The One Thing

The ONE Thing is the best approach to getting what you want.

1. Success is a result of narrowing your concentration to one thing.
2. Success is built sequentially, one thing at a time.
3. Not everything matters equally.
4. Multitasking is a lie.
5. Discipline is a result of habit.
6. Willpower is a finite resource.
7. Big is bad is a lie.

• It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.
• You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.

• 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.
• Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.
• There will always be just a few things that matters more than the rest, and out of those, one will matter most.

"The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest."

• When you try to do two things at once, you either can’t or won’t do either well.
• You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once.
• Every time you try to do two or more things at once, you’re simply dividing up our focus and dumbing down all of the outcomes in the process.

• Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.
• When you discipline yourself, you’re essentially training yourself to act in a specific way. Stay with this long enough and it becomes routine—in other words, a habit.
• You can become successful with less discipline than you think, for one simple reason: success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right
• The trick to success is to choose the right habit and bring just enough discipline to establish it.

• To achieve an extraordinary result you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands.
• Achievement and abundance show up because they’re the natural outcomes of doing the right things with no limits attached.
• The key to success isn’t in all the things we do but in the handful of things we do well.

• Answers come from questions, and the quality of any answer is directly determined by the quality of the question. Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer. Ask the right question, get the right answer. Ask the most powerful question possible, and the answer can be life-altering.
• The Focusing Question collapses all possible questions into one: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

• Our purpose sets our priority and our priority determines the productivity our actions produce.
• Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish.
• How circumstances affect us depends on how we interpret them as they relate to our life.

• Achieving extraordinary results through time blocking requires three commitments.
• First, you must adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery.
• Second, you must continually seek the very best ways of doing things.
• And last, you must be willing to be held accountable to doing everything you can to achieve your ONE Thing.

The Four Thieves of Productivity

1. Inability to Say “No”
2. Fear of Chaos 
3. Poor Health Habits 
4. Environment Doesn’t Support Your Goals

• For you to achieve extraordinary results, the people surrounding you and your physical surroundings must support your goals.
• No one succeeds alone and no one fails alone. Pay attention to the people around you.

• At any moment in time there can be only ONE Thing, and when that ONE Thing is in line with your purpose and sits atop your priorities, it will be the most productive thing you can do to launch you toward the best you can be.
• A life worth living might be measured in many ways, but the one way that stands above all others is living a life of no regrets.
• When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense.