Review: “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy
I spent most of last year focusing on keeping my to do list organized. I read “Getting Things Done” over the holiday break at the end of 2010. As I indicated in my review of GTD, this approach has helped me tame my to do list and although it’s still a work-in-progress, I am much better organized.
In spite of having an organized to do list (most of the time), I still struggle with completing the tasks on the list. One of my challenges is that with two young children, I am subject to frequent interruptions and my windows of time to tackle my list are relatively small.
“Eat That Frog!”, as the subtitle indicates, contains “21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.” The principles themselves are sound and, depending on your situation, can be very useful indeed. People have a tendency to rely on just a couple of ways to tackle or prioritize their to do lists. This book provides a large number of other ways to look at your tasks and figure out which ones to do next.
One criticism of this book is that it is too general and doesn’t provide specifics. One reason that I agree with this criticism is because it lacks concrete examples. Most of the 21 points are explained pretty well in the few pages allocated to each. However, providing examples could have really helped to drive the points home and made each of the points more memorable. There are a handful of anecdotes, but not many.
Another criticism of the book is that it often loops back to advice that sounds suspiciously like “just do it” (sorry, Nike). If “just do it” was sufficient, then there’d be no need for the book at all.
But there are useful approaches in the book and although you won’t find cutting edge research here, you just may find a few tips to help you to rethink your work. I’ve listed them all in my organizer and I plan to refer back to them frequently as I re-prioritize my to do list this year. I’ve also starred the ones that I anticipate using the most.
“Eat That Frog!” is available in e-book, paperback, audio and hardback formats from all major booksellers.
