Don,
After some contemplation on our discussion on this week’s coaching call, I realized that you and I were talking about something different.
You were discussing the idea of taking a “thing” (a one thing, or anything) and breaking it into monthly, weekly, and daily goals, and perhaps those goals being “one things” each day.
But that’s not actually “one thing” thinking.
That’s strategic planning.
Which is great, if and where it works for you.
But one thing thinking is where you apply this question, right out of the book “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, each day in the morning:
What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
That’s the one thing principle.
It’s more about each day – what’s the ONE THING TODAY?
You can have 20 different priorities, or things you are working on –
but in the morning of any given day, there is ONLY one thing.
There is no possible way on earth, with current physics –
to have more than ONE one thing.
A one thing is, by definition, one thing.
Now, once that one thing is done, you can now have a 2nd one thing, and ask this question:
What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
And yes, you can have 20 things you are working on this year . . . but you will likely not complete any of them.
Far better to choose 2-3 that you are actually able to complete.
For more detail, read this blog post:
The ONE Thing: How to Get Things Done Using The Focusing Question
P.S. You can combine the STRATEGY of creating a 1-year blueprint with monthly, weekly, and daily goals WITH the ONE thing principle.
But they are separate.
And perhaps I’ve been using overlapping language so maybe that’s confusing.
The keys are this:
1) Set achievable goals
2) Break into segments of work (how do you eat an elephant?)
3) On a DAILY basis – apply the ONE thing principle
Hope this helps, Don!
Sean