# The ONE Thing

**Gary Keller & Jay Papasan** · 2013

_Topics: Focus, Prioritization, Goals_

**Who it's for:** Anyone spread across too many priorities who wants a sharp focusing tool.

The book is built around one “focusing question”: what's the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary? Ask it of your life, your year, your day, and you get a chain of priorities that all point the same way.

The authors pair the question with time blocking and the idea of a “domino effect” — small, focused wins knock over progressively bigger ones. The enemy is the myth that multitasking and long to-do lists equal productivity.

## Key takeaways

- Ask the focusing question to find what matters most right now.
- Time block your ONE thing before anything else claims the hours.
- Extraordinary results are sequential, not simultaneous.
- Multitasking is a tax on attention, not a feature.

## Related reading

- https://structureyour.life/books/essentialism.md
- https://structureyour.life/books/deep-work.md
- https://structureyour.life/books/eat-that-frog.md

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Structure Your Life — the operating system for your life. Canonical page: https://structureyour.life/books/the-one-thing