The ONE Thing book 'review'.

This Sunday post is about the book The One Thing, which I read few weeks ago.?

The book is written by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. The book was first published in 2013.?

As I understand from a relatively sparse Wikipedia entry, Gary Keller built his business as a real estate company for residential customers in a previously unseen size.?

Obviously he talks about his business in his book, but it is just an example and I would say only on places, where it is strictly necessary for the reader to understand author's ideas.?

The book starts with Russian proverb - If you chase two rabbits...you will not catch either one.?I can certainly agree with this proverb. Through my life, I've been all the time catching many rabbits. I seldom caught one, which is not worth the effort. I usually ended in a grocery store to solve the food problem.?

As it is usual with books about business, a lot of examples is taken from really big successful companies. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to use less known examples, but it is just my opinion. Perhaps here in Britain we do not have a desire to become global :).?

The importance of defining and doing just one thing is spelled almost on each page of the book and I believe it is a correct attitude of the author to transmit this idea. However the author is equally good in deciphering various myths - e.g. need and ability to multi-task,?"everything matters equally", "a balanced life" etc...?

I remember one conversation 12 years ago, where my colleagues and myself were having that pre-weekend chat and I was just saying that Saturday is just another working day, just doing something else with the same purpose of helping others. I believe this idea is something, which Gary Keller enlightens.?

Go small, go extreme - have your one priority in mind - is another piece of good advice.?

I would say the book has 2 facets - one for the majority and one for the minority. I love the chapter, where Gary talks about a need having a pair of people to interact and achieve a novelty in thinking. It is very similar to the idea of pair programming, so the idea bonded with me very ell.? Obviously this is well known truth, however bringing this angle to the book about One Thing is refreshing and show that the?author is not just after harvesting the number of copies sold, but have tried to go into depth of the problem.?

We are simply vested in too many things, as individuals, companies, sector, economies and societies. Whether Gary's appropach could be?applied ubiquitously is a question, however it is something which culd work - setting a? priority for a span of time and getting it fulfilled (or solved?).?

The author also talks a lot about the need for counter balancing the priorities or work - in most cases. I think this is something?which has became more important in post-pandemic years, where difference between work and leisure has diminished, especially?how the time and space is being intertwined.?

I'm certainly always leaning towards maximizing work effort, so it is good to have this chapter always in mind, however?the author is certainly not the person, who spent one minute of his life needlessly.?I would say it is important to be in some control, but perhaps to take the time off, when you feel for it, but also to do the work, when?you need to get things done. That is perhaps one advantage of the self-employment, that more can be done, and?a person just can progress little further.

I remember when ￡70 priced training day (through my holidays) had to be authorized on 3 levels many years ago and I also remember that most of my work colleagues?did not have that option at all. (Thanks for the bright exceptions - companies, who give their employees adequate training or time for personal development).?

There are few good chapters in the book talking about personal productivity, using your own potential and getting organized.?

I think that people like Gary are actually masters of organizing projects, so there is a lot to learn from it.

Overall I plan to keep the book on my shelf and try to revise some ideas here and there - say every 6 months. We'll see, whether something could be brought into a daily tasks of a small software consulting and development practice.?

I will keep you posted about my progress, thanks for reading.?