Eat That Frog

Do you also have a habit of postponing things? Do you need help doing something at the right time? Do you want to do a lot in your life but cannot manage it? Do you need help understanding what to do first and what to do later?

If these questions surround you and need help understanding what to do precisely. This summary of the book Eat That Frog is going to be of great use to you.

Today, the book we will discuss is Eat That Frog, written by Brian Tracy.

Canadian-American Brian Tracy has been in economics, history, psychology, and business for over 30 years. He has contributed to and written over 70 books as a top-selling author.

In addition, Tracy is passionate about public speaking and addresses many corporate and public audiences about personal and professional development.

Eat that Frog by Brain Tracy is a well-written and easy-to-digest list of 21 tips to help you stop procrastinating and get more work done.

At Readersbooksclub, we read all books before summarizing them. Therefore, I have read this book and will now share some essential takeaways from it. This particular book was immensely helpful in assisting me with task delegation and timely fulfillment.

This is an excellent guide for anyone overwhelmed with work and needing help knowing where to start. Brian Tracy shares different methods for planning and prioritizing, shows you how to identify the most critical tasks, and gives tips for keeping focused.

So let’s take a look at the 21 tips of this book and understand them.

1. Brain Tracy’s three D’s

To improve yourself, focus on the three D’s, decision, discipline, and determination. The decision must complete tasks and see them through to the end. Discipline comes into play when you must repeat new patterns repeatedly until they are automated. Finally, Tracy explains that determination is essential in the introductory stages of any new habit. It would help if you were determined to drive the motivation to continue until your practice becomes more natural.

2. Part clarity

Having clarity over goals and objectives is one of the essential tools when it comes to productivity. When you are clear on your goals and what to do to achieve them, you will work faster and get more done. Tracy outlines the seven key steps you need to follow to achieve a sense of clarity and get more done:

1. Decide what it is that you want.
2. Commit to that by writing it down.
3. Establish a deadline and sub-deadlines for specific tasks.
4. Identify everything that needs to be done to reach your goal and write it down in a list.
5. Arrange your list into a clear plan, beginning with what needs to be addressed first.
6. Start actioning your plan as soon as possible.
7. Commit to working on something daily to ensure you do everything possible to reach your goal.

Clear written goals have a tremendous effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy, and help you to overcome procrastination as much as any other factor.

3. Planning in advance

You should plan every single day. Only reach a day if you know what you plan to get done. Being able to plan things will significantly affect your life; you will never approach a day of the unknown, and you’ll always understand what is expected of you and what you expect of yourself.

Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination.

Tracy defines his Six-P Formula: proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Tracy explains that planning is a simple task.

When you have a large project pending, take the time to list all steps required to complete the task. If these steps are arranged according to priority and deadlines, you’ll have a clear timeline and plan immediately. Work from the top of the list down, and you’ll make massive progress before you know it.

4. 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule can be applied to everything. 80/20 is a popular way to view business and sales behavior. For example, 20% of what you do will likely account for 80% of your results.

You may have a list of 10 different tasks or jobs. One or two are likely significantly more critical; these are the tasks you must do first. Prioritize your list in order of importance.

The most valuable tasks you can do daily are often the most challenging and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on jobs in the bottom 80 percent while you still have lessons in the top 20 percent left to be done. Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.

5. Understand all consequences & your time

Before you take on any task or activity, Tracy recommends that you consider the potential outcomes and consequences of said task. This is what should help you determine the importance of the study.

Another thing that Tracy suggests you consider is how you view your time. He explains that anyone with a long-term view of their life will likely make significantly better decisions about how their time is spent and on what tasks. Likewise, if you think about your future, 5 – 10 years, you’ll likely make choices and act to ensure you will reach your long-term goals. This will significantly increase your productivity and work output.

