The One Thing 

Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan 

Book Overview:  
The ONE Thing has made more than 400 appearances on national bestseller lists, including #1 Wall
Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today. People are using this simple, powerful concept to
focus on what matters most in their personal and work lives. Companies are helping their employees
be more productive with study groups, training, and coaching. Sales teams are boosting sales.
Churches are conducting classes and recommending for their members. By focusing their energy on
one thing at a time people are living more rewarding lives by building their careers, strengthening
their finances, losing weight and getting in shape, deepening their faith, and nurturing stronger
marriages and personal relationships.

YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails,
texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands
of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines,
smaller paychecks, fewer promotions--and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more
productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life,
and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH--LESS AND
MORE. In The ONE Thing, you'll learn to * cut through the clutter * achieve better results in less time
* build momentum toward your goal* dial down the stress * overcome that overwhelmed feeling *
revive your energy * stay on track * master what matters to you The ONE Thing delivers
extraordinary results in every area of your life--work, personal, family, and spiritual. WHAT'S YOUR
ONE THING?
 
 

KEY POINTS COVERED: 

1. Success is sequential, not simultaneous -​ Why focusing on one 
thing rather than on many different things brings better results 
2. Go small ​- Subtract rather than add in order to get geometric 
success 
3. The myth of discipline -​ Just how much discipline do we really need 
in order to succeed? 
4. Hyperbolic discounting ​- How motivation, rewards, and results 
come to play 

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 5. Use willpower wisely -​ Willpower is limited, but we need to make 
the most of it 
6. Time block ​- How time blocking works for meeting goals 
7. Accountability -​ 3 effective ways towards accountability 
8. What are you saying No to? -​ Saying YES and saying NO each has 
impactful consequences 
9. The domino effect -​ Learn the magic of geometric progression 
through the domino effect 
 

1) Success is sequential, not simultaneous 

 
It's very easy to get seduced with the idea that you should do all sorts of different things in 
order to become successful in life.  
 
But here’s the truth: 
You're much better off focusing on the one thing​ -- constantly working on that one thing and 
improving on that one thing -- in order to have massive success. 
 
This is because success builds sequentially.  
 
● Most of the time, when we start effort or an endeavor in any area of our life, initially we 
don't really see many results.  
● But then it starts to build, and over time the geometric progression kicks in.  
● And now we're seeing exponential results that we've never seen before, simply because 
we focused on the sequential part of success. 
 
In a sense, w
​ e build on our initial success​ rather than going simultaneous by trying all sorts of 
things in all different directions. Simultaneous thinking is not going to lead you to success. 
That’s a recipe for failure.  
 
So the key is:  
Focus on one thing ➔ Sequentially build that thing ➔ Get massive results 
 
Once the thing you’re doing starts to gain ​momentum​ and​ you become successful at it​, then 
you can take on new things.  
 

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So instead of trying A, B, C, D, E at the same time, what you want to do is​ start off on one 
thing​. Do ​A​ until it becomes a massive success, and then move on to B and make it a massive 
success, and then move on to C and make it a massive success, and so on.  
 
Don't try to make all of A, B, C, D, and E and F a massive success simultaneously. It's not going 
to happen. It's going to frustrate you and you're going to end up wasting and burning your 
resources.  
 
Peter Drucker, the great management philosopher, said: 
We underestimate what we can accomplish in 5 years. but we overestimate what we can 
accomplish in 1 year. H ​ ence, we get impatient. 
 
But in any endeavor you don't really see the results right away. But in about 5 years’ time, once 
the geometric effect kicks in, certainly the results are really big.  
 
Again, success is sequential. We've got to be patient with what we're working on; over time it 
will just get us the results that we desire. 
 
Related Books:  
● The Effective Executive - Peter Drucker  
○ The Power of concentration  
● Compound Effect - Darren Hardy  
○ Small steps compound over time to give you exponential results  
● Slight Edge 
○ Try to get that slight edge in your chosen endeavor - rather than spraying your 
effort all over the place 
● Essentialism - Greg Mckeown  

2) Go Small 
 
In order to achieve amazing, extraordinary results, we need to n ​ arrow our focus, not widen it​, 
to get to that really sharp focus and extraordinary result.  
 
People who diversify their focus -- who go and try all sorts of things and spray their focus -- do 
not achieve amazing results.  
 
So extraordinary success really comes from focusing, drilling down, and going really small in 
order to get big. It sounds paradoxical, but it's true. We're going really small in our focus in 
order to get really big results as a result of our execution and of the hard work we put into it.  
 
Achievement in life doesn't come from addition. A lot of times it comes from subtraction.  

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Achievement comes from taking away a lot of the surface stuff that doesn't matter and 
focusing on the few things that truly matter. And that allows us to get geometric success. 
 
Related Books: 
● Essentialism - Greg Mckeown 
○ Cut down in order to grow fast  
● The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch  
○ How 20% of Everything you do will bring you 80% of your results  
 

3) The Myth of Discipline 

 
A lot of the times we assume that if someone is massively successful, then they must have a lot 
of discipline.  
 
