Avail Yourself Effortless: Make It Easier To Do What Matters Most Brought To You By Greg McKeown Displayed As Copy

book I did not know I needed, Foryears I have been making my way to being an essentialist and making my life effortless, So I have read a lot of material and given it a lot of thought, Still, what I read was enlightening, The book has it all solid research, great anecdotes, and great suggestions to implement the concepts in our lives,

Another great book by the author, I will read whatever he writes, The perfect sequel to the book that changed my life last yearEssentialism,

This book challenges the notion that anything important or valuable has to be hard work,

Hard work is lovely, but it's wildly beneficial to us if we stop and ask: "What would it look like if this were easy"

I'm a slow reader.
. . and I flew through this in two days because I enjoyed it so much,

Biggest takeaways:

Burnout is not a badge of honor,

The more you complain, the more you have to complain about, The more grateful you are, the more you have to be grateful for,

When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have, When you focus on what you have, you get what you lack,

Establish clear conditions for what done means, then stop,

There is no mastery without making mistakes, And there is no learning without the courage to be rubbish,

./Effortless state
Physically rested, emotionally unburdened, mentally energized
Aware, present, attentive, focused on what matters most with ease

Invert
Ask, what if this could be easy
Find indirect approaches

Enjoy
Pair most essential with most enjoyable
Work amp play together
Turn tedious into meaningful rituals

Release
Release emotional burdens
Focus on what you have to get what you lack
Each time you complain to say something you are grateful for

Rest
Art of doing nothing
Essential work intoxmin sessions

Notice
Heightened awareness
Focus on the important
To see others more clearly, put their truths above your own
Clear clutter in physical environment before clutter in your mind

Effortless action
Accomplishing more by trying less
Stop procrastinating by taking first obvious step
Pace yourself

Define
What done looks like
Visualize desired outcome
Done for the day list

Start
First action most obvious one
Name concrete steps
Start w/mins of focused activity

Simplify
Remove steps
Maximize steps not taken
Measure progress

Fail cheaply
Create pace

Effortless results

Learn principles
Stand on the shoulders of giants/leverage what they know
Develop unique knowledge
Use teaching to leverage impact
Teach others to teach
Tell stories easily understood and repeated

Automate
Free up space in brain
Automate as many essential tasks as possible
Make checklists
Single choices to eliminate future decisions

Trust
Make right hires once
Hire for integrity, intelligence, initiative
Clarify results, resources, rules, roles, rewards

Prevent
Solve problems before they happen
Simple actions can prevent complications
Measure twice, cut once Not as good as Essentialism, yet extremely helpful to validate my own thoughts about the "it's not worth it unless it's hard and I need to suffer my way through it.
This guy is absolute genius of productivity, Both this and Essentialism have one thing in common: easily digestible, joy to read and, well, perfect common sense approach, It's a bit strange that it takes something of a genius to convey something that should be common sense, but that's the age we live in.
We kinda got lost in high tech and all sorts of complication, So me, I'm striving to get back to basics in everything, Not that I'm great at it, but I'm trying real hard, And books like this are great help, Effortless got off to a slightly slow start, and I didnt think I would like it as much as Essentialism, However, it picked up,and I was pleased to be learning skills that can help me keep my focus on the things that really matter, In fact, I put some of his advice to the test today and was pleased with the results!

I love Greg McKeowns heart for helping people keep their lives focused on the people and activities they love.
His teachings really have improved my daytoday life, Nothing earthshattering, but this was an enjoyable read, with a few good takeaways I can action:

Before I start, define what done looks like.
When I get there, stop,
Determine my goal, design the systems to get me there, then automate those systems and forget the goals,
Never more thanxmins sessions per day for essential work, Leave something in the tank,
Every time I complain, say something I am thankful for,

recommended as a library borrow, The New York Times bestselling author of Essentialism takes on the holy grail of human performance: How can we make it easier to get the right things done

Is there a goal you want to make progress on, if only you had the energy Do you assume that anything worth doing must take tremendous effort Have you ever abandoned a hard but important activity for an easy but trivial one Are you often overwhelmed by the complexity that's expanding everywhere

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might be making life much harder for yourself than it needs to be.


In the New York Times bestseller Essentialism, Greg McKeown urged readers to eliminate nonessential activities and focus on the few that truly matter.
He's since talked with thousands of readers about the challenges they face in putting those ideas into practice, The problem, he's found, is that the complexity of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are "essential and hard," and things that are "easy and trivial.
" But what if the trivial tasks became harder and the essential ones became easier If the important projects became enjoyable, while the trivial distractions lost their appeal entirely

In Effortless, McKeown offers proven strategies for making the most important activities the easiest ones.
For example:
Streamline your process by mapping out the minimum number of steps,
Prevent problems later by solving them before they happen,
Let Go of perfectionism by finding the "courage to be rubbish, "
Accelerate your learning by leveraging the best of what others know,

By making the toughest tasks just a little bit easier, we can accomplish more of what matters, without burning out, I really liked this book, Heres my key takeaways:

, "Challenge the assumption that the 'right' way is, inevitably, the harder one, "

. Define what done looks like on an essential project,

. "Break the first obvious action down into the tiniest, concrete step, "

. Instead of simplify the steps of a process, simply remove them, Focus only on the steps that add value,

. "Maximize the steps not taken, " If you can meet your goal by doing less, do it,

. Pace yourself. "Never less than X, never more than Y, "

. Learn first principles over facts and methods, Apply these principles again and again,

. "Achieve farreaching impact by teaching others to teach, "

. "Use checklists to get it right every time, without having to rely on memory, "

. "Follow the Three I's Rule: hire people with integrity, intelligence, and initiative, " This book is filled with excellent advice on focusing on the essentials and finding simpler ways of doing things, I suggest reading the summary at the end of the chapter and then start at the beginning of the chapter, Some of the concepts are better summarized at the end than described in the chapter with analogies that don't quite fit, A good tip is to replace "why is this so hard" with "how can this be easier", So instead of fixing something that was poorly designed, come up with something new that is easy and simple, Love, love McKeown sitelinkEssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less was one of my favorite books of, This book is almost as good, and he presents an interesting thought in the age of glorified busyness: life doesn't have to be so hard,

Simplicity is key,

Reframe the outlook/question from "Why is this so hard" to "How can this be easier" Effortless didn't make as strong of an impression on me as Essentialism but I still enjoyed it greatly.
A lot of the ideas in this book I've run across before in other selfhelp books, youtube videos, or podcasts but it was nice to be reminded.
I think the concept I'll take away and use the most is the "never less than x, never more than y" idea, This is basically putting a time minimum and maximum for something you want to make progress on without becoming burned out, For example, for school I am doing the "never less thanhours a day, never more thanhours a day," so that I get work done but I never am spending an entire day working on school work.
It works with fun activities too, My reading for the day is "never less thanhours a day, never more than, " I noticed in the past when I would do a readathon and try to read forhours, I would just get wiped out and fatigued for days after.
Dont work harder, find the way of effortless,

Offering a variety of examples from sources as different as science, business, and even in ordinary life in your family, Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, explains the pattern or rhythm of life you can do things the hard or easy way, or more accurately the effortless way.


I suggest you start at the end, There you will find out the secret for why this great book was written, The meaningful depiction you will find will prompt you to want to savour every hint Greg has to offer on why the effortless way is the way that life is meant to be lived.


Drawing on advice from greats such as Sir Isaac Newton, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple Computers, to lesser known examples like the race to the south pole, and McKeowns own personal anecdotes.
I couldnt put this book down it was enjoyable, and easy to read,

Thanks to Crown Publishing for an advance copy provided to me through NetGalley!,