Discover the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. Learn how the most successful people in the world approach productivity, time management, business, health and habits with The ONE Thing. A ProduKtive® Podcast.
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Stop Trying to Find Your Purpose. Ask This Question Instead | Tom Rath | Ep. 578
lundi 5 octobre 2026 • Durée 37:58
StrengthsFinder 2.0 author Tom Rath on why the hunt for purpose makes people anxious, and the questions he asks instead. His new book is named after it: What's the Point?
You've been told to find your purpose since high school. You're still waiting for it to show up.
The word is the problem. Most of us hear it and tense up, as if purpose has to descend from the heavens on a sunny day every ten years.
Tom's books have sold more than 10 million copies. Five months before his newest book launched, he called his publisher and dropped its working title, Purpose Unlocked, worried readers would be too intimidated to read a book called Purpose.
At 15, Tom was diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic condition. His life expectancy was about 40. So he set out to pack a whole career and a whole family into those years, in case he didn't get any overtime. At 40, he realized about 90% of what he'd been doing was trying to live up to other people's expectations. He's convinced most people reach the end of their careers without ever seeing the work they'd have been best at.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How to make purpose practical enough to use every day
Why 30 minutes on strangers' emails is 30 minutes less with your kids
The patient photo that made radiologists more thorough
Why your kids should see 50 jobs before picking one
A miserable job can be worse for you than no job at all
What to try before you quit a job you hate
Chapters:
[00:00] What’s the Point of Your Work?
[04:23] The Question That Changes Your Day
[11:15] Define Success by Contribution, Not Comparison
[15:59] The Myth of One Big Purpose
[18:21] Stop Letting Kids Choose Careers by Default
[26:59] 3 Ways to Fix a Job You Hate
[33:28] Challenge: Ask “What’s the Point?”
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• What’s the Point? by Tom Rath
• How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton
• StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Before You Set New Goals, Decide What to Let Go Of
Épisode 577
lundi 28 septembre 2026 • Durée 30:04
How to simplify your busy life before setting new goals.
You raised your hand for a committee years ago, and now it’s just draining time and energy every week. It’s out of alignment - and it’s almost goal-setting season.
That work project that seemed like a great idea at the time is still eating your week, and nothing new fits. Before you add another goal to the list, you have to pause and find the space for it.
On August 1st, Jay Papasan left Keller Williams after almost 26 years, and he’s still in what he calls a season of addition by subtraction.
Are you living your own definition of success, or someone else’s? If you’re a doer, it’s easy to keep doing and never look up to check your direction. Make some space and you’ll feel lighter, Jay promises, even before you know what’s coming into it.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The 5 questions Jay uses to free up time for his ONE Thing
Why chasing a resume line is holding you back
What your calendar can say about your true values
How to know if you’ve set the wrong goal
How subtraction can create more room for meaningful work
Chapters:
(00:00) Leaving Keller Williams After Almost 26 Years
(06:26) Whose Definition of Success Are You Living?
(12:14) 5 Questions to Decide What to Subtract
(21:10) What’s Changing at The ONE Thing
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• Goal Setting Retreat and ONE Thing Summit
• Changes to The ONE Thing services
• Free Resources
15 Truths for Business & Life: Inbox Zero, Hustle Culture & More
Épisode 576
lundi 21 septembre 2026 • Durée 41:44
Winners never quit. Clear the inbox. Outwork everyone. You've followed rules like these for years without checking them.
Charlie Munger kept a latticework of mental models so he'd make better decisions. Jay Papasan keeps his own in a notes document he carries around. About 88 entries so far, written down so he's less likely to keep repeating the same mistakes.
