The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

Notes

TL;DR

Useful reminders about focus, habits, and time-blocking; packaged as a single mantra (“the ONE thing”) with sticky quotes and tidy charts. But it’s mostly standard self-help (80/20, willpower as a finite resource, habits > discipline) wearing a new hat.

If you’re optimization-minded, you’ll get more durable leverage from Kaizen case studies (Toyota Production System; small improvements compounded daily) than from a rebrand of basics.

The Core Idea

  • Ask the focusing question: What’s the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?
    • Strategy: results are sequential, not simultaneous (go small → go deep).
  • Practice it like an operator: short success list (not a 40-item todo), time-block mornings in four-hour chunks, defend the block like it’s a board meeting.

Key Points

  • Not everything matters equally (Pareto); say “no” until the leveraged task is done (no “check-off” dopamine loops).
  • Multitasking = context switching with fees (time, errors, stress); single-thread the important thing.
  • Habits beat “discipline” (one habit at a time; ~66 days to automaticity; compounding lives here).
  • Willpower is fuel (finite; put deep work early).
  • Time-blocking = receipts (your calendar is your priorities, not your inbox).
  • Four thieves to watch:
    1. inability to say no
    2. fear of chaos
    3. poor health habits
    4. unsupportive environment

If you like the message, upgrade the method (Kaizen > mantra)

  • Kaizen (continuous improvement) gives the same end-state:
  • focus → small wins → compounding—but makes it auditable:
    • Standard work (short success list, but written and shared).
    • Obeya / daily huddles (time-blocks that the team can see—and protect).
    • Gemba + 5 Whys (root-cause, not “try harder”).
    • Pull systems (limit WIP (Work In Progress); kill context switching at the source).
  • One Thing mapping to Kaizen:
    • success list → standard work
    • time-block → obeya / huddle cadence
    • four thieves → waste categories + environment design

Personal Takeaways

  1. Design the first domino, explicitly. Write it; block it; close the door. No dashboards before the domino.
  2. Short list; long block. One item that moves the metric; four hours of protected time; calendar or it didn’t happen.
  3. One habit per quarter. Build to automaticity (~66 days), then stack (less hustle; more compounding).
  4. Engineer the defaults. Fewer tabs; fewer meetings; fewer open loops. Make the productive path the easy path.

Final Thought

If you’re early in your craft, this is a tidy on-ramp to focus and habit-building. If you already run on ROI, SOPs, and measurable throughput, it’s a reminder; useful, but not novel. Solid quotes; light scaffolding. For depth, study Kaizen cases; for daily rhythm, keep the focusing question and the four-hour block.