6. Is procrastination ever ok?

It would help if you practiced creative procrastination. Unfortunately, the reality is that you are unlikely to be able to get every single thing you need to do done on any given day. So you’ll need to let something go, and you procrastinate on the smaller tasks. The little bits and pieces that can be time wasters are often the tasks you can skip. If you choose to procrastinate on your trim, unimportant tasks, you’ll find yourself more successful than if you decide to procrastinate on the essential, value-adding tasks.

7. ABCDE method

Tracy explains that the ABCDE method is one way you can set your priorities daily. It’s a simple method that has the potential to save you time and increase your productivity tenfold.

1. Begin with a list of all of your daily tasks.
2. Label each task with an a, b, c, d, or e.
3. A, the essential task, must be done today. And there can be more than 1 A job, but again, prioritize these as A1, A2, A3, etc.
4. Tasks labeled B, C, D, or E will be dealt with only once all A tasks are completed. These tasks are not your priority. They get done once your preferences have been fully addressed.

8. Key results area

It would help if you focused on your key result areas—a key result area that you are entirely in control of and responsible for its completion. It will only get done if you do it.

When working in an office, you must discuss with your boss or superior and identify your key result areas. These are your most important responsibilities, and it’s vital that you and everyone that you work with understand which areas of work are designated to whom.

9. Law of three

You must identify three critical tasks that offer the most value and contribution to you or your company. This is where your focus needs to be the majority of the time.

You have three key areas: family/relationships, health/fitness, and career. If you have one goal for each site, focus on the right things.

10. Preparation

Tracy explains that preparation is critical. To avoid procrastination and wasting time, the best thing to do is ensure you have every tool or resource required before you begin a task. Being prepared means, you won’t have to divert from the work to get something you need. Instead, you can knuckle down and focus on the job as soon as you are ready, without distractions until the task is completed.

11. Skill upgrades

Tracy explains that often when you feel like you need more knowledge or ability to complete a task, you’ll find yourself procrastinating. It has to do with lacking confidence in ability. The best way to prevent this procrastination is to upgrade your skills and constantly learn. You’ll never know everything you need to know, so dedicating yourself to always learning will benefit you in the long run.

Learning continually is the minimum requirement for success; there are three steps you can take to reach the required mastery:

1. Read for 60 minutes about something relevant to your field daily.
2. Whenever an opportunity for a course or seminar arises, take it.
3. Use your driving time to listen to relevant audiobooks or podcasts.

12. Special talents

Tracy explains that every individual has unique talents or abilities that help them stand out from the rest. The key is to identify what yours are and leverage these to boost your career.

13. Constraints

As we all have unique talents, Tracy acknowledges that we all have vital constraints. For example, one thing may be standing in your way from achieving your goals. However, if you can identify your condition and devise a plan to combat your weakness, you can proceed and reach your goals.

14. Pressure is useful

Although it gets a bad rep, Tracy explains that putting pressure on yourself often is the key to success. He explains that only a few people can work without supervision or stress. Most people rely on leaders to impose time constraints and pressure to finish work. You’ll progress rapidly if you can learn to put pressure on yourself without depending on someone else’s input.

15. Personal powers

You and your body are essentially a machine. It would help you to be well-oiled, fuelled, and rested to perform at your best. It’s not only about the physical but also your mental and emotional energies that need to be looked after. If you look after yourself well, you’ll be able to work harder and work longer; Tracy has four tips for maximizing your powers:

1. Don’t overwork.
2. Understand what your ideal work pace is.
3. Ensure that you get enough sleep daily.
4. Look after your physical and mental health, and pay attention to it.

16. Motivation

Motivation is one of those funny traits; many assume it’s something you either have or don’t. But that’s not the case. It’s not the event that determines your feelings but how you interpret them. It determines whether these events motivate or de-motivate you. Tracy explains that being an optimist is the best way to remain motivated. Don’t take words or reactions the wrong way; instead, constantly search for the good.” you must refuse to let the unavoidable difficulties and setbacks of daily life affect your mood or emotions .”

