Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown offers encouragement and guidance to approach life from a direction that focuses on what is essential instead of trying to do/be everything. I had been looking forward to reading this book so much I almost started it when it arrived even though I was reading 4 or 5 other books at the time... Yes, I needed a lesson in essentialism. McKeown writes in an easy to understand format and presents some ideas that are quite relatable, yet I couldn't help but feel like this book is written from a place of privilege and therefore isn't as universal as it seems. When McKeown offers the example of a CEO whose doctor suggested he take a year off to address his health issues, I guffawed. Seriously? Who can actually do that? I can't even imagine a doctor making that suggestion. This is only one example of the privilege bleeding off the pages in the anecdotes he shares to make his points. I kept wondering who picks up the slack for the person who decides something isn't essential but that thing still has to get done. Maybe this is because that's my experience in life. I have often been the one left to clean up the messes of people who have decided something isn't important enough for them to do even though it has to get done. The idea presented in the book seemed to be that if it isn't essential to your goals, it isn't essential, but that's just not always reality. What's essential to one person might not be to another, and what isn't essential to one person might be absolutely essential to another. Granted he also often talks about the benefits of determining what's essential to a team's goal(s) in a job setting. Essentialism also offered some insights into the pitfalls of looking busy, feeling busy, and creating busy-ness because of an inability to focus on what is essential. He presents the idea of questioning doing things that don't contribute to one's overall goals in life in way that makes it feel like common sense. As a general concept, I like the idea of essentialism and I even like this book for the most part, but I think much of it is more aspirational than realistic. So, to be honest, my reaction to Essentialism is really mixed. I really wanted to love Essentialism, but I didn't quite make it there. I definitely didn't hate it either. I like Essentialism enough that I would recommend it but with the caveat that it doesn't apply to everyone equally. All that said, I am excited about applying some of concepts to scheduling my work and my life, and I recognize that my ability to do that means I have a certain amount of privilege in my life that some people don't have.



Check back soon for my thoughts on other books I'm reading including:


Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood
The Visit (Black Stars) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Collected Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Reviews will be posted as I finish these books.



Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links meaning if you click on those links and make a purchase, I earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

If you'd like to follow what I'm reading in real time, please follow/frien me on Goodreads.d

If you'd like to see when I publish new books, please follow me on Amazon.

If you'd like to learn more about me, please visit tlcooper.com.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Image
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert grabbed my attention from the first page. Kolbert illustrates the future of extinction by illuminating the history of extinction. She tells a story of the Earth we inhabit in both scientific and historical terms related to the myriad species of animals that have and do inhabit the Earth. She travels to myriad places on the Earth to talk to scientists and historians. I felt like she took me along on her journey to places I would never go on my own. She discussed the effects of natural processes as well as unnatural processes affecting the extinction of species and how those extinctions lead to other extinctions. Her references to previous mass extinctions were always linked to the story of our Earth and present-day extinctions. She talked about frogs, bats, auks, coral, and trees among other things. The Sixth Extinction doesn't shy away from pointing out how each species is a part of an ecosystem and how all our eco...
Read more

A Snitch in Time by Sunny Frazier

Image
Sunny Frazier always delights, and A Snitch in Time is no exception. She writes the Christy Bristol series in a way that feels lighthearted even in its darkest moments. When Bristol goes on vacation to visit her friend, Lennie, she never expects to get drafted into working for a different department doing her job. Bristol is intrigued enough by the crime at hand that her protestations seem half-hearted at times though her annoyance is very real. When she and Lennie get into a fight, she's left with nothing but the work the department expects her to do. Frazier drops the reader in the Sierra Nevada Foothills creating a sense of isolation that makes the reader cheer for Bristol to stand up to her superiors and get out of there while simultaneously wanting to her to solve the crime. When a witness contacts Bristol via phone she doesn't take her seriously at first only to discover she might have vital information. With suspicion cast in multiple directions, Bristol isn't sur...
Read more

Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat

Image
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat approaches the Palestinian struggle for freedom by delving into how legal maneuvers are used to manipulate politics and political maneuvers are used to manipulate the law to justify the oppression of the Palestinian people. Erakat's explanations had me repeatedly wondering how people can be so cruel and why they choose to be. Erakat demonstrates and examines how the wording in multiple documents including the Oslo accords left loopholes and contributed to the subjugation of the Palestinian people while leaving room to make vague claims of a mirage of progress that falls apart with the smallest amount of investigation. An undercurrent throughout Justice for Some is that oppressors make laws the oppressed are expected to live by keeping the oppressors in power and the oppressed under control. Justice for Some explains much of the law that often gets cited in media and other analysis used to justify the dehumanizat...
Read more