#843: Tactics and Strategies for a 2026 Reboot — Essentialism and Greg McKeown (Repost)
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig
4.6 • 17.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 107 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Sponsors:
Momentous high-quality creatine for cognitive and muscular support: https://livemomentous.com/Tim (Code TIM for 35% off your first subscription.)
Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business
Helix Sleep premium mattresses: https://helixsleep.com/tim
Coyote the card game, which I co-created with Exploding Kittens: https://coyotegame.com
*
Show notes: https://tim.blog/2025/01/09/personal-reboot-greg-mckeown/
*
For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.
Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.
Follow Tim:
Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss
Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss
Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria 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.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Xinnan |
| 0:05.0 | and Kuala. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show to kick |
| 0:11.3 | things off in this 26. I am re-releasing my most recent conversation with Greg McEwen. I'll explain |
| 0:18.9 | who that is, which was recorded right at the end of 2024. I've had it |
| 0:23.4 | super helpful. I've revisited this episode myself. And if you want to get grounded, centered for the |
| 0:29.7 | new year, focused, we cover a lot of practical stuff. How to get centered when life feels destabilizing, |
| 0:35.7 | using journaling to move from confusion to clarity, |
| 0:38.3 | personal quarterly off-sites, premortem, systems thinking, converting one-time fixes into repeatable |
| 0:43.9 | rules, defining done so your work doesn't expand indefinitely the one, two, three method for having |
| 0:49.5 | a successful day, and it goes on and on. There's a lot to it. Greg, who is Greg, Greg McEwen, M-C-K-E-O-W-N. You can find him |
| 0:57.6 | on X at Gregory McEwen, is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, essentialism, the disciplined |
| 1:03.5 | pursuit of less. I have highlighted this book in hundreds of places, and that is what led me to |
| 1:08.9 | ultimately connect with him. And his second book, |
| 1:12.2 | Effortless, make it easier to do what matters most. And these two pair very well together. And we |
| 1:17.6 | certainly dip in and out of a lot of the key concepts in our conversation. He's also a speaker, |
| 1:23.3 | host of the Greg McEwen podcast, founder of the Essentialism Academy with students from close to |
| 1:28.6 | 100 countries. And 200,000 people receive his weekly one-minute Wednesday newsletter. And he is also |
| 1:35.1 | the creator of the Essentialism Planner. So he's done a lot. This conversation gives you |
| 1:39.7 | plenty to chew on and take away and apply. So happy new year, everyone. I hope 2026 brings you and |
| 1:46.5 | yours many pleasant surprises. And now let's get to the episode. Enjoy. At this altitude, |
| 1:54.6 | I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking? Can I answer your personal |
| 1:59.2 | question? Now I would seen an appropriate time. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 12 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.