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Eat That Frog

Eat That Frog

I’ll admit it, I picked up this audiobook by Brian Tracy because of the title alone, but it turned out to be a good book. Its tagline is “21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time”. Eat That Frog! actually refers to a quote from Mark Twain, which says,

If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through day with the satisfaction of knowing that that’s probably the worst thing that’s going to happen to you all day long.

The basic premise of the book is that you should do the thing that you most want to procrastinate on FIRST each day, because chances are that thing is exactly the item that will have the largest positive impact on your life and productivity. I’ve listened to the audiobook twice now, and will probably pick up the hard copy version as well so that I can go through it more slowly. It’s jam-packed with useful information.

It’s very workplace-oriented (he mentions that you should go in to work early, for example, and talks about finding the one thing you could do that would most improve your performance on the job) but most of the concepts could easily be translated to other areas of your life.

He starts out by saying that “there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time available to you, no matter how much it is.” Hearing that was actually kind of a relief, because if there’s no way I can get EVERYTHING done, maybe it’s ok to focus only on the most IMPORTANT thing. Afterall, there will always be more laundry.

Here are a few other quotes from the book that I found helpful:

  • The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well, and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievment, respect, status, and happiness in life.
  • One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
  • Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.
  • Long-term thinking improves short-term decision making.
  • What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive effect on my career?
View Comments (3)
  • This seems like a good cure for procrastination. I read a similar suggestion in a book recently: do at least two things you don’t want a day.

  • I’ve heard this from a few other authors. I’ve tried to apply it but my bad habits of putting off the things that I didn’t want to do kicks in too often. It is a good tip and works well for me when I actually do the worst thing first.

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