17. Technology

Although we struggle to remember life before technology and can’t imagine what we’d do without it, technology can be a real-time waste. The new era of the internet has allowed us to communicate or access information constantly. Personal or business-related. It’s become an impending distraction that Tracy identifies as problematic. This is also an increasing problem regarding working; being constantly accessible means distraction arises more regularly than ever.

Remember, nothing happens when you go away for a day, a week, or a month and need to be in touch with your communication devices. The world continues revolving whether or not you are in continuous contact with it.

18. How to slice & dice

Another technique that Tracy recommends is to slice and dice the task, or as Tracy puts it, reducing a big job to a salami slice size. This is an effective method of handling multiple charges; you detail the entire task, then break it down into more manageable tasks or slices. You can start with a tiny piece and know you are still progressing.

Psychologically, you will find it easier to do a single, small piece of a large project than to start the whole job. Tracy explains that once you’ve completed one slice, no matter how small, you’ll feel motivated to keep the ball rolling and move on to the next.

19. Time

They are setting aside large chunks of time so you can focus on the vital work. These blocks of time must be unbroken and uninterrupted. Schedule these time chunks in advance and commit to them.

20. Urgency & Momentum

It would be best if you created a sense of urgency so that there is momentum to work. When you regularly take continuous action toward your most important goals, you activate the momentum principle of success. “Tracy explains that the momentum principle of success explains that although getting started may seem to take an initially large amount of energy, the energy required to keep going will be significantly less.

21. Single handling

To single-handle a task, you are required to work only on that task, without any distraction from beginning to completion, focusing on only one thing at a time. Tracy explains that by concentrating on only one task at a time and avoiding all distractions, you can reduce the time spent by up to 50%. That’s worth doing!

So everyone, keep this in mind.

Key takeaways

• Have clarity on your goals and objectives.
• Plan your day.
• Apply the 80/20 rule to everything.
• Be constantly learning and upgrading your skills.
• Slice and dice tasks into smaller, actionable steps.
• Do one task at a time only.

Eat That Frog Book Review

As someone who has often struggled with procrastination, I was excited to dive into “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy. I was drawn to the book by its intriguing title and the promise of practical advice to help me overcome procrastination and boost my productivity.

From the very beginning, the book captivated me with its straightforward approach and actionable advice. I appreciated how Tracy focused on the most important and challenging tasks—our ‘frogs’—and encouraged tackling them head-on as the key to overcoming procrastination. This concept has stuck with me, and I now make a conscious effort to address my most daunting tasks first, which has significantly improved my daily productivity.

The book is well-structured, with each chapter discussing a different strategy to improve time management and productivity. Some of my favorite strategies include the “ABCDE” method for prioritizing tasks, the “Swiss Cheese” method for breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces, and the “4-D” system for managing emails and other daily tasks. These techniques have not only helped me become more organized but also made me feel more in control of my work and personal life.

I particularly appreciated the chapters on maintaining a positive mindset and developing self-discipline, as I believe these are crucial to achieving success in any area of life. Tracy’s emphasis on the importance of continuous learning and growth also resonated with me, prompting me to invest more time in my personal and professional development.

The third edition’s addition of two chapters on technology was a welcome update, as it provided practical tips on managing the distractions and potential pitfalls of living in an increasingly connected world. Tracy’s advice on leveraging technology to enhance productivity, rather than allowing it to consume our time, has been particularly helpful in my efforts to find a balance between staying connected and staying focused.

In conclusion, my experience with “Eat That Frog!” has been transformative. Brian Tracy’s clear writing, practical advice, and actionable strategies have helped me to overcome my procrastination tendencies and achieve more in both my personal and professional life. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their time management skills and increase their overall productivity. “Eat That Frog!” is an essential read for those who want to take control of their lives and achieve their goals.

Our summaries are also available on all Podcast platforms, named “Kitabein,” which recently won India’s best educational podcast award.

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