Trouble understanding quote from book "the one thing"

[LiveEntrepreneur]

So I finished reading the book "The One Thing" and the book is centered around this quote "What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

So it talks about the one thing in a big picture and in the small picture. Would an example of this be like the big picuture I want to become an entrepreneur, and the small picture well this sorta confusing me, there are so many aspects on entrepreneurship like networking, marketing, programming if you are building some software, etc . I don't know if the book is trying to say only do one thing and don't do anything else, or do one thing per day. This part of the quote confuses me "such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" So if I was to focus the whole day on marketing my product for example how does marketing make everything else easier?

 

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[Greg R]

So I finished reading the book "The One Thing" and the book is centered around this quote "What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

So it talks about the one thing in a big picture and in the small picture. Would an example of this be like the big picuture I want to become an entrepreneur, and the small picture well this sorta confusing me, there are so many aspects on entrepreneurship like networking, marketing, programming if you are building some software, etc . I don't know if the book is trying to say only do one thing and don't do anything else, or do one thing per day. This part of the quote confuses me "such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" So if I was to focus the whole day on marketing my product for example how does marketing make everything else easier?

Not easier, but unnecessary.

For instance, focus on sales instead of action faking tasks like creating a logo or writing a business plan.

And yes he is talking about daily.

Focus on the task at hand and everything else will fall into place.

 

[Philip Marlowe]

There's a lot of great stuff in that book to unpack but at it's core, the goal is 'do one thing' per day that relates to your overall strategic goals.

There's two points there: 1) people often let their to-do list stack-up and so by giving themselves literally a SINGLE thing to do in an entire 24 hours, you've removed all excuses; and 2) you want that one thing to be progress on a larger goal (e.g., taking time to write excellent content that speaks for itself, instead of trying exhaustively to market something that is mediocre).

To your second quote, Keller leans heavily on the Pareto principle and so his point is that the 'one thing' that you really focus on will likely be where a significant portion of your progress comes from. Look at those key building blocks of your business, prioritize them, and knock them out of the park. For example, ordering business cards (while perhaps necessarily) should never be part of your 'one thing'. However, developing a recording a module for your online course might be acceptable as a 'one thing'.

Again, if it's a blog than it's killer content (not marketing). If you're starting to invest in real estate, then significant due diligence on your tenants might be the key to a long-lasting rental agreement.

Admittedly the book could probably be half of it's total length, but a lot of it is related to killing sacred cows like how really successful people are supposed to multi-task. Maybe some people can do it, but I end-up with a half-dozen projects completed in a half-assed fashion when I should have just doubled-down on one thing.

A similar, more tactical option is the 'pomodoro method' whereby you set a timer and focus completely on one thing to get it done (via 25 minute "work sprints" with 5 minute breaks).

'One Thing' is an important 'arrow in the quiver' for me. And Keller has clearly become incredibly successful so it's always interesting to peak into these peoples thoughts.

-PM