Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Essentialism is a sort of productivity book that talks about the art of saying NO, the choices you have in your life, the impact of journalling on the human brain, and much more about time and work management.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown Quotes

“If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”

“Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.”

“Just because I was invited didn’t seem a good enough reason to attend.”

5 Big Ideas From Essentialism

1. There will be times in your life when you have to say NO to certain things, so start learning the art of saying No because if you don’t then it destroys your life.
2. Everyone on this Earth has a big power which is “Choices”, so make the right ones and don’t blame others for your mistakes.
3. Celebrate small victories because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow.
4. Everyone should have a Routine whether you’re a morning or night person, make a Routine and stick to it.
5. Write down your thought before you go to bed, it could be for five or ten minutes but do it, start the journalling, and make a habit.

Art of Saying NO

There was a guy, his name was Mohit,

Mohit wanted to start a business but he was doing a 9 to 5 Job and because of that, he didn’t have the free time to work on his business Idea.

Now, technically, He did have the time after Job but whenever he starts working, someone from his family will come to him and ask for help and Mohit being Mohit, he couldn’t imagine saying No.

This is where the problem starts,

Mohit wanted to start a business, and he knew how to execute the idea but because of saying YES to everyone, he lost lots of time & opportunity and someone else took that opportunity.

In between, he started reading self-help books and learned that “Say YES to someone when you feel it’s important, don’t say YES because the person is your family member”

Now, the question is, how to decide whether the task is important or not?

It’s a simple thing, ask yourself, whether you have any other task which is more important and urgent than the person asking for help (if it’s a medical emergency then whatever the other tasks are important or not, do help).

For example, I’m writing this article which is important and if someone asks for help, let’s say, one of my friend comes to my home and asks me, “can you come with me, I have to go to that place and I need your car”

Here, I can easily say NO to him because he doesn’t need me, he needs my Car.

Now, even if my friend wants me to go with him even then I will say No because I have work to finish and I can’t push that article to the next day because the next day is already planned.

If I keep saying YES to every single person then I will never be able to write this article.

In the same way, if someone asks for help then first, ask yourself, whether you’re free or not, if not then simply say, “I would love to help you but currently I’m working on this or that, so I won’t be able to help you out”.

So choose the important task over anything else and if I have to say it in Greg McKeown’s language then it would be “choose Essential task over non-Essential one”.

You have Choice

• You have a choice whether to exercise every day or not,
• You have a choice whether to read every day or not,
• You have a choice whether to meditate or not,
• You have a choice to work on that idea or not,
• You have a choice whether to do the job or start a business,
• You also have the choice to say YES or NO

The Moral of the story is, everyone has a choice.

Don’t give excuses that, I would have done that but because of that one reason, I’m here today. You’re not here because of that one reason, you’re here because of your choices.

So make the right choice and never regret them, accept them, and move on with your life.

Celebrate Small Victories

You can die right now, it can be because of any reason, and you also don’t know what will happen after the second.

So if you don’t know what will happen then why do you worry about the future, why not live in the movement and focus on the process rather than the results?

Here, I will say one thing, whatever you have in your life, be thankful for it and enjoy every single movement because no one knows, what will happen next.

Make Routine

You don’t have to wake up at 4:00 AM every day and go to bed at 9:00 PM but you need to have one particular time when you go to bed and wake up.

It would be sleeping at 4:00 AM and waking up at 12:00 PM.

• Reading books before you go to bed
• No internet 2 hours before bedtime
• No movies or TV shows after dinner
• Doing exercise after your brush your teeth
• No dinner after sunset

Make your Routine right now and stick to it because it will change the way you’re living right now and after, you will never have to read books on time or work management.

Essentialism Review

Essentialism is a productivity book and it has everything that all the other productivity books talk about, so if you have read books like Atomic Habits, Make Time, Re-Work, or even Deep Work then you can skip Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

However, if you want to re-learn everything and need refreshment then do read it.

Now, talking about myself, Rework by Jason Fried and David is one of my favorite books on management, it’s beautifully written and has all the answers that everyone is looking for on the internet.

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