Essentialism - by Greg McKeown

If you feel overloaded and underutilized, busy but unproductive, and if your time seems to serve only the interests of others, you need to know essentialism. Essentialism is more than a time management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a method of identifying what is vital and eliminating everything else, so that we can make the greatest possible contribution to what really matters. When we try to do it all and have it all, we make compromises that take us away from our goal. If we don't decide where we should focus our time and energy, other people – bosses, colleagues, clients and even family – decide for us, and we soon lose sight of everything that is meaningful. In this book, Greg McKeown shows that, to balance work and personal life, it is not enough to randomly refuse requests: you need to eliminate what is not essential and get rid of wasted time. We must learn to reduce, simplify and stay focused on our goals. When we carry out tasks that do not take advantage of our talents and we make commitments just to please others, we give up our power of choice. The essentialist makes his own decisions – and only takes action if he can make a difference