The One Thing Summary

The One Thing by Gary Keller

The Book in 1 Sentences

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small.

“Going small” is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.

The way to get the most out of your work and your life is to go as small as possible...

When you go as small as possible, you’ll be staring at one thing. And that’s the point.” ~ Gary Keller

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5 BIG Ideas

1. “The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”

2. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list—a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.

3. Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business.

4. Habits require much less energy and effort to maintain than to begin.

5. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

1. Domino!

“When one thing, the right thing, is set in motion, it can topple many things. And that’s not all.

In 1983, Lorne Whitehead wrote in the American Journal of Physics that he’d discovered that domino falls could not only topple many things, they could topple bigger things. He described how a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger.”

It’s all about this domino effect! If we focus our energy on knocking over the very next one, doing that little ONE thing, doing so will generate the needed momentum that will help us knock over progressively larger ones, doing more impactful work, having BIGGER and BETTER results!

Just one thing…

Gary says: “The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”

So, what is you next ONE thing that needs to be done?

2. To-Do List Vs. Success List

“Long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list—a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.

To-do lists tend to be long; success lists are short. One pulls you in all directions; the other aims you in a specific direction. One is a disorganized directory and the other is an organized directive.

If a list isn’t built around success, then that’s not where it takes you. If your to-do list contains everything, then it’s probably taking you everywhere but where you really want to go.”

Brilliant idea!

In fact, I was stuck in a LONG, non-ending to-do list! till I found out the methods Gary discusses in this book!

In the 80/20 Principle great book Richard Koch says that: “The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of results, outputs or rewards.”

Remember that some of your efforts are much more valuable than others.

Think about your to-do list… is it a list of EVERYTHING you want to do? or these few things that will help you SUCCEED?

Gary says: “When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal. We become active and busy, but this doesn’t actually move us any closer to success. Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business.”

Got it?!

3. Take Pareto’s (80/20) Principle to an Extreme

“Pareto proves everything I’m telling you—but there’s a catch. He doesn’t go far enough. I want you to go further. I want you to take Pareto’s Principle to an extreme. I want you to go small by identifying the 20 percent, and then I want you to go even smaller by finding the vital few of the vital few.

The 80/20 rule is the first word, but not the last, about success. What Pareto started, you’ve got to finish. Success requires that you follow the 80/20 Principle, but you don’t have to stop there.

Keep going. You can actually take 20 percent of the 20 percent of the 20 percent and continue until you get to the single most important thing! No matter the task, mission, or goal. Big or small.

Start with as large a list as you want, but develop the mindset that you will whittle your way from there to the critical few and not stop until you end with the essential ONE. The imperative ONE. The ONE Thing.”

4. Discipline and Habit

“Discipline and habit. Honestly, most people never really want to talk about these. And who can blame them? I don’t either. The images these words conjure in our heads are of something hard and unpleasant. Just reading the words is exhausting.

But there’s good news. The right discipline goes a long way, and habits are hard only in the beginning. Over time, the habit you’re after becomes easier and easier to sustain. It’s true.

Habits require much less energy and effort to maintain than to begin. Put up with the discipline long enough to turn it into a habit, and the journey feels different.

Lock in one habit so it becomes part of your life, and you can effectively ride the routine with less wear and tear on yourself. The hard stuff becomes habit, and habit makes the hard stuff easy.”

It takes 66 days on average to form a new habit… and it takes a HUGE amount of energy and willpower to begin! But once it becomes a part of your life, it’s MUCH easier to sustain…

As Gary says: “Habits require much less energy and effort to maintain than to begin”.

He also says: “The trick to success is to choose the right habit and bring just enough discipline to establish it. That’s it. That’s all the discipline you need.”

So, ask yourself… What’s the ONE habit that can change your life if you make it a part of your life?

The ONE habit that can change my life is ………………….

5. The Focusing Question

“Most people are familiar with the Chinese Proverb “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” They just never stop to fully appreciate that if this is true, then the wrong first step begins a journey that could end as far as two thousand miles from where they want to be. The Focusing Question helps keep your first step from being a misstep.”

Think about that… What’s the point of having a thousand miles journey while you don’t even know if your first step is in the right direction?

So, what is the focusing question?

It is: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

Take your time and answer that question… It’s really powerful!

6. Goal Setting to the Now

“Goal Setting to the Now will get you there.

By thinking through the filter of Goal Setting to the Now, you set a future goal and then methodically drill down to what you should be doing right now.

It can be a little like a Russian matryoshka doll in that your ONE Thing “right now” is nested inside your ONE Thing today, which is nested inside your ONE Thing this week, which is nested inside your ONE Thing this month. . . . It’s how a small thing can actually build up to a big one.

You’re lining up your dominoes.”

Brilliant idea!

It’s all about reverse engineering the ONE thing you want to achieve in the future, break it down to 5 years one goal, then 1 year one goal, then 1 month, 1 week, 1 day…. Then the NOW goal!

As Gary says: “You’re lining up your dominoes!”

7. Time Blocking

“Most people think there’s never enough time to be successful, but there is when you block it. Time blocking is a very results-oriented way of viewing and using time. It’s a way of making sure that what has to be done gets done.

Alexander Graham Bell said, “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” Time blocking harnesses your energy and centers it on your most important work. It’s productivity’s greatest power tool.”

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on the ONE thing you’re doing… No phone calls, no emails, no notifications on your phone… Just FOCUS on your work, and you’ll be surprised how productive you’ll become!

“If disproportionate results come from one activity, then you must give that one activity disproportionate time. Each and every day, ask this Focusing Question for your blocked time: “Today, what’s the ONE Thing I can do for my ONE Thing such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” When you find the answer, you’ll be doing the most leveraged activity for your most leveraged work.

This is how results become extraordinary.”

8. Focus on the ONE Thing

“If you try to do everything, you could wind up with nothing. If you try to do just ONE Thing, the right ONE Thing, you could wind up with everything you ever wanted.

The ONE Thing is real. If you put it to work, it will work.

So don’t delay. Ask yourself the question, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do right now to start using The ONE Thing in my life such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

And make doing the answer your first ONE Thing!”

And remember that: “The people who achieve extraordinary results don’t achieve them by working more hours. They achieve them by getting more done in the hours they work.”

That was my QUICK The One Thing summary. If you’re interested, get your copy. There is a HUGE amount of wisdom and life-changing ideas in this book, and we’ve only touched on a tiny bit of it.