Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Favorite Quote
“Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” — Greg McKeown
The Book in One Sentence
Essentialism shows you a new approach to productivity and life by allowing you to be extremely selective about the essential things in your life and then ruthlessly cutting out everything else.
Why should you read it?
The core idea of this book is embedded in a beautiful graphic showing 12 arrows for the 12 hours in your day. In one case, they all point in different directions, showing how scattered focus leads to meager results. In another version of the image, they all point in one direction and thus add up, explaining the powerful impact of focus in a single picture. A lot of time management books are about prioritizing, but they do it in the form of “Do this, then that,” which just leads to your laundry list of work getting even longer than it was before you read the book. This book says “Do this and nothing else,” and that’s what makes it one of the all-time greatest. It’s a philosophy for you, for your business, and for life in general, and that’s why it tops our list.
Key Takeaways
Doing nothing and doing everything are both signs of learned helplessness.
Become the editor of your own life with the 90% rule.
Always give yourself a buffer of 50%.