There is a tremendous amount of wisdom packed into it. I’ve returned to McKeown’s book repeatedly over the years. Distinguishing between the “vital few” and the “trivial many” is one of the lasting takeaways from this book. Cut, edit, delete, subtract-McKeown is constantly reminding the reader that these behaviors are crucial to fostering focus. That is to say that Essentialism is defined as much by the things you do not do as it is by the things you actively do. One notable aspect of McKeown’s framework is that he spends as much time on subtractive considerations as he does on the additive elements. The book is logically structured into 4-parts each corresponding to a step in McKeown’s system. McKeown charts a clear path forward for the would-be Essentialist through a 4 step system dubbed “The Way of the Essentialist.” The core tenants are: (1) Live by design, not by default (2) Distinguish between the vital few and the trivial many (3) Eliminate the nonessential and (4) Make execution frictionless for those essential things.

It’s a laughably simple idea, but one that most of us-myself included-frequently ignore. McKeown asks the reader to consider one question: “What is this the most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?” This is the core message of Essentialism: identify the important things in your life-the things that really matter-and then invest your time and energy in making them happen. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (2014) is a modern classic with a simple message about doing less to achieve more.

Essentialism mckeown