The only productivity hack you will never need, and the great thing about it is that it's so simple and powerful~

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I want to talk about possibly the best productivity tool or even tool for success you will ever need in life. I know this is a big claim but give it a try and you can see for yourself, just how powerful this one tool is.

Ok so what is this tool? It's called the one thing, as popularized by author and entrepreneurs Gary Keller and Jay Papasan (From their book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results).

So what is this so called one thing? And why is it extremely important when it comes to your success?

Cause and Effect, Action and Result

Every single thing you do in life has an effect or result, whether it is small or big, negative or positive, there is always an associated result with any sort of action. These so called results will determine whether we are "successful" or not. So essentially, if you want a big positive result you must focus on finding the actions that are responsible for it.

Sounds simple, right? Not exactly, because the challenging part is to find those actions that can lead you to those big positive results.

You must realize that most of the things in life we do yield little or no results. So let's use an example of a sales person. A typical day of a sales person might be to make cold calls, make photocopies of documents, research prospective clients, answer emails, attend sales meetings etc.

The truth of the situation is that most of the activities as essential as they are, they yield little to no results, in this case sales. At the same time, you can't just simply ignore them because they don't yield the results you want.

This is where the one thing comes in.

Understanding that not all actions yield proportional results, you can start to prioritize your actions. For instance, if sales pitches yield the biggest results, then you get that thing done first!

It's very logical, however most people don't do this. Just think about the first thing you do when you wake up or go to work, you check emails, you stand around talking to colleagues over coffee etc. Basically, most people tend to procrastinate the important tasks until they "feel like it" or they are forced to do it (i.e. meeting a deadline). I mean would you rather get a big task over and done with so you can take your time with other menial tasks, or do all the easy things first and stress out like crazy, staying up till 2am in the morning to get it done? As my physics teacher always said to me, work smart not hard.

You can always check your emails later, or make it a known habit to your clients that you answer email after lunch, that way you can manage your expectations.

In fact, most successful CEOs have a morning ritual of waking up extremely early (around 4am) and just doing the most important work first.

You see, the key here is not necessarily getting rid of tasks or actions, but to focus on the priority of actions. Doing the highest yielding action first thing will free you up to do everything else without the added stress of deadlines. You have the same exact hours in the day, but the difference comes from the type of energy you approach tasks - doing the highest taxing tasks first in the morning is easier when your mind is fresh (well hopefully).

Using The One Thing

There are two Methods you can use to implement the habit of using the one thing.

Quantitative

Write down every single action or task that is typically required of you in a job - start off easy by focusing on daily tasks, then you can move on to weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Once you have a list of your actions or tasks, start to assign a value from 1 to 10 which denotes the value of the result. Keep in mind, it should be related to a KPI that determines your success, i.e. sales targets.

This becomes a sort of graphical representation of everything you do, this list effectively allows you to prioritize all the various tasks you usually undertake. The highest valued action is the one that becomes your "one thing" and it should be the very first thing you do. Everything else can be done AFTER you've done your one thing.

Qualitative

Sometimes, it's not easy to determine which actions that yield successful results, in this case you can ask yourself this powerful question

The One Question:

“What’s the ONE Thing I could do, such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”

There is always an answer. The real power comes from constantly asking yourself this every single day. In the beginning, I would start using the one thing on a daily time frame. Once it becomes a habit you can start with longer time frames .e. "what's the one thing I could do this year, such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?"

Final Words:

Once you start using the one thing, you will start to realize, that life becomes easier, work is no longer stressful, because you are getting the most important and highest yielding results first!

As with any sort of change in life, start off very small, ask yourself the one question about today, every single day, and as you get better at doing the most important thing first, you can ask the one question about the week, month, year etc.

Throughout my years of trying various productivity tools and hacks, I've found this to be by far the most useful and most effective in getting things done and making positive strong changes to my life.

Let me know in the comments below to see how this one thing is working for you

REFERENCES

24 successful people who wake up really (really) early: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/successful-people-who-wake-up-early-2015-6?r=US&IR=T#general-motors-ceo-mary-barra-1

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