The truth, however, is you don't need a lot of discipline in order to be successful.​ Y​ ou need just 
enough discipline to build the right habits​.​ The habits will then build success.  
 
Success really is a result of the right habits, which are a result of the discipline employed just for 
building those habits. 

Build habits one by one

 
Success is sequential, and so are habits​. ​They build on each other.  
 
You don't want to start off by adding a whole bunch of habits. You start by adding one habit.  
● Over a period of 66 days, you'll try to build that habit out.  
● You'll incorporate the habit into your life.  
● You'll make that change, and then you move on to the next habit, and then the next, and 
so on and so forth. 
 
You need just enough discipline to incorporate the right habits into your life, your venture, your 
business, your career, or whatever it might be. 
 
Figure out what are the right habits you need in order to be successful, and then just use your 
discipline to install these right habits. 
 
So don't worry about having a lot of discipline. Just focus your discipline on building the right 
habits. That's the point of maximum leverage….the point of the highest use of your discipline.  

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4) Hyperbolic Discounting 
Whenever we have a reward that is in the future, we discount the value of that reward, and the 
factor diminishes over time.  
 
An example is this the following experiment that has been conducted quite often. 
 
People who are offered $15 right now, or $30 three months from now, or $60 a year from now 
actually evaluate all of these rewards as the same. What they have done is they've taken the 
$60 value and have discounted the value of that reward since it is out in the future. So there 
might be a multiplier of some sort.  
 
This is how our motivation works. When we have a very immediate reward, we’re very likely to 
take action because there's no hyperbolic discount at that point. But as the reward goes out in 
the future, our motivation to act continues to diminish. 
  
Our motivation will diminish as the reward moves out into the future. 
 
The key is that the people who are successful in life are aware of this hyperbolic discounting 
happening and they're able to account for it. Even though they might think right now that the 
value of this reward is very limited, they know that in the future it's a very highly valued reward. 
So they act according to what their future visions are or the reward they want in the future 
rather than take the immediate reward.  
 
So the more you are able to think in long term, the more you're able to act on your motivations 
for a long-term reward and the higher your payout will be and the greater your results will be. 
 
So realize that hyperbolic discounting is happening everyday in your life. Catch it and start to 
act according to it. Start to act in spite of it or against it. In effect, you have to create motivation 
for the things that truly matter to you.  
 
No matter how far in the distance you're going to get the reward, you're still going to act on 
that motivation. You're not going to discount that reward. That’s the key. 
 

5) Use Willpower Wisely 

Our willpower is like a battery. It has limited supply that we get any given day, and once we run 
out, well then we are out of willpower so we got to recharge it.  
 
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The key understanding we need to have here is that​ w ​ e should use our willpower very wisely. 
We should u ​ se willpower for the things that matter the most​.  
 
When we have a completely charged battery or willpower (for example when we wake up in 
the morning or whatever your peak performance time might be), that's when you should be 
focusing on 
● doing your most important task 
● installing a habit  
Use your battery of willpower on those tasks rather than spraying your willpower all over the 
place and not being able to use that property. 
 
So the highest leverage use of willpower is to build a powerful habit that will help you 
accomplish your goals.  
 
Ask yourself:  
● What is my one goal? 
● What is the one habit I need to have in order to accomplish that goal?  
● When and How will I install this habit and start using my willpower that will lead to my 
goal? 
 
Related Books:  
● Willpower Instinct - Kelly McGonigal  
○ Summary Featured in Mental Toughness Course  
● Willpower - Roy Baumeister  
○ Summary Featured in Mental Toughness Course  
● Mini Habits - Stephen Guise  
○  

6) Time Block 
In order to do great things, you need to block your time out for the one thing that will give you 
the most reward. 
 
Block out large chunks of time in your calendar for maximum results. 
● Preferably 4 hours or more  
● Should be uninterrupted time where nothing else happens 
● No distractions  
● No external stimulations 
● Cut down everything else just so that you have this block of time where you can be 
completely focused on your most important task.  
● Nothing else matters at this point and you just work on your one thing. 

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 ● It has to be focused, like a sun’s ray coming to a lens that’s focused on a piece of paper 
until it burns paper.  
● Block these times out in advance.  
● Stay true to them. 
 
EXAMPLE:  
Every Sunday, you plan the week out. Block out large chunks of time in your calendar for each 
day of the week.  
 
Stay consistent as much as possible. Use the same block of time of every given day for working 
on your one thing. For someone it could be 6-10 AM. It's the execution of the one thing that's 
all that matters during this time slot -- you don't take in anything else.  
 
What will happen over time is you will build momentum as you continue to do this every day. 
And this will become a habit  
 
A lot of people think that in order to be successful, we need to be focused all day long, but 
that's not possible. The key is just to be able to ​focus o
​ n what is crucial for that uninterrupted 
large chunk of time and d​ o it consistently​. Do it day in and day out, and you will see your 
results soar because you're working on your most important thing every single day. 
 

7) Accountability 
1. One way to hold yourself accountable is to be accountable to yourself. You do this when you 
write down your goals. 
 
Research has found that just the act of writing down goals increases the chances of success by 
39%.  
 
