Getting more done in less time: Eating that frog!
Book summary
Have you ever gone to a friend’s house or a nice restaurant, and a dish was served that you hated and you had a really hard time swallowing it – but you didn’t want to be impolite and spit it out? Brian Tracey humorously uses the concept of setting the table each morning and eating the biggest, ugliest frog first thing with his book, Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.
He writes on page 2, “It has been said for many years that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it now. It is also the one that can have the greatest impact on your life and results at the moment. It has also been said, “if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.”
I am not a procrastinator but this book’s title caught my eye because of the words getting more done in less time. I am often very busy, but not productive enough. Do you relate? Brian gives practical tips in this book for helping you to achieve your greatest potential through making sure the major things are done before the minor ones on your daily to-do list. Since I’ve read this book, I now often hear Brian’s words in my head throughout the day, when I ever feel tempted to be a slacker for just a few minutes, lol: Eat that frog! Eat that frog!
Here are his 21 great tips to help you live a successful, productive, more fulfilling life to see YOUR dreams come true this year!
Set the table. Decide exactly what you want. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier it is to get it. Brian says that a great rule for success is thinking on paper. Only about 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals and accomplish five to ten times as much as people of equal or better education. WRITE IT DOWN, set a deadline, make a list of everything you have to do to get there, make your plan, take action, and move toward that goal every day by doing something.
Plan every day in advance. The way you eat your biggest, ugliest frog is by breaking it down into specific, step by step activities – and then start on the first one. Brian says this only takes about 10 minutes for you to plan your day, but this will save you at least two hours in wasted time and effort. Planning is simple – just get a piece of paper and pen, or your palm pilot, Dayplanner, computer program or time planner. Then make a list of everything you have to do the night before you need to do it, and work from your list every day. As you work from your list throughout the day, check them off as you do them. To-do lists, oh yeah! They help me so much! This gives you a feeling of success and accomplishment. Brian says you’ll start feeling more effective and powerful, and will be motivated to get even more done. Your work goes faster, and you’ll eventually become UNSTOPPABLE. I love that word!
Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything. This rule says 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits. One item on your list of ten things to do can be worth more than all the others put together – this is your biggest frog you should eat first. Resist the temptation to do small things first. This is where I am weak; then I don’t get the biggie done! You have to choose between the important and the unimportant and this will determine your success. Brian says that the most effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task before them, and as a result they accomplish much more than the average person and are happier people. Productive and happy sound really good!
Consider the consequences. Brian says that successful people see their future. They think five, ten and twenty years out into the future, not just about today. They analyze their choices and behaviors today to make sure they are consistent with long term goals. Before starting on anything, ask yourself, “What are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task?” Successful people delay gratification and sacrifice in the short term so they can enjoy far greater rewards in the long term. As financial expert, author and speaker Dave Ramsey says, “Live today like no one else so you can live like no one else tomorrow.” Keep yourself focused and moving forward; don’t slow down your momentum. Time is going to pass anyway, so decide how you use it and where you are going to wind up in the months and years ahead. What do you really want?
Practice the ABCDE Method Continually. Set your priorities. Write your list for the coming day and assign an A, B, C, D, E priority before each item before you begin the first one. An “A” item is something that is really important, that you have to do or else have serious consequences – such as finishing a report for your boss. These are the frogs in your life. A “B” item is something that you should do, but has mild consequences. Don’t do a “B” item if there’s an “A” item undone! Hello! A “C” task is something that would be nice to do, like having coffee with a friend, but has no affect at all on your work life. (Personally, I don’t want to rule these types of things completely out….I like my coffee and like my friends! But there is a balance in everything!) A “D” task is something you can delegate to free up more room in your life to do “A” tasks. An “E” task is something you can totally cut out, like watching tv! Start immediately with your “A” task and keep at it until it’s done. Eat that whole frog! When this becomes a habit, Brian says, you will get more done than two or three people around you. You are making tracks now!
Focus on key result areas. You’ve been hired at your job to get specific results; you get a paycheck for the specific job you do and to do it well. You have to have essential knowledge and skills for your job, which are constantly changing. You may be one critical skill away from top performance at your job! Ask yourself what one skill you can develop and do with excellence that would have the greatest positive impact on your career. Mine would probably be learning tech stuff, as I am VERY tech challenged! Ask this question the rest of your life. Ask your boss, coworkers, friends and family, and then work on improving in this area. All business skills are learnable. One of the fastest ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster is to become excellent in your key result areas. Keep improving yourself continually.
