# The ONE Thing  ## Metadata - Author: [[Gary Keller, Jay Papasan]] - Full Title: The ONE Thing - Category: #books ## Highlights - Finally, out of desperation, I went as small as I could possibly go and asked: “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” And the most awesome thing happened. Results went through the roof. ([Location 80](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=80)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too. ([Location 83](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=83)) - Tags: [[blue]] - “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. ([Location 89](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=89)) - Tags: [[blue]] - You have only so much time and energy, so when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin. You want your achievements to add up, but that actually takes subtraction, not addition. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects. ([Location 96](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=96)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Each standing domino represents a small amount of potential energy; the more you line up, the more potential energy you’ve accumulated. Line up enough and, with a simple flick, you can start a chain reaction of surprising power. And Weijers Domino Productions proved it. When one thing, the right thing, is set in motion, it can topple many things. And that’s not all. ([Location 109](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=109)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Do you see the implication? Not only can one knock over others but also others that are successively larger. In 2001 a physicist from San Francisco’s Exploratorium reproduced Whitehead’s experiment by creating eight dominoes out of plywood, each of which was 50 percent larger than the one before. The first was a mere two inches, the last almost three feet tall. The resulting domino fall began with a gentle tick and quickly ended “with a loud SLAM.” Imagine what would happen if this kept going. If a regular domino fall is a linear progression, Whitehead’s would be described as a geometric progression. The result could defy the imagination. ([Location 119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=119)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Highly successful people know this. So every day they line up their priorities anew, find the lead domino, and whack away at it until it falls. Why does this approach work? Because extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous. What starts out linear becomes geometric. You do the right thing and then you do the next right thing. Over time it adds up, and the geometric potential of success is unleashed. The domino effect applies to the big picture, like your work or your business, and it applies to the smallest moment in each day when you’re trying to decide what to do next. Success builds on success, and as this happens, over and over, you move toward the highest success possible. ([Location 130](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=130)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time. ([Location 138](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=138)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results. ([Location 192](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=192)) - Tags: [[blue]] - 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. ([Location 291](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=291)) - Tags: [[blue]] - As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever the reason is a poor substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful. ([Location 295](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=295)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Achievers operate differently. They have an eye for the essential. They pause just long enough to decide what matters and then allow what matters to drive their day. Achievers do sooner what others plan to do later and defer, perhaps indefinitely, what others do sooner. The difference isn’t in intent, but in right of way. Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority. ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=307)) - Tags: [[blue]] - 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. ([Location 314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=314)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Pareto’s Principle, it turns out, is as real as the law of gravity, and yet most people fail to see the gravity of it. It’s not just a theory—it is a provable, predictable certainty of nature and one of the greatest productivity truths ever discovered. Richard Koch, in his book The 80/20 Principle, defined it about as well as anyone: “The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.” In other words, in the world of success, things aren’t equal. A small amount of causes creates most of the results. Just the right input creates most of the output. Selected effort creates almost all of the rewards. ([Location 336](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=336)) - Tags: [[blue]] - A to-do list becomes a success list when you apply Pareto’s Principle to it. ([Location 349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=349)) - Tags: [[blue]] - 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! (See figure 5.) 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. ([Location 363](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=363)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The inequality of effort for results is everywhere in your life if you will simply look for it. And if you apply this principle, it will unlock the success you seek in anything that matters to you. There will always be just a few things that matter more than the rest, and out of those, one will matter most. Internalizing this concept is like being handed a magic compass. Whenever you feel lost or lacking direction, you can pull it out to remind yourself to discover what matters most. ([Location 378](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=378)) - Tags: [[blue]] - BIG IDEAS Go small. Don’t focus on being busy; focus on being productive. Allow what matters most to drive your day. Go extreme. Once you’ve figured out what actually matters, keep asking what matters most until there is only one thing left. That core activity goes at the top of your success list. Say no. Whether you say “later” or “never,” the point is to say “not now” to anything else you could do until your most important work is done. Don’t get trapped in the “check off” game. If we believe things don’t matter equally, we must act accordingly. We can’t fall prey to the notion that everything has to be done, that checking things off our list is what success is all about. We can’t be trapped in a game of “check off” that never produces a winner. The truth is that things don’t matter equally and success is found in doing what matters most. Sometimes it’s the first thing you do. Sometimes it’s the only thing you do. Regardless, doing the most important thing is always the most important thing. ([Location 383](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=383)) - Tags: [[blue]] - “I was sure they had some secret ability” said Nass. “But it turns out that high multitaskers are suckers for irrelevancy.” They were outperformed on every measure. Although they’d convinced themselves and the world that they were great at it, there was just one problem. To quote Nass, “Multitaskers were just lousy at everything.” Multitasking is a lie. ([Location 401](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=401)) - Tags: [[blue]] - It’s not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do, it’s that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have. ([Location 429](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=429)) - Tags: [[blue]] - When you switch from one task to another, voluntarily or not, two things happen. The first is nearly instantaneous: you decide to switch. The second is less predictable: you have to activate the “rules” for whatever you’re about to do (see figure 6). Switching between two simple tasks—like watching television and folding clothes—is quick and relatively painless. However, if you’re working on a spreadsheet and a co-worker pops into your office to discuss a business problem, the relative complexity of those tasks makes it impossible to easily jump back and forth. It always takes some time to start a new task and restart the one you quit, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever pick up exactly where you left off. There is a price for this. “The cost in terms of extra time from having to task switch depends on how complex or simple the tasks are,” reports researcher Dr. David Meyer. “It can range from time increases of 25 percent or less for simple tasks to well over 100 percent or more for very complicated tasks.” Task switching exacts a cost few realize they’re even paying. ([Location 450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=450)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Why would we ever tolerate multitasking when we’re doing our most important work? ([Location 499](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=499)) - Tags: [[blue]] - In any discussion about success, the words “discipline” and “habit” ultimately intersect. Though separate in meaning, they powerfully connect to form the foundation for achievement—regularly working at something until it regularly works for you. ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00C1BHQXK&location=527)) - Tags: [[blue]]