You've probably felt that weird, buzzing anxiety that comes from having forty browser tabs open while your phone pings with a "quick" request from a colleague. It’s that feeling of being stretched paper-thin. You’re busy—violently busy—but if someone asked what you actually accomplished today, you’d probably just blink at them.
Honestly, this is why the essentialism book greg mckeown wrote over a decade ago hasn't just stayed relevant; it’s become a survival manual. We live in a world that treats "busy" as a badge of honor and "available" as a baseline requirement. McKeown’s whole argument is that this is a total scam.
He calls it the "disciplined pursuit of less." Not just less for the sake of being a minimalist or living in a beige room with one chair. It’s about "less but better." It is about making the highest possible contribution toward the things that actually matter.
The Paradox of Success
It sounds counterintuitive, but success can actually be a catalyst for failure. Think about it. When you’re starting out, you’re focused. You have one goal. You do it well. Then, because you’re doing well, people start giving you more opportunities. More projects. More invites.
Suddenly, your focus is gone. You’re spread so thin that you’re doing a mediocre job at twenty things instead of a world-class job at one. McKeown calls this the "Paradox of Success."
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If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will. It might be your boss, your spouse, or even just the relentless algorithm of your Instagram feed. But if you aren't the one choosing, you’re essentially a passenger in your own life.
The Three Mindset Shifts
Most people think Essentialism is just a time-management hack. It isn't. It’s a complete rewiring of how you see the world.
- Individual Choice: You have to reclaim your power to choose. We often say "I have to" do this or that. McKeown argues that, except in very rare cases, we actually choose to. Replacing "I have to" with "I choose to" is a massive psychological shift.
- The Prevalence of Noise: Almost everything is noise. We like to think everything is important, but in reality, only a few things are "vital." The rest is just "trivial many."
- The Reality of Trade-offs: You can’t have it all. You just can’t. Every time you say "yes" to a meeting, you are saying "no" to whatever else you could have done with that hour. Essentialists don't ask, "How can I make this all work?" They ask, "Which problem do I want to solve?"
Why We Struggle to Say No
Saying no is terrifying. We have this deep-seated fear of social awkwardness. We don't want to let people down.
In the essentialism book greg mckeown describes the "sunk-cost bias" and the "endowment effect." We overvalue things we already own or have already invested time in. It’s why you stay in a boring movie or keep working on a project that’s clearly going nowhere.
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He suggests a "Zero-Based Budgeting" approach for your life. Instead of looking at your current commitments and seeing what you can cut, start at zero. Ask: "If I weren't already doing this, how hard would I work to get into it?" If the answer isn't a "Hell Yeah," it’s a no.
The 90% Rule
This is one of the most famous tools from the book. When you’re evaluating an option—a new job, a social invite, a project—rate it on a scale of 0 to 100.
If the score is lower than 90, it’s a zero.
It sounds harsh. It is harsh. But if you settle for 70s and 80s, you’ll never have the space for the 90s and 100s. You’ll be perpetually "fine" but never "great."
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Protecting the Asset
In the world of the non-essentialist, sleep is for the weak. Play is a waste of time.
McKeown flips this. He argues that you are the asset. If you break the asset, you can’t produce anything. Essentialists see sleep as a tool for better decision-making. They see play as a way to spark creativity and see connections they would have missed otherwise.
He mentions how the best violinists in the world actually sleep more than the "merely good" ones. They aren't just working harder; they are recovering better so they can practice with more intensity.
How to Actually Start
You don’t become an essentialist overnight. It’s a discipline.
- Create a "Buffer": Always assume things will take 50% longer than you think. Build in a margin so that one late train or a sick kid doesn't blow up your entire week.
- The Power of a Routine: If you turn the essentials into a routine, they become effortless. You don't have to use willpower to decide to work out or write if it's just what you do at 8:00 AM every day.
- Find Your "Slowest Hiker": This is a reference to a story about a scout troop. To make the whole group go faster, you don't push the fast kids; you find the person at the back and help them. In your work, find the one bottleneck that's holding everything else up. Fix that first.
Essentialism isn't about being productive for the sake of a corporation. It's about taking back your life. It’s about making sure that at the end of the day—or the end of your life—you didn't just "get through it," but you actually did what you were meant to do.
Practical Next Steps
- Audit your calendar: Look at every meeting you have scheduled for the next week. For each one, ask: "If I hadn't already committed to this, would I fight to get an invite?" If not, find a way to gracefully bow out or shorten it.
- Set a "Thinking Hour": Block off 60 minutes this week where you have no phone, no laptop, and no agenda. Use it just to think about your long-term goals.
- Implement the 90% Rule: The very next time someone asks you for a "quick favor" or a "coffee chat," apply the 90% criteria before saying yes.