Effortless

Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most

By: Greg McKeown

Narrated by: Greg McKeown

Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller

A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year

From the author of the million-copy-selling Essentialism comes an empowering guide to achieving your goals. It all starts with a simple principle: Not everything has to be so hard.

"In a world beset by burnout, Greg McKeown’s work is essential." (Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human)

"At a time when fear, uncertainty, and our ever-growing list of responsibilities have come to feel like much too much to handle, Effortless couldn’t be timelier, or more necessary." (Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play)

Do you ever feel like:

• You’re teetering right on the edge of burnout?
• You want to make a higher contribution, but lack the energy?
• You’re running faster but not moving closer to your goals?
• Everything is so much harder than it used to be?

As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough.

But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of “Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat”, we’re often working twice as hard to achieve half as much.

Getting ahead doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. No matter what challenges or obstacles we face, there is a better way: Instead of pushing ourselves harder, we can find an easier path.

Effortless offers actionable advice for making the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out.

Effortless teaches you how to:

• Turn tedious tasks into enjoyable rituals
• Prevent frustration by solving problems before they arise
• Set a sustainable pace instead of powering through
• Make one-time choices that eliminate many future decisions
• Simplify your processes by removing unnecessary steps
• Make relationships easier to maintain and manage
• And much more

The effortless way isn't the lazy way. It's the smart way. It may even be the only way.

Not every hard thing in life can be made easy. But we can make it easier to do more of what matters most.

©2021 Greg McKeown (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An empowering guide to achieving your goals without wrecking your health, your sanity, or your relationships.” (Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes)

“Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most...gives us the much-needed permission to take the path of least resistance.... In a society that expects hard work, but then rewards hard work with more hard work.... Effortless is profound in its simplicity.” (Vice)

“Based on behavioral economics, philosophy, physics, and neuroscience, in his new book, Effortless, Greg McKeown unveils tips to working smarter, not harder. They are simple yet brilliant strategies, and therefore easy to apply.” (Ruth Gotian, PhD, Forbes)

this was effortless to read

I learned several different things that were awesome and I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anybody who is looking to simplify and make things easier. totally worth the purchase!

Great book, a “essential” collection of other people’s thoughts

Great book with an important framing. Check out atomic habits for some complementary material.
I really loved the great summaries at the end of every section.

Enjoyable

Lots of great ideas. Enjoyable to listen to! Lots of well thought out suggestions! Thank you!

great book

great book, it is very helpful when trying to restructure your own mind and ways of life that might need some or in my case alot of work.

Insightful, Inquisitive, and Intuitive Listen!

Amazing the insights Author Greg McKeown displays in his writing of Effortless. I couldn't stop listening!

Most Excellent

This was a work of excellence- beginning to end. Thank you for helping me to simplify my thoughts so I can enjoy my life more effortlessly.

Amazing takeaways in every chapter

This author gives his all. So easy to read or listen to and hundreds of simple take always you can implement immediately. This is in my top 5 books recommended for personal growth/development.

Oh how I wish I had read this years ago!

The stress I could avoided. The happier life I would have lived. At least going forward I feel empowered to change for the better.

Easy to listen to

The narrator has an easy voice to listen to. The pacing is nice. Particular concepts are not unique to me, as I just know a lot at this point of my life. When you get older and older, almost everyone and everything is seemingly a regurgitation. Thus really its stupid to think having a large collection of books means anything. It’s the quality and content of those books. Are they all unique. That’s the effortless way to best consume lots of content uniquely and not just go in circles. I believe that’s something the author covers in this book too. It’s an overall quick audiobook read. If you’re just starting out diving into books, definitely worth checking this one out. It’ll cover a lot of topics and not have a bunch of fluff.

effortless is superb

if you want to put essentialism into action listen to this book - it is as simple as that.