#786: Tactics and Strategies for a 2025 Reboot — Essentialism and Greg McKeown

Greg McKeown is the author of two New York Times
bestsellers, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and
Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most. 200,000
people receive his weekly 1-Minute Wednesday newsletter, and he
recently released The Essentialism Planner: A 90-Day
Guide to Accomplishing More by Doing
Less. 


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Timestamps:


[00:00] Who is Greg McKeown? 


[05:12] Handling destabilizing events and personal turmoil.


[10:47] Writing as therapy and “screaming onto the page.”


[13:35] Using Morning Pages and AI tools for personal reflection.


[17:52] Carl Rogers and the power of deep listening.


[20:33] Reviewing the core concepts of Essentialism and
Effortless.


[24:54] Temporal landmarks and the fresh start effect.


[29:25] Personal quarterly offsites and the importance of
direction over speed.


[31:13] The three essential questions for quarterly reviews.


[34:16] Making essential tasks effortless — practical examples
and strategies.


[37:03] The law of inverse prioritization — why important things
don’t get done.


[38:45] Strategies for making tasks simpler — the microburst
concept.


[44:37] The courage to be rubbish.


[47:09] Pre-mortems and anticipating obstacles.


[52:37] Michael Phelps’ preparation and routine.


[01:07:31] The 1-2-3 method and defining what “done” looks like.


[01:15:19] Meaning over productivity, and making vs. managing.


[01:23:14] Radical gratitude and finding meaning in suffering.


[01:36:43] Parting thoughts on deep connection and listening.


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McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth
Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah
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Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary
Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael
Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold
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Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de
Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly
Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard
Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael
Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan
Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit
Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim
Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval
Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth
Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard
Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid
Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick
Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren
Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter
Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah
Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.


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