Aug

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

I recently rediscovered a book by Brian Tracy – Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time – I remember that during the year 2005 I used that time management system from this book and it was a very good system, however, it only make sense to follow a time management system if you have goals to fulfil.
The idea behind Eat That Frog! Is that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with satisfaction of knowing that that the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.[pg 2]
The live frog is the most difficult task among your list of most important tasks to achieve your goals.

“If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”[pg 2]

Tip 1 – Set the table

I revisited my present goals and I used that book for the planning of them, the book recommend to work on your ten most goals of the year, I found this to be impossible, I narrowed down my list to three goals for the next 6 months (end of January 2008) , the most important is to move in a big apartment in Valencia city center (Spain)(note: making a goal public is a good way to pressure myself to actually work toward the accomplishment of that goal).

The first chapter of the book encourage you to think on paper and to write your goals.

Tip 2 – Plan Every Day in Advance

According to Brian Tracy “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance” to that, I will add if you aren’t prepared then prepare to fail.
Planning the day in advance is great motivation especially if you make that an habit.

Tip 3 – Apply the 80/20 rule to Everything

That was an eyes opener to me – assuming that 20 % of your tasks will account for 80 % of the value of what you do, then I noticed and Brian Tracy also noticed that we are most probably procrastinating on that 20 % of high value tasks.

Resist the temptation to clear up small things first [pg 21]

I found reading and answering e-mails particularly time consuming yet for a long time I used to start my day with this valueless activity.

Tip 4 – Consider the Consequences

The mark of superior thinker is his/her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something. The consequences of any task or activity are the keys determinants of how important it really is to you and your company.[pg 25]

Tip 5 – Practice the ABCDE Method Continually

This is one of the key piece of the whole system, it is a rating system to determinate the order in which you will do your tasks.
A – Must do or face severe consequences
B – Should do with mild consequences
C – Would be nice to do with little consequences
D – Can be delegated to someone else
E – Can be eliminated
You can have more than on A so the most important A will be A1 then A2, and so on for each categories.

Blogging and posting articles on my various websites is only a B activity this explains why I wrote less during the last few days even if I want to use some of the money I can make online to finance my next home, like Darren Rowse who bought himself a new house with the money he made with blogging he run 5 blogs/sites I run 6, blogging and posting articles is a B using the principles in the Secret and from Klaus Joehle is A. During the first 12 days of august I made more money than in the entire July so definitively using these principles are most important for me.

Tip 6 – Focus On Keys Result Areas

What one skill, if I developed and did it an excellent fashion , would have the greatest positive impact on my career ? [pg 39]

In my case concentration is the most important skill to improve and develop.

Tip 7 – Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency

The idea is simple:

There is never enough time to do everything , but there is always time to do the most important things. [pg 41]

Tip 8 – Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin

Simple recommendations to prepare your task before you start it.

Tip 9 – Do Your Homework

That one has been my motto for a long time:

Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field [pg 52]

Tip 10 – Leverage your special Talents

Focusing on what you do best and improve yourself in that area.

Tip 11 – Identify Your Key Constraints

Once you know your limiting factors you can work on removing them or at least reducing them greatly, do this one by one, until have no blocks at front of you.

Tip 12 – Take it One Boil Barrel at Time

Perform one task at the time quickly and well.

Tip 13 – Put the pressure on yourself

This one is self explanatory more on this my previous post on that.

Tip 14 – Maximize your Personal Powers

You must have a balance between your work and your physical well being, that why I go work out at a gym and also go running, going for a walk in the park also help me to keep balance. If you work too much you aren’t going to make it trust me on this. Health is important.

Tip 15 – Motivate Yourself into Action

Motivation could fill an entire book, Brian Tracy just says talk to yourself in a winning way.

Tip 16 – Practice Creative Procrastination

You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities [pg 86]

Watching TV is the lowest value activity I can name especially for someone like me working from home. Reading forums comes second I used to read 5 forums I trimmed down the list to two forums (they are low traffic forums), I will also have to do something for all those blog RSS feeds I read especially the one about mobile phones technology, it is time consuming , they are a lot to read everyday yet none of that help to achieve my goals.

Tip 17 – Do the Most Difficult Task First

This is the greatest advice and I can see the difference now that I start the day with these tasks.

Tip 18 – Slice and Dice the Task

Make sense to divide a task in smallest easy to do task, sometimes task look big and discouraging because they aren’t sliced to smaller easy to do piece.

Tip 19 – Create Large Chunks of Time

Think continually of different ways that you can save, schedule, and consolidate large chunks of time. Use this time to work on important tasks with the most significant long-term consequences.

Tip 20 – Develop a Sense of Urgency

Yes, if you think that your tasks can be postponed to tomorrow then you are in trouble.
A Saint cannot reclaims a wasted minutes the same goes for you. Don’t wait ,..and if you wait analyse where this ‘wait’ is coming from ….may be, some issues will emerge.

Tip 21 – Single Handle Every task

Once you begin a task refuse to stop until the job is finished.

My conclusion: Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time Is a very fine time management system but it is only good if you have some goals to achieve I still recommend to listen Klaus Joehle book –” Money Is Love: Something are worth believing in ” to complement the system.
It takes also a little of time to get used to this system so during the first weeks be tender to you if you cant integrated completely.

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