You're most likely to hurt yourself, Jay warns, when you're anchored to a truth that may not be true. So he puts fifteen of his own on the table, then one he's abandoned. He expects you to disagree with a few. The ones that make you angry, he says, are probably the ones you need to think about. Until you learn the lesson, life keeps teaching it.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why winners actually DO quit
Why inbox zero is one of the least productive things you can do
What you really give up when you lean on AI for everything
Why a christmas bonus disappears so quickly
How to avoid the #1 worst financial habit
How to build your own list of mental models from mistakes
Chapters:
[00:00] 15 Hills I’m Willing to Die On
[03:56] Build Careers, Not Just Jobs
[12:43] Play Up and Grow Faster
[16:28] Winners Quit Strategically
[22:53] The Money Rules That Matter
[30:46] Hustle Culture and Inbox Zero
[38:47] Your Weekly Challenge
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Jay’s interview with Oliver Burkeman
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Why Your Business Feels Unpredictable (and how to fix it) w/ Jordan Freed
Épisode 575
lundi 14 septembre 2026 • Durée 32:00
You work all day and your results still swing month to month.
One month you're unstoppable, the next the pipeline is empty and you can't understand why. Jordan Freed says your business has a first down: one repeatable action that makes everything after it predictable, and most of us have never named ours.
In this episode, Jay sits down with Jordan Freed - head coach at The ONE Thing and Jay's own former coach. He says he has never coached a real estate professional who hit their listing number every single month and missed the rest of their goals.
Just in time for football season, Jay and Jordan break a business down into first downs, first dominoes, and false starts. Jordan's clients are ambitious, and the ambition trips them: they rush from one thing to the next and nothing gets completed. Jay has watched the same people run hot until they burn out, then swing back the other way. Most people never stay consistent long enough to see the other side. Jordan describes it: home to the kids at 5:00 with everything done and the evening already mapped out.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How to break your business down into something predictable
Why your first domino is usually smaller than the action you think you need
How false starts create distraction and inconsistency
Why ambitious people tend to rush past the real starting point
How long-term consistency creates breakthroughs
Why predictable success does not have to come at the expense of your health, family, or relationships
Chapters:
(00:00) Why Your Business & Life Feel Unpredictable
(02:19) How Tom Brady Made History (and what we can learn from it)
(08:00) Guesswork Is an Invitation to Distraction
(14:21) It Just Takes Longer Than You Think…
(18:26) When You’ll Finally See Progress
(22:46) How to Truly Be “Done” After Work
(26:52) Jordan's 90-Day Challenge
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Jordan Freed’s Website
• Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Success Is Boring (and how to show up anyway)
Épisode 573
lundi 7 septembre 2026 • Durée 29:04
You know what you should be doing every day. But most days you find a reason to make them tomorrow. Then the year ends looking exactly like the last one. Motivation was never going to carry you through work this boring. The people who show up every day set it up so that skipping costs them something.
Jay Papasan edited Mia Hamm's book at HarperCollins. The story that stuck with him had nothing to do with the World Cup. It was wind sprints alone in a park in the off-season heat, and the note her coach left under her windshield wiper. Being number one in your market gets built the same way, out of a few thousand hours nobody sees, and you are wired to avoid every one of them. Willpower runs out long before the work does. Jay has watched three plain strategies carry people through the hours everyone else skips. You only need one.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Three ways to keep doing boring work after motivation and willpower run out
Who else pays when you let yourself off the hook
Why the best sales scoreboards track activities, not just sales
The goal-setting chain from five years out down to what you do today
The first domino: the action that has to happen before the one you keep skipping
Which of Gretchen Rubin's four tendencies explains how you respond to expectations
Chapters:
(00:00) What Mia Hamm's Coach Caught Her Doing Alone
(02:15) Why You'd Rather Be Shocked Than Sit Still
(04:56) Strategy #1: Make It Bigger Than Yourself
(08:09) Who Else Pays When You Skip the Work?
(10:15) Strategy #2: Think in Five Years, Act This Week
(13:05) The Step Before the Step You Keep Skipping
(17:17) Strategy #3: Accountability Without a Boss
(20:20) Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel?
