The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

The subtitle promises "The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results," and this book's message is simple: to dream big, we need to start small. If we want fuller lives, bigger incomes, more free time, and better relationships, we must focus on the single, most important thing we need to do at any given moment.

Forget long to-do lists, forget multitasking, and forget diversifying your business into lots of different areas. Identifying your one thing – and then giving it all the time and energy it deserves – is the route to extraordinary results.

So who's this book for? It's clear the author had a broad audience in mind when he wrote "The One Thing." Whether you're a CEO of a multinational, in charge of a small start-up, or running a family home, you're probably all too familiar with feeling pressed for time. This book speaks straight to the individual, with the idea that if we can sort out our time management and learn to prioritize, our businesses and our personal lives will flourish.

Right now, you might be thinking you've heard it all before – perhaps you've got a shelf full of books on similar topics, or computer programs and apps to help set goals and manage time. Why listen to the author of this book?

Well, his success story speaks for itself, suggesting he's on to something with "The One Thing." Gary Keller is the co-founder and chairman of the board of Keller Williams Realty International, which began as a single office in Austin, Texas, and is now the largest real estate franchise company in the United States. He's also written a number of best-selling books on real estate investing, and is a business coach and trainer.

Jay Papasan, who's worked with Keller on a number of award-winning titles, is executive director and vice president of publishing at Keller Williams Realty, and president of Rellek Publishing.

So keep listening to hear how to replace your to-do list with a success list, how asking the right question can revolutionize your work, and how to boost your productivity by protecting your time with a vengeance.

As you heard earlier, "The One Thing"'s core theme is incredibly simple, and you might be wondering how the author managed to turn one idea into a whole book – and keep the reader on board throughout. We thought the same when we started reading. But the author builds a powerful argument, throwing in interesting anecdotes, theories, and home truths that everyone can relate to. He also writes in a really engaging, colloquial tone, includes hand-drawn graphs and diagrams, and sums everything up neatly at the end of each chapter.

Granted, there is some repetition, a few of the author's points are over-stated, and you'll have come across a number of his theories before if you've read anything in this genre. But "The One Thing" is really well put together, and we think you'll come away from it feeling inspired to change how you approach your work and your life. You'll be motivated to set better priorities and confident that you can win the time-management battle.

One thing we particularly like about this book is the author's use of apt quotations to back up his ideas. These come from prominent philosophers, writers, and business leaders, past and present. Lots of books do this, and they can sometimes feel forced or irrelevant. In "The One Thing," they're spot on, add value, and make you think.

For example, the author quotes from late American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau to drive home his point that to-do lists are a waste of time. Thoreau said: "It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?"

You may think to-do lists help you get things done – or at least stop you forgetting something important. But the author argues to-do lists have become survival lists – a tool to get through the day or the year. When we use them, we can end up burying the single most important thing that's vital to our success under a stack of irrelevant tasks.

What you need is a "success list" – a list written with a sense of purpose and clarity that'll lead us to great results. While to-do lists are long and disorganized, success lists are short and focused.

To create a success list, the author suggests we keep in mind the idea that the minority of effort usually leads to the majority of results. This is known as Pareto's Principle. It was named after the 19th century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, and was popularized by the renowned management consultant Joseph M. Juran. It's also known as the 80:20 rule – 80 percent of what you want will come from 20 percent of what you do.

This theory isn't new, but the author takes it further. First, he suggests we take our to-do list and pick out the 20 percent of tasks that'll make the biggest difference to our careers or our lives. We take the things we should do, rather than the ones we could do, and write them on our success list.

But then we need to narrow the list down further, and narrow it down again, and again, until we're left with the single most important thing that'll have the largest impact on results. Think of a long line of dominoes – if you topple the first one, you create incredible momentum, energy and force. In whittling your list down to one, you are finding that first domino.