Obey the law of forced efficiency. This law says, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” Isn’t that the truth! There never seems to be enough hours in any day for me. Brian says you can’t eat every single tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one. There will NEVER be enough time to do everything you have to do. You’ll NEVER get all caught up! Does that sound discouraging? It is true, though. So we have to do those things that really make a difference. We have to discover what is the most valuable use of our time right now, and then do that.
Prepare thoroughly before you begin. Brian says one of the best ways you can overcome procrastination and get more things done faster is for you to have everything you need at hand before you start. You will be like a archer with an arrow pulled back taut on the bow. Start by clearing your work area. Just today I went through all the sticky notes and papers on the table, organized them, threw some away, and tucked others away in my Dayplanner. Brian says to put everything on the floor or a desk behind you if you need to. Gather everything you need to complete your job – information, reports, details, papers, email addresses, codes, etc. -so that you will have them at hand and will be able to keep working til that job is done. Have a comfortable, attractive work area, especially a chair that supports your back and lets your feet sit flat on the floor. The most productive people take the time to create a work area where they enjoy spending time. The cleaner and neater your area, the easier it is to get started and get going. It is REALLY hard to get things done when your work area is a big, fat MESS! Beautify your surroundings. Make it your own special place, that you ENJOY.
Do Your Homework. Learn what you need to learn so you can do your work with excelllence. Feeling weak or deficient in an area will discourage you from starting at all, so continually upgrade your skills. What others have learned, you can learn too – yes, even techie stuff, lol! Read in your field at least one hour every day. Get up a little earlier in the morning, take courses and seminars, attend meetings of your occupation, purchase audios, and dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in your field. Become the best you can be! Take advantage of driving time and listen to audios in your car. The more you learn and know, the more confident you’ll feel and the better you’ll become. You will become that expert go-to girl for prayer, gourmet cooking, speaking, writing, coaching, taxes, fitness, or whatever!
Leverage your special talents. You have special talents and abilities that make you different from everyone else on earth. This makes you extremely valuable. Identify your special areas of uniqueness and then commit yourself to becoming very, very good in them. What are you really good at? What do you do especially well? What do you enjoy doing the most? Decide what you really love to do and then pour your whole heart into it, doing it with excellence. Become the best at it! What gets you praise from other people? Successful people identify what they do well and enjoy the most. They know what they do that makes a difference in their work.
Identify your key constraints. What is holding you back? What determines how fast you move from where you are right now to where you desire to go? Why aren’t you at your goals already? These are some of the most important questions you’ll ever ask. There is always a limiting factor that determines how quickly and well you get a job done. Study and identify your limiting factor. It might be something small like a negative perception on the part of your customers about something. It could be your staff. Ask yourself, “What is it inside of me that is holding me back?” Maybe it’s being able to get to work on time or your rude attitude toward clients or not giving them feedback fast enough. Take complete responsibility. The failure to identify the wrong constraint can lead you in the wrong direction. This factor may be your most important frog to eat.
Take it one oil barrel at a time. Brian Tracy crossed the Sahara Desert in Algeria years ago, and it is 500 miles across in a single stretch with no water, food, grass or even a fly. Many people have died in crossing it. The French marked the track with black, 55 gallon oil drums, five kilometers apart, to help people cross it. Brian could see two oil barrels, one he’d passed and one ahead, and that was enough to get him across the desert. He advises taking things one oil barrel at a time. Take things one step at a time. To accomplish a great task, step out in faith. Perform one task well until it’s done, then go on to the next.
Put the pressure on yourself. No one is coming to your rescue to help motivate you to be the kind of person you need to be. It’s like waiting for a bus where no bus passes. Only about 2 percent of people are true leaders and can work entirely without supervision. This is the kind of person you are meant to be. Your job is to put pressure on yourself and not wait for someone else to do it for you. Kick your own butt! Choose your own frogs and make yourself eat them. The standards you set for yourself should be higher than anyone else would set for you. Imagine that you received an emergency message and that you have to leave town tomorrow for a month, and have to make absolutely sure you get everything done before you left. Successful people put pressure on themselves to perform at high levels. They don’t make excuses or whine why they can’t reach their goals or make their dreams come true! You become a high performing, high achieving person who builds up the habit of rapid task completion.
Maximize your personal powers. One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels, Brian says. Your body’s use of food, water and rest to generate energy helps you to accomplish important tasks. When you’re fully rested, you can get two to five times done as when you’re tired. Working long hours in the night after 8 or 9 hours of work causes you to produce LESS. It’s like a battery that’s run down. You have certain times when you’re at your best. Some are better in the morning, some in the afternoons. A few are more creative at night. Sometimes the best thing for you to do is go to bed early and sleep for 10 hours straight. Take a full day off every week, a sabbath rest. Brian suggests going to a movie, exercising, spending time with family, going for a walk. Take regular vacations each year. Go to bed early five nights a week, sleep in on weekends, and take one day off to give you much more energy. Be careful what you eat, drink water and exercise regularly. Feed yourself like a world class athlete. You need high energy for higher levels of productivity and to achieve great success.
