Michael Phelps

In Essentialism, Michael Phelps appears as a case study in the power of routine. Greg McKeown holds up Phelps’s pre-race ritual as an example of a routine that “enshrines what is essential, making execution almost effortless” — the disciplined, repeatable structure that frees an elite performer from having to re-decide the fundamentals each time. The “Story: Michael Phelps routine” is one of the book’s anchoring illustrations for the chapter on building routines that protect what matters most.

Context: Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, an American swimmer who won 28 Olympic medals (23 gold) across five Games. He and his coach Bob Bowman famously scripted a fixed warm-up and race-day routine, rehearsed so thoroughly that Phelps could execute it on autopilot — the basis for the “routine that makes execution effortless” lesson McKeown draws on.

Where this appears

• Essentialism — Phelps’s pre-race routine cited as a routine that “enshrines what is essential, making execution almost effortless.”