bill.

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Wheat from the chaff

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2019

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A bit late for my aged, scatty self to get round to focussing solely on what I most love and most need , but if even the Prodigal did it , so can I .
Following this book's advice , I find I am much happier planning and doing things in my little bit of the present I am conscious of , rather than regretting & blaming long lost , unchangeable circumstances or worrying about what most likely will never happen and this book helps to do just that . The book says we can only alter or try to alter stuff happening now , or "IN THE NOW" , should I write ? .
NB ,though it can help people focus , anxiety may need medical intervention first .

7 people found this helpful

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Dr. Sven Jungmann

Gute Ratschläge, schön geschrieben, handlungsorientiert. Aber auch nicht-Essentialismus hat seinen Platz, wenigstens zeitweise.

Reviewed in Germany on 24 March 2016

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Dieses Buch wurde mir von einem Freund empfohlen als ich ihn eingeladen habe, mit mir ein Projekt zu starten. "Nein Danke..." war seine spontane und verbindliche Antwort, verbunden mit dem Nachsatz: "...und damit Du verstehst warum, empfehle ich Dir McKeown's 'Essentialism'!"

Ich sprang bisher immer begeistert auf alle Gelegenheiten auf, die spannend wirkten, ein wenig wie ein Labrador-Welpe im Zoo. Das hat mich beruflich und persönlich weit gebracht. Aber ich stieß immer wieder auf eine Grenze, die in diesem Buch sehr deutlich beschrieben wird. Im Kern wir hier unterschieden zwischen Essentialisten die sich disziplinieren, ihr Leben nur einem klaren Ziel zu widmen und Nicht-Essentialisten, die vielem Zusagen, letztlich nichts wirklich gut machen und dabei sich selbst ausbrennen.

Dieses schön gestaltete Buch zeigt auf, wie sich das Leben eines Essentialisten von dem Anderer unterscheidet, warum es erstrebenswert ist zu vielen Dingen nein zu sagen, damit zu der einen Sache wirklich ja sagen kann, und wie man ein fokussiertes Leben führen kann. Ich finde es angenehm zu lesen und mir gefällt die handlungsorientierte Art des Buches.

Ich habe bereits angefangen, mein Leben auf Grundlage der Empfehlungen McKeown's teilweise umzustellen. Trotzdem würde ich meine Vergangen dreißig Jahre, die ich als nicht-Essentialist verbracht haben, nicht anders haben wollen. Alles kommt zu seiner Zeit und ich denke dieses Buch lohnt sich vor allem dann, wenn man sich innerlich bereit dafür fühlt.

63 people found this helpful

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Arisa Nagayumi

Review for the publisher not for the book

Reviewed in Canada on 28 March 2019

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G Keown has been on my radar since three months when I hear a portion of his audio book and finally decided to make this purchase. The book got delivered in one day, thumbs up for that. But wow. The binding, print, cover, completely suck. To the point of making me almost mad. This print is a horrible version, do NOT buy the paperback!! All the odd pages are tilted to the left as you can see in my picture. You can see all the “pixels” of each letter, pages seem like dirty fuzzy photocopies, the paper is the cheapest newspaper stuff, and the glue in the binding threatens to make your reading a most frustrating one. The first time I opened it, the cover was already coming off. Definitely buy a different version from this paperback!

21 people found this helpful

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MR MARK S WOODS

Undoing years of tangled lines

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2020

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Mckeown skillfully starts this book by describing the bad habits of the people who have sought it out. We are at the mercy of always trying to please and succeed that we perhaps have forgotten the discipline that got it this far in the first place. Essentialism will get you back on the track towards the simpler life you have lost. Full of real world examples, the book is a guide to refinding the path to simplicity and learning to say no to everything that is non essential. At the heart of this is a message that to be truly productive, to perform to your highest value you need to be strong enough to stop pleasing and solving problems for others. Essentialism is presented here as a way of life and in that sense the book is a manual to be referenced time and time again.

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An essential read for everyone irrespective of what you do or don't do.

Reviewed in India on 12 December 2016

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The biggest take away from this book is...

It teaches in detail on how to set boundaries and say NO to social pressures!
It teaches how to make choices in life that matter to us.
It teaches (step by step) on how to choose activities that are meaningful to us and not just because everyone else is doing them.

I find this book is like a chapter from Stephen Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.' But an elaborated chapter. It is definitely a worthwhile read.

I bought the paperback version and the fonts and binding are okay.

36 people found this helpful

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Julie H

This book will change the way you work

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2015

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I picked this up because it was recommended on a podcast and am really glad that I did. I started out by wishing the author had been more essentialist in writing the book as some of it seemed a bit obvious - but that was me suffering from "I already know this" syndrome. When I really read what he was writing, I realised that actually I wasn't following his advice. There is so much smart wisdom in this book and it is one of my go to strategy books in terms of philosophy and practice. It's tough to do what he says but if you want to build a successful business, rather than one which is unfocused and scattered, this book will help you get there.

8 people found this helpful

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Tade Thompson

100% Recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 June 2019

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There are many reasons your life or your profession might be out of control. This can be a definite help in one aspect.
If you have too much to do and too little time, this book can help you make decisions and remove the non-essential.
I loved it, and have read it twice already. I still dip in and out.

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BSB

Good content, dodgy printing...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 December 2019

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The content of the book is good. The presentation, less so. At the bottom of p. 73 the last sentence is interrupted and doesn't continue over the page. On p. 92, we learn that someone ended up in 'casuality' (I think he means 'casualty' as in A&E / the ER!). This book is also printed very wonky; so wonky I can't work out whether the book is actually trapezoidal rather than square....! The ideas are sound, though, and of the nature that most people know how to be 'Essentialist' but forget to practise this in their lives.

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Kirien Sangha

Excellent throughout.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2015

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I've been lucky enough to read lots of great books this year, but this has been one of my top 3.

I cancelled my evening plans just so I could read it all. It's a totally new way of looking at things and goes against everything we've been told and I can't recommend it highly enough.

It's a very different approach to what you read in most business management books: have your top 5 priorities each day, wake up earlier to get more done etc. etc. No, this book is about picking the 1 things that's essential to you and going after it. More than that, he shows you how.

For anyone who wants further reading, I highly recommend Richard Koch's books on the 80/20 principle.

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