Tom Swerts's Key Ideas from Essentialism
by Greg McKeown

“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”

From bosses’ demands, plans and commitments, familial obligations, and friends in need, to text messages, emails, calendar invites, and day-to-day news, it is dangerously easy to fall prey to the illusion that these things control our time. 

We cannot control the events of circumstance, but we are always in control of our response. We are free to choose the destination to which we want to aim our lives.

 “It’s much easier to do good things than the right thing.”

We are free to choose what we want and where we aim to be. Charting our course means recognizing which choices will actually bring us closer to our destination. Learn to recognize what is important by understanding:

• our values
• what matters most to us
• where our time and energy is best invested

There is only a narrow set of choises that will truly move us forward towards our most meaningful life.

Proactively measure the meaningfulness of your activities by placing yourself in the future as you weigh your deepest values.