The Top three things I learned from “The ONE Thing”- Gary Keller

“To do two things at once is to do neither” - Publilius Syrus. I just finished reading “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and I must say this is one of the best books that I have ever read. Today I will be sharing the top three things that I learned from this book and that I will be implementing in my life, not only in my business but in my W2 job, my personal life, and in reality all other aspects of my life. It is one of those books that will set your focus straight if you sometimes feel you do not know exactly where you are heading in your journey. Before I dive into the three things that I learned from Gary’s book, I must say that I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a revolutionary mindset change for their journey into real estate investing.

ONE thing

You cannot talk about the book “The ONE thing” without well talking about the ONE thing concept. For those of you who haven't read the book yet, the concept of the ONE thing is that at any given time you should only be focusing on ONE thing, the thing that gets you closer to your big picture. For example, if my big picture is to retire from my W2 job after 10 years and be a full time buy and hold investor, my ONE thing at the beginning of that journey could be to read a certain real estate book before going to bed, or maybe my ONE thing is to analyze one property a day. The Focusing question as stated in the book to ask yourself to figure out what your ONE thing should be is, “What’s the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

Before I read the book, I operated with a bulleted list of things that I needed to do on daily basis and that included everything, from going to the grocery store to pick up a few things, the dry cleaners to drop off some clothes or finishing up that report for my boss, etc. what I realize upon reading this book, was that I was all over the place, I got things done but I did them just to put a checkmark by it at the of the day. I often felt stressed when I looked at my long list of things to do, but I felt accomplished at the end of the day, but was I accomplishing anything? To help me, since I operate best on following a task list, I now can create my normal lists of things to do, and then pull out the items such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary. The items left on the list, you can put them in a backlog for a different time assuming there is still value in doing them at a later date. The Focusing Question is not a question that you ask yourself, answer it, and then go on autopilot, rather the focusing question is a question you should ask yourself daily to get you closer to your bigger picture.

Time Block

The next thing I learned from Gary’s book is the concept of time blocking. Now we all have meetings on our calendars and sometimes they happen and sometimes they don't. There are things that we need to do on our day and we usually get to them when we feel inspired or have the motivation to do so. That is how I operated before, I just went with the flow and whatever did not get done was moved to the next day. The concept of time blocking is setting a few hours aside to do your ONE thing, Gary Recommends at least fours and in the morning time frame for the time block to be truly effective. Once you are in your time block, IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE, this includes checking emails, surfing the web, getting snacks, answering the phone, etc. The time block has to be guarded like one’s life depended on it.

Let people know that you are unreachable for the time block, whether that be via a do not disturb sign if you are in a cubicle environment, or an automatic reply on your phone saying unavailable for texting or a busy status on your work IM, do not allow anyone to break your time block. I have been implementing this at my job and it has made a big difference in how my days go. Before I just went with the flow, if my phone rang I picked it up, if an email popped up I read it and I responded. Between those distractions, I would try and work on getting done what I needed to get done for the day but now from 8 am-12 pm I am in my time block bunker. I do not respond to anything that does not help me get my ONE thing for the day accomplished.

Go Small

The third thing that I learned from Gary is to go small, one can have a grand goal but to get there he or she has to go small. Start with your Big vision, where do you want to be in 5, 7, 10 years? Once you have that answer, break that vision down into yearly goals, and then into quarterly goals, and then into monthly goals, you see the trend here? Weekly goals, daily goals, etc once you go small, you will arrive at your big vision in no time. Too often we get stuck on the big picture but we do not go small enough to arrive at the big picture. When you figure out your ONE thing such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary, go further and break that ONE thing down to smaller components.

My ONE thing for this year was to acquire my first small multifamily, a duplex. To achieve that I had to go small, and analyze properties every week, I had to go small and read books on small multi-families consistently, I had to go small and networked with different investors every month, I had to go small and talked to several different lenders to build that relationship until I arrived at my main ONE thing for the year and closed on a duplex this past May.

Start with the focusing question “What is ONE thing, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” and then break it down and go small. If you must, put the focusing question somewhere in your office, cubicle, or on your phone, laptop, etc. Make sure to ask the question every day so you know precisely what you have to do to achieve your ONE thing. A journey starts with one step, one foot in front of the other; the step that you are taking is your ONE thing so you must know what your step should be or else you will arrive somewhere that you did not intend on arriving. The book is phenomenal and it is one of those books that I will revisit on an annual basis. I recommend that if you haven't already, pick this one up and keep it close to you as it is a guide to your success in all aspects of life.