It was highly recommended for its focus on doing less to get more out of life, particularly for those who felt overwhelmed. The concept of 'essentialism' was presented as a disciplined approach to prioritizing what truly matters.
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I love this book the moment I was exposed to it and experienced it.
— Episode: Greg McKeown ON: Essentialism & Doing Le...
Episode: Greg McKeown ON: Essentialism & Doing Less To Get...
It was highly recommended for its focus on doing less to get more out of life, particularly for those who felt overwhelmed. The concept of 'essentialism' was presented as a disciplined approach to prioritizing what truly matters.
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I love this book the moment I was exposed to it and experienced it.
I've had so many leaders, whether it's been leaders of small community centers through to corporate executives that have loved his work and spoken highly of it.
Essentialism, the book I ended up writing and the work that I sort of focus on now isn't about just saying no. It's about saying yes to what matters most.
It's not about doing more things. It's about doing more of the right things.
I highly recommend you go out and get the book Essentialism.
The book was repeatedly highlighted as a major influence on guests and hosts for learning to focus on fewer, higher‑impact activities. It was praised as a formative work that earned a spot in multiple top‑five reading lists and was described as increasingly useful over the past decade. Overall, the podcast presented it as essential reading for anyone looking to prioritize the vital few over the trivial many.
It was recommended as one of the top five books in Chris' reading list and was discussed in relation to prioritizing and focusing on the vital few.
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If you've downloaded my reading list you'll see that one of the top five books is essentialism by greg mcqueen and being an essentialist i.e focusing on the vital few not the trivial many doing less but better is easy when you have fewer things available for you to do than time to do them in because you can say yes to everything and still feel like you've got spare time.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown I must have read at least twice or three times.
Episode: #953 - Jimmy Carr - Decoding The Secrets Of A Mean...
The guest explained that the book "Essentialism" had a major impact on his approach to focusing on fewer, higherimpact activities.
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Essentialism by Greg McKeown was a huge influence on me.
Episode: #880 - Greg McKeown - How To Focus On What Matters...
The host praised Essentialism as a formative and increasingly useful book over the past decade, noting it stayed in his topfive reading list and helped address the problem of overcommitment.
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Essentialism was superbly formative for me. If you've downloaded the Modern Wisdom reading list, you will know it's in the top five.
It's just so great, and it's become more useful over the last ten years since he released it.
It's a wonderful redress to a lot of the problems that those of us that like to try and achieve things face.
Episode: #878 - David Senra - 15 Harsh Truths From History’...
He mentioned reading the book as a guide to focusing on the most important tasks and eliminating the nonessential.
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Greg McHugh, an author of Essentialism, was on the speaking circuit's 10th year anniversary of Essentialism next month.
This book was recommended by friend of the show Brad Gerstner, and is a favourite of his.
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they're also including other books in that collection that are about doing a few things but very well like the book essentialism which is from friend of the show Brad Gersner that is one of his favori...
— Episode: Costco
Episode: Costco
This book was recommended by friend of the show Brad Gerstner, and is a favourite of his.
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they're also including other books in that collection that are about doing a few things but very well like the book essentialism which is from friend of the show Brad Gersner that is one of his favorite books
The host repeatedly highlighted the title as a cornerstone for anyone seeking to cut through overwhelm by focusing on what truly matters, often citing its 80/20 principle and the "less but better" mindset. Greg McKeown himself explained how the book serves as an antidote to the endless pursuit of more, while Jordan Harbinger praised it as an amazing, timeless guide that helped him streamline his own work. Listeners were encouraged to identify and double‑down on the few essential tasks that drive results, and to eliminate the rest. The overall tone was strongly positive, positioning the book as a must‑read for better productivity.
Highly Recommended
Episode: 535: Should Siblings Unite to Confront Abusive Par...
Greg McKeown's new book, "Effortless", was mentioned, focusing on productivity by prioritizing the right tasks instead of just being busy.
