"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?