Pareto's principle suggested that 20 percent of the effort produces 80 percent of the results. The authors cite economist Vilfredo Pareto as one of the inspirations behind this philosophy. For instance, the book suggests that readers should engage in four hours of work on their 'ONE thing' each day. This then leads to the 'Focusing Question' which asks 'What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?' This second section of the book deals with productivity principles like habit-building and benchmarking. The authors also challenge the concept of 'work-life balance', calling it 'dealistic, but not realistic.' They concluded this section by quoting that “Success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most” and believe that the majority of what we want will come from the minority of what we do.

The book begins with a section entitled, 'The Lies: They Mislead and Derail Us', which analyzes the ways in which multitasking has erroneously been praised as a desirable trait. The book discusses the benefits of prioritizing a single task, and it also provides examples of how to engage in those tasks with a singular focus. Instead, it discusses the general business principle of choosing a single task to work on to theoretically maximize the efficiency of that task and the overall project. The One Thing is the duo's first book that is not specifically focused on real estate. Prior to the publication of The One Thing in 2013, the two collaborated on The Millionaire Real Estate series of books which discussed how to invest in and earn money from real estate properties. Jay Papasan is the Vice President of publishing at Keller Williams. Gary Keller is the co-founder and chairman of the board at Keller Williams Realty, which is one of the world's largest real estate companies. It was first published by Bard Press on April 1, 2013.

The book has appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and. The book discusses the value of simplifying one's workload by focusing on the one most important task in any given project. The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (stylized The ONE Thing) is a non-fiction self-help book written by authors and real estate entrepreneurs Gary W.

The one thing keller