{"id":30400,"date":"2021-03-27T21:20:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=30400"},"modified":"2021-04-02T21:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T01:52:36","slug":"essentialism-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/essentialism-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Essentialism Book Teaches You to Pursue Less"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism<\/em> about? What does he mean by “the disciplined pursuit of less”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentialism<\/em> is a 2014 book by leadership and business strategist Greg McKeown, in which he walks you through his principles of essential living. He calls his living philosophy “the disciplined pursuit of less,” which is all about investing your time and energy only in what’s essential in order to make the optimum contribution to the things that really matter to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for more about Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism<\/em>: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Essentialism<\/em> Book: Main Premise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We feel constantly pressed for time. We try to do too much, yet when someone makes a request, we say yes without thinking. We feel we have to do it all. But because we\u2019re going in so many directions, we make little progress in any of them. Yet most of these activities are trivial. As Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less,<\/em> puts it, we\u2019re majoring in minor activities. The way out of this trap is to practice essentialism or \u201cthe disciplined pursuit of less.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book Essentialism<\/em>, Greg McKeown illustrates the essentialist approach to life using the closet analogy. If you neglect your closet, it gets disorganized and crammed with items you don\u2019t wear. You purge it periodically when it gets totally out of control. But if you don\u2019t have an ongoing system that you stick to, you\u2019ll keep ending up with a messy closet. The same happens to your life: you say yes to too many things without a sense of overall purpose and your schedule soon overflows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An essentialist approach to your closet \u2014 or your life \u2014 consists of three phases, in which you consider tough questions: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Explore options<\/strong>: When sorting items in a closet, you\u2019d typically ask yourself whether you might wear an item someday. But an essentialist asks a tougher question: Is this item a favorite that I wear often? If the answer\u2019s no, toss it. In your life, the key question is, is this activity essential to making my optimum contribution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Eliminate nonessentials<\/strong>: You have trouble getting rid of things because of sunk-cost bias<\/a>. This means you place a greater value than they\u2019re worth on things you own because you\u2019ve invested in them, so you\u2019re reluctant to get rid of them. To circumvent this bias, ask yourself what you\u2019d be willing to pay for the item if you didn\u2019t already own it. This may be the reality check you need to realize the item\u2019s true worth. Regarding an activity, the question could be, \u201cif it hadn\u2019t just popped up, would I go out of my way to seek out this activity?\u201d If the answer is no, it\u2019s probably not an \u201cessential\u201d activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Execute routinely<\/strong>: For your closet to stay organized, you need a maintenance system that\u2019s automatic. In your life, once you\u2019ve decided what things to pursue, you need a system to make doing the important things simple and routine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism about? What does he mean by “the disciplined pursuit of less”? Essentialism is a 2014 book by leadership and business strategist Greg McKeown, in which he walks you through his principles of essential living. He calls his living philosophy “the disciplined pursuit of less,” which is all about investing your time and energy only in what’s essential in order to make the optimum contribution to the things that really matter to you. Keep reading for more about Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,43],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-30400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-self-improvement","tag-essentialism","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Essentialism Book Teaches You to Pursue Less - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the Essentialism book, you can learn all about the lifestyle philosophy of "the disciplined pursuit of less." 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