Eat That Frog!

Hello people! How are you? We are almost approaching the end of February. What better way to wrap up the second month of the year than to read a short summary, lessons and some of my favourite lines from the book, Eat That Frog! on overcoming procrastination and getting back on our 2023 resolutions!

A quick summary

"Eat That Frog!" by author Brian Tracy is a 108-page long, self-help book that is all about overcoming procrastination and learning to manage our time efficiently. How often do we feel burdened at work and in general? It just feels like there isn't enough time to tick off all the bucket list items. The goal post just keeps changing and challenging- kindergarten to 1st standard, 10th board, 12th board, college, degree, job, work, business, passion, hobbies, travel, family, friends and so on. The author was going through the same path and one day he asked himself, "Why is it that other people are doing better than I am?" He started questioning to ask successful people what they were doing that enabled them to be more productive and make more money. The author said, simply put, some people are doing better than others because not only they do things differently, but they also do the right things right. They eat their frogs. Eating a live frog first thing in the morning is a metaphor for tackling our biggest, most important task, the one we are most likely to procrastinate on, but also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on our life.

The book is divided into 21 chapters describing 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. These are my seven favourite lessons:

1. Set The Table

“Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building.” - Stephen Covey

Before we even think of eating our live frog, it's important to decide what we want to achieve in each area of our lives- physically, mentally, professionally or financially. Write it down. Think on paper. The greater the clarity, the less confusion, hence the less procrastination.

2. Plan Every Day In Advance

How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? One bite at a time! Breaking our goals into specific step-by-step activities can immensely help in increasing our productivity. Every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution.

3. Consider the Consequences

"Long-term thinking improves short-term decision-making." Three questions for maximum productivity:

• What are my highest value activities?” Put another way, what are the biggest frogs that you have to eat to make the greatest contribution to your organization? or to your family? and to your life in general?

• What can I and only I do that if done well will make a real difference?

• What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
  

4. Practice Creative Procrastination

Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on. We can’t do everything that we have to do. We have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks. Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!

5. Upgrade Key Skills

“Anytime you stop striving to get better, you’re bound to get worse.” - Pat Riley

The better we become at eating a particular type of frog, the more likely we are to just plunge in and get it done. When we know that we can do a job well, we find it easier to overcome procrastination and get the job done faster and better than under any other circumstances.

6. Identify Key Constraints

Following are some of the most important questions to help us identify the limiting factor or the key constraints that must be overcome to achieve our goals:

• What is holding me back?

• What is stopping me or holding me back from eating the frogs that can really make a difference?

• Why didn't I achieve my goal already?
  

7. Put the Pressure

The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and motivate them to be the kind of people they wish they could be. The problem is that no one is coming to the rescue. Only about 2 per cent of people can work entirely without supervision. We call these people “leaders.” This is the kind of person we are meant to be and that we can be if decide to be. To reach our full potential, we must be a self-start machine and not push-start. We must choose our own frogs and then make ourselves eat them in their order of importance.

My favourite quotes:

• Do first things first and second things not at all.
  

• It is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters.
  

• "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." — Alan Lakein
  

• The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. — Vicktor Frankl

I hope you learnt something through reading this blog. If Yes, then make sure to like the blog, comment, share and subscribe to the email newsletter if you haven't yet. I post a blog every Monday at 7 pm IST, until then Happy Reading!