Gary Keller

Jay Papasan

Offers advice on living a better life by cutting down on distractions, building momentum toward a goal, and coping with stress.

The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

The One Thing

• More than 500 appearances on national bestseller lists • #1 Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today • Won 12 book awards • Translated into 35 languages • Voted Top 100 Business Book of All Time on Goodreads 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?

The ONE Thing

Rina

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 pay cheques, 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 is the New York Times bestseller which delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life-work, personal, family, and spiritual. WHAT'S YOUR ONE THING?

Christian Bager Bach Houmann

Bhanu Pratap

While the user tried his best to hook the users by giving multiple examples of how having 'one' thing at a time has helped people build, he failed in an honest way since after some pages, unfortunately, things just feel like they are repeating themselves.

Why 3 stars?
The examples are quite deep and creative (and obviously real).

Have a great night!

Shaun Clark

Such a lovely, simple yet joyous book, I didn't want it to end. I purposely read slow and let each nugget of knowledge (and they are plentiful) sink in to my head.

It's not just about focus, rather cutting out the chaff whilst prioritising to determine your one thing.

Well recommended

If you read blog posts, books, or papers about productivity and self-development, the idea from this book is not a new one. Focus on one thing. I like the idea of reinforcing the concept throughout the book, but it could be a blog post.

Julien Sobczak

ONE forceful idea in ONE excellent book

We all know by intuition trying to be the best at everything is a bad strategy. 
Everything matters equally. Multitasking is the solution. Discipline is the condition. Willpower is a force. A balanced life is the key. Starting small is the way. There. Are. Lies.

What's the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? By making this question a habit in every moment of your life, you will find your purpose, which will drive your next priority, and makes you truly productive. This simple but powerful idea is at the heart of this book and you will find plenty of evidence to measure how profound this ONE Thing is.

The ONE Thing is one of the most engaging books I've ever read. Great quotes. Profound insights. Simple ideas. Strong argumentation. Effective illustrations. I found the book so much fun to read, and so inspiring. I don’t think this is the only book you need to unlock your potential, but if there is ONE Thing you can do right now, it’s probably to stop reading my review and find a copy of this book.

The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results: Achieve your goals with one of the world's bestselling success books

Piotr Kulpinski

So… What is your ONE Thing? Now, what do I mean by “one thing”? We all tend to take too many things on ourselves at once but we usually know we can’t possibly do them all at the same time. Of course there’s a thing called multitasking, but even with that, all you do is switching between multiple tasks and only doing one of them at a time. With that approach it’s easier to screw everything up and don’t complete any of your goals for the day.

The ONE Thing book is an in depth look at what happens when we put more energy into ONE thing instead of everything in life and work.

Pranav

If you are going to read only one non-fiction / productivity / self help book this year, choose this. Extremely well researched and written. Full of interesting diagrams that help you digest the information better. The ideas in this book are in a class of their own, in a crowded marketplace. Super highly recommended!

Chinmay Naik

The ONE Thing is surely one of the best books on productivity I've come across. Such a simple concept, yet so overlooked.

Yesenia Vargas

Great book for living a purposeful and productive life

This book explores the approach to getting things done and achieving extraordinary results called the one thing but it also goes deeper than that. I'll definitely be using this method in all areas of my life and am excited to do so!

Sarah Ryan

A good concept and some important key takeaways. But as with many business books this could have been a pamphlet rather than a book.

It’s a rather long book to tell you, that you have to stop multitasking and focus on ONE Thing. Nonetheless it’s was a great book to remember oneself to start focusing on one thing after the other

Omar Fernandez

Focusing on the ONE thing is crucial. In essence, the 1 thing is all about bringing your life and priorities into focus so you think through and define what truly matters and don't get sidetracked or give too much energy to things that don't matter as much. 

The book gives interesting insights, for me the key takeaway reading it at the end of 2019 was to welcome chaos. As you focus on building the ONE thing that truly matters, chaos will naturally accumulate around you as you can't do it all. As such, you need to get comfortable with that chaos until you can easily outsource or eliminate that chaos without distracting from your o

Ivaylo Durmonski

While most productivity authors try to help you do a lot of things simultaneously, Gary Keller explains why you should focus only on doing one thing.

