silvana comanici-stoianov

Being part of the generation that had to find a job right through and after the 2008 recession, the busyness current really caught me when I got my first job.
I had to prove myself and my capabilities, be quick to learn and adaptable. And of course, being busy really made sense to me: it meant I am trustworthy enough and capable enough to get more and more tasks.

Of course, this soon took its tole on my mental health. I was exhausted and became more and more depressed.
So I started looking for solutions and this is how I found out about this book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown.

The Author

Greg McKeown, a leadership consultant and founder and CEO of This, Inc., uses his desire to figure out how to lead a more successful and meaningful life to write his book on essentialism.

The Book

The book itself goes around the idea of doing less, but focusing on the highest value. It is a change of mindset. And it is learning to say no more often.

The book is sectioned in 3 parts:
1. Explore
In the exploring section, the focus is on taking care of ourselves, mind and body. It is also learning about our own behaviours, having our own time to work, get into a state of flow, but also have time to play.
And last but not least, learning when to say yes.

2. Eliminate
The eliminate section revolves around, of course, eliminating the non-essential.
This means learning to say no and being conscientious that even if we said yes at some point, if we figure out that that yes brings us in the wrong direction, we should revert back and uncommit.
And let’s not forget about setting some boundaries, which will make it clear to the others where we stand and also give us opportunities to get into something else that can bring us growth.

3. Execute
We get to the executing part, in which we should put in practice our intentions, the things we said yes to.
It advises on having some buffer in between activities, removing what we feel as obstacles, focus on small but consistent progress, getting into states of flow and focus on what is important now.

Personal Opinion

All in all, I liked the book and it felt validating that there are people out there that do not consider busyness as a sign of importance or value.
if I would have to summarise it, it revolves around the idea that less is more.

It also offers support to build a more strategic path in becoming a more focused and essential person. It also helps in ignoring social pressure to get into more and more activities, feeling the need to be constantly active even in sometimes the detriment of quality.

Having a clear idea of who we are, what our intentions are, and plan accordingly, even by learning to be unavailable and saying no is something that makes sense when we hear about it, but society does not always support this.

As for the read or listening, I purchased the book in an audio format. The reading was good, although I tend to get bored with the speed so I increase it.
Also, it felt a bit dragged in some areas, but I managed to get over this and continue listening.

Where to get the book from

If you are interested in reading the book, it can be found on Amazon, under various formats (hard copy, ebook or audiobook)

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