Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done Today!

by Brian Tracy

The more time you take to make written lists of everything you have to do, in advance, the more effective and efficient you will be.

taking a couple of hours at the end of each week to plan the coming week has increased their productivity dramatically and changed their lives completely.

It raises your self-esteem and self-respect. Steady, visible progress propels you forward and helps you overcome procrastination.

Planning a Project When you have a project of any kind, begin by making a list of every step that you will have to complete to finish the project from beginning to end. Organize the steps by priority, what is most important, and sequence, which tasks you must complete in order. Lay out the project in front of you on paper or on a computer-based project planner so that you can see every step and task.

You will be amazed at how much you get done in this way. As you work through your lists, you will feel more and more effective and powerful. You will feel more in control of your life. You will be naturally motivated to do even more. You will think better and more creatively, and you wi...

One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 Rule. This rule says that the first 10 percent of time that you spend planning and organizing your work before you begin will save you as much as 90 percent of the time in getting the job done once you get started.

Think on paper! Always work from a list. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive you become and how much easier it is to eat your frog.

Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything

For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results,

Number of Tasks versus Importance of Tasks

Often, a single task can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.

Focus on Activities, Not Accomplishments You often see people who appear to be busy all day long but seem to accomplish very little.

Rule: Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.

Remember, whatever you choose to do over and over eventually becomes a habit that is hard to break. If you choose to start your day working on low-value tasks, you will soon develop the habit of always starting and working on low-value tasks.

Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task that is before them. They force themselves to eat that frog, whatever it is.

Resolve today that you are going to spend more and more of your time working in those few areas that can really make a difference in your life and career and spend less and less time on lower-value activities.

Consider the Consequences

Your attitude toward time, your “time horizon,” has an enormous impact on your behavior and your choices.

People who take a long-term view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

Rule: Long-term thinking improves short-term ...

Successful people have a clear future...

Rule: Future intent influences and often determines present actions.

The clearer you are about your future intentions, the greater influence that clarity will have on what you do in the moment. With a clear long-term vision, you are much more capable of evaluating an activity in the present to ensure that it is consistent with where you truly want to end up.

willing to delay gratification and make sacrifices in the short term so that they can enjoy far greater rewards in the long term. Unsuccessful people, on the other hand, think more about short-term pleasure and immediate gratification while giving little thought to the long-term future.

If a task or activity has large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately.

Whatever your frog is, resolve to gulp it down first thing. Motivation requires motive. The greater the potential positive impact that an action or behavior of yours can have on your life, once you define it clearly, the more motivated you will be to overcome procrastination and get it done quickly.

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”

Put another way, you cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and that will be enough, at least for the time being.

Rule: There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.

What this means is that you will never be caught up. Get that wishful idea out of your mind. All you can hope for is to be on top of your most important responsibilities. The others will just have to wait.

Sometimes a job actually takes much longer to complete when people rush to get it done at the last minute and then have to redo it.

time carefully in advance and then build in a sizable buffer to compensate for unexpected delays and diversions.

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?

What are your highest-value activities?

“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?”

In other words, “What is my biggest frog of all at this moment?”

Do first things first and second things not at all.

Creative procrastination is one of the most effective of all personal performance techniques.

Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!

Here is a key point. To set proper priorities, you must set posteriorities as well. A priority is something that you do more of and sooner, while a posteriority is something that you do less of and later, if at all.

Rule: You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower-value activities.

One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no! Say it politely. Say it clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Say it regularly as a n...

Say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time and your life. Say no graciously but firmly to avoid agreeing to something against your will. Say it early and say it often.

For you to do something new, you must complete or stop doing something old.

Getting in requires getting out. Picking up means putting down.

Creative procrastination is the act of thoughtfully and deliberately deciding upon the exact things you are not...

Your job is to deliberately procrastinate on tasks that are of low value so that you have more time for tasks that can make a big difference in your life and work.

Continually review your duties and responsibilities to identify time-consuming tasks and activities that you can abandon with no real loss.