PDF Summary:Essentialism, by Greg McKeown

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Essentialism: Less but Better

• You focus on just a few important things, so you’re headed in one clear direction.
• You make significant progress on those things.
• You function by design rather than by default.
• You make tough trade-offs between what you do and don’t do, but these one-time decisions set you on a path that keeps you from having to make the same types of decisions repeatedly.
• Once you determine what’s essential, you remove obstacles so that achieving the essentials becomes routine.
• You say things like: “I choose to. Is it essential? What are the trade-offs?”
• You stop and ask yourself what matters most.
• You say no to everything nonessential.
• You remove hurdles so projects develop their own momentum.

Results: You do outstanding work, get the right things done, and feel in control and energized.

Nonessentialism: All Things to All People

• You try to do many things at the same time, so you’re going in multiple directions. Because you’re not making choices, others make choices for you and you function by default.
• You flail and make only minuscule progress in multiple activities.
• You say things like: “I have...

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• You learn to make your optimum contribution in your life, work, and the world.

Imagine a society where schools replaced busywork with important projects that made a difference to the community or where students thought about their highest contribution. What if companies eliminated pointless meetings and let employees work on their most important projects? What if society stopped telling us to buy more, and stopped celebrating busyness as a sign of importance?

In your own life when you commit yourself to discovering and focusing on the essential, you’re ready to clearly answer the question posed by poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Changing Your Mindset

Essentialism isn’t a way to do one more thing — it’s a different way to think about and do everything.

We’re constantly pulled toward the flawed logic of nonessentialism: I have to do it. Everything is important. I can do it all. The essentialist replaces these false assumptions with: I will or I won’t do it (it’s my choice). Few things are important. I can do it if it’s important.

An essentialist does three things when faced with options or decisions:...

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There are many examples of the benefits of creating space to think:

• Isaac Newton spent two years working in almost solitary confinement on Principia Mathematica, his ground-breaking work on universal gravitation and the laws of motion.
• The author of this book blocked off eight hours a day to write, 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., with no emails, calls or appointments. By creating space to explore, think, and write, he got the book done faster and gained control over how he spent the rest of his time. He also reads from classic inspirational literature for the first 20 minutes of each day in order to broaden his perspective and learn from ideas that have endured for hundreds of years.
• Jeff Weiner, CEO of Linkedin, began scheduling two hours of blank space on his calendar daily because he didn’t have time to think between back-to-back meetings. It’s helped him take charge of his day, instead of being at the mercy of others’ schedules and priorities. He focuses on big-picture questions, such as what the company will look like in a few years or how to better meet customers’ needs.
• While CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates took a week off twice a year to read and think about...

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There are two common outcomes when teams aren’t clear on their purpose: members play politics and everyone pursues his or her own agenda.

Playing politics. Instead making their optimum contribution to the group’s goal, team members vy for the manager’s favor or attention by doing such things as undercutting peers, trying to look important, or echoing whatever the manager says or seems to want. These things are both nonessential and counterproductive.

When we lack clear personal goals and values, we behave similarly, making choices that are political or competitive. For instance, we focus on nonessentials like having a nicer car or living in a nicer area than someone else does. Essential activities, such as family relationships and health, get short shrift.

Everyone for himself. When teams lack purpose, members pursue their own interests. Their pursuits may conflict with other members’ activities. When many people pursue different activities, neither the members nor the team make their optimum contribution and the team’s results fall short. In contrast, when teams are clear about their purpose and members perform at their optimum levels, momentum builds and the whole —...

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Nonessentialists assume a best-case scenario, even though things always take longer or are more complicated than expected. They’re forced to react to changes at the last minute and results suffer — for instance, they cut corners or turn in an incomplete report. Their execution is forced and they end up feeling stressed.

Here are some tips for smoothing implementation by creating buffers:

Overprepare: Think about what could go wrong and be ready. During the race to the South Pole in 1911, Roald Amundsen prepared for everything — he brought duplicates of critical items, created extra caches of food and supplies for the return trip, and posted extra flags or markers so they could be found in bad weather or from off course. The other team led by Robert Falcon Scott failed to prepare and ended up not having enough food and supplies, and he and his team didn’t survive.

Beware of the planning fallacy: The planning fallacy refers to people’s tendency to underestimate how long a task will take, even when they’ve done it before. To avoid succumbing to the planning fallacy, always add 50% to any time estimate. For instance, if you expect a conference call to take an hour,...

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• Outcome: Unified team makes a significant breakthrough to its highest level of contribution.

Summary of the steps to being an essentialist leader:

• Be extremely selective in hiring people.
• Establish a radically clear essential intent, not a fairly clear one.
• Practice extreme empowerment by having clear roles and goals.
• Communicate clearly, succinctly, and consistently (the right things to the right people at the right time).
• Check in often to ensure meaningful progress. Remove obstacles and encourage small wins.

Leading by applying the principle of less but better will allow your team or organization to make their highest collective contribution and achieve phenomenal results.