Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by Greg McKeown

Paperback, 288 pages

Published Dec. 29, 2020 by Currency.

ISBN:: 978-0-8041-3740-9

(38 reviews)

Essentialism isn't about getting more done in less time. It's about getting only the right things done. Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized? Are you often busy but not productive? Do you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people's agendas? If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist. Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter. By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy -- instead of …

6 editions

Anthony Burgess reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Not sure what to think of it

4 stars

This one felt a lot like a business self-help book, which it is, but also felt like it had a lot of truth to it. Like a true business self-help book though, it contains a lot of "look at this CEO, using our ideas and being successful"-type of paragraphs. I'm never convinced about how true those testimonials can be. You can't just break it down to a few managing techniques and that's it, now your company is successful.

The writing was rather good in most parts, can't deny that. The comparison of sentences describing nonessentialists and essentialists was a bit on the nose, they always rubbed me the wrong way. I get the idea, you don't have to dumb it down even more. Other than that, it's just the idea of minimalism + don't spread out too much, broken down a bit too granular. It's the thoughts that automatically come …

I don't know if I would recommend this book, it was good, but know what you are getting yourself into.

Bryan Fordham reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Some good idea, as long as you have the privilege to implement them. It aunt's you have other people to do the "non-essential" things you deem to be beneath you.

When I was a teenager I worked on my dad's construction crew during the summer. When I complained about the boring stuff I was doing, he said "You want to do exciting stuff, but i need you to do what's needed."

I think there's a reason most of his examples are executives. Quite honestly, most executives could just not show up and still be considered successful. Front line workers still have to actually do the work.

Hilo reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Das Buch bietet eher eine Lebensphilosophie als eine ausgetüftelte Art, seinen Berufsalltag zu strukturieren.

axleyjc reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Quick read. Some good reminders and approaches to identifying and preserving what's truly important in life to make the best use of our limited time.

Some dubious references used as evidence but minor offenses and not core to the message.

Melissa reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This had a weirdly low signal to noise ratio given the subject. It felt largely anecdotal, both from the author’s experience and those of the tech leaders and historical figures he quoted. I think this could have a been stronger left as a series of blog posts (or perhaps just one).

That said, it does have some useful insights — if you can find a summary somewhere, I advise reading that instead.

Anne Merrill reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

"Cut out everything that's not essential." That's it. That's the whole book. If the author had taken his own advice, there'd be no book, just a bumper sticker. Still, it did have a surprisingly transformative effect on my life. For one thing, I realized that coffee with friends IS ESSENTIAL to me. And I quit most of my jobs. And I'm evaluating things differently now. And hardly watching any TV or movies. Worth reading if you are not making as much progress as you'd like on the things that are important to you, if you are trying to do everything. Like many of these business books written by men, though, he seems to be in a position to not think of scrubbing the bathroom floor as essential, you know?

KathyReid reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Greg McKeown's easy-to-read tome on 'Essentialism' is a field manual - a guide for the busy manager or multi-tasker who is poor at saying no to commitments, and who erroneously believes we can do it all. Reading this book is a valuable use of time for the new manager, or the seasoned leader who finds their success has bred too many different projects.

The overarching frame of reference is that there are two types of managerial and leadership behaviour (the book equivocates management and leadership together) - Essentialist and Non-Essentialist, and that effectiveness is the product only of the former.

The book is well structured and each chapter clearly articulates an aspect of being 'non-essential' - illustrating the consequences with (at times, kitsch) anecdotes. The solution is then provided, in the form of take-away behaviours that can be practised over time.

This book would have been improved with the addition of the following artefacts:

- A wall guide or infographic contrasting the 'Essentialist' and 'Non-Essentialist' behaviours for easy reference and to refer back to

- A maturity model or similar allowing the fledgling leader to self-rate their behaviours

I also found this book lacking in solid empirical research; much of the narrative is fleshed with anecdotal rather than research or evidence-based information, which detracts overall from the credibility of the book.

bedone reviewed Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Review of 'Essentialism' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

"We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives."
- Dallin H. Oakes, "Good, Better, Best"

That's basically what this book is about- learning to say no to some very good things so that you can pursue the best things.

I would love to see more people read this book. It's not a perfect book. As other reviewers have pointed out, many of the examples given are not great, and McKeown really likes to name-drop Stanford and the Silicon Valley tech culture. But the ideas in this book completely changed my outlook.