The One Thing
A mindmap of the book The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
1. 10. The Focusing Question
1.1. Mark Twain
1.2. Sometimes questions are more important than answers
1.3. How we phrase the questions we ask ourselves determines the answers that eventually become our life
1.4. Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it
1.5. What's the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
1.5.1. Powered by the Focusing Question, your actions become a natural progression of building one right thing on top of the previous right thing
1.5.1.1. When this happens you're in position to experience the power of the domino effect
1.5.2. Use this when you first wake up and throughout the day
1.5.3. Whether you seek answers big or small, asking the Focusing Question is the ultimate success habit for your life
2. 11. The Success Habit
2.1. Start with the big stuff and see where it takes you.
2.1.1. Over time you'll develop your own sense of when to use the big-picture question and when to use the small-focus question
2.2. Where to apply the Focusing Question
2.2.1. Your Spiritual Life
2.2.1.1. Your Physical Health
2.2.1.1.1. Your Personal Life
2.3. Believe that the ONE Thing can make a difference in your life
2.4. Start each day by asking
2.4.1. "What's the ONE Thing I can do today for [whatever you want] such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"
2.5. Research says it will take 66 days so stick with it until it becomes your routine
2.6. Leverage reminders
2.6.1. "Until my ONE Thing is done - everything else is a distraction"
2.7. Recruit support
2.7.1. Research shows that those around you can influence you tremendously
3. 12. The Path To Great Answers
3.1. You ask a great question
3.1.1. You seek out a great anser
3.2. Your questions should be big & specific
3.2.1. "What can I do to double sales in 6 months?"
3.3. A big, specific question leads to a big specific answer which is absolutely necessary for achieving a big goal
3.4. Convert your question to the Focusing Question
3.4.1. "What's the ONE Thing I can do to double sales in 6 months such by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"
3.5. Answers come in three categories
3.5.1. doable
3.5.1.1. stretch
3.5.1.1.1. possibility
3.5.2. Anytime you don't know the answer, your answer is to go find your answer
3.6. Highly successful people choose to live at the outer limits of achievement.
3.6.1. They not only dream of but deeply crave what is beyond their natural grasp
3.7. The research & experience of others is the best place to start when looking for your answers
3.7.1. This is your benchmark
3.7.1.1. The current high-water mark for all that is known and being done.
3.8. Spotting what is coming next is called trending
3.8.1. You're looking for the next thing you can do in the same direction that the best performers are heading
3.8.1.1. If necessary you can move in an entirely new direction
3.9. A new answer usually requires a new behavior
4. 13. Live With Purpose
4.1. Live with purpose
4.1.1. live by priority
4.1.1.1. live for productivity
4.2. Our purpose sets our priority
4.2.1. Our priority determines the productivity our actions produce
4.3. Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish
4.3.1. A life lived on purpose is the most powerful of all and the happiest
4.4. If we lack a big picture view we can easily fall into serial success seeking
4.4.1. Why?
4.4.1.1. Once we get what we want our happiness sooner or later wanes because we quickly become accustomed to what we acquire.
4.5. Knowing why you're doing something provides the inspiration & motivation to give the extra perspiration needed to persevere when things go south
4.6. When what you do matches your purpose, your life just feels in rhythm, and the path you beat with your feet seems to match the sound in your head and heart
5. 14. Live By Priority
5.1. Alan Lakein
5.2. Live with purpose and you know where you want to go
5.2.1. Live by priority and you'll know what to do to get there.
5.3. When you're going somewhere on purpose, there will always be something you "should do" that will get you where you must go.
5.3.1. When your life is on purpose living by priority takes precedence
5.4. Purpose without priority is powerless
5.5. Goal setting to the now
5.5.1. You're training your mind how to think, how to connect one goal with the next over time until you know the most important thing you must do right now.
5.6. Connect today to all your tomorrows. It matters
5.7. Dominican University of California
5.7.1. Dr. Gail Matthews
5.7.1.1. 267 participants
5.7.1.1.1. Those who wrote down their goals were 39.5% more likely to accomplish them.
6. 15. Live For Productivity
6.1. Margarita Tartakovsky
6.2. Productive action transforms lives.
6.3. Putting together a life of extraordinary results simply comes down to getting the most out of what you do, when what you do matters.
