The Domino Effect demonstrates how focusing on one priority can create extraordinary outcomes through geometric progression:<ul><li>When dominoes are arranged properly, a 2-inch domino can knock over one 50% larger</li><li>By the 18th domino, the height equals the Leaning Tower of Pisa</li><li>By the 31st, it reaches Mount Everest</li><li>By the 57th, it almost reaches the moon</li></ul>This physical metaphor reveals how small, focused actions—when strategically sequenced—can achieve seemingly impossible results. The key lies not in the size of the first step, but in identifying which domino must fall first.

The Domino Effect

Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.

The truth about success is that our ability to achieve extraordinary results depends on the actions we take.

The Success Habit transforms prioritization from a conscious effort into an automatic behavior:
<ul>
<li>Habits eliminate the need for willpower and motivation</li>
<li>Creating a new habit requires 66 days on average (not the commonly cited 21)</li>
<li>The Success Habit consists of asking the Focusing Question each morning</li>
<li>Time blocking—scheduling uninterrupted time for your ONE Thing—is essential</li>
<li>This prioritization must happen before other activities claim your attention</li>
</ul>
Once this habit is established, extraordinary productivity becomes your default state, rather than requiring constant discipline and decision-making.

The Success Habit

The Six Lies stand between ordinary and extraordinary results. These deceptive beliefs keep us trapped:<ol><li>Everything Matters Equally: Truth—only a vital few actions create most of your results</li><li>Multitasking Works: Truth—it fragments attention and reduces effectiveness by up to 28%</li><li>Discipline Is Required: Truth—success comes from the right habits, not constant willpower</li><li>Willpower Is Always Available: Truth—it depletes throughout the day like a battery</li><li>Balance Is Ideal: Truth—extraordinary success requires counterbalance and strategic imbalance</li><li>Big Is Bad: Truth—thinking big creates inspiration and possibilities that small thinking never can</li></ol>These lies feel like wisdom but actually ensure mediocrity.

The Six Lies

Time blocking is the most powerful productivity tool available for achieving extraordinary results:<ul><li>It requires scheduling time on your calendar for your ONE Thing</li><li>This block should be at least 4 hours when possible (for complex, important work)</li><li>Blocks should be placed during your hours of highest energy and focus</li><li>The practice must be treated as sacred and defended from interruptions</li><li>During blocked time, all distractions must be eliminated (phones, email, people)</li></ul>When consistently applied, this approach ensures progress on what matters most, regardless of the chaos and demands that would otherwise consume available time.

Time Blocking

The Productivity Myth leads people to confuse activity with accomplishment:<ul><li>Busyness often masquerades as productivity</li><li>Checking off many small tasks creates an illusion of achievement</li><li>True productivity focuses on results, not activities</li><li>Effectiveness (doing the right things) trumps efficiency (doing things right)</li><li>The most productive people often complete fewer tasks, not more</li></ul>This distinction explains why some people seem to accomplish extraordinary things with the same 24 hours available to everyone. They focus on the vital few actions rather than the trivial many.

The Productivity Myth

It is not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do, it is that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have.

Goal Setting to the Now connects distant dreams to immediate action through a powerful process:
<ol>
<li>Identify your someday goal (the ultimate aspiration)</li>
<li>Determine your 5-year goal that leads toward it</li>
<li>Set your 1-year goal that moves you toward the 5-year goal</li>
<li>Establish your monthly goal derived from the yearly goal</li>
<li>Create your weekly goal based on the monthly goal</li>
<li>Define your daily ONE Thing that achieves the weekly goal</li>
<li>Identify what you can do right now</li>
</ol>
This approach eliminates the gap between future aspirations and present actions, creating a clear path from dreams to daily priorities.

Goal Setting to the Now

The Four Thieves rob people of extraordinary productivity and must be defeated:<ol><li>Inability to say no: Success requires declining good opportunities to protect time for great ones</li><li>Fear of chaos: When focusing on ONE Thing, other areas will feel chaotic—this discomfort must be accepted</li><li>Poor health habits: Physical energy underpins all productivity through sleep, diet, and exercise</li><li>Environment doesn't support your goals: The wrong people and settings create friction that prevents success</li></ol>Addressing these thieves isn't about minor improvements—it's about removing the major barriers that prevent the domino effect from reaching its full potential.

The Four Thieves

The Focusing Question is a powerful tool that directs attention to what matters most. It works by:
<ul>
<li>Forcing you to identify the single most leveraged action</li>
<li>Cutting through options to the vital few (or the vital one)</li>
<li>Creating clarity when facing multiple paths</li>
<li>Revealing the lead domino that will make other actions easier or unnecessary</li>
</ul>
This question can be customized for any timeframe (What's my ONE thing right now?) or domain (What's my ONE thing for health?), but always maintains its powerful focus on leverage and priority.

The Focusing Question

Feel overwhelmed by endless to-do lists and competing priorities? This game-changing approach cuts through the chaos with one simple question: "What's the ONE thing you can do, such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?" It's not about doing more things—it's about doing the right thing that creates a domino effect. Ditch the multitasking myth and discover how extraordinary results come from narrowing your focus.

• More than 500 appearances on national bestseller lists • #1 Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today • Won 12 book awards • Translated into 35 languages • Voted Top 100 Business Book of All Time on Goodreads People are using this simple, powerful concept to focus on what matters most in their personal and work lives. Companies are helping their employees be more productive with study groups, training, and coaching. Sales teams are boosting sales. Churches are conducting classes and recommending for their members. By focusing their energy on one thing at a time people are living more rewarding lives by building their careers, strengthening their finances, losing weight and getting in shape, deepening their faith, and nurturing stronger marriages and personal relationships. YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller paychecks, fewer promotions--and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH — LESS AND MORE. In The ONE Thing, you'll learn to * cut through the clutter * achieve better results in less time * build momentum toward your goal* dial down the stress * overcome that overwhelmed feeling * revive your energy * stay on track * master what matters to you The ONE Thing delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life--work, personal, family, and spiritual. WHAT'S YOUR ONE THING?

Professionally, Gary’s ONE Thing is teaching. He excelled as a real estate salesperson by teaching clients how to make great buying and selling decisions. As a real estate sales manager, he recruited agents through training and helped them build careers the same way. As co-founder and chairman of the board, he built Keller Williams Realty International from a single office in Austin, Texas, to one of the largest real estate companies in the world by using his skills as a teacher, trainer, and coach. Gary defines leadership as “teaching people how to think the way they need to think so they can do what they need to do when they need to do it, so they can get what they want when they want it.

Gary Keller

Jay Papasan is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Jay Papasan has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Jay Papasan's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

The Four Thieves

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The Four Thieves