(24:55) Very Few People Will Do This Every Day
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Chris Dixon's episode about using the 411
• The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Ex-Google Leader: How to Actually Grow Into Your New Job Title - Shannon Anderson-Finch
Épisode 573
lundi 31 août 2026 • Durée 40:36
If you've ever taken a new job or a new title and kept feeling like the old you, Shannon Anderson-Finch has a name for it: the gap between a change and a transition. Most people try to skip it.
Shannon spent 15 years at Google and Deloitte, where she was named Coach of the Year, before starting her own practice. She now coaches new VPs at a large retailer and a first-time hospital president through that same gap.
Her model runs in the wrong order: an ending, then a messy middle where you're neither here nor there, and only then a beginning. The middle is where she watches high achievers get impatient, and it's where she does most of her coaching. Jay tells a story in here about the morning his own affirmation changed one word on its own, and it gave Shannon goosebumps.
***
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-How to tell the difference between a minor change and a major transition
-Why big transitions often require an identity shift
-How to navigate the messy middle without rushing through it
-Why strengths, feedback, and core values can help you grow into a new role
-How experimenting with a new identity can make it start to feel natural
Chapters:
[00:00] When Change Requires a New Identity
[08:38] The End Comes Before the Beginning
[12:00] The Strengths That Move With You
[19:24] Don’t Rush the Messy Middle
[27:09] Becoming Who the New Role Requires
[34:59] The Challenge: Try On Your New Identity
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Anderson Finch Coaching
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Type 2 Work, and The Hidden Cost of Convenience
Épisode 572
lundi 24 août 2026 • Durée 19:32
We spend a lot of energy trying to make life faster, easier, and more convenient. But what might we lose when we remove too much of the hard?
Jay breaks down the “fun scale,” from Type One Fun that feels good in the moment to Type Two Fun that feels difficult while you’re doing it but becomes meaningful in retrospect. Then there’s Type Three Fun: hard experiences that never seem worth it.
The difference often comes down to three things: choice, completion, and connection. Did you choose the challenge? Can you see a finish line? Is the struggle connected to something meaningful?
Jay also explores what calculators, GPS, AI, and other conveniences can quietly take away when we stop exercising skills ourselves, and why leaders should help their teams “do hard better” instead of trying to remove every challenge.
Know someone who may find this episode helpful? Share it with them:
https://the1thing.com/podcast-episode/type-2-work-and-the-hidden-cost-of-convenience
***
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-What Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3 experiences look like
-Why some hard experiences become your most meaningful memories
-How choice, completion, and connection help you decide if hard work is worth it
-Why making everything easier can weaken skills you still need
-How to help yourself and your team “do hard better”
Chapters:
[00:00] Why We Need More Type 2 Experiences
[03:51] What Convenience Is Costing Us
[06:43] The 3 Tests for Hard Things
[07:29] Why Hard Needs a Finish Line
[11:16] How to Do Hard Better
[14:48] The Challenge: Test One Hard Thing
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Oliver Burkeman and his previous conversation with Jay
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
Building a Burnout-Proof Business with Mallory Rowan
Épisode 571
lundi 17 août 2026 • Durée 42:38
Mallory Rowan was building a successful powerlifting apparel company, competing at a high level, and finishing university when her body finally forced her to stop. A routine doctor’s visit revealed that she had been living with pneumonia, but the warning signs had appeared long before: irritability, emotional exhaustion, unexplained health issues, and the growing feeling that she was no longer herself.
Mallory joins Jay to share what it took to recover, ask for support, and separate her identity from her work. She explains how burnout changed the way she builds businesses, from creating stronger boundaries to designing for her personality, interests, and changing seasons of life.
They also explore Mallory’s “toddler test” for uncovering what you truly want, why financial security can give entrepreneurs more freedom to take meaningful risks, and how expanding your options can protect both your health and your ambition.