We like the idea of a success list and can see how a to-do list can create too many distractions. Saying that, it's important to note we're individuals, with different lives, responsibilities and time pressures. Not everyone will be comfortable with the author's argument that we need to learn to cope with a bit of chaos in our lives, and let some things go undone if they're not vital to our big dreams. But we do agree that there are benefits to honing our focus, and not wasting valuable work hours ticking irrelevant things off lists.

So how do you decide what that single, most important thing is? How do you find your way to the first domino? It's all about asking the right question.

According to the author, that question is: What's the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

This is the focusing question, and it'll help you define the big picture. It will also focus you in on the first step you must take to get where you want to go. Discovering your one thing will help you develop a vision for your life or your career. It'll help you locate your strategic compass. Once you've nailed the big picture, you can ask yourself every morning what's the one thing you can do that day to move towards this goal.

You can also apply the focusing question to different areas of your life – your health, your personal life and key relationships, your spiritual life, your finances, and so on.

Yes, it's incredibly simple, but we also found this chapter very thought-provoking. The author has a way of inspiring and motivating his readers to take action. You might find yourself stopping to think about your vision and the steps you need to take to achieve it as you work your way through this chapter.

Finally, let's look at the author's tips on managing time and protecting priorities. Despite good intentions, we all get distracted. We may have a great success list, we may have identified our one thing, and know what our first step is. But what about all the endless disruptions we're subjected to, or the unexpected demands on our time?

The author says we need to learn the art of time-blocking to make sure what has to be done actually gets done. You heard earlier that not all things are equal – disproportionate results come from one activity – so it follows that we need to give that one activity a disproportionate amount of our time.

The author suggests we dedicate the first part of our day to our one thing. This is when many of us are at our most energetic and alert. But if you're a night owl, feel free to mix things up to suit you.

Think about spending four hours of your day on your most important task, say from eight in the morning until noon. Block this time and protect it with a vengeance. You can do this by building a bunker – creating a workspace that's as free as possible from distractions.

Turn off your Internet access or use a program that puts you offline for a set number of hours. Switch off your phone, tablet, and any other device. You might want to put a "do not disturb" sign on a room at home or get a folding screen for a cubicle at work.

Make sure you have all the supplies you need to keep you going for these hours – materials, snacks, and beverages. This will help you avoid getting caught up in conversations at the water cooler, coffee dispenser, or in your kitchen. It's also a good idea to tell people you're not available during these hours. Hopefully, they'll leave you alone if you explain your big picture and the importance of 100 percent focus.

Once you've put in the hours on your one thing, you can spend time on less important tasks. Think about being a "maker" in the morning and a manager in the afternoon – or the other way round, if that's how you work best.

When it comes to your annual agenda, the author suggests you time-block three things: your time off, your one thing, and your planning time. We like the fact he advises putting time off in the diary first and foremost. It's quite common for people not to reserve time off, because they don't think they deserve it or can't afford it.

Scheduling your time off in advance gives you permission to take a break, and inspires you to work harder in anticipation of that great vacation. Also, make sure you set aside an hour each week to review your annual or monthly goals. This'll help you stay on target and stick to your priorities. We think time-blocking is a great tool, and one that's particularly relevant to today's frenetic pace of life.

Of course, you're going to need a fair amount of self-discipline to put the author's tips into practice, and we like what he has to say about the art of habit forming. Research says it takes about 66 days to create a good habit. This is the same for exercise, healthy eating, time-blocking and committing to asking the focusing question every day.

Once again, we're not talking about new, groundbreaking theories here, and readers familiar with time management and productivity books might find "The One Thing" repetitive and clichéd in parts. Nor does it contain much science, and there's no bibliography, although it is based on more than 1,000 scholarly articles, scientific research and academic papers, media articles, and books.

Its strength lies in its simplicity, and in its ability to motivate readers to change their approach to work and life. No matter how complicated your life is, or how many pressures there are on your time, "The One Thing" can help you make positive steps in the right direction. And given it's such an easy, enjoyable read, we think it's definitely worth a shot.

"The One Thing" by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan is published by Bard Press and John Murray, a Hachette UK company.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.

Click here to buy the book from Amazon.