The ONE Thing
The ONE Thing Book Cover edit by Ben
The One Thing by Gary Keller is a book that in a nutshell describes the need to focus.
We all need to focus on just one thing! One thing at a time at least and focus to accomplish what you really want to do. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list. Checking off a to-do list doesn’t get your goals accomplished, it’s just a guide on how to get through your day. The majority of what you want comes from the minority of what you do. Not everything matters equally. The 80/20 Principle is the answer to changing your to-do list to a success list. Take 20% of the 20% of the 20% until you find the one thing you need to focus on, the one important thing. No matter how many to do’s you have to start with, you can narrow it down to 1. There will always be a few things or the 1 that matters above all others.
Multitaskers were lousy at everything. Multitasking is a lie. Only a computer can multitask, you are not a computer. Actually, even a computer can’t multitask really. It just does a single task at a time so quickly that they coined the term multitask to describe it. It’s not efficient or effective as a computer of a human to multitask. OK, some computer nerds out there will say that today’s computers have multiple cores and really can multitask but when the term was invented, computers only had one core. The more you multitask as a human, the less effective you will be. Multitasking does nothing more than allowing you to screw up more than one thing at a time. If you do two things at once, you either can’t or will not do either of them well. We can of course walk and chew gum at the same time but focusing on to a complex pass at one we are not good at. To make matters worse studies show that we are always distracted, bothered, have our attention pulled away from what we’re focused on what’s important every 11 minutes and it takes a third of our day to get back on task. Talk about inefficiency! 28% of your entire day is wasted re-focusing on the tasks that you want to focus on.
Reality is you don’t need to be able to do everything right or exactly as planned, you only need to be able to do the important thing effectively and correctly. Focus on that one thing and that one thing only. Eliminate all distractions, PERIOD! Take notes on a paper with a pen or pencil. Close the lid in the computer. Turn the smart/dumb phone off! Own your time and your day.