Know someone who may find this episode helpful? Share it with them: https://the1thing.com/podcast-episode/building-a-burnout-proof-business-with-mallory-rowan/
***
In this episode, you’ll learn:- How to recognize the emotional and physical signs of burnout- Why separating your identity from your work matters- How to design a business around your strengths and season of life- How the “toddler test” reveals what you actually want- Why financial security creates more freedom to take meaningful risks
Chapters:
[00:00] The Burnout Wake-Up Call
[05:37] When Pushing Through Stops Working
[13:38] You Are More Than Your Work
[19:18] What Do You Really Want?
[25:54] Making Work Optional
[33:12] Sustainable Ambition
[37:07] The Challenge: Find Six Solutions
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• Check out FundClub here
• Mallory Rowan’s Website
• Follow Mallory Rowan on Instagram
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
How Not to Know: The Science of Uncertainty with Simone Stolzoff
Épisode 570
lundi 10 août 2026 • Durée 42:40
Simone Stolzoff, author of How to Not Know, joins Jay to explore why our search for certainty often leads us into three traps: comfort, hubris, and control. They discuss how replacing those instincts with growth, humility, and acceptance can help us move forward without having every answer.
Simone shares practical ways to build your tolerance for uncertainty, including introducing small doses of randomness into your routine, looking to your past for evidence that you can handle difficult situations, and trusting your future self to solve future problems.
They also break down four questions that can bring clarity during a crisis: What is really happening? What are the trade-offs? What are your priorities? What is the next right action?
Know someone who may find this episode helpful? Share it with them:
https://the1thing.com/podcast-episode/how-not-to-know-the-science-of-uncertainty-with-simone-stolzoff/
***
We talk about:
[00:00] Why Uncertainty Makes Us So Uncomfortable
[01:34] The Three Traps of Certainty
[06:53] How to Get Better at Not Knowing
[11:36] What Happens When You Randomize Your Life
[20:58] Four Questions for Navigating a Crisis
[34:06] Let Go of the Life You Didn’t Choose
[38:52] The Challenge: Choose Who You Want to Become
Links & Tools from This Episode:
• The ONE Thing Operating System
• How to Not Know by Simone Stolzoff
• The Good Enough Job by Simone Stolzoff
• Follow Simone Stolzoff on Instagram: @thepizza_bagel
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA
You’ll Never Get On Top of Everything (And That’s Okay) with Oliver Burkeman
Épisode 569
lundi 3 août 2026 • Durée 44:55
There is no such thing as the perfect productivity system. No matter how optimized your day is, or how many AI agents you have running 24/7, the harsh reality is that you’ll never truly be caught up. And that’s good news.
Oliver Burkeman wrote The Guardian's psychology column "This Column Will Change Your Life" for years before his four books on time and ambition. Four Thousand Weeks was an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and his follow-up, Meditations for Mortals, is one of Jay's favorite reads of the last two years.
Jay and Oliver take apart the fantasy underneath every productivity system: the day you're finally on top of everything. The more you optimize, the more work floods in to fill the space. It's the same reason widening a freeway attracts more cars. Burkeman, a self-described "old man yells at cloud" AI skeptic, has watched people feel guilty at family dinner because their AI agents are sitting idle. And the skill he says this all comes down to is one nobody teaches: "the tolerance of the anxiety of letting all the other things go undone for now."
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What to do if you're an anxious, insecure overachiever
- Why it's so uncomfortable to do nothing
- Whether to-do lists actually help
- Why you'll have to say no to things you genuinely want
- How much of your day you should plan in advance
Chapters:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:02) Waiting for Real Life to Start
(12:48) The Jevons Paradox
(17:33) The Discomfort of Doing Nothing
(20:57) The Productivity Paradox
(30:03) Jay vs. Oliver on Time Blocking
(33:58) Time Surfing: A Day With No Plan
(39:19) Just Actually Do It
Know someone who may find this episode helpful? Share it with them: https://the1thing.com/podcast-episode/youll-never-get-on-top-of-everything-and-thats-okay-with-oliver-burkeman/
***
Links & Resources:
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
• Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• Follow Oliver Burkeman on X
• Free Resources
Produced by NOVA