Books like The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan aim to help us focus, and that’s a noble goal. They also romanticize what’s possible when aspiration meets reality.
If you’re self-employed or a senior employee, you might have enough control over your time to implement various productivity systems end to end. But if you’re an employee in the middle ranks or work with a large or even multiple teams, good luck imposing your system on everyone else or even defending its boundaries.
“What’s the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will become easier or unnecessary?” It’s a good question. It helps you zone in on what matters. But it won’t free you from a random request by a more senior colleague which she needs done by the end of the day. Plus, your answer is what you think. What if your team doesn’t agree with you abandoning most of your projects to pursue one idea, even if it’s a great one?
Personally, I’ve adapted the concept from this particular book to make it fit a little better into my real life. Sinking your teeth into one goal and chasing it to completion is great when you can swing it. But when you can’t, actually doing one thing a day still goes a long way. Both in my own business and at my job, I find if I can make meaningful progress in just one area, more or less complete “one thing” every day, I’ll feel accomplished and move the needle.
For an essay that’ll take some time to finish, one thing could be drafting one of its sections. For a small video project of re-editing existing footage, it might be adjusting and exporting all videos in one afternoon. For communications it could be as simple as getting back to inbox zero.
If there’s a mode of working that always works for you, by all means, do what you must to implement and maintain it. But chances are that mode will change many times, and life will get in the way. Proxies, principles, and simple rules can bridge gaps. Often, they offer all the flexibility you’ll ever need.
What’s one thing a day you can do to move forward and feel accomplished? What’s that one thing today?
