Welcome back to Working towards our Purpose. This is episode
46, and in today's episode, we're going to
talk about the one thing that you can do to get more done.
What's the time that we have? So little bit of a bonus
episode this week. This is the second episode of the week, and
I was feeling like I wanted to talk about another topic
this week. So here I am recording another podcast, and hopefully
it's helpful. So, as I always like to start
these podcasts off with a positive thing. Since the last time of
recording, the first positive thing that kind of comes to mind
is my mom brought me a bunch of
summer squash and tomatoes the other day. And,
yeah, it just reminded me of working in farmer's
markets and the abundance of
produce that there is at this time of year. So she ended
up getting a bunch of produce from one of her friends that had a
garden, and it was too much for her. So then she was able to kind
of pass it down to me, and I'm probably going to end
up passing it to one of my friends and just kind of a.
A really cool cycle of, like, somebody, you know, producing something,
growing something, and then being able to share it with other people.
So I think that's a really cool thing. I was able to make a bunch
of tomato sauce yesterday, which was nice. Had some
pasta for dinner, and yeah,
just. Just a reminder that abundance is
all around us. So let's get into today's episode.
The one thing that you can do with the time that we have
to, you know, get. Get more done, be. Be more productive, make
progress towards your goals. Um, so I. I read
this book called the One Thing, and that's kind of what, like, spawned this.
This sort of episode. But I. It reminds me of this time
where somebody that I used to work with, he. He first
found my podcast and kind of reached out to me, and I hadn't talked to
him in a while, and we ended up getting together and having
dinner. And he. I remember him being like,
he's still kind of, like, working in the old career that I was.
And he was like, you know, what. What can I do to, like, make progress
towards this idea that I have? Like, what can I do? And he was kind
of, like, looking for an answer, and I didn't feel like I had an
answer because I was still kind of, like, figuring it out at the
time, I guess. And I just. I
empathized with the feeling of, like, you know, you're working 40 hours a week,
you come home, you have limited amount of Time.
It's like, what do you do? Where do you start? There's so many things to
do. You know, how do you. How do you get stuff done and actually accomplish
something? And, you know, it was my own story, too. Like, I
remember spending every single hour that I wasn't at
my corporate job just working on Pleasant Podcast, my
podcast business, and just trying to do all of the things.
And, you know, when you start a business, there's, like, so many
things that you have to do that you don't know how to do. Marketing, social
media, like, reaching out to people.
Like, you know, even just like, writing copy on your website
is like, new. Like, how do I. How do I say what I'm doing in
two words or three words or a sentence? Building a
website. So, you know, there's so many things to do. But, like, how do you
get stuff done? And the answer is,
well, you know, I don't have all the answers, but for me, recently,
you know, the answer is the one thing. Um, picking one
thing that is the most important for you to be doing and
just doing that and ignoring everything else. Um, so,
you know, it's kind of a, I guess a bold topic. Picking
one thing and only doing that one thing and ignoring everything else
and then doing that kind of repeatedly every day. You know, every time you
have time to work on something, you only pick one most important thing and
ignore everything else. And I think it's.
It's not really used to our nature. We're used to, like, you know, answering all
of our emails and getting back to people and making sure that, like, you know,
everybody else is happy. And I think with
doing the one thing you. You may end up, like, hurting somebody's
feelings or ignoring somebody or doing something
that, like, maybe offends somebody. But,
you know, I think all that stuff kind of, like, goes by the wayside
and it's really not that important anyway. Like, you know, if somebody is
upset because you didn't get back to them fast enough in email, I
don't know, I think there's. There's more pertinent things to be worried about.
So. So, yeah, you know, don't check your email for a couple days and the
world's not going to end. So anyways,
that's my perspective. But. But to get back to the idea, the one
thing, it's
where the book started to kind of like, start explaining what this idea meant.
Um, because it is a little bit jarring at first. You're like, it's impossible. I
can't just pick one Thing. Um, but, but the author first described like, the
8020 principle. And if you've never heard of the 8020
principle, it's basically 80% of your results
come from 20% of your input. And
this is something that, like, I heard a while ago and I really resonated with.
