The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Essentialism

Incredibly helpful … one of the few books that I revisit on a regular basis

Greg McKeown’s excellent new book is a much-needed antidote to the stress, burnout and compulsion to “do everything,” that infects us all. It is an essential read for anyone who wants to regain control of their health, wellbeing, and happiness

Do you feel it, too? That relentless pressure to sample all the good things in life? To do all the 'right' things? The reality is, you don’t make progress that way. Instead, you’re in danger of spreading your efforts so thin that you make no impact at all. Greg McKeown believes the answer lies in paring life down to its essentials. He can’t tell you what’s essential to every life, but he can help you find the meaning in yours.

Daniel H. Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and DRIVE

Entrepreneurs succeed when they say "yes" to the right project, at the right time, in the right way. To accomplish this, they have to be good at saying "no" to all their other ideas. Essentialism offers concise and eloquent advice on how to determine what you care about most, and how to apply your energies in ways that ultimately bring you the greatest rewards

Reid Hoffman, co-founder/chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 NYT bestseller THE START-UP OF YOU

Essentialism holds the keys to solving one of the great puzzles of life: how can we do less but accomplish more? A timely, essential read for anyone who feels overcommitted, overloaded, or overworked—in other words, everyone. It has already changed the way that I think about my own priorities, and if more leaders embraced this philosophy, our jobs and our lives would be less stressful and more productive. So drop what you’re doing and read it.

Adam Grant, bestselling author of HIDDEN POTENTIAL

As a self-proclaimed "maximalist" who always wants to do it all, this book challenged me and improved my life. If you want to work better, not just less, you should read it too.

Chris Guillebeau, NYT bestselling author of THE $100 STARTUP

Great design takes us beyond the complex, the unnecessary and confusing, to the simple, clear and meaningful. This is as true for the design of a life as it is for the design of a product. With Essentialism, Greg McKeown gives us the invaluable guidebook for just such a project.

Greg McKeown was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is the CEO of THIS Inc, a leadership and strategy design agency headquartered in Silicon Valley. He has taught at companies that include Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Twitter and VMware. Originally from London, he now lives in Menlo Park, California with his wife, Anna, and their four children. Greg holds an MBA from Stanford University.

The life-changing international bestseller that started a global movement - now updated with the new 21-Day Essentialism Challenge and an exclusive excerpt from EFFORTLESS 
 
Have you ever found yourself struggling with information overload? 
 
Have you ever felt both overworked and underutilised? 
 
Do you ever feel busy but not productive? 
 
If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is to become an Essentialist. 
 
In Essentialism, Greg McKeown, CEO of a Leadership and Strategy agency in Silicon Valley who has run courses at Apple, Google and Facebook, shows you how to achieve what he calls the disciplined pursuit of less. Being an Essentialist is about a disciplined way of thinking. It means challenging the core assumption of 'We can have it all' and 'I have to do everything' and replacing it with the pursuit of 'the right thing, in the right way, at the right time'. 
 
By applying a more selective criteria for what is essential, the pursuit of less allows us to regain control of our own choices so we can channel our time, energy and effort into making the highest possible contribution toward the goals and activities that matter. 
 
Using the experience and insight of working with the leaders of the most innovative companies and organisations in the world, McKeown shows you how to put Essentialism into practice in your own life, so you too can achieve something great.

Greg McKeown

A good book for anyone feeling the familiar creep of overwhelm: McKeown shows us how to break down what we need to do and, building on the message of Essentialism, probably do less, but do it better.

A prescription for starting something new, making it grow, and then watching the results. It's a brilliant read for the stuck and unstuck among us.

If you're squandering energy on pointless tasks and struggling to complete what really matters, this book is your salvation. With brisk prose, great stories, and keen insights, it shows how to flip the script-and make the trivial stuff harder and the crucial stuff easier. In a world beset by burnout, Greg McKeown's work is essential.

Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

We all pride ourselves on being hard workers, but what should we do when we want to push ourselves even harder and have reached our upper limit? In his new book, Greg McKeown offers the solution: Instead of giving up, burning out, or sacrificing our sanity, we can find an easier path. Full of simple strategies we can adopt right away, Effortless shows that achieving more doesn't have to be as hard as we make it out to be.

Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

Every once in a while, a new book comes along at just the right moment. At a time when fear, uncertainty, and our ever-growing list of responsibilities - both at work and at home - have come to feel like much too much to handle, Greg McKeown's new book couldn't be timelier, or more necessary.

Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play

We've been taught that the more important the goal, the harder we must grind to achieve it, which leads to inevitable exhaustion and overwork. In his inspiring and important follow-up to Essentialism, Greg McKeown masterfully flips this script, arguing instead that the more essential the task, the more effortless we should make its completion. A much-needed corrective to burnout culture.

Cal Newport, author of A World Without Email and Deep Work

In his new book, Gregory McKeown offers advice for making the most essential activities the easiest ones - meaning you can achieve the results you want without burning out.

Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most: The Instant New York Times Bestseller

'In a world beset by burnout, Greg McKeown's work is essential' -- Daniel H. Pink 
 
 'Effortless shows that achieving more doesn't have to be as hard as we make it out to be' -- Arianna Huffington 
 
 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year · From the author of the million-copy-selling Essentialism comes an empowering guide to achieving your goals. It all starts with a simple principle: Not everything has to be so hard. 
 
 The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important,' and those that are 'easy and trivial.' Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown, bestselling author of Essentialism, says, there is a third alternative. 
 
 In Effortless, he offers practical tools for making the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out. Honed over the better part of a decade, these strategies include: 
 
 ·Turning tedious tasks into enjoyable rituals 
 ·Preventing frustration by solving problems before they arise 
 ·Setting a sustainable pace instead of powering through 
 ·Making one-time choices that eliminate many future decisions 
 ·Making relationships easier to maintain and manage 
 ·And much more 
 
 McKeown's philosophy of essentialism has helped thousands to recognise that the effortless way isn't the lazy way. It's the smart way. Not every hard thing in life can be made easy but we can make it easier to do more of what matters most. Effortless will show you how.

Greg McKeown

Praise for Effortless

A good book for anyone feeling the familiar creep of overwhelm: McKeown shows us how to break down what we need to do and, building on the message of Essentialism, probably do less, but do it better.

A prescription for starting something new, making it grow, and then watching the results. It's a brilliant read for the stuck and unstuck among us.

If you're squandering energy on pointless tasks and struggling to complete what really matters, this book is your salvation. With brisk prose, great stories, and keen insights, it shows how to flip the script-and ma ...

A good book for anyone feeling the familiar creep of overwhelm: McKeown shows us how to break down what we need to do and, building on the message of Essentialism, probably do less, but do it better.

A prescription for starting something new, making it grow, and then watching the results. It's a brilliant read for the stuck and unstuck among us.

If you're squandering energy on pointless tasks and struggling to complete what really matters, this book is your salvation. With brisk prose, great stories, and keen insights, it shows how to flip the script-and ma ...

A good book for anyone feeling the familiar creep of overwhelm: McKeown shows us how to break down what we need to do and, building on the message of Essentialism, probably do less, but do it better.

A prescription for starting something new, making it grow, and then watching the results. It's a brilliant read for the stuck and unstuck among us.

If you're squandering energy on pointless tasks and struggling to complete what really matters, this book is your salvation. With brisk prose, great stories, and keen insights, it shows how to flip the script-and ma ...

Books by Greg McKeown

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