The book is about essentialism, the idea that you should take control of your life, have the courage to choose to do what’s only the most important and essential to you and ignore the rest. In a sense, I think it’s pretty similar to minimalism because they both emphasize the need to remove what’s not essential and the need to keep what is. While minimalism seems to be associated more with design or art, essentialism seems broader as it can be applied to work or life. The ability to focus on only what’s important and maintain the power of choice in life will help make a person happier and more fulfilled.
The book has four main parts: 1) it discusses the concept in general, 2) it talks about how to differentiate the vital from the trivial, 3) it lays out how we can remove the trivial and 4) it offers tips on how to make the viral easier to practice. Under each part are some sub-chapters that discuss a factor that contributes to the big topic at hand such as the importance of sleep, the value of having a child-like mind, why we should build in buffer in whatever we do while anticipating for unpredictable trouble. Even though some may lament the various topics he touched upon as lengthy and unnecessary, I do think it’s helpful to break down a big topic into smaller chunks and look at an issue from different angles to have a better understanding. There’s nobody stopping audience from skipping a few pages, you know.
If a reader reads about minimalism or the value of focus, he or she will unlikely be wowed by the book. Experienced readers, especially in the topic that this book is about, will say that this book should be only 20 pages long, instead of 200. But if somebody hasn’t been very well-versed in essentialism, focus or minimalism, this book may be of value.
“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It 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.”
Excerpt From: Mckeown, Greg. “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.” Apple Books.
“The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now be able to have multiple “first” things. ”
Excerpt From: Mckeown, Greg. “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.” Apple Books.
Essentialism the more clearly I have seen courage as key to the process of elimination. Without courage, the disciplined pursuit of less is just lip service. It is just the stuff of one more dinner party conversation. It is skin deep. Anyone can talk about the importance of focusing on the things that matter most— and many people do, but to see people who dare to live it is rare
Excerpt From: Mckeown, Greg. “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.” Apple Books.
Before I sign off, here are a few examples of essentialism in business
Netflix
Read the following to see how Netflix is focused on only thing
Do you notice how simple and completely focused Google’s interface is on only searches?
Apple
Notice the infinity screen on iPhone and the no-fee feature of Apple Card
Aldi
I wrote about the intense focus of Aldi to lower costs and pass on savings to consumers
Minh Quang Duong 