And if you've, if you've heard about it, um, you
know, it, it shows up everywhere. It's like you can apply it to your work
or to personal projects, to, to anything. It's like
all of the things that we do, a really big chunk of them,
80% about, really don't affect the outcome at all
and really aren't that important for us to be doing. Um,
so if you can determine which 20% is actually working,
then you can kind of get rid of the 80% that's not working
and only focus on the 20%. And with this one thing idea
is it's basically just taking that est step further and saying
not 20%, but actually one single thing is the only thing that
you need to be doing. So again, very
sort of simplistic idea. But what makes it
difficult is picking the right thing and being able to pick the right
thing. I think, like, when
I think back to, like, first starting Pleasant podcast, I certainly
had what's called shiny object syndrome, where
I would basically give my attention to whatever was
shining. Like, you know, I'd watch a video on YouTube that said,
you need to build your email list. And then I would start being like, oh,
I need, I need to have an email list. I'd work on that for a
couple days. Then I'd, you know, hear another video that I need to have
a CRM. And it's like, oh, now I need to go research CRMs and
spend a little bit time on that. I pick a CRM, I buy one, and
then I don't use it, or, you know, I never end up using it. And
you kind of just put your attention to whatever is like,
you know, crying the mo. It's like the squeaky wheel gets the oil
type thing. Like whatever's squeaking the loudest. That's where your attention goes.
But what makes this one thing concept really
impactful is when you cannot do that, when you can
really focus your effort on the thing that actually
matters. So this is a little bit different because now you actually have
to look at your to do list and decide
which thing is the most important thing to do. And
that can be difficult. I think I'm probably not alone
in. When I get a block of time,
I'll look at my to do list and I'll just start kind of working towards
whichever one maybe I feel like doing or which one
maybe is top of mind or something. And I won't really
look at the to do list and think about, well, which one of these tasks
is absolutely the most important thing that needs to get done first. And
in doing it that way, you're really kind of like, just prioritizing.
But thinking about it for me in terms of one thing just
makes everything so much simpler because it's like, there's only one
thing that's the most important thing on this list that's
going to lead to my end results or my end goal. So
figure out what that thing is and then do that one thing.
And, you know, maybe it even changes the way that you make your to do
list. Like. Like, I think you really have to think. You really have to spend
time thinking about what you're going to do before you do it. And I
know for me that that always kind of feels like a waste of time. And
I'm always like, I just have to start to get to work because I only
have two hours. I can't. I can't spend time thinking about what I'm going to
do. I just have to do it. But when you
do, give yourself some time to think about, like, okay,
what's my main goal right now? If my main goal is
to grow my podcast audience, what's the one thing
I can do to make that happen? Well, by
making a podcast every week, that's certainly one thing that I need to
be doing, right? If I sporadically make podcast
episodes, then that's not going to do good for
creating an audience who's, who's used to listening to my podcast.
So, you know, thinking in those terms versus, like,
you know, thinking about, like, anything else that has to do
with podcasting or maybe growing a podcast.
So, you know, another thing, too, that this book talks about was how
multitasking is a lie. And I certainly,
certainly agree with that. And I think why this
one thing works is because you're only
focusing on one thing, and it allows you to be able to get into a
flow state, which is where you're hyper focused on what you're doing.
You're actually making progress on it, and you're tuning everything else
out. And by focusing on one thing, you're able to tune everything else
out and you're giving yourself the permission to ignore everything else. So
when I'm trying to do this, like, I'll X out of my Email. Uh, I,
I'll put my phone somewhere else and I'll only think about the one thing that
I'm doing. And if different ideas pop up, like while I'm doing that, I'll
try to just write them on my to do list and then forget about them.
And, and that's been really helpful for me to make progress on
accomplishing these one things. And when you accomplish these one things
day after day, that's when you actually start making some momentum
on building something. And I think,
you know, that is kind of, I guess the answer maybe
that I would tell my friend now is like picking,
giving yourself time to pick the most important thing to get
to the goal that you want to get to. If it's building a business, you
know, what is the most important thing you can be doing? Likely it's not
like fussing around with your website or like making social
media posts or something else. You know,
it's up to you to decide whatever that is. You know, maybe it is building
a website or maybe it is social media. But, but that's another
great part about this one thing is that you actually have to trust yourself.
And that's why it works too, is that you have to kind of like
get rid of all the noise of, of people telling you that you need to
do this or you need to do this and really focus in on like, what
your specific goals are. And then you get to
like, actually trust in yourself that this is the right thing.
And when you are picking One thing, you're 100%,
you know, putting all your eggs in one basket and then doing that thing. And
I think that's also a really good thing for us to be doing, is
trusting ourselves and then seeing what the outcome is. And, you know, maybe it
works, maybe it doesn't work, but at least you made progress and you're moving
forward. Because we can get so stuck in,
you know, indecision of, of all the things that we have to do.
