Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown and Uğur Gülsün

The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important,' and those that are 'easy and trivial.' Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown says there is a third alternative. In Effortless , he offers practical strategies for making the most vital tasks the easiest ones. Honed over the better part of a decade, these strategies include- Asking 'What Step Can I Remove?' (accomplish more, in fewer steps) ; Having the Courage to Be Rubbish (prioritize progress over perfection) ; Deciding What 'Done' Looks Like (don't keep running after you pass the finish line). McKeown's philosophy of essentialism has helped thousands to eliminate nonessential activities and focus on the few that really matter. Working out what is essential is the first step - making these tasks effortless is the next. Effortless will show you how.

As a huge fan of McKeown's first book Essentialism (which I reread periodically), I had really high expectations for this. But unfortunately it lacked strength and felt too obvious. Many aspects of this book can be found in Gretchen Rubin's much more detailed book Better than Before, such as the Strategy of Pairing.

Very good core message with a few valuable insights to take forward. Much like Essentialism, the book seemed to really stretch out the concepts with long winded explanations which is common with best sellers of the genre. Overall, a very positive experience and a book I'd happily recommend.

So many good nuggets in this book. I don't remember loving Essentialism - I thought it was a great book, but it didn't cover a lot of new ground for me. But I'm also a natural minimalist and I read a lot of this kind of thing, so purely a personal opinion, and still a book worth reading.

Effortless, I'd like to own. He begins by discussing this myth that everything good must be hard/take effort, and references the fact that it might be due in part to Puritanism. Yes, but also overwork and the productivity cult are a product of Capitalism that could be an entire book in and of itself (and probably is). Stopping to think about that fact alone is worth the price of admission, but there are many practical tips that are incredibly valuable. The one that most stood out to me was to set an upper limit on tasks/habits. I have a set schedule for business development projects: minimum 30 minutes. I tend to go way over. The simple idea of setting a limit (no more than 1 hour per session) is kind of brilliant, and it's the kind of gem you'll find in Effortless.

You will not find any deep dive into habit development here, which I appreciate. For that we have Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, and James Clear's inestimable Atomic Habits.