Effortless Greg Mckeown summary

Highlights

• Keep it simple stupid - perfection is the enemy of good.
• Take the first step - create a MVP (minimum viable product).
• Clear your head - remove negative emotions, they make it harder to concentrate.
• Be present, be positive - remove distractions from other tasks and negative thoughts.
• Make it enjoyable, don't over exert - don't endure the task, turn it into an enjoyable challenge to overcome.
• Define what 'done' means - small and incremental targets help you finish as well as start.
• Invert - what if this were simple?

Effortless is a fascinating look at how we can become effective, efficient and productive people with the minimum of effort. Greg Mckeown attempts to argue against the proposition that to produce anything worthwhile you must work incredibly hard. Mckeown asks 'how can we make this difficult task, easy?'.

Consistent and efficient work beats gruelling hard work over time, every time

As people living complex lives we have a finite amount of energy and time to spend creating things of value. Working in an effortless way helps us to get the most out of our energy reserves in a way that is consistent and compounds our efforts over time.

Keep it simple stupid

So you want to build the next big business, the next hit app or game. If you look at examples of successful apps that already exist you can quickly become overwhelmed by everything that is required to get you there.

The examples you compare your future project to look complete and perfect. It is easy to get discouraged if you seek this kind of mastery straight away.

Perfect is the enemy of good

Trying to produce something perfect and as complete as the projects that inspire you will only leave you feeling lacking and discouraged. You must start small, keep things simple, complete small and achievable goals and don't aim for perfection. Aim for good, simple and achievable.

Take the first step

Google didn't start out as the behemoth that it is today. It was a fairly simple search engine that ranked websites based on how many other websites linked to it. This first version of Google ran on a single computer and did one thing very well. This simple proof of concept turned out to be incredibly useful, functional and popular.

Check out Google's first homepage

Pretty simple, right? Perhaps this is a bad example, Google's home page doesn't look much better these days. The point is that they started with the minimum viable product. That is, they created the simplest working prototype of their search engine and released it. They have since grown into the massive company they are now by small and incremental steps.

Google's first prototype ran on one computer, and that's all they needed to get their first $100,000 in funding.

What are the minimum number of steps required to get a working prototype?

AirBNB started out as a 'bit of fun' by Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky. They quickly built a simple website and somehow convinced people to stay at their San Francisco apartment on air mattresses for $80 per night.

Build quick, get feedback on mistakes and iterate

What Google, AirBNB and many other huge companies, did was they put together a simple prototype of their idea and tested it in the market. It would have been an impossible task for them to aim for the perfection that they are today. If they had aimed for perfection they may not have achieved anything at all.

Maximise the amount of work that doesn't need to be done

The goal in taking the first step is to minimise the number of tasks that need to be completed. Do not overcomplicate your project, or you will quickly become overwhelmed, and an overwhelmed mind is not a creative and productive mind.

Clear your head and prioritize the right thoughts

We have a limited amount of mental capacity and energy in one day. There is hardly a worse way of spending that energy than wasting it on negative emotions, toxic thoughts, fear and resentment.

The more you complain, the easier it is to see things to complain about. The more you complain the less space there is in your head for effortless work.

"Each time I complain I will say something I'm thankful for"

By saying something positive you're thankful for each time you complain you will, firstly, realise how often you actually complain. Secondly you will somewhat offset the negative effect of those complaints and, thirdly, you will tend to complain less over time.

Be present, be positive

Distractions keep us from being present with our work. Cal Newport talks about distractions and how they negatively impact productivity in his book deep work.

"Let go of emotional burdens you don't need to keep carrying"

Positive emotions open us up to creativity and new possibilities. Positive emotions improve our social connections and improve our drive to achieve. Negative emotions increase our stress levels. Grudges make us feel in control but in reality a grudge controls you and worsens your output.

Make it enjoyable, don't over exert

Don't just endure essential activities, pair essential activities with something enjoyable. For example, while working on essential activities do it while enjoying a coffee from your favourite café. When your work is complete for the day reward yourself with a walk along the beach or playing a game.

Break down essential tasks into smaller steps, achieving smaller steps makes things enjoyable

When you break down a big essential task into smaller steps it improves your sense of achievement. After every step is completed you receive a dopamine hit as a reward, and it makes the task more enjoyable. Better yet it becomes something you begin to look forward to.

Avoid over exertion

Don't do more today than you can completely recover from today. If we use the gym as an example, do not train so hard today that you are so sore you cannot train tomorrow. Remember consistency over time beats hard work in short bursts every single time.

If you over exert yourself each day you will get diminishing returns each subsequent day. Instead, if we limit ourselves to work that is sustainable we can maintain consistent exertion over time. Work on essential tasks is a marathon, not a sprint.

Define what 'done' means

If you want to make a task as unrewarding and difficult to complete as possible, keep changing what 'done' looks like. Stop tinkering with a project endlessly. This concept ties into the keep it simple and minimum viable product above.

Perfection is a form of procrastination as it stops you from releasing your project to the public, and as a result saves you from rejection. But as we discussed above, if we don't complete tasks we don't get the dopamine reward and our tasks become tedious and unrewarding.

Defining what 'done' means allows us to define steps to achieving our goals

Breaking up big tasks into steps makes completing the task easier and more rewarding. If we keep redefining what 'done' means the steps stretch out and become undefined, destroying our sense of achievement. Moving the definition of 'done' keeps us in an unsatisfied state. Set smaller goals, release things sooner, get feedback on the results to iterate to improve.

Invert - what if this were simple?

A large project with layers upon layers of unnecessary complexity can quickly surround and suffocate you. How can you turn a large and complex project into something simpler and easier? By inverting.

Ask yourself, what would this look like if it were easy?

Free yourself from the assumption that to do a job well it must be difficult. You will be surprised how often an easier solution appears when you open your mind and look for it.

Greg gives the example of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway. Warren operates with "lethargy bordering on sloth". "I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over."

Summary

Greg McKeown's book teaches us how to become effective and productive by describing how to avoid making things hard. When facing a daunting task always ask yourself 'what would this look like if it was easy', this is almost like a spiritual mantra that opens your mind up to more efficient ways of doing things.

Don't

• Don't over-complicate.
• Don't be negative.
• Don't be perfect.
• Don't over-work.
• Don't change what 'done' means.

Do

• Do keep it simple.
• Do make it enjoyable.
• Do keep positive.
• Do let go of grudges.
• Do minimise steps.