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Multitasking KILLS.... THE ONE THING

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BrooklynHustle

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THE ONE THING

Amazing book and perfect complement to the one I read right before it a couple years ago, "The Slight Edge".

the-one-thing.jpg

The essence of this one is that rather than focusing on everything important that needs to be done, you need to acknowledge that some things are vastly more important than others and will deliver the lion's share of the value.

At any given time, there is always a most valuable ONE THING you can be doing - the first domino which will set everything in motion.

Ask yourself the Focusing Question:

"What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

This can apply on a macro level to your entire life, a 5 year goal, a one year goal, a monthly goal, today's goal, or even to your goal for right this moment.

Once you know your one thing, make sure you block regular time in your schedule to work on it, defend this time ferociously from distractions, and get to it early in your day when you have the most willpower.

Use the one thing ensure that you are connecting your purpose to your current priority (there can only be one at a time) and you will be the most productive & happy.

There - Saved you 130 pages, so you're welcome.

kobe-youre-welcome.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1885167776/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Highly recommend.
 
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KrzyszWawrzyniak

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Sounds amazing, however switching from one task to another before finishing is sometimes a necessity you will not avoid.
Multi-tasking can be only avoided if you're working at your own place and without very tight time pressure.
 

Tiger TT

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Sounds amazing, however switching from one task to another before finishing is sometimes a necessity you will not avoid.
Multi-tasking can be only avoided if you're working at your own place and without very tight time pressure.
You still do multi-tasking. You just decide when to focus on your "one thing" and when to do your multi-tasking.

It's a great book. I read it last year and I still apply it to my life and business.
 

BrooklynHustle

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You still do multi-tasking. You just decide when to focus on your "one thing" and when to do your multi-tasking.

It's a great book. I read it last year and I still apply it to my life and business.
Agreed, it's more about knowing which activities are highest value/highest leverage/most important and then setting aside scheduled uninteruppted time blocks when you can commit to those alone.

The book does not ignore the realities that require us to do more than one thing, but science says you're not at your optimal performance by far when you're in multitasking mode.

@KrzyszWawrzyniak - Give it a read/listen and let me know your thoughts. It's a quick one.
 
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Kjbinatl

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One point I would add to that summary is a key point of MFL, UNSCRIPTED , and a few other compelling books. You don't know what the one thing is. Your prospective customers do. This means that most times the one thing you should be doing is listening to your customer.

Also, since you offered up a book, I'll return the favor. Uncommon Service by Dr. Francis Frei and Ann Morriss drives home a point in MJ's books; the importance of great customer service. In addition there is one more - make sure you know what you plan to be bad at while you're delivering great. Don't let your resources get redirected to attributes that aren't important. Stick to your value skew.
 

BrooklynHustle

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One point I would add to that summary is a key point of MFL, UNSCRIPTED , and a few other compelling books. You don't know what the one thing is. Your prospective customers do. This means that most times the one thing you should be doing is listening to your customer.

Also, since you offered up a book, I'll return the favor. Uncommon Service by Dr. Francis Frei and Ann Morriss drives home a point in MJ's books; the importance of great customer service. In addition there is one more - make sure you know what you plan to be bad at while you're delivering great. Don't let your resources get redirected to attributes that aren't important. Stick to your value skew.
Agreed with the customer focus. Can't go wrong learning about/attending to their needs.
 

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I'm an avid reader of productivity books and "The One Thing" followed by "The 12 Week Year" are up there as favorites.

If you haven't read The 12 Week Year, it's a quick read that drives home a simple point that one year plans and five year plans are too long. We should focus on smaller planning periods instead. It extends the old saying that "People overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in _____."

Some of you may not know that, aside from Napolean Hill, most of these concepts originate from a guy named Ivy Lee. He's known as the founder of modern PR. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on his work as a productivity consultant in the early 1900s:

Lee also worked for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, in which capacity he famously advised managers to list and number their top priorities every day, and work on tasks in the order of their importance until daily time allows, not proceeding until a task was completed. For this suggestion company head Charles M. Schwab later paid him $25,000 (the equivalent of $400,000 in 2016 dollars), saying it had been the most profitable advice he had received.
 
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KrzyszWawrzyniak

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Definitely going to read it if you're recommending it to me.

