{"id":9031,"date":"2015-04-27T07:08:50","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T12:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=9031"},"modified":"2015-04-27T07:08:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T12:08:50","slug":"book-review-essentialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=9031","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Essentialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book-essentialism-best_seller@2x\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I’m so glad that I’ve found a book to describe what I’ve been aiming for as it relates to keeping the main thing the main thing. \u00a0Essentialism<\/em><\/a> by Greg McKeown is a great look at how to organize your life and priorities to make sure you are investing your time and efforts in the right things…rather than the things that come up throughout the day that can hijack your schedule and your plans. \u00a0It’s another look at the urgent v important argument. \u00a0When it’s all said and done and your time on this earth is done…what will you have wanted to invest your time in? \u00a0As a Christ follower, the question is even more important as you have to consider what you will spend your life on in light of eternity.<\/p>\n

This book was recommended to me by several friends as I was making my reading list for the year. \u00a0This is a book that I’ll eagerly pass along to friends. \u00a0Essentialism is also closely related to our family’s commitment to be debt-free because it talks about not extending yourself past what you are truly capable of considering your time and effort limits.<\/p>\n

I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…<\/p>\n

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  • Essentialism\u00a0isn\u2019t about getting more done in less time. \u00a0It\u2019s about getting only the right things done.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cThe wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.\u201d \u00a0Lin Yutang<\/li>\n
  • Can I actually fulfill this request, given the time and resources I have?<\/li>\n
  • Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?<\/li>\n
  • Instead of making just a millimeter of progress in a million directions he began to generate tremendous momentum towards accomplishing the thins that were truly vital.<\/li>\n
  • The basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying got do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.<\/li>\n
  • Three German Words: Weniger aber besser<\/em>. \u00a0The English translation: Less but better<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it\u2019s about how to get the right things done. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. \u00a0It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.<\/li>\n
  • If you don\u2019t prioritize your life, someone else will.<\/li>\n
  • What would happen if we could figure out the one thing you could do that would make the highest contribution?<\/li>\n
  • When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavor.<\/li>\n
  • Core mindset of an essentialist…
    \n1. \u00a0Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time.
    \n2. \u00a0The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.
    \n3. \u00a0The reality of trade-offs: We can\u2019t have it all or do it all.<\/li>\n
  • What if we stopped being oversold the value of having more and being undersold the value of having less?<\/li>\n
  • What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance?<\/li>\n
  • \u201cIt is the ability to choose which makes us human.\u201d \u00a0Madeleine L\u2019Engle<\/li>\n
  • When we surrender our ability to choose, something or someone else will step in to choose for us.<\/li>\n
  • The overwhelming reality is: we live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cStrategy is about making choices, trade-offs. \u00a0It\u2019s about deliberately choosing to be different.\u201d Michael Porter<\/li>\n
  • Saying yes to any opportunity by definition requires saying no to several others.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. \u00a0Instead of asking, \u201cWhat do I have to give up?\u201d \u00a0they ask, \u201cWhat do I want to go big on?\u201d \u00a0The cumulative impact of this small change in thinking can be profound.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cWithout great solitude no serious work is possible.\u201d \u00a0Pablo Picasso<\/li>\n
  • We need space to escape in order to discern the essential few from the trivial many.<\/li>\n
  • Of course, nobody like to be bored. \u00a0But by abolishing any chance of being bored\u00a0we have also lost the time we used to have to think\u00a0and process.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cWhere is the knowledge we have lost in information?\u201d \u00a0T.S. Eliot<\/li>\n
  • Essentialists are powerful observers and listeners.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialists choose to do\u00a0one fewer thing right now in order to do more tomorrow. \u00a0Yes, it is a trade-off. \u00a0But cumulatively, this small trade-off can yield big rewards.<\/li>\n
  • Making our criteria both selective and explicit affords us a systematic tool for discerning what is essential and filtering out the things that are not.<\/li>\n
  • If it isn\u2019t a clear yes, then it\u2019s a clear no.<\/li>\n
  • If I didn\u2019t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?<\/li>\n
  • What do you really want out of your career\u00a0over the next 5 years?<\/li>\n
  • When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration. \u00a0When there is a high level of clarity, on the other hand, people thrive.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cCourage is grace under pressure.\u201d \u00a0Ernest Hemingway<\/li>\n
  • The right \u201cno\u201d spoken at the right time can change the course of history.<\/li>\n
  • A true Essentialist, Peter Drucker believed that \u201cpeople are effective because they say no.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Only once we clearly separate the decision from the relationship can we make a clear decision and then separately find the courage and compassion to communicate it.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialists accept they cannot be popular with everyone all of the time. \u00a0Yes, saying no respectfully, reasonably, and gracefully can come at a short-term social cost. \u00a0But part of living the way of the Essentialist is realizing respect is far more valuable than popularity in the long run.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cHalf of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.\u201d \u00a0Josh Billings<\/li>\n
  • Boundaries are a little like the walls of a sandcastle. \u00a0The second we let one fall over, the rest of them come crashing down.<\/li>\n
  • Essentialists accept the reality that we can never fully anticipate or prepare for every scenario or eventuality; the future is simply too unpredictable. \u00a0Instead, they build in buffers to reduce the friction caused by the unexpected.<\/li>\n
  • Multitasking itself is not the enemy of Essentialism; pretending we can \u201cmulti focus\u201d is.<\/li>\n
  • \u201cBeware the barrenness of a busy life.\u201d Socrates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I’m so glad that I’ve found a book to describe what I’ve been aiming for as it relates to keeping the main thing the main thing. \u00a0Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a great look at how to organize your life and priorities to make sure you are investing your time and efforts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,35,16,28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-creative","category-family","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}