“For too long, we have overemphasised the external aspect of choices (our options) and underemphasised our internal ability to choose (our actions). This is more than semantics. Think about it this way. Options (things) can be taken away, while our core ability to choose (free will) cannot be. The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away – it can only be forgotten.”
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
“Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, for example, schedules up to two hours of blank space on his calendar every day. He divides them into thirty-minute increments, yet he schedules nothing. It is a simple practice he developed when back-to-back meetings left him with little time to process what was going on around him.4 At first it felt like an indulgence, a waste of time. But eventually he found it to be his single most valuable productivity tool. He sees it as the primary way he can ensure he is in charge of his own day, instead of being at the mercy of it.”
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
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“The overwhelming reality is: we live in a world where almost everything is worthless and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. As John Maxwell has written, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
“Most people have heard of the “Pareto Principle,” the idea, introduced as far back as the 1790s by Vilfredo Pareto, that 20 per cent of our efforts produce 80 per cent of results. Much later, in 1951, in his Quality-Control Handbook, Joseph Moses Juran, one of the fathers of the quality movement, expanded on this idea and called it “the Law of the Vital Few.”2 His observation was that you could massively improve the quality of a product by resolving a tiny fraction of the problems. He found a willing test audience for this idea in Japan, which at the time had developed a rather poor reputation for producing low-cost, low-quality goods. By adopting a process in which a high percentage of effort and attention was channelled towards improving just those few things that were truly vital, he made the phrase “made in Japan” take on a totally new meaning. And gradually, the quality revolution led to Japan’s rise as a global economic power.3”
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
― Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - The Two-Million-Copy Bestseller
Mifrah’s 2025 Year in Books
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