Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

by Brian Tracy

Refuse to criticize others, complain, or blame others for anything. Resolve to make progress rather than excuses.

There is more to life than just increasing its speed. MOHANDAS GANDHI

Technology is just a tool. MELINDA GATES

Usually, to get more done of higher value, you have to stop doing things of lower value.

Technology can be a simple way to get control of your communications, your time, and even your emotions.

Show your smartphone who’s boss by disabling all notifications—both audio and visual. This is an important step toward checking your phone on your own schedule and thus regaining control of your life.

Schedule large blocks of time for task completion into your calendar, as if they were appointments.

Everything is learnable, and what others have learned, you can learn as well.

Technology is no longer optional; it is just as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

When you make technology your servant, it can be a source of positive, motivating emotions and increased productivity.

All of life is the study of attention; where your attention goes, your life follows. JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

Current research proves that continuously responding and reacting to e-mails, telephone calls and texts, and instant messages (IM) has a negative effect on your brain, shortening your attention span and making it difficult, if not impossible, for you to complete the tasks upon which your future and your success depend.

Like the sound of bells ringing when you win while playing a slot machine, the sound of the e-mail or IM triggers the reaction of “What did I win?” You immediately stop your work to find out what your “prize” is.

After an Internet interruption, it takes about seventeen minutes for you to shift your total attention back to your task and continue working.

The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, in thought and act. ORISON SWETT MARDEN

An important point to remember is that you have deep within you an “urge to completion,” or what is often referred to as a “compulsion to closure.”

Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets. NIDO QUBEIN

Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. NAPOLEON HILL

When you work on your most important tasks at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into an amazing mental state called “flow.”

One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways to get yourself started is to repeat the words “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” over and over to yourself.

Herein lies the secret of true power. Learn, by constant practice, how to husband your resources, and to concentrate them at any given moment upon a given point. JAMES ALLEN

Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it, and then to concentrate on it single-mindedly until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.

Elbert Hubbard defined self-discipline as “the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

Self-discipline, self-mastery, and self-control are the basic building blocks of both character and high performance.

Persistence is actually self-discipline in action.