In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown describes a formative experience that led him to the approach that forms the basis for his book. As he sat in the maternity ward with his wife and newborn child, a colleague called and asked whether he planned to attend the meeting scheduled for that time. He said yes. He writes, "to my shame, while my wife lay in the hospital with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting." His colleague had suggested that the client would respect his dedication, but the look on the client's face showed only surprise and disapproval. McKeown says, "I had hurt my family, my integrity, and even the client relationship." Upon realizing that, if he did not prioritize his life, someone else would always do it for him, McKeown made big changes in how he spent his time and energy.

The fundamental idea behind McKeown's Essentialism is that "only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter." Essentialism is not just about being a better time manager or saying "no" more often. Instead, it is about constantly asking yourself, "what is the most important thing I should be doing now?"

McKeown uses the term "essentialism" to combine mindfulness with smart planning. The result, he says, of investing in fewer things is that we are able to make more significant progress in those things that matter the most to us.

Please note that this summary of Essentialism is NOT the original book and is meant to be read as a supplement to the original.

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About SpeedReader Summaries

Thanks so much for your interest in SpeedReader Summaries! We strive to save what is your most precious and limited resource--time.

These summaries carefully distill and analyze the key points of your favorite books and provide additional commentary and resources to supplement your understanding of the material. Inside every SpeedReader summary, you'll find a thirty-second overall summary of the book, brief and actionable summaries of the key points of each chapter, a custom analysis, and additional resources like discussion questions, relevant articles, other books, and even quizzes.

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