Essentialism by Greg McKeown

“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”

Overview:

Focus and only act on what is essential. Many people find themselves stretched too thin or have trouble prioritizing what truly matters and find themselves slow to progress. Essentialism provides the mindset on how to do more in less time.

My Thoughts:

I love this book! I really love the idea of minimalism and was having a hard time with getting into the mindset of a minimalist especially with a somewhat demanding job and life’s curveballs. And while this isn’t a book on minimalism, after reading the summary I realized that this could help me on my path to minimalism and it did.

If you’re like me, I always prioritize my work over everything else. I want to make sure that I’m doing my very best and that everything is good at work. The problem is other parts of my life were suffering and occasionally the quality of my work. 

In regards to my professional life, the book made me realize that it is okay to say no sometimes or to say “Hey, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. What should be my top priority?” or even to say no you can’t come in on the weekend.

I will say I’m very lucky to have a job where I feel heard and that this works for. I feel like one of the downfalls of this book is that many of the examples used are of males setting boundaries and sticking to what is essential. While there are some female examples, I don’t feel this book paints a realistic picture of the fear women can experience in the workplace to set boundaries or really for any person who fears setting boundaries can cost them their job. Greg does point out that yes, you could lose your job but you need to focus on what’s essential to your life. To me, this is unrealistic to anyone who cannot afford to be out of a job or who has people depending on them.

Now in my personal life, this book has done wonders! I have many interests and hobbies and I was unsure what to pursue. I love my current job but I wanted to pursue something of my own. Essentialism opened my eyes to the fact that it’s okay to have multiple interests but in order to live without saying “oh I wish I would have done this or had more time to do that.” You should choose one.

There’s a part at the beginning of the book where Greg asks himself the question “If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?” I made myself answer this very question. That doesn’t mean I still can’t enjoy my other hobbies, it just means that in order to find the contentment I was searching for, I needed to really figure out what which interest called to me the most and put all of my energy into it. In a way the creation of this blog is in part thanks to this book. Paola and I started another blog, and I can only speak for myself here, but I wasn’t putting all of my energy into it. I loved it and always wished I had more time to dedicate to it but never prioritized it. So here I am writing my first blog post of what I hope will be many more to come. 

Greg also does a great job of really getting you to change your focus to what you wish to pursue. Instead of focusing on working for 40 hours a week or your endless to do list at home, your focus shifts to what you can do so that the rest of your life is made as simple as possible. This way you have plenty of time to focus on what you want and what makes you happy. He even has tables throughout the book comparing how most people pose questions to themselves versus how an Essentialist would pose the question. Now, after finishing the book, my mind is properly centered to ask the right questions. There is also 21-day challenge at the back of the book which is a nice bonus.  

I classify this book as a GENUINELY GOOD READ. My last comment about this book is that I think every business owner, manager, supervisor, anyone that has people that work under them should read this book. Too many people seem to think that work should be priority and that you should give whatever time is necessary to your professional life and too many people have come to expect that in their employees. You should be able to have a life outside of work.

-Adrianna