There is a scene in the movie, City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal, when the purported bad guy, played by Jack Palance, has a reflective, philosophical moment that is very memorable.

He says that we need to identify that one thing in life that makes all the difference to us, and then make sure we do it.

My father was masterful at this. Unlike his son, who believes in The Law of Large Numbers, (See my Nightingale-Conant audio program bearing this title) dad actually did very few things, as I recall. Economy of motion could have been inscribed on his coat of arms.

Still, he accomplished a great deal, seemingly, without breaking a sweat.

He was an avid planner, and as he put it, he would cull his to-do lists, until only the most significant items remained. So, he wasnt even trying to get a lot of things done, just his main priorities.

I believe his technique is actually compatible with getting a lot of things done. If you can economically do the most significant thing, repeatedly, this really adds up.

Say, you select one item per day. Of course, thats 365 a year and maybe 10,000 accomplishments during a career.

Thats a large number, isnt it?

Perhaps this solves the quality-versus-quality trade-off; that claims we cant do a lot of things, well. Maybe we can, if we simply focus all of our efforts on each one, successively.

So, lets try this. The next time you construct a to-do list, permit yourself only one item.

And then see how much you get done, overall!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.