Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
- Have you ever felt the urge to declutter your work life?
- Do you often find yourself stretched too thin?
- Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized?
- Are you frequently 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.
The Way of the Essentialist isn't about getting more done in less time. It's about getting only the right things done. It is not 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 towards the things that really matter.
By forcing us to apply a 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 giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
Essentialism is not one more thing - it's a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to do less, but better, and declutter and organize their own their lives, Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.
Editor's Note
An essential read…
There are more things to do with our free time and more access to everything than ever before, but there’s still only 24 hours in a day to do it all. An essential read to help you figure out where you should really be investing your energy.
Related to Essentialism
Related audiobooks
The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship: Creating Enduring Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Principles of Effective Time Management Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, 10th-Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How to Manage the Millennials, Revised and Updated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friend and Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People & the 8th Habit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better, Not Perfect: A Realist's Guide to Maximum Sustainable Goodness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Change or Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ride of a Lifetime: Doing Business the Orange County Choppers Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Leadership For You
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline; 21 Ways to Achieve Lasting Happiness and Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Exceptional: Master the Five Traits That Set Extraordinary People Apart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Authentic Leader: Five Essential Traits of Effective, Inspiring Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance--What Women Should Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership 25th Anniversary: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 Secret Keys to Startup Success: What You Need to Know to Win Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5WOLFPACK: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Entreleadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Essentialism
777 ratings68 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good tips, but could have been shorter ;)
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5"-an executive I work with took on a new senior role in the company, he inherited a process his predecessor had gone to a huge effort to implement: a huge, highly visual report on a myriad of subjects produced for the other executives each week. It consumed enormous energy from his team, and he hypothesized that it was not adding a great deal of value to the company. So to test his hypothesis he ran a reverse pilot. He simply stopped publishing the report and waited to see what the response would be. What he found was that no one seemed to miss it; after several weeks nobody had even mentioned the report."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a book that either speaks to you, or doesn't (based on the previous reviews posted to LT).The book title describes the book's theme well, and while ostensibly a business/management book, works great on the individual level.Excellent work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essentialism is a great concept and well explained and described in this book. Lots of examples and ways to include it in your life.It is a different mindset and will take a while to implement and incorporate. I read this book with Deep Work, they compliment each other. Highly recommend.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It is a simple idea: focus your attention on the most important things, eliminate the nonessential, and you will achieve great success. It is a book we need, don't we? Our parents never had the choices for using our time that we have; their problems were a lack of options. We suffer today from the opposite problem. We have too many choices. We can't do everything and when we try to do everything, we end up not doing much of anything.Focus. On. The. Important. Thing. Great wisdom here.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book offers very concise, very useful advice.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less invites the reader into a “whole new way of doing everything.” Essentialism is a discipline. Essentialism is figuring out what is essential and eliminating everything that is not.
I found this book to be packed full of great leadership skills and insight on how not just to do things right but how to do them best. As a pastor, I would highly recommend this book to other pastors and pastoral/elder leadership teams. If we want our churches to impact our community and if we want to make a marked difference in the lives of others, we must be churches of essentialism!
Author Greg McKeown offers several great illustrations as well as comparisons on how both essentialists and non-essentialists operate and ultimately fail or succeed. The book begins by stating that “the way of the essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.” I immediately began to think of some of the most successful ministry stories I’ve read about or witnessed and how those organizations, pastors, teams, and churches were focused churches who didn’t try to do many things “okay” but rather pursued a few essential core goals in ministering to others.
Each chapter of this book is filled with steps not on “how to get more things done” but rather, “how to get the right things done.” Our time and energy is best spent on those things that maximize our energy, time, and contributions. Some of my favorite quotes from the book include:
Getting used to the idea of ‘less but better’ may prove harder than it sounds, especially when we have been rewarded in the past for doing more . . . and more and more.
Instead of asking, ‘what do I have to give up?’ ask, ‘what do I want to go big on?’
The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contribution.
I believe that God calls each of as leaders within the church to give our best. If we want to do it right, we must keep focused and learn to be ministerial essentialists. If we want to make a difference, we need to define exactly what that means to us and see it through until we have made our greatest contribution and left behind our largest impact. Blogging for Books provided this book to me for free in exchange for an honest review and I highly recommend this book to all leaders and to anyone wanting to create a life that matters. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read this book for work, but it has many applications for my personal life as well. The general premise is that we should strive for essentialism: "a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless." McKeown argues that we can't have it all and suggests that trade-offs are an inherent part of life. Because of this, we shouldn't ask what we want to give up, but rather what we want to go big on. The first section of the book is about distinguishing the trivial many from the vital few. McKeown suggests choosing our areas of focus based on passion, talent, and what meets a need in the world. He encourages us to make space to think and time to play in order to figure out our areas of highest contribution. He also encourages us not to say yes to opportunities just because they meet minimum criteria. Instead, "yeses" should be reserved for opportunities that are at least a 90% fit with extreme criteria. (This reminds me of the concept of saying "Hell Yes or No.")The other two sections of the book are about how to eliminate the trivial and how to execute effortlessly on the vital few. I found fewer unique ideas in these two sections of the book. There was more general wisdom in this section (set boundaries, get out of commitments you regret), and fewer specific tips. Much of the general wisdom in this section is based on research evidence (e.g., the power of small wins), so that is a plus, and there may be more value-added from these sections for people who aren't aware of that evidence already. But in the end, I often read books like this more for inspiration than for specific guidelines. I know that I would be happier and make more significant contributions if I could focus on a few key areas of contribution, but that does not stop me from saying yes to way too many opportunities. Books like this remind me of the benefits of continuing to fight against my tendency to overcommit. As McKeown reminds us, by becoming an essentialist, "life will become less about efficiently crossing off what was on your to-do list or rushing through everything on your schedule and more about changing what you put on there in the first place."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5amazing book and spot on focused book.. at the right time.. thank you
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my favourite books I’ve listened to/read this year.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All in all a good listen. Will definitely take some of the author's concepts and apply them in my own life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the most motivational and encouraging books I’ve read to date. Recommend for everyone!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unique. Smart. Different from other books in the same category.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The points made in this book are so critical, so essential, that I’m going to listen to it again!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An essential book. In an era of excess, less is more.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very useful and enjoyable reading. It is worth reading. Recommended
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Easily the best book I’ve listened to in a decade.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5How many different ways can you say the same thing.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my best book, it transformed my life and my way of thinking.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent read. Definitely made me think a lot about how I'm going to move forward.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was straight to the point and I loved it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I can’t even begin to express how much I loved this book. I’m probably going to listen to it again to really let it sink in to my pores.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A book to love by and practice daily. Simply put it is ESSENTIAL. I am attributing this book to my growth and therefore my success.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So so good! Buying to reread! Very thought provoking and impactful. Good action steps.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great tips for simplifying the way we do things and feel better about it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone needs to read this book. Thank you for writing it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book! It has helped me become more aware of the everyday trade-offs that I partake in. It’s a great reminder prioritize the important things in life. Our time on earth is limited and so every decision we make is a crucial part to how we experience our life. This book does a great job explaining that.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book with good information about running a business and also about setting your personal life straight, I would recommend it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was concise and had real life examples. Great read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So interesting book. I really liked the focus, the idea of living a meaningful life