Although the text is full of clichés and you-can-do-it phrases, The ONE Thing is an overall good read about how to manage your time and how to find your most important thing in life.

My biggest take from the book is that not everything deserves equal time and that finding your one thing (obviously) is essential if you want to get better in life. And how do you do it? By choosing the most impactful thing you can do to help others and after that protecting your time so you can work on your ONE thing. Read full summary: https://durmonski.com/book-summaries/...

Tejas Bhatt

Good concocts. Brevity is not its strongest suite. Yet, I may have learned things from it that I did not elsewhere. Strong 3.5.

Luca Conti

Miko Gao

这本书略「鸡汤」，而且比较啰嗦，如果赶时间，可以直接看每章后面的 ‘Big Ideas’。
在很长的一段时间里，我对所有「鸡汤」类型的事物都特别反感。不过现在我不这么认为了，这些其实和饮食并没有什么不同，即使再营养不良，顿顿鸡汤，几天之后估计也喝不进去了；营养再均衡，偶尔喝点鸡汤，好歹也能丰富下饮食种类。
情绪低落时就如同身体受了创伤，来点「鸡汤」能帮助快速恢复。这本书里面也提到了一个观点：

  

  Willpower is like gas in your car… When you resist something tempting, you use some up. The more you resist, the emptier your tank gets, until you run out of gas.
“food for thought.” Foods that elevate blood sugar…, became the fuel of choice for high-achievers - literal proof that “you are what you eat.”
  


全书的核心就是

  

  What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary ?
  


然后辅之以各种方法、观点以及论据。
成功是一步一步积累来的，像小的多米诺倒下时可以推动大的多米诺一样，是 通过一点一点地积累势能，最终实现计划中的大目标。‘Think big but act small.’ 而不是通过几件不太相关的事情的成绩累加起来获得。
另外一个观点 ‘work life balance is a lie. ’ 也算纠正了我之前对于这个问题的认知。追求 balance 意味着想要把所有的事情都做好，带来的问题是需要给两边分配差不多的时间和精力。而要把一件事情做好，意味着要投入足够多的才可以，所以 balance 导致的结果就是平庸。

  

  The problem with living in the middle is that it prevents you from making extraordinary time commitments to anything.
  

  Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results.
  


摘录一些鸡汤精华

  

  success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.
  


二八原则同样适用。

  

  Sustain the discipline long enough on one habit, and not only does it become easier, but so do other things as well.
Habits, on average, take 66 days to form.
  


养成习惯需要 18 到 254 天，平均为 66 天，我习惯用三个月作为检验标准。

  

  To achieve an extraordinary result you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands.
What you build today will either empower or restrict you tomorrow. It will either serve as a platform for the next level of your success or as a box, trapping you where you are.
  

  Answers come from questions, and the quality of any answer is directly determined by the quality of the question.
Answers come in three categories: doable, stretch, and possibility.
  


一个人的水平通过他提的问题，基本就能反应出来。

  

  books and published works offer the most in terms of documented research and role models for success. The Internet has quickly become an invaluable tool as well.
  


现在觉得书和出版物要远比互联网上多数文章更有价值，毕竟前者经过人工筛选，即使也并不完全是客观选择的结果。

  

  I believe that financially wealthy people are those who have enough money coming in without having to work to finance their purpose in life.
  


感觉用来定义「财务自由」特别合适。
「鸡汤」最大的一个问题是，看得时候觉得作者说的都对，看完之后基本都可以总结为「道理我都懂，但依然过不好这一生。」
https://viewpre.com/review/1000001

Ilia Markov

Very useful book if you're just getting into the "how to be more productive" space. Could probably also do as a long article, but if you've never read on some of the aspects of focus, willpower, etc. you'll find it very useful.

The One Thing The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Reviews

Highlights