6.4. A time-managing system's success can be judged by the productivity it produces
6.5. The most successful people are the most productive people
6.5.1. They time block their ONE Thing and then protect their blocks with a vengeance.
6.5.2. They design their days around doing their ONE Thing
6.5.3. Their most important appointment each day is with themselves
6.5.3.1. They never miss it
6.5.4. They work on event time
6.6. Time blocking is a very results orientated way of viewing and using time
6.6.1. It's a way of making sure that what has to get done gets gone
6.6.1.1. Alexander Graham Bell
6.7. If disproportionate results come from one activity, then you must give that one activity disproportionate time
6.8. How time blocking works
6.8.1. Great success shows up when time is devoted every day to becoming great.
6.9. Time block these 3 things in this order
6.9.1. Time block your time off
6.9.2. Time block your ONE Thing
6.9.3. Time block your planning time
6.10. Block time as early in your day as you possibly can
6.10.1. Block 4 hours per day for your ONE Thing
6.10.2. The best way to protect your time blocks is to adopt the mindset that they can't be moved
6.11. Be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon.
6.12. Block an hour each week to review your annual and monthly goals
6.13. There is a magic in knocking down your most important domino day after day
6.14. How to battle distractions and keep your eye on your ONE Thing
6.14.1. Build a bunker
6.14.1.1. Find somewhere to work that takes you out of the path of disruption and interruptions
6.14.2. Store provisions
6.14.2.1. Have any supplies, materials, snacks or beverages on hand and other than a bathroom break avoid leaving your bunker
6.14.3. Sweep for mines
6.14.3.1. Turn off your phone, shut down your email and exit your Internet browser
6.14.4. Enlist support
6.14.4.1. Tell those most likely to seek you out what you are doing
7. 16. The Three Commitments
7.1. George Hala
7.2. Follow the path to mastery
7.2.1. When you see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable
7.2.2. More than anything else, expertise tracks with hours invested
7.2.3. The pursuit of mastery bears gifts
7.2.4. Knowledge begets knowledge and skills build on skills.
7.2.4.1. Its what makes future dominoes fall more easily
7.3. Move from "E" to "P"
7.3.1. Continually improving how you do something is crucial to getting the most from time blocking
7.3.1.1. Its called moving from "E" to "P"
7.3.2. E
7.3.2.1. Entrepreneurial
7.3.2.1.1. Is our natural approach.
7.3.3. P
7.3.3.1. Purposeful
7.3.3.1.1. When you're going about your ONE Thing, any ceiling of achievement must be challenged
7.3.3.1.2. Highly successful people don't accept the limitations of their natural approach
7.3.3.1.3. You must simply be willing to do what ever it takes
7.3.3.1.4. The purposeful person follows one simple rule
7.3.4. When you've done the best you can do but are certain the results aren't the best they can be, get out of "E" and into "P"
7.4. Live the Accountability Cycle
7.4.1. Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success
7.4.2. Accountable people achieve results others only dream of
7.4.3. When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it
7.4.4. Being willing to address reality head-on gives you a huge edge.
7.4.4.1. It puts you in a position to start thinking about what you can do differently
7.4.5. Highly successful people re clear about their role in the events of their life
7.4.5.1. They don't fear reality.
7.4.5.1.1. They seek it, acknowledge it and own it
7.4.6. One of the fastest ways to bring accountability to your life is to find an accountability partner
7.4.6.1. Individuals who write their goals down and send progress reports to friends are 76.7% more likely to achieve them
