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Key insights from
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of
Less
By
Greg McKeown
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What you’ll learn
Life often feels like an
ice-capped mountain just one snowflake short of an avalanche. The items
people continue to lug onto its delicate surface—the meetings, after-school
programs, and plans—don’t always add to its prestige but often hasten its
end. The sought-after speaker and best-selling author Greg McKeown knows
this well and channels his personal and professional know-how into a crash
course on “Essentialism”—an inspiring alternative for lives that have grown
so encumbered by content that their substance is all but hollow.
Read
on for key insights from Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
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1. Trudging
through your day without considering its trajectory threatens your life’s
entirety.
Tugged away from his wife’s
bedside by a seemingly pressing “work thing,” Greg McKeown knew something
was up. Without a second thought, McKeown allowed his role as dutiful
employee to usurp that of husband and brand-new father far too easily. And,
if that wasn’t depressing enough, the meeting he simply couldn’t miss was
entirely superfluous. If McKeown wisely opted to spend the time sitting
alongside his wife, no one would have thought him any the worse for it
(least of all his wife). Thankfully, it wasn’t long before McKeown
perceived his shortsighted mistake: Failing to investigate the most crucial
aims of one’s life, and instead treating every appeal as an unquestionable
demand, is dangerous. According to McKeown, lifestyles that march forward
to the choppy rhythm of this “Nonessentialism” are lopsided, misguided, and
completely unsustainable—they must be consciously avoided if one wishes to
live worthwhile days at all.
Despite this habit’s
inevitable harm, its prevalence and allure are symptomatic of contemporary
culture. The late writer and expert in entrepreneurial thought Peter
Drucker distinguished this particular moment from others for the multitude
of directions it offers to people. Drucker writes that now, individuals
“will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.”
One might, theoretically, keep a day job, start up a new business,
participate in any number of clubs, and start writing that long-dreamed novel
on the side. Every venue appears wide open. From this vantage point, the
world looks like our oyster. But, as we strive to grasp a fistful of pearls
from the oyster’s mouth, its shell snaps shut on our fingers and we return
with none of its treasure.
According to a concept in
psychology experts call “decision fatigue,” too many oyster pearls can be
problematic. As one sifts through a whole sea of factors, responsibilities,
and possibilities, she gradually loses her capacity to do so productively.
Her thoughts and attention are laden with concerns she unflinchingly
assumes are worth her time. This infectious striving often seems
unavoidable; after all, it’s nearly historical. For instance, the
oft-repeated term “priority”
began its life during the 1400s as a strictly singular word. As the
steadily speeding 1900s arrived to the fore, though, “priority” put on some
ideological weight and expanded into the now common “priorities”—today’s
catch-all term for seeking to, as McKeown puts, “do it all,” placing
everything on the line in the meantime.
Instead, practice taking a
step back to get a proper view of the life you’re giving your time to. As
you do this, you’ll be better able to discover if it’s something beautiful
or treacherous—a structure worthy of your efforts, or an edifice you need
to whittle down.
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2. Targeting the
most significant components of your day orients you to aim for those with
steadfast precision.
The
psychologist-philosopher William James once said, “My first act of free
will shall be to believe in free will.” This kind of “free will” might
sound like mere fiction, or an impossible ideal in a world of supervisors,
friends, and loved ones who throw their every need at you and expect them
all to stick. Often, it doesn’t seem that you have any say in the course of
your life at all. That’s how McKeown felt as he was pulled from his wife by
the whims of his workplace, and it’s one of the most detrimental illusions
he seeks to dispel throughout his work. The lifestyle practice that McKeown
calls “Essentialism” begins here, on the grounds of individual agency and
the capacity for people to determine the route of their lives through their
decisions.
When they do, they’ll learn
to embody one of Essentialism’s most powerful mottos: “Less but better.” It
might feel strenuous and maybe even wrong at first, but as an individual
decides to ax the parts of her day that simply consume her time, she can
redirect her replenished freedom into the most worthwhile activities for
her. For instance, the multi-billionaire Warren Buffett saw this truth
clearly and made his brilliant financial moves on the basis of its
principle. According to Mary Buffett and David Clark in The Tao of Warren Buffett,
the mogul pours all of his money into a handful of trusted sources, rather
than a range of potential outlets, and reaps huge dividends as a result.
Similarly, deciding to hand over a task at work (with your boss’s
permission, of course), or opting out of that weekly obligation will reward
you with increased time and a greater capacity to employ that time in a
significant way.
If you decide to delete the
simply extraneous parts of your life, you might find time to take that leap
across the pond you’ve been planning, too. If so, Southwest Airlines may be
your bet, and as a newly dubbed “Essentialist,” your choice would make
perfect sense. After all, Southwest Airlines is another brilliant example
of McKeown’s practices put into full-fledged action. Under the leadership
of Herb Kelleher, the company initially decided upon a singular aim of
affordability and tailored the airline’s efforts in light of that emphasis.
For instance, Southwest forgoes perks like flight food or designated spots
to remain an affordable option for casual flyers. Though many people
thought that Southwest’s informed decision would be an entrepreneurial
death wish, over time that insight quite literally paid off—a result that
made budget-conscious flyers quite happy, too.
When people model the
examples of Buffet and Southwest, deciphering the most impactful aspects of
their days and endeavoring to rework the rest, they may not find themselves
ever rolling in cash, but they may feel far more empowered.
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3. Whether it’s an
entire day at the beach or a few minutes of sleep, seemingly aimless
activity is inwardly invigorating.
With work goals, family
members, and even pressing personal matters to consider, it doesn’t seem
that you’ll ever have enough time to figure out what’s worthy of your time
in the first place. Thankfully, the task of discovering one’s central
concerns is a lot less cumbersome than it sounds, though it often looks
strangely counter-intuitive. Leaders like Jeff Weiner and Bill Gates, for
instance, continuously unlatch themselves from the concerns of their
workaday lives to ponder their contents more substantially. Just as Weiner
places half-hour mental resets into his frantic days as the CEO of
LinkedIn, and Gates embarks from Microsoft for a biannual “Think Week,”
people should seek out similar ways to reinvigorate their brains and
approach their days with a refreshed mindset.
Albert Einstein models yet
another way for people to recalibrate their minds away from the desk,
office, or classroom. His witty mental games gave way to nearly unthinkable
discoveries. Despite pages full of concrete mathematics, Einstein
recognized that “the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent
for absorbing positive knowledge.” According to the findings of psychologist
Stuart Brown and psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, Einstein is (not
surprisingly) right on target. As leader of the National Institute for
Play, Brown followed the habits of 6,000 people and discovered that their
participation in seemingly frivolous pursuits positively impacted every
facet of their lives. These activities, which McKeown refers to as “play,”
are proven to shush mental anxiety, too, which typically rouses one’s
amygdala and tampers with the mental wherewithal provided by the hippocampus.
So, if you want to muse like a modern-day Einstein, you might want to think
about taking up a hobby.
If the idea of adding some
seemingly unnecessary activity into your day sounds overly ambitious,
though, you can still gain some distance and a much-needed cognitive reset
in a literal wink. Sleeping supercharges the human brain and helps people
conquer whole days' worth of events, providing them with the mental stamina
they need to reconceive their lives. In a 2004 research study conducted by
Luebeck University and released in the revered publication Nature, people
who got an ideal eight hours of shut-eye were vastly superior at
deciphering the answer to a puzzle than those who received less sleep.
Similarly, according to a Wall
Street Journal article by Nancy Jeffrey entitled “Sleep Is the
New Status Symbol for Successful Entrepreneurs,” the likes of Jeff Bezos
and Marc Andreesen agree, ensuring that they get a sweet eight hours of
rest every night—something their employees at Amazon and Netscape definitely
appreciate.
Whether knitting or
napping, granting yourself some hard-earned moments to simply dawdle and
recover might sound superfluous, but those habits revive your thinking and
make life much more pleasurable.
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4. Don’t say “no”
to saying “no.”
If there’s one word that
nearly all of us hate to say, it’s probably that formidable two-letter foe,
vocabulary’s personal hammer—the word “no.” Unfortunately, after
individuals finish the task of discovering the locus of their lives, they
must then begin to take a set of scissors to the rest of their schedules.
In this next phase of Essentialism, McKeown leads people to ask themselves,
“What will I say no
to?” Succumbing to every passing request and taking on enough
responsibilities to send you whirling into a cognitive coma isn’t healthy
or beneficial for the pursuits or people in your life you want to pay more
attention to. Rather, to preserve the most prized parts of who you are and
what you seek to do in your life, incorporating a frequent “no” into your
daily dictionary isn’t a cold, heartless move but an entirely reasonable
response.
Stephen R. Covey, an
accomplished author whose work The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People you’re probably
familiar with, experienced this dilemma one night and came out even better
for it. Following a speaking event, Covey received a kind invitation to
dine with a longtime colleague. But there was a problem; he had already
promised to spend some time with his daughter that night instead, and the
question threatened to derail his schedule. Even despite the press to say
“yes,” a product of “normative conformity,” or the psychological
tendency to fold to even the most undesirable appeals, Covey remained firm.
He and his daughter already decided what they would do with their night, so
he politely declined the offer. Before any other label or position, no
matter how laudable or esteemed, Covey was a father. As a result, he
oriented the decision he made that night to bend to that particular end.
Even to the moment of Covey’s death decades later, his daughter reminisced
on the single-minded love he showed her when he turned that coworker down
to enjoy his time as a father instead.
