‘The one thing’ by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
Audiobook
Self Help category
A summary of the essence of the book and since it is a non fiction; there are no spoilers!
Human beings like to multi task just like computers which is a big hoax according to this book!
Apparently even the computer known for multitasking can only write one code at a time! It can of course do lots of processes but the doing multiple tasks is difficult even for a computer at the same time!
It is like how you speak and drive! You think that it does not matter but in the book it has been said that speaking on the phone or texting and driving is similar to drinking and driving! You can never give full attention! And this is a task which needs your full attention!
It is the same with the lists apparently! You simply cannot do all the work at the same time! The principle of the book is that you can do only ONE THING at a time with full attention! Only after you complete that can you give your full attention to another!
The book states that they studied people who were known to multitask! It was found that though they are doing lot of work at the same time; they are apparently doing mediocre multiple work rather that doing a good single work!
The book cites Clifford Nass, a professor a Stanford University, who set out to study multitaskers as he realized he did not possess the skill. “I was sure they had some secret ability,” he said, but at the end of the study, multitaskers “were outperformed on every measure. Although they’d convinced themselves and the world that they were great at it, there was just one problem… multitaskers were just lousy at everything.”
“The truth is multitasking is neither efficient nor effective.”
The authors even give some examples on how multi tasking can never work!
One simple exercise is this!
Count from one to seven!
Now tell all the colors of the rainbow in order!
All ok for now!?
Now alternatively tell one number and one color in order!
Saw how the mighty multitasker falls!?
Of course this does not mean that you must not do lots of different work! Take lots of work, then select the top thing to do! And only after you finish that must you move on to the next thing!
They even say how when you are speaking to your spouse and he or she is texting on the phone; she or he just nods along! It goes without saying that He or she has not heard or understood a word you said!
about the harms of multi tasking and the need to focus on just one thing at a time!
He says that one of the chief mantras of Success is to learn how to say NO!
The author says that the only way you can have success of focus is to start saying NO!
In fact the famous comedian Bill Cosby once said that “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
In the book the authors mentions that there are Four Thieves of Productivity or four obstacles that can steal focus!
The first one is the inability to say no!
The last three are the fear of chaos which happens when you are focusing on one priority and this may cause less important tasks to pile up! Another major issue is poor health habits and the neglect of physical and mental health will drain energy.! And the third thing is to maintain good habits which is very crucial for peak performance!
They also made an excellent point about the word PRIORITY!
The interesting thing here and according to the authors is that for over 500 years or so it remained a singular word, referring to the single first or most important thing. Which means that when you say Priority then there is no confusion! It is the most important thing! You do not need a prefix!
This means that for over five centuries when a work or something is given the title PRIORITY then that thing is the first! There is no other thing for you to think or imagine to be more important!
The fact of the matter is that if a thing is Priority then you do not have to think about anything else! Now since we try to do a lot of things, we need to add highest or topmost to Priority which dilutes the power of the word!
They also tell about the Pareto Principle
It was developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1896. Pareto observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population!
He also witnessed this happening with plants in his garden—20% of his plants were bearing 80% of the fruit! The 80-20 rule maintains that 80% of outcomes comes from 20% of causes! It is also called Law of the vital few and the Principle of factor sparsity.
The 80/20 rule is not a formal mathematical equation, but more a generalized phenomenon that can be observed in economics, business, time management, and even sports and even in nature.
80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of customers that 20% of players result in 80% of points scored! The principle of the 80-20 rule is to identify an
entity’s best assets and use them efficiently to create maximum value!
In the novel the authors use this principle to state how 20 percent of your efforts leads to 80 percent of your success!
They also tell about this incredible thing called the domino effect where a simple 2 inch domino can go on toppling one bigger domino than the other! In that line you have stuff that can topple the leaning tower of PISA and the Eiffel tower and go all the way to the moon! The significance is that a small effort compounded over a period of time can give you huge result! All you need is focus and consistency!
The authors also state how time blocking is very crucial for your success!
Then you have this repeated line which gets irritating over a while but is very important! What is the one thing I need to do right now in compounding variable! Which goes like What is the one thing I need to do right now; daily; monthly; yearly; five years! To reach my SOMEDAY goal!
All in all an amazing book! You can check it out even if it is the ONE THING you do this week!
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