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We also had Greg McEun if you've read essentialism or even if you haven't his new work is called effortless he's just a very productivity is not quite the right word for it.
Episode: 534: Greg McKeown | How to Make What Matters Effor...
It was discussed in the context of productivity and how it helps people avoid being overwhelmed by focusing on what's essential, which was a defining moment for the author.
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Essentialism really is about looking at your life through the lens of what is essential eliminating what is not essential and then back to the magic word of conversation so far how to build systems to make execution of what is essential as easy as possible.
and that was one of the defining moments in you know later creating and writing essentialism and then teaching those ideas
Episode: 430: Setting Boundaries with a Bipolar Parent | Fe...
It was discussed how Greg McKeown uses the 80/20 rule from his book to increase productivity and achieve more with less effort. It was also mentioned that the book itself is amazing.
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He talked about how to 80-20 your work. This is not in the show. It's just part of his book, essentialism.
So you make a list of the five or 10 things you spend the most time on. You circle the one or two that really drive your results.
Look, the book is amazing.
He's the author of essentialism, the discipline to pursuit of less.
It's hard to explain. Look, the book is amazing. The show was great. I really enjoyed it and I think you will too.
Episode: 429: Greg McKeown | The Disciplined Pursuit of Les...
It was discussed as an antidote to the 'undisciplined pursuit of more', encouraging readers to prioritize quality over quantity and focus on fewer, more meaningful tasks.
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Essentialism is the antidote to that. The disenchallant, the disciplined pursuit of less has the subtitle exactly. The disciplined pursuit of less but better.
Essentialism says no it's about doing less but better. Fewer things done better.
If you don't prioritize your life someone else will
Essentialism doesn't say no to everyone at everything I didn't write a book called noism Essentialism says figure out what's really essential and put your energies into those less but better
It's about trying to challenge and inspire people that they have permission to design a life that they really want to pursue
Episode: 430: Setting Boundaries with a Bipolar Parent | Fe...
It was discussed how Greg McKeown uses the 80/20 rule from his book to improve productivity and focus on the most important tasks, leading to increased output in a shorter timeframe.
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He talked about how to 80-20 your work.
This is not in the show. It's just part of his book, essentialism.
So you make a list of the five or 10 things you spend the most time on. You circle the one or two that really drive your results.
So if you pick ten, circle two that drive your results, do more of that stuff, eliminate everything else, automate, outsource whatever you can.
Pause the rest. That's the hardest part is pausing the rest because you think, oh I can turn this into something.
Episode: 429: Greg McKeown | The Disciplined Pursuit of Les...
It was discussed as an antidote to the 'undisciplined pursuit of more' and presented as a method for prioritizing life and work effectively, achieving more by doing less.
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Essentialism is the antidote to that. The disenchallant, the disciplined pursuit of less has the subtitle exactly. The disciplined pursuit of less but better.
You say in the book that if you don't prioritize your life someone else will that's probably been true forever but now we see it happening when we're home eating dinner and we're on our phone and you see that email and don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about see that email come in from your boss or business partner and you go because this happens to do what is it that never happened.
Essentialism doesn't say no to everyone at everything I didn't write a book called noism essentialism says figure out what's really essential and put your energies into those less but better fewer things done better is a better strategy for breaking true to the next level.
Don't major in minor things however how do we decide what's important it's not always really obvious and sometimes everything looks important.
If you don't prioritize your life someone else will.
Episode: 535: Should Siblings Unite to Confront Abusive Par...
Greg McKeown's new book, 'Effortless', was discussed, which focuses on prioritizing the right things rather than just productivity.
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If you've read Essentialism or even if you haven't, his new work is called Effortless...
Episode: 534: Greg McKeown | How to Make What Matters Effor...
It was discussed as a classic book on productivity, or perhaps non-productivity, that helped the author avoid the trap of churning out books just for the sake of doing so.
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Just like our computer slows down when there's too many tabs open, likewise our brains slow down when we have too many things going on and we no longer have the bandwidth to deal with what needs to get done.