2. A more potent way to hold accountability is to ​have an accountability partner​. What you do 
is you let your accountability partner know that this one thing is your goal. You announce your 
goal in some ways to the world.  
 
With an accountability partner, the chances at your success increase by 76 %. Therefore, 
having an accountability partner is crucial to accomplishing that one thing and to getting great 
results. 
 
3. Another potent way to be accountable is to ​have a coach​. ​Every top performer in every field 
has a coach. We know this clearly from the world of athletics. All the great athletes have the 
great coaches and the coaches keep them accountable. The accountability is coming from the 
coaches and of course from a lot of other sources for a player. 

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If you want to accomplish your one thing in a tremendous way, then you want to have a coach 
in your field of endeavor because that's a proven pathway to having a great performance. 

8) What are you saying NO to? 

We have to understand that in order to accomplish our one thing, we have to say NO. We are 
going to be saying no a lot more often. This is because a
​ nytime we say yes to something, 
we're going to be saying no to a lot of other things.  

Every YES implies a No

 
So be careful with what you say yes to because it means you are saying no to a lot of other 
things. 
  
In order for you to know what you want, you also need to know what you're going to give up.  
● What will you not do anymore? 
● What will you not focus on anymore? 
● What are you going to stay away from?  
 
One guaranteed consequence of working on the one thing: ​other things will not get done. 
Everything else is inconsequential. That's a guaranteed consequence of the one thing.  
 
Hence, it’s very important for you to pick your battles. This is what the one thing is imploring 
you to do.  
 
Forget about the other things. Focus on the one thing. Realize that your NO is as extremely 
important as the YES you are giving in your life. 

9) The Domino Effect 

One of the most powerful principles from ​The One Thing​ is the idea of the domino effect. This 
is probably one of the most important pieces you can find in terms of finding your focus in 
doing the one thing. 
 
Geometric progression  
This happens when numbers increase by a certain ratio over time. 
 
This concept is illustrated by the simple idea of falling dominoes.  

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 ● A 2-inch small domino can take down a domino 50% longer, 50% bigger, and 50% 
higher than it. So a 2 inch domino will take down a 3 inch domino which will take down 
a 4.5-inch inch domino and so on and so forth…... 
● Similarly, the 4.5-inch domino will be able to take down a domino that's 50% bigger and 
taller than it. And this is called a geometric progression when the numbers increase by a 
certain ratio over time.  
 
The thing to understand is that initially the results that we see are very small. There isn't much 
difference between 2 inches and 4.5 inches. We feel like we're putting in a lot of effort, but the 
results are minimal and we don't see any real results for a long time. 
 
This is where geometric progression becomes really interesting. Every one of us came with very 
limited time, energy, and focus in this world.  
 

How to Shoot for the Moon

 
Let's say we all have just enough amount of time, energy, and focus to topple a total of 60 
dominoes.  
 
Person 1: 
● One person decides to spread their energy in 5 different areas: A, B, C, D, E.  
● If he starts with a 2-inch domino and is able to topple 12 dominoes in each of the 5 
areas, the 12th domino will be as high as his bedroom ceiling. It will be around 13 feet 
tall.  
● It looks like really good effort and really good results, but it's not extraordinary yet. 
Because the person only has energy for 60 dominoes and he spreads it over 5 different 
areas, he was able to topple off dominoes the height of his bedroom ceiling in each of 
these areas. 
 
Person 2: 
● Meanwhile, the other person says: “I will only work on my one thing. I'll only focus all of 
my energies on Area A.” 
● If he starts with a 2-inch domino, of course the 12th domino will be just like what 
happened with the person earlier. It will be as high as his bedroom ceiling, which would 
be 13 feet high.  
● Now how high would be the 57th domino or the 60th domino be? You would think that 
the 60th domino would be 5 times as tall as the 12th domino, so maybe 5 or 6 stories 
tall -- but that's not the case.  
● What happens is that as he continues to topple dominoes in the single area, the 57th 
domino will be as high as the distance from the Earth to the moon! 
 
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That's how powerful this geometric effect is. That's how powerful the idea of the one thing is.  
We are able to to do extraordinary results.  
 
Imagine the difference between toppling off a domino the height of your bedroom ceiling and 
toppling off a domino that goes from the earth to the moon. That is insanely extraordinary, and 
that is what we're all after.  
 
We're all after greatness,​ and this is greatness extraordinaire.  
 
If you want to do great things, you've got to focus on that one thing. Just hone in on that thing 
and continue to build on it, and over time you will be toppling dominoes as high as the distance 
from the Earth to the moon.  
 
However, if you spread your energy all over the place, you will have to stay content with 
toppling dominoes that are as high as your bedroom ceiling.  
 
GUIDING EXAMPLES: 
 
1. Warren Buffett​ - He always says “I stayed within my circle of competence.” He also 
said: ​“T
​ he difference between successful people and really successful people is that 
really successful people say no to almost everything.” 
2. Bruce Lee​ - He said “​ A successful warrior is just an average man with a laser-like 
focus.”  
 
They're just able to focus on one thing and do that one thing, and that's when they're able to 
topple off dominoes as high as from the Earth to the moon. 

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