How to find your one thing

"The one thing" by Gary Keller is one of my favourite productivity books. The idea behind it is simple. You can only work on one thing at a time. So lean into it, and organise your life around one thing you want to do sometime, however long it may take. Focus the planning of your time around one question: "What is the one thing I can do right now that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?" To bridge the gap between your long-term goal and what you're doing right now, apply this question to different timeframes:

• Long-term goal: What is the one thing I want to do sometime?

• Five-year goal: Based on my long-term goal, what is the one thing I can do in the next five years?

• Yearly goal: Based on my five-year goal, what is the one thing I can do this year?

• Quarterly goal: Based on my yearly goal, what is the one thing I can do this quarter?

• Monthly goal: Based on my quarterly goal, what is the one thing I can do this month?

• Weekly goal: Based on my monthly goal, what is the one thing I can do this week?

• Daily goal: Based on my weekly goal, what is the one thing I can do today?

• Immediate goal: Based on my daily goal, what is the one thing I can do right now?

This approach works great if you already have a long-term goal. But what if you don't?

Even if you don't have a long-term goal, you'll have some intuitions about it. For me, I know that it will have something to do with writing, programming, and storytelling. I'm even more certain that it won't be related to becoming a professional football player. This intuition isn't enough to create a five-year goal, but it's enough to start monthly experiments. Instead of breaking your larger goal down into a monthly project, ask yourself what one thing you can do this months to get more clear about your long-term goal. Start to test your intuition. Write a short story. Learn blender for a month and see how much you like it. Or do a thirty day challenge of developing a small browser game each day. The possibilities are endless.

For most things, you probably have a romanticised view of doing them. Once you start doing them, you'll notice that they aren't as fun as you imagined them do be. But you can only find this out if you actually try it. If you do enough of these experiments, you'll find something you actually like doing. And so, with each experiment, you'll be able to more clearly define your vision, and the core activities it entails.