A phrase you hear all too often.
For far too long I found myself repeating this phrase at least 3 times a day until I was handed the Bible of productivity; ‘Eat That Frog’ by Brian Tracy.
For those of you who know me, I am not a reader at all. I think the last book I read of my own free will was about a pasty vampire and his human girlfriend who he was dying to eat – very sad I know. However, if you are down for a quick and easy read and would like some hot tips on how to best manage your time in order to be and do your best both at work and in your personal life, I would highly recommend it!
Brian Tracy explains that “There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day.”
So, what is the frog?
The frog is that one super important task that you absolutely need to do but might not necessarily want or like to do. It is that one task that will produce the best results but is the one task that you are most likely to procrastinate doing. The theory is, if the first thing you do in your day is eat that frog, you can continue the rest of your day with the complete satisfaction of knowing the worst is over – as well as feel awesome about yourself for actually getting it done!
Like me, you might have a few tasks that appear to be equally as froggy.
The truth is, there is always a frog that is uglier. Once you have determined the scale of ugliness with all of your key tasks, you can go ahead and eat the ugliest one 1st, followed by the 2nd… and 3rd… and so on.
So that’s the underlying theory, but the book goes on to describe 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. I can tell you first hand that it won’t turn you into a time-management wiz overnight, but I do promise you that if you implement some of its suggestions in both your work and personal life, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
As Brian Tracy puts it “the key to happiness, satisfaction, great success, and a wonderful feeling of personal power and effectiveness is for you to develop the habit of eating your frog first thing every day when you start work”.
Now, go eat that ugly frog!