Motivate yourself into action. Become your own best cheerleader. Coach yourself and encourage yourself to excel. Ninety five percent of your emotions are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute by minute basis. What are you saying to yourself? The way you interpret things determines how you feel. Become a complete optimist. Refuse to let difficulties affect your mind or emotions. Tell yourself continually, “I can do it!” Optimists look for the good in every situation, seek the lesson in each difficulty, and look for the solution to every problem. They think and talk frequently about their goals, and the future. They look forward instead of backward. You feel focused, energized, in control, and powerful. You are determined to keep going. You persevere!
Practice creative procrastination. You can’t do everything you have to do. So you put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else! Get big tasks done every single day. Learn the power of the word no. For you to do something new, you have to complete or stop doing something old. Deliberately put off doing low-value activities so you have time for the most important ones that make a difference. Cut down on tv watching or other time thieves - such as getting sucked into the Facebook black hole of time, looking at your friends’ vacation pictures when you could be working.
Do the most difficult task first. One of the best techniques for beating procrastination and getting more things done faster is for you to start work on doing your most difficult task first. This is really hard to do, isn’t it? This is eating your frog! Start first thing in the morning with your biggest and most important task. It breaks you of the habit of procrastination. It gives you a jump start on your day. You will feel more powerful, confident, effective, and in charge. You will become one of the most productive people of your generation by doing this habitually each day!
Slice and dice the task. A lot of times people procrastinate because the task they dislike to do seems so big. One thing you can do is cut the task down to manageable size -the “salami slice” method of getting the job done. You decide on the task, and do just one part of it, like slicing salami and eating one slice until the whole roll is gone – or like eating a frog, one piece at a time. It’s easier to do the job this way. Once you’ve finished one part of it, you will work through the job until you finish it. You feel happier and more powerful when you start and finish a task of any kind. You satisfy a need to bring finality to a job. You keep starting and finishing tasks, and then another, and then another. This motivates you and propels you forward to success. Brian has friends who became best-selling authors who simply resolved to write one page or one paragraph a day until the book was finished. You can too!
Create large chunks of time. Work at scheduled times on large tasks. Carve out these blocks of high-value, highly productive time to succeed. For example, sales people phone prospects for one solid hour about 10 to 11 a.m. They discipline themselves to follow through their resolutions. Many people read great books before going to bed, and read through best sellers in short periods of time. Plan your day in advance and set aside a certain portion of time for a specific task. Successful people build their work lives around accomplishing important tasks, one at a time. A Dayplanner can be one of your most poewrful tools to see where you can create these blocks of time. Turn off the phone, eliminate distractions, work until you finish. Work on your plane flight and see what amazing amount of work you can do while in the air. Make every single minute count! Travel and transition times are “gifts of time.” Remember, the pyramids were built one block at a time. A great life and a great career is built one task at a time.
Develop a sense of urgency. One of the most identifiable qualities of a high performing man or woman is that they are action oriented. They take time to think, plan, set priorities, and then work steadily through enormous amounts of work in the same amount of time that others socialize and waste time. When you work on high-value tasks at a high-speed, continuous level you get into a “flow,” the highest state of performance and productivity. Your work seems effortless, you feel happy and energized and calm. You function on a higher plane of clarity and creativity. You have sharp perception. Develop a sense of urgency – a drive and desire to get on with a job quickly. Race against yourself! A fast tempo goes hand in hand with success. It is the “Momentum Principle of Success.” The faster you move, the more energy you have and the more capable you are in your work. A sense of urgency gets you on a fast track. Say to yourself, “Do it now!” over and over. If you find yourself slowing down, tell yourself, “Back to work!” Move rapidly in every important area of your life.
Single handle every task. Eat that frog. Select your most important task, concentrate on it single mindedly until it’s complete. You keep working at it until it is 100 percent complete. Urge yourself back to work. Don’t start a job, then set it down and come back to it again and again. Once you’ve decided on your number one task, anything is a waste of time to do. Focus clearly until it’s done. You shape and mold your own character this way, and become a stronger, more competent, happier, productive person.You feel capable of setting and achieving any goal. Eat that frog! Just do it and you will have an unlimited future!
****************
I hope you’ve enjoyed this summary of Brian’s book. I condensed it for you and put a few things in my own words to make it easier to read and understand. Ok, now, back to work!
