Gary Keller and Jay Papasan's The One Thing: The Surprising Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results is based on consistently doing one key thing or task to help you achieve your goal.
The one thing is a simple approach based around a single question, or as the authors refer to as a focusing question, that helps lessen clutter, distraction and stress and provides more focus and energy to work towards success. The road to success starts with this question:
"What is the ONE THING you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"
Use the focusing question to narrow your goal, focus and efforts to only one thing. The idea is to go small and become laser-focused on one thing at a time.
"You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects."
Other take-outs from the book:
- Success is built sequentially. It's one thing at a time.
- Use the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule.
- Create a success list, not a to-do list.
- You don't need to be a disciplined person to be successful.
- Success is about doing the right thing, not doing everything right.
- Willpower has limited battery life.
- People do not decide their futures; they decide their habits, and their practices determine their futures.
- Your big ONE THING is your purpose, and your small ONE THING is the priority you take action on to achieve it.
- Personal productivity is the building block of all business profit.
- Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- Time blocking is a very results-oriented way of viewing and using time and ensuring what has to be done gets done.
- Resting is as important as working.
- Learn to say no.
Favourite Quotes:
- "Extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous."
- "There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important."
- "Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time."
- "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."
- "Live with purpose. Live by priority. Live for productivity."
- "My goal is no longer to get more done but rather to have less to do."
- "Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing."
- "Time blocking is essential to mastery, and mastery is essential to time blocking"
- "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
- "All success in life starts within you. You know what to do. You know how to do it. Your next step is simple. You are the first domino."