8. 17. The Four Thieves
8.1. There are 4 thieves that can hold you up and rob you of your productivity
8.1.1. Inability to say no
8.1.1.1. When you say yes to something it's imperative that you understand what you are saying no to.
8.1.1.2. You can't please everyone so don't try
8.1.1.3. A request of you to do something must be connected to your ONE Thing for you to consider it
8.1.2. Fear of chaos
8.1.2.1. Focusing on ONE Thing has a guaranteed consequence
8.1.2.1.1. Other things don't get done
8.1.2.2. When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up
8.1.3. Poor health habits
8.1.3.1. Personal energy mismanagement is a silent thief of productivity
8.1.3.2. High achievement and extraordinary results require big energy
8.1.3.3. Daily Energy Plan
8.1.3.3.1. Mediate or pray for spiritual energy
8.1.3.3.2. Eat right, exercise and sleep sufficiently for physical energy
8.1.3.3.3. Hug, kiss and laugh with loved ones for emotional energy
8.1.3.3.4. Set goals, plan and calendar for mental energy
8.1.3.3.5. Time block your ONE Thing for business energy
8.1.3.3.6. When you spend the early hours energizing yourself, you get pulled through the rest of the day with little additional effort
8.1.4. Environment doesn't support your goals
8.1.4.1. It must support your goals
8.1.4.2. Being with success minded people creates what researchers call a "positive spiral of success" where they lift you up and send you on your way.
8.1.4.3. Oprah Winfrey
8.1.4.4. Don't let your environment lead you astray
9. 18. The Journey
9.1. Whatever you can see, you have the capacity to move toward
9.1.1. Living large is that simple
9.2. At any moment in time there can be only ONE Thing
9.2.1. 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
9.3. Actions build on action
9.4. Habits build on habit
9.5. Success build on success
9.6. The right domino knocks down another and another and another
9.7. 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
9.8. Put yourself together and your world falls in to place
9.8.1. You are the first domino
10. 1. The One Thing
10.1. "What's the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?"
10.2. If time is the currency of achievement, then why are some able to cash in their allotment for more chips than others?
10.3. Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus
11. 2. The Domino Effect
11.1. When one thing, the right thing is set in motion, it can topple many things
11.2. Getting Extraordinary Results
11.2.1. When you think about success shoot for the moon. The moon is reachable if you prioritize everything and put all of your energy into accomplishing the most important thing.
11.2.1.1. Getting extraordinary results is all about creating a domino effect in your life.
11.2.2. Find the lead domino, and whack away at it until it falls
11.2.3. Extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous. What starts out linear becomes geometric.
11.2.3.1. You do the right thing and then you do the next right thing.
11.2.3.1.1. Over time it adds up, and the geometric potential of success is unleashed.
11.2.4. The key is time
11.2.4.1. Success is built sequentially, it's one thing at a time
12. 3. Success Leaves Clues
12.1. Ross Garber
12.1.1. "There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important."
12.2. No one is self-made
12.3. General George S. Patton
12.3.1. "You must be single-minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided."
12.4. Vince Lombardi
12.4.1. "Success demands singleness of purpose."
12.5. The ONE Thing shows up time and again in the lives of the successful because it's a fundamental truth.
12.6. The ONE Thing sits at the heart of success of success and is the starting point for achieving extraordinary results.
13. 4. Everything Matters Equally
13.1. When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal.
13.2. Henry David Thoreau
13.2.1. "It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?"
13.3. To-dos serve as a useful collection of our best intentions, they also tyrannize us with trivial, unimportant stuff, that we feel obligated to get done, because it's on our lists.
13.4. Achievers operate differently
13.4.1. They pause just long enough to decide what matters and then allow what matters to drive their day.
13.4.2. They do sooner what others plan to do later and defer, perhaps indefinitely, what others do sooner.
13.5. A to-do list is simply the things you think you need to do; the first thing on your list is just the first thing you thought of.
13.6. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list, a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.
13.7. To-do lists
13.7.1. Tend to be long
13.7.1.1. Pulls you in all directions
13.7.1.1.1. Disorganized directory
13.8. Success lists
13.8.1. Are short
13.8.1.1. Aims you in a specific direction
13.8.1.1.1. Organised directive
13.9. If a list isn't built around success, then that's not where it takes you.
13.9.1. If your do-do list contains everything, then it's probably taking you everywhere but where you really want to go.
