A compendium of Eat That Frog

Notes on Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. Chapter summaries in my own words, plus the notes I made while reading.

Introduction

The "frog" is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on. The idea comes from Mark Twain: if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, the rest of the day can only get better. Two rules follow:

People who get ahead are action oriented: they start on their major task directly and stay on it until it is done. Like any skill, this gets easier with practice.

Set the table

Clarity comes first. Most procrastination comes from being vague about what you are trying to do and why. Think on paper.

  1. Decide exactly what you want
  2. Write it down
  3. Set a deadline, with sub-deadlines if needed
  4. Literally make a list of all the goals you need to achieve to reach the end destination
  5. Organize the list into a plan, by priority and sequence
  6. Take action immediately
Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building. ~ Stephen Covey

Plan every day in advance

The 10/90 rule: the first 10% of time spent planning saves up to 90% of the time spent doing. Keep a running list for the day, week and month, and always work from it.

Apply the 80/20 rule to everything

20% of your tasks produce 80% of your results. Being busy is not the same as accomplishing things, and an important task usually takes about as long as an unimportant one, so pick the important one.

Consider the consequences

People with a long time horizon make better choices. A task is important if doing it, or not doing it, has long-term consequences.

Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency: there is never enough time to do everything, but always enough for the most important thing.

Deadlines are an excuse: working under deadline pressure, often self-created by procrastination, means more stress, more mistakes and more rework.

Tres question el maximem productive

The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least. ~ Goethe

Practice creative procrastination

Everyone procrastinates; high performers choose what to procrastinate on. Delay, delegate or drop low-value work on purpose. A priority is something you do more of and sooner; a posteriority is something you do less of and later, if at all. Zero-based thinking helps: if you weren't already doing this, knowing what you know now, would you start?

Use the ABCDE method

Label every item on your list before you start:

Then start on your A-1 task and stay on it until it is done.

Focus on key result areas

Identify the handful of areas your results depend on, grade yourself 1 to 10 in each, and work on the weakest. People avoid the areas they are bad at, which only makes them worse. Ask which one skill, done excellently, would help your career the most.

The Law of Three

Three tasks account for most of the value you contribute; everything else supports them or can be delegated or dropped. If you only have 30 seconds to write down your three most important goals, the answer will be about as accurate as if you had hours.

Take it one oil barrel at a time

Tracy crossed the Sahara by steering from one oil drum marker to the next. Big goals work the same way: focus on the next single step, not the whole task.

A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. ~ Confucius

Upgrade your key skills

Feeling inadequate at part of a task is enough to stop you starting it. Keep learning: read in your field every day, take courses, and use commute time for audio.

If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. ~ Pat Riley

Leverage your special talents

Your earning ability is your most valuable asset. Work out what you do easily that others find hard, since that is usually also what you enjoy most.

Identify your key constraints

Every goal has one limiting factor that sets its pace; find it and focus there. Most constraints, about 80%, are internal, so start by asking what in you is holding you back.

Put the pressure on yourself

Don't wait for someone else to push you. Work as if you only had one day to finish your most important jobs before leaving for a month.

Maximize your personal powers

Find the times of day you work best and use them for your hardest tasks. When overtired, rest; a long night's sleep can be worth more than working late.

Motivate yourself into action

Self-esteem drives persistence, and optimism is learnable. Optimists look for the good in a situation, the lesson in a setback, and the solution to a problem, and they keep talking about their goals.

Get out of the technological time sinks

Constant connectivity is a form of addiction. Switch off regularly so you can do real work.

Slice and dice the task

The "salami slice" method: break a big task into small pieces and do one at a time. The "Swiss cheese" method: punch a small hole in the task by working on it for just five or ten minutes. Finishing even a small piece builds momentum.

Create large chunks of time

Important work needs long, unbroken blocks. Schedule them in advance.

Develop a sense of urgency

Working fast and continuously on important tasks leads to flow, and momentum makes it easier to keep going once started. When distracted, tell yourself: “Back to work!”

Single handle every task

Once you start your most important task, keep at it until it is 100% complete. Every restart costs time to get back up to speed.

Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. ~ Elbert Hubbard