The Focusing Question
Ask it about your job, your health, your marriage or the next hour. The answer is the task that makes the others lighter or pointless.
Productivity
The One Thing
by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
What if one thing mattered most?
Gary Keller co-founded the estate agency Keller Williams and watched it grow into a giant. With Jay Papasan, he argues that great results come from narrowing your focus as far as it will go, and that one well-chosen question can tell you where to point it.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
What you'll learn
- The Focusing Question
- Go small
- Goal setting to the now
- Block it before anyone else can
The key ideas in The One Thing
Go small
Faced with a long list, apply the 80/20 principle, keeping the fifth that brings most results. Then do it again to what's left, and again, until one thing remains. Keller wants a success list, ordered by results, in place of a to-do list of everything you could do.
Goal setting to the now
Start with your someday goal. Then ask what you'd need to do in the next five years to get there, then this year, this month, this week and today. The last question is what you can do right now. Each answer sets up the next, like dominoes.
Block it before anyone else can
Once you know your ONE Thing, put it in the calendar, early, and guard it like any important appointment. Keller and Papasan suggest blocking your time off first, then your ONE Thing, then time to plan. Everything else fits around them.
Lines worth underlining
Dominoes
Small wins knock over bigger ones, like a line of dominoes that grow as they fall.
Multitasking
Doing two things at once usually means doing both badly.
Willpower
Willpower runs down through the day, so do your most important work early.
Balance
Chasing perfect balance keeps you average. Let some parts of life go out of balance for a while.
The question
Ask which single task would make everything else easier or not needed at all.
A story from the book
Bigger and bigger dominoes
In 1983 the physicist Lorne Whitehead showed that a falling domino can topple another about half as big again. Line up dominoes that grow by that much, and the chain soon knocks over things far larger than the first. Keller says success builds the same way.
Hot take · true or myth?
Willpower runs down over the course of the day.
See the book's answer
True. Keller and Papasan say the lie is that willpower is always there when you need it. It's strongest early, so do your ONE Thing before the day wears it down.
One thing to try
Ask it before email
Tomorrow morning, before you open your inbox, write the Focusing Question at the top of a page and answer it for that day. Book the first ninety minutes in your calendar for the answer, and keep the inbox shut until it's done.
There's more to The One Thing
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The One Thing comes with a Hot Take round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appQuestions about The One Thing
What is The One Thing about?
What if one thing mattered most? Gary Keller co-founded the estate agency Keller Williams and watched it grow into a giant. With Jay Papasan, he argues that great results come from narrowing your focus as far as it will go, and that one well-chosen question can tell you where to point it.
What are the key ideas in The One Thing?
The Focusing Question; Go small; Goal setting to the now; Block it before anyone else can.
What's one thing to try from The One Thing?
Tomorrow morning, before you open your inbox, write the Focusing Question at the top of a page and answer it for that day. Book the first ninety minutes in your calendar for the answer, and keep the inbox shut until it's done.
Is The One Thing on Knotd?
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The One Thing in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