And then you're just, you know, thinking about all
these different things that I could be doing, but you're not actually doing any of
them. So, you know,
finishing things, I think is, is definitely the,
the, the way that you get things done. Right? I think we can, we can
kind of all agree on that. And by picking
one thing and getting those things done, you're going to start building momentum
and then you're going to start making progress towards whatever your goal is.
So another thing that, that the book was talking about,
it was talking about like successful people and Steve
Jobs came up as an example. And the author of the
book said that Steve Jobs was really good at being able to pick out
the one thing and then focusing on that and then continuing
to build on that. So I think, like, at one time,
you'll have to fact check me on the. On the history here, but when he
first came into Apple, they had, like, a bunch of different products,
and he basically said, like, we're not doing any of these anymore. We're focusing on
the one. The iPhone. And then they built the iPhone to
what it was. It became this huge popular thing. And then they were able to,
like, get a new focus and, you know, work on the ipod or
the iPad or whatever it is. Um, but they were
saying that, you know, some of the most successful people are really
good at differentiating, like, what's important and what's not
important. And I think a lot of
the things that we think we should be doing are not important. Um,
so. So really practicing, like,
what are the important things, and then getting to work on them and doing them.
Um, so for me, the past two weeks, I've really been trying to implement this
into, like, my working schedule. And. And I feel like I've gotten more
done and I'm able to sort of just
really focus on one thing at a time. And. And still it. It's new to
me, and it still feels like almost like I'm not doing enough. It's like,
oh, you're only doing one thing a day. That's. That's not enough.
And, you know, I have voices in my head saying that, but if I can
do the one thing, it's like, well, now I just did five. Five
things this week, and I made progress towards my goal.
Um, whereas if I didn't, and I sort of bounced back and forth,
half did six projects. That's not getting anything accomplished.
So for me, it's been really helpful to just stay focused and to
prioritize and to kind of give myself the permission to only do
one thing a day. And also, you know, something
that's helpful for me is like, I'm a morning person, so I'll block my mornings
out and I'll do my one thing and getting that one
thing done. You know, sometimes I get it done quickly in the morning, sometimes I
don't, and it drags into the afternoon and I have to finish it in the
afternoon. But now I have, like, the opportunity to do that.
Whereas before I would, like, just, you know, have two things
or three things in my day, and then I'd run out of Time, and I
wouldn't be able to finish the one thing. Whereas now I'm picking the one thing.
And then when I do get that one thing done, then I can go back
to my to do list and pick the next one thing that I can do.
So, for example, like today, my one thing was to sit down and record this
podcast. So, um, you know, that's the one thing that
I'm doing. And, you know, if I'll go. If all goes to
plan, I will have it finished by, you know,
noontime and have everything scheduled. And then at noontime I can have some
lunch and then I can go pick my next thing that I want to do
in the afternoon. But only focusing on one thing at a time. Like, I'm not,
like, you know, I'm not thinking, what's the next thing I'm going to do while
I'm working on the podcast? I'm finishing this podcast first, and then I can go
look at my next thing. So. Doing one thing at a time. Um, another
thing I remember from the book is that, you know, multitasking, go lie
and. And there was some science behind your brain only
actually being able to do one thing at a time. And when you are doing
two things at a time, it just kind of bounces back and forth between
doing two things. So it'll do one thing for a little bit and then bounce
back to the other thing and do that for a little bit and then bounce
back to the other thing. So your, your efficiency is, you
know, immediately cut in half at least. So when you are able
to focus your brain on one thing, likely you'll get more
done faster. And, you know, I think that's really
helpful when, when we have limited amount of time
to, to work on our projects, maybe we're starting a side business or starting
something new. I think that this concept can be really helpful in
being able to get more done with the limited amount of time that we have.
So. So, yeah, you know, maybe I encourage you to start, you know, thinking
about the things that you have to get done in this way. What's the
one most important thing that you can do to make everything
else sort of not important at that time? And
yeah, that's, that's kind of all I got for you today. Hopefully
this one thing concept works for you. Give
it a try. Let me know. And then one last thing,
one last call to action for this episode. If you haven't given me a review
yet for this podcast and it's been helpful for you,
I just would ask that you could go ahead and give me
a five star review if you believe that in
Spotify they make it really easy. And yeah, I'll talk to you
on the next episode. As always, thank you for listening.