13.10. The 80/20 Principle
13.10.1. Asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or efforts usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards
13.10.2. A small amount of causes creates most of the results.
13.10.2.1. Just the right input creates most of the output.
13.10.2.1.1. Selected effort creates almost all of the rewards.
13.10.3. If you apply this principle it will unlock the success you seek in anything that matters to you.
13.11. A to-do list becomes a success list when you apply Pareto's Principle to it.
13.12. You can take 20% of the 20% of the 20% and continue until you get to the single most important thing.
13.12.1. Do not stop until you end with the essential ONE.
13.12.1.1. The ONE Thing
14. 5. Multitasking
14.1. Multitasking is a lie
14.1.1. Multitasking is neither efficient nor effective. In the world of results it will fail you every time
14.1.2. You can do two things at once, but you can't focus effectively on two things at once
14.1.3. Researchers estimate that we lose 28% of an average workday to multitasking ineffectiveness.
14.1.4. Why would we ever tolerate multitasking when we are doing our most important work?
14.2. Publilius Syrus
14.2.1. "To do two things at once is to do neither."
14.3. If doing the most important thing is the most important thing, why would you try to do anything else at the same time?
14.4. Workers who use computers during the day change windows or check email or other programs nearly 37 times an hour
14.4.1. Being in a distractible setting sets us up to be more distractible
15. 6. A Disciplined Life
15.1. Something needs to be done but isn't
15.1.1. "I just need more discipline."
15.1.1.1. We need a habit of doing it
15.1.1.2. We we need just enough discipline to build the habit
15.2. People who look like they are "disciplined"
15.2.1. What you're seeing is people who've trained a handful of habits into their lives.
15.3. Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right
15.3.1. Use selected discipline to build a powerful habit
15.3.1.1. When you do the right thing it can liberate you from having to monitor everything
15.4. How long does it take to establish a new habit?
15.4.1. University College of London have answer
15.4.1.1. On average it takes 66 days
15.5. Sustain discipline long enough on one habit it becomes easier
15.5.1. So do other things
15.5.1.1. Do the most important thing regularly
15.5.1.1.1. Everything else is easier
16. 7. Willpower Is Always On Will Call
16.1. Is a lie
16.2. When you have your will you get your way
16.3. Willpower has a limited battery life
16.4. The more we use our mind, the less minding power we have
16.5. Kathleen Vohs
16.5.1. 2009 Prevention magazine
16.6. You are what you eat
16.6.1. Foods that elevate blood sugar evenly over long periods, like complex carbohydrates & proteins, become the fuel of choice for high-achievers
16.7. When our will power runs out we all revert to our default settings
16.8. Make doing what matters most a priority when your willpower is its highest
16.9. What taxes your willpower?
16.10. Timing is everything
16.10.1. Do your most important work early
16.10.1.1. Before your willpower is drawn down
16.11. Build your days around how your willpower works
17. 8. A Balanced Life
17.1. A balanced life is a lie
17.1.1. In your effort to attend to all things, everything gets shortchanged and nothing gets its due.
17.2. Extraordinary results
17.2.1. Require focused attention & time
17.2.1.1. Time on one thing means time away from another
17.2.1.1.1. This makes balance impossible
17.2.2. You must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands
17.2.2.1. This requires getting extremely out of balance in relation to all other work issues, with only infrequent counterbalancing to address them
17.2.3. Set a priority and act on it
17.2.3.1. When you act on your priority you'll automatically go out of balance, giving more time to one thing over another
17.3. Work-Life in the middle
17.3.1. Knowing when to pursue the middle and when to pursue the extremes is in essence the true beginning of wisdom.
17.3.1.1. Extraordinary results are achieved by this negotiation with your time
17.4. Time waits for no one
17.4.1. Push something to an extreme and postponement can become permanent
17.4.2. You can't ignore the inevitability of time
17.5. Leaving some things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results
18. 9. Big Is Bad
18.1. Big is about who you can become
18.2. Success requires action & action requires thought
18.3. The only actions that become springboards to succeeding big are those informed by big thinking to begin with
18.4. Everyone has the same amount of time
18.4.1. What you do in the time you work determines what you achieve
18.4.1.1. What you do is determined by what you think
18.4.1.1.1. How big you think becomes the launching pad for how high you achieve
18.5. What you build today will either empower or restrict you tomorrow
18.6. On the journey to achieving big you get bigger
18.6.1. Big requires growth and by the time you arrive, you're big too
18.6.1.1. As you experience big, you become big.
18.7. Don't fear big
18.7.1. Fear mediocrity
18.7.1.1. Fear waste
18.7.1.1.1. Fear the lack of living to your fullest