JAY PAPASAN: One Question to Upgrade Your Life

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Feb 12, 2025

Jay Papasan, bestselling author of "The One Thing," shares his wisdom on focus and productivity. He discusses the importance of creating a 'bunker' for deep work and minimizing distractions. Jay emphasizes that extraordinary results stem from small, consistent actions and highlights the significance of prioritizing personal relationships. The conversation also covers the balance between ambition and mindfulness, advocating for a thoughtful, slow-building approach to achieving meaningful goals.

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ADVICE

Create a Focus Bunker

Find a "bunker" — a place where your focus is protected.
Stock it with everything you need, eliminate distractions, and avoid interruptions.

INSIGHT

The Cost of Interruptions

Interruptions significantly hinder deep work, taking 30 minutes to an hour to regain focus.
Avoid interruptions entirely while in your bunker to maintain flow.

ADVICE

Schedule Everything Important

Schedule important activities, even personal ones like date nights.
If it's important, put it on your calendar to ensure it happens.

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In this episode of The Double Win Show, Michael and Megan sit down with bestselling author Jay Papasan to talk about the secret to extraordinary success: focus. Jay unpacks why most people struggle with distraction, how to create an environment for deep work, and why small, consistent actions lead to massive results over time.

Memorable Quotes

“Our focus muscle depends on how long we’ve been using it and how much distraction we have to deal with every day.”
“If it’s important enough, it belongs on my calendar.”
“When you get really good at your one thing, you don’t just get many results. Your impact gets larger and larger over time.”
“Extraordinary starts this way: It starts small and it grows so much faster than we can imagine.”
“There’s two groups of people in life: doers who don’t have space to dream and dreamers who don’t have space to do.”
“It creates anxiety and fear because it matters. We don’t want to fail at the things that matter most to us.”
“Our culture rewards busy people who move fast and get things done.”
“It should always be situational. When do we need to be fast? When do we need to be slow?”
“If you’re going to do something extraordinary, it’s not going to be because you did millions of things. It’s going to be because you did that thing and the handful of things that matter around it extraordinarily well.”
“Everything in life that matters happens pretty slowly.”

Key Takeaways

The Focus Bunker: How to design a workspace that protects your attention so you can do your best work
The Domino Effect: The science behind tiny actions that lead to exponential growth
The Myth of Busyness: Why getting a lot done doesn’t mean you’re moving forward (and what does)
The Value of Slow: How taking your time can actually speed up your success—and why the best things take time
Rituals for High Performance: Small habits that make big results inevitable (and how you can implement them today.)

Resources

The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
The One Thing Podcast

Watch on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/UnMEk4qAJcw

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound