Eat That Frog!

Description

Achieve work-life balance by conquering procrastination and get your most important work done, now with new chapters on technology and maintaining focus

The fully revised and expanded edition of the global bestseller with over 3 million copies sold world-wide

The saying goes: if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, then you’re done with the toughest thing for the day. Eating that frog means tackling your most challenging task—and it’s also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life.

Productivity and time management coach Brian Tracy shows you how to organize each day so you can zero in on these critical tasks and accomplish them efficiently and effectively.

The 3 essentials of successful time management are decision, discipline, and determination, and Tracy shows you how to dial in these skills using 21 principles and techniques like:

• Single handle every task
• Upgrade your key skills
• Identify your key constraints
• Put the pressure on yourself
• Slice and dice the task

This life-changing manual will ensure that you get more of your important tasks done today.

Review

Quick read. I got through it in about two hours. Most of the advice are things that you may have heard of before. Not saying it's bad, but it's more of a reference manual / card. If short on time, you can probably just skip to the conclusion to get a gist of the key points from the book.

Quotes

Unwritten goals lead to confusion, vagueness, misdirection, and numerous mistakes. (p. 34 / 210)

One of your top goals at work should be to get the highest possible return on your investment of your mental, emotional, and physical energy. (p. 40 / 210)

Always work from a list. When something new comes up, add it to the list before you do it. (p.41 / 210)

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. (p. 57 / 210)

The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and motivate them to be the kind of people they wish they could be. The problem is that no one is coming to the rescue. (p. 116 / 210)

1. Set the table: Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin. (p. 164 & 165 / 210)

2. Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. Every minute you spend on planning can save you five or ten minutes in execution. (p. 165 / 210)

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything: Twenty percent of your activities will acount for 80 percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top 20 percent.

4. Consider the consequences: Most of your important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else. (p. 165 / 210)

5. Practice creative procrastination: Since you can't do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are too low value os that you have enough time to do the few tihngs that really count. (p. 165 / 210)

6. Use the ABCDE Method continually: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activiites. (p. 165 / 210)

7. Focus on key result areas: Identify those results that you absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well, and work on them all day long. (p. 166 / 210)

8. Apply the Law of Three: Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90 percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life. (p. 166 / 210)

9. Prepare thoroughly before you begin: Hvae everything you need at hand before you start. Assemble all the papers, information, tools, work materials, and numbers you might require so that you can get started and keep going. (p. 166 / 210)

10. Take it one barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time. (p. 166 / 210)

11. Upgrade your key skills: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become as your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done. Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well. (p. 166 / 210)

12. Identify your key contraints: Determine the bottlenecks or choke points, internal or external, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals, and focus on alleviating them. (p. 167 / 210)

13. Put the pressure on yourself: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month, and work as if you had to get your major task completed before you left. (p. 167 / 210)

14. Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive. (p. 167 / 210)

15. Technology is a terrible master: Take back your time from enslaving technological additions. Learn to often turn devices off and leave them off. (p. 167 / 210)

16. Technology is a wonderful servant: Use your technological tools to confront yourself with what is most important and protect yourself from what is least important. (p. 167 & 168 / 210)

17. Focus your attention: Stop the interruptions and distractions that interfere with completing your most important tasks. (p. 168 / 210)

18. Slice and dice the tasks: Break large, complex tasks down into bite-sized pieces, and then do just one small part of the task to get started. (p. 168 / 210)

19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time so you can concentrate on extended periods on your most important tasks. (p. 168 / 210)

20. Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well. (p. 168 / 210)

21. Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task, and then work without stopping until the job is 100 percent complete. This is the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity. (p. 168 / 210)

Notes

• Three key capabilities to develop habit of focus and concentration
  • Decision - to develop the habit of task completion
  • Discipline - yourself to practice the principles learned until they are automatic
  • Determination - until the habit is locked in and becomes a permanent part of your personality
• Think on paper
  • Step 1: Decide what you want
  • Step 2: Write it down
  • Step 3: Set a deadline for your goal
  • Step 4: Make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal
  • Step 5: Organize the list into a plan
  • Step 6: Take action on your plan immediately
  • Step 7: Resolve to do something every day that moves you toward your major goal
• Different lists for different purposes
  • Create a master list on which you write down everything you can think of that you want to do sometime in the future
  • Have a monthly list that you make at the end of the month for the month ahead
  • Have a weekly list where you plan your entire week in advance
  • Transfer items fro myour monthly and weekly lists onto your daily list
• ABCDE Method
  • A - Something that is very important, something you MUST do. Has serious positive or negative consequences.
  • B - Something you SHOULD do. Mild consequences.
  • C - Something that WOULD BE NICE to do. No consequences.
  • D - Something you can DELEGATE. Delegate anything to free up time for A tasks only YOU can do.
  • E - Something you can ELIMINATE. Something that may have been important at one time but no longer relevant.
• On optimist behaviors
  • Look for the good in every situation.
  • Seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty
  • Look for the solution to every problem
  • Think and talk continually about their goals
• On steps to mastery
  • Read in your field for at least one hour every day
  • Take every course and seminar available
  • Listen to audio programs in your car
  • NOTE: I'd add making things to this. You can take all the courses and read all the books, but if you don't put things to practice, mastery is limited.

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