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)

I loved this book!

I’m so glad that I decided to listen rather than read this book. The author’s clear enthusiasm for his subject and the concise, logical manner in which he presents it really made it for me.
I took notes on my phone while I listened and have to solid, practicable ideas that I plan to put to use immediately. Books like this give me tangential ideas for issues I’m facing and by tweaking them, I find a lot of good advice I can put to use. Thanks, Mr. McKeown.

Incredible book

I absolutely love the book, Essentialism, and I enjoyed this one every bit as much. I have recorded and shared principles and ideas with everyone around me as I went through this book.

Fantastic!

I really enjoyed Effortless. There are several established ideas here, and Greg McKeown successfully gives them a fresh perspective. I will definitely go through it again more carefully and take notes.

Greg kindly gave us tools to make life less heavy!

Loved it 😁 Greg does such a great job of saying you could do this and be calmer/happier or not. Like a friend offering you advice.

Exremely enjoyable and practical.

I found a lot in this book that was very valuable and helpful. I plan to implement much of this.

We need an Effortless live!

I liked the ideas and story examples as to how by doing less we can achieve a residual effect. I work in an enterprise where everything is complicated and difficult to follow. Any efforts to simplify end up being additional hard work for the employees. This book gave me a complete new view of how work should be and even how to apply to day to day life to have a balanced and worry feee life.
I liked the author narration, very articulated and clear to understand. I believe I will listen again so everything soaks in my way of living!

Thought Provoking and Inspiring

I’m a lawyer, and too often, those in our profession don’t try to make what we do more “effortless.” Rather, the focus seems to be to make everything more difficult. I appreciated the anecdotes. the end of chapter and part summaries, and the easy takeaways. Here’s to a more effortless life personally and professionally.

Beautiful thoughts from a BEAUTIFUL mind!

An inspiring and an empowering listen. Simple in its delivery, profound in its message.

Inspiring listen

For anyone who has a pension to make things harder than they have to be.

I found this book had the ability to set me at peace and inspire action. I truly appreciate Greg’s openness and vulnerability with his own struggles in this area, even after authoring a best selling book. The bullet pointed summaries were also quite helpful at the end of the sections for a listening audience. I hope more nonfiction audible book authors in the personal development space will take this cue.

Finally, I commend Greg for revealing his personal family health struggles and professing his faith as a key component of his mindset. I am confident readers and listeners will be inspired and changed in unmeasured ways as a result.

One of the best books I’ve listened to in a long time.

Filled with gems of true value for a quality life.
Especially the messages about simplifying and not overcomplicating—I’m realizing I’m so guilty of this.