Greg McKeown: Essentialism

Greg McKeown is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*. His book is frequently listed as #1 Time Management book on Amazon and challenges the core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.



His writing has appeared in or been covered by The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, and many others. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month.



In this conversation, Greg and I discuss why success can be such a poor teacher and how to avoid what Jim Collins calls, “The undisciplined pursuit of more.” We explore how the principles of journalism can help us arrive at what’s essential and why journaling may be the place to start.

Key Points

Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture.



Success is a poor teacher and may lead to the undisciplined pursuit of more.

Essentialists listen for what is not being explicitly stated. They read between the lines.

Nonessentialists hear what is loud. Essentialists listen for the signal in the noise.

Journaling is a useful practice to begin reviewing what is coming up in your life and discovering the leads you may be missing.

Make time every 90 days to review and determine what’s next.



Resources Mentioned



Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less* by Greg McKeown

Essentialism podcast

Simple Productivity: How to Accomplish More With Less with Greg McKeown



Book Notes

Download my highlights from Essentialism in PDF format (free membership required).

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Six Tactics for Extraordinary Performance, with Morten Hansen (episode 337)

Finding Joy Through Intentional Choices, with Bonni Stachowiak (episode 417)



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