How do you start your day? Looking at your to-do list? Doing little things to get them out of the way? Wishing you’d gotten more done the day before?
What if, every day, instead of that, you asked yourself a question instead. A question like this.
If I could do only one thing today, what would it be?
What would I say? Who would I meet? Where would I go?
Instead, we try to choose everything, and the problem is, it never works.
So, here is the answer: stop trying to do it all.
Today, just once, pick one thing. Focus on it. See what happens.
Here’s what I predict. You will accomplish at least one thing.
Don’t worry. Everything else will keep coming. It always does, like it or not.
But today, you can stop imagining yourself getting things done. You can enjoy the freedom and accomplishment that doing just one thing can bring.
Try it today. I dare you.
Professionally the one thing I need to do today is finish up some revisions on a website for a photographer who has a gallery opening on Saturday.
It’s hard even just writing that that is the 1 thing I need to do today because my brain wants to say well and this and that and don’t forget this too. But in all actuality the world will not fall apart – that is the one thing I do need to do today.
Elysa – Thanks for sharing! I hope you that that one thing done.
I tried this expirament for myself at work yesterday. And it’s not lie: even if you focus on one thing, everything else will still happen. But if I hadn’t focused from am to pm on that one thing, I would have missed a deadline because of all the other pressures around me that kept dragging me away.
But wow – what a feeling at the end of the day to say, hey, I got that one thing done (and all this other stuff, too!)
What a great reminder to focus, focus, focus … I find if I don’t prioritize stuff, I quickly fall prey to trying to ‘do it all’ and am easily distracted.
I try to separate things into high & low energy tasks (i.e. finishing reports for deadline, creating presentations vs. responding to emails/message/information requests) and try to tackle them when I’m at my highest – or lowest – energy levels during the day.
That, and a little caffeine never hurt anyone!
; )
Cheers,
Jennifer
Hi, I’m Isaac Yassar and I help people reaching success in self development, business, and blogging for free.
Nice topic. Since people are sharing what they want to do the particular day, I should join them. Today I will publish my carnival, Isaac Yassar’s Self Development Carnival #1, at my website.
@ Jannifer – I think you’re right on track. Today is a bad example of not picking 1 thing. I have a ton to do, but feel unanchored because there’s no main focus. Getting things done but feeling stressed – that’s another element to the conversation, too.
Freedom to focus on one thing but still get the other stuff done somehow clears my mind and helps me make it through the marathon days better!
@ Isaac – Thanks for sharing your 1 thing! Best wishes on your site.
UPDATE TWITTER USERS:
Re-tweet this article using the following shortened link: http://tr.im/1thing
Hashtag your one thing for conversation and accountability! #1thing
Or you can just RT This:
Hashtag #1thing to share what you want to get done today See http://tr.im/1thing for more details on why – Please re-tweet!
One thing for today — must get blog post written. If I get that done. I swear I’ll be satisfied. I love to write, but it’s remarkable how many things I can find to do instead of sitting down and writing. Reading and commenting here, for instance.
@ Joan – Great sentiment! I need to go grab some food for example, but this is a fun way to use a lunch break! Thanks for joining along. Hope the blog post is phenomenal.
I like your point about this..everyday I think to get special thing that I never heard and still increase “blogger instinc” with it
Using this idea with your blog is a great idea!
The first thing I do is check my email. I am very big on customer service and don’t want clients waiting too long to receive a response from me. I just luuuuuv an empty Inbox!!!
William Mitchell, CPRW
The Resume Clinic
I was just blogging at my experience in public speaking then I found this post. Lots of times, when speaking in public, people get nervous because they try too hard to memorize the speech, set up the correct body language, speak with the correct tone, etc. Today, I forgot all those stuff and focused on just one thing: “Make the session stimulating and enjoyable.” Guess what happens, it went flawlessly. You focus on the main goal, the rest will follow.
@ Andry – There is incredible power in focus. Thanks for branching this message out to another area!
Doing a lot of things is really hard. Assisting someone on the phone, while a client is with you on the support suite, and your co-worker is asking something that is so urgent. Whoa! We call it multi-tasking. But, we should always see the different sides of doing a lot of things.
First is, when you do a lot of things, you tend to forget other tasks. When you focus on one thing, you will then finish it and go on the next task.
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