This example of fatherly
devotion exemplifies another aspect of McKeown’s “Essentialist” creed—just
as Covey delivered a kind though unwavering “no,” he constructed helpful
“boundaries,” too. Unfortunately, these necessary mental, emotional, and
physical constructs are increasingly difficult to maintain nowadays,
especially considering the rise of working from home. Yet another esteemed
thinker and author of the work The
Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen, discusses a moment in
which he too was faced with a boundary-shaking decision. When a coworker
entreated him twice to do some supposedly much-needed business on the
weekend, like Covey, Christensen eloquently dismissed him. Despite visible
bitterness from his colleague, Christensen resolved to save the weekends
for the concerns of his home and his church instead. In his own words, he
knew that, “If I had made an exception then I might have made it many
times,” a tempting move that would ultimately stifle both his career and
his family life.
It’s easy to assume that
nodding affirmatively to each and every person’s appeal and siphoning all
of your time elsewhere will create a rewarding experience, but that belief
is simply a deception. And it’s one to which you should finally say “no.”
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5. Endeavor to
make partial headway over a long stretch of time, and your aims will seem
inevitable.
Despite our best efforts
and inclinations, we aren’t always perfectly functioning, altogether
glistening machines. Even if the striving doers within each of us abide by
the precepts of McKeown’s Essentialism, it’s still a tough feat to bring
those ideals to fruition. That’s why he compels people to craft their own
daily and lifelong battle plans to facilitate the eventual outcomes they
wish to produce—whether it’s the draft of a screenplay, a brand new role at
work, or a weekly adventure you want to turn into a family tradition.
This is exactly what the
superintendent of the Richmond Police Department Ward Clapham did when he
was faced by a worrisome number of young felons in Richmond, British
Columbia. Figuring it was time for a change, Clapham kickstarted a new way
to pursue those would-be criminals, a method that looked like nothing that
had ever been done before. His resulting Positive Tickets program sought to
facilitate a safer environment by granting those who followed the city’s
rules a perk, setting up tiny motivators to contribute to a grander and
more beneficial end. When contributing to the community wasn’t simply
expected but actively revered, young people and adults alike looked at
their actions in a new light. At the outset, Clapham’s Positive Tickets
program might have seemed purposeless, but over time, it decreased a hefty
recidivism rate of 60 percent to a much more manageable eight.
Clapham’s hands-on
achievement is grounded in science, too. In a hugely impactful 1968 article
from the Harvard
Business Review, the psychologist Frederick Herzberg espoused
that what McKeown calls “achievement and recognition for achievement” exist
as the best propellants to get people moving toward their goals. Similarly,
a 2011 study by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer echoes these findings.
Their research shows that as people at last power down their laptops for
the night, they are most content if they made a tangible contribution to a
larger vision. People don’t need to begin with their grandiose pursuits and
all-encompassing plans to eventually get there. In fact, if they were to do
this, their endurance would eventually taper off.
Instead, when people view
their visions as paint-by-numbers rather than portraits they must finish in
a day, reveling in even the slightest bits of color they can add, they will
learn to better appreciate the beauty of their work and themselves.
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6. When you take
short interludes from time, your days will become much fuller.
The Greek terms “chronos” and “kairos” are like
fraternal twins. Though both words refer to the concept of time as
experienced within Greek culture, they tackle the issue in crucially
different ways. While “chronos”
deals with an individual’s typical perception of the concept, “kairos” embodies that
oft-sought sense of being entirely detached from it. According to McKeown,
this “kairos”
only exists “when we are fully in the moment—when we exist in the now,”
pulling our thoughts away from the invading concerns of the day to give ear
to the actual tasks, events, or people at hand.
If you’ve kept up on the
trending topics of the day, you’re probably familiar with the
transformative task of simply honing one’s awareness. But, doing so on a
consistent basis is far less glamorous than those Tibetan monks make it
sound. Fortunately, as a longtime practitioner of Essentialism, McKeown
reveals some of the ways he himself does a cognitive pivot back to the
present. For instance, when he feels flummoxed by the frenzy of a day, he
pulls out his journal and jots down everything he needs to do. As McKeown
does this, he gives his brain a birds-eye view of everything he must
accomplish, enabling himself to look over all those details that were
squirming in his mind to see which are the most pressing at the time. If
you often feel the same way, an agenda, notebook, or even a stack of sticky
notes might help you pry your brain away from its fretting and improve your
mind’s awareness. Or, take a walk, or spend a few minutes staring out your
window. When you give your mind the chance to root itself into the content
of life once again, the definitions of everything will sharpen.
As the profound philosopher
Lao Tzu writes, “In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely
present.” Granting every moment its fair share of awareness enables you to
witness the most beloved parts of your day to cherish them with newfound
enthusiasm.
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