People go oh yeah I'm pretty good at boiling things down and focusing or I'm pretty good at not getting bogged down in the details and you're like oh really because you're not really good at it.
Essentialism really is about looking at your life through the lens of what is essential eliminating what is not essential and then back to the magic word of conversation so far how to build systems to make execution of what is essential as easy as possible.
It helped me to avoid that you know because the idea is that people get off the focus on what's essential because they become successful and it breeds so many options and opportunities.
I remember when it came out I was like oh this guy must be some like super famous author because this book is everywhere.
Episode: 430: Setting Boundaries with a Bipolar Parent | Fe...
It was discussed in relation to the 80/20 rule, and how Jordan Harbinger used it to reduce his social media activity, focusing on what drives results.
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He talked about how to 80-20 your work. This is not in the show. It's just part of his book, essentialism.
Episode: 429: Greg McKeown | The Disciplined Pursuit of Les...
It was discussed as an antidote to the undisciplined pursuit of 'more', suggesting that focusing on fewer, better things leads to greater success and fulfillment, in contrast to minimalism which focuses on physical possessions.
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Essentialism is the antidote to that. The disenchallant, the disciplined pursuit of less has the subtitle exactly. The disciplined pursuit of less but better.
You say in the book that if you don't prioritize your life someone else will that's probably been true forever but now we see it happening when we're home eating dinner and we're on our phone and you see that email and don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about see that email come in from your boss or business partner and you go because this happens to do what is it that never happened.
Essentialism doesn't say no to everyone at everything I didn't write a book called noism essentialism says figure out what's really essential and put your energies into those less but better fewer things done better is a better strategy for breaking true to the next level.
If you don't prioritize your life someone else will.
I've learned that essentialism is either done collectively or not at all.
Essentialism is a book about saying no to non-essential things, focusing on what matters the most.
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I'm actually reading a book right now called Essentialism. Greg McKeown, he says when we say yes to all opportunities and things that are put before us, we're saying no to the essential stuff that we...
— Episode: All Success Comes From This | 9 Stoic Ti...
Episode: All Success Comes From This | 9 Stoic Tips For Bea...
Essentialism is a book about saying no to non-essential things, focusing on what matters the most.
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I'm actually reading a book right now called Essentialism. Greg McKeown, he says when we say yes to all opportunities and things that are put before us, we're saying no to the essential stuff that we were put here to do.
Episode: Cal Newport on Knowledge Work and Effective Commun...
The book was briefly mentioned in a context criticizing those who only skim or read summaries of books instead of engaging with the full text. This was contrasted with the Stoics' approach to deep reading and understanding.
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You bought meditations and you skimmed it. You read the summary of antifragile or essentialism on one of those business sites.
Episode: Greg McKeown on Doing Less and Getting More
It was described as a core Stoic concept, focusing on identifying and prioritizing essential tasks to improve tranquility and efficiency. The speaker mentioned enjoying the book's design and graphics.
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Essentialism to me is a core Stoic concept. Marx really says, every day you should ask yourself this question with everything that you do. He says, is this essential? And he says what you find is that most of what you do is not essential. Most of what you say is not essential. And when you eliminate that, not only do you have more tranquility, he says you get the double benefit of doing fewer things better.
So if you haven't read Essentialism, you absolutely should.
I find that his books are just brilliantly designed too. He's got really cool graphics in them and art. Ironically, they're very simple designs. They're like sort of line drawings, which I think goes to the point, which is that little things can make a big difference. Little things done well make all the difference.
I really enjoyed both these books.
Episode: BONUS | 3 Practices to Improve Your Life In a Week
The speaker learned from the author that when the word 'priority' entered the English language in the 1500s, it was singular, suggesting the modern concept of having multiple priorities contradicts its original meaning.
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I learned from Greg McKeown a few years ago that when the word priority came into the English language in the 1500s, that it was only a singular word.
Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.