All I'm trying to say is that isn't very applicable if you're doing this "slowlane job", especially in busy environment when there isn't such a thing as: "one, the most important thing", but it's your job to prioritise what should've been done for now (but not finished completely, otherwise you're going to spend at least an hour whilst neglecting other tasks that also has to be done, at least partially) and after doing it for a while you need to change your focus for a second and go back to the previous one afterwards.
Not to mention that unexpected things happens as well... So you're doing task A, but have to switch to unexpected task B to finish it, but then, instead of doing A, you're actually realizing that task C and then D should've been done first because task A was "planned" to be completed, however you had to switch to task B instead of doing A.

Totally agree that multi-tasking isn't the most efficient way for humans to work, however there're lost of situations when multi-tasking is THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY to leash things up and have control over everything.
 

BrooklynHustle

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Definitely going to read it if you're recommending it to me.

All I'm trying to say is that isn't very applicable if you're doing this "slowlane job", especially in busy environment when there isn't such a thing as: "one, the most important thing", but it's your job to prioritise what should've been done for now (but not finished completely, otherwise you're going to spend at least an hour whilst neglecting other tasks that also has to be done, at least partially) and after doing it for a while you need to change your focus for a second and go back to the previous one afterwards.
Not to mention that unexpected things happens as well... So you're doing task A, but have to switch to unexpected task B to finish it, but then, instead of doing A, you're actually realizing that task C and then D should've been done first because task A was "planned" to be completed, however you had to switch to task B instead of doing A.

Totally agree that multi-tasking isn't the most efficient way for humans to work, however there're lost of situations when multi-tasking is THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY to leash things up and have control over everything.
Definitely understood man. We don't live in a perfect world, so everything will never unfold in perfect fashion, whether slowlane, fastlane, or in between.

I'm a realist, not an idealist.

THE ONE THING is more like a north star... At any given time we will always be drifting somewhat off course, but the goal is to reorient to true north as quickly as possible.

And having that sense of direction & discipline is invaluable.
 
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justonemore

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I really liked this book too, I read it this past summer.
The concept seems simple, but reading the book helped get the idea planted.
I told myself after reading it that I was going to set aside the first 2 hours every day to work on my current goal.
Didn't actually happen :/
I think the idea of doing something that takes willpower first thing in the morning, for me personally, is an unfair/unrealistic ask. I might retool to the first 2 hours after lunch.
 

BrooklynHustle

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Amazing book. If you had only 4h per day to work on the business, what one thing should you do?
This effectively eliminates every unimportant.

What a game changer.
Agreed!
 
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justonemore

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Amazing book. If you had only 4h per day to work on the business, what one thing should you do?
This effectively eliminates every unimportant.

What a game changer.

Yeah I took the concept and figured for me, 4 hours a day is a little aggressive right now.
But 2 hours a day I can do for sure. 2 hours every day, first thing to focus on my personal most important thing. It's a good mind shift.

Especially if you're always "too busy" to make progress on your goal.
 

BrooklynHustle

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Yeah I took the concept and figured for me, 4 hours a day is a little aggressive right now.
But 2 hours a day I can do for sure. 2 hours every day, first thing to focus on my personal most important thing. It's a good mind shift.

Especially if you're always "too busy" to make progress on your goal.
Taking the concept and fitting it into what is practical for you right now is 1000x better than not taking action

Smart move
 

BrooklynHustle

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I really liked this book too, I read it this past summer.
The concept seems simple, but reading the book helped get the idea planted.
I told myself after reading it that I was going to set aside the first 2 hours every day to work on my current goal.
Didn't actually happen :/
I think the idea of doing something that takes willpower first thing in the morning, for me personally, is an unfair/unrealistic ask. I might retool to the first 2 hours after lunch.
If I were you, I would challenge myself to improve on that behavior.

As humans we are infinitely capable of adaptation, but that doesn't mean it is going to happen without any effort/resistance/work. That us the unrealistic part.

Good luck, man.
 
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justonemore

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Spot on. I agree with you. I'm going to make myself a note for Monday and for the entire week. This is my only goal that I care about this week is to make this happen. 2 hours per day, every day working on my core goal.
 

BrooklynHustle

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Spot on. I agree with you. I'm going to make myself a note for Monday and for the entire week. This is my only goal that I care about this week is to make this happen. 2 hours per day, every day working on my core goal.
Love that... How is it working for you so far?
 
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