Book Notes: Eat That Frog (Brian Tracy)

This book helped me understand how we can overcome procrastination and what we can do to get more things done in less time.

📙 About The Book

Title: Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastination And Get More Done In Less Time
Author: Brian Tracy

🚀 Book Highlights

You might want to check out the book highlights and key ideas here.

🗒 Summary + Notes

Here are the 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done in less time, as mentioned in the book:

I. Set the table

• Decide exactly what you want and write it down (think on paper).
• Set deadlines (or sub-deadlines, if necessary) on your goals, and list all that you need to do to accomplish your goal.
• Organize the list into a plan and take action on your plan immediately. Resolve to do something every single day that will take you closer to accomplishing your goal.

II. Plan every day in advance

• Every minute spent on planning can save you five to ten minutes in execution as highlighted by the Six-P formula — “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance”.
• Create different lists for different purposes. Say, you have a master list that contains everything you wish to do in the future along with a monthly list, a weekly list, and a daily list.
• As you go on accomplishing the tasks, tick them off the list. This will give you a visual picture of accomplishment and a feeling of success and forward motion. You will also see a rise in your self-esteem and self-respect. This visual picture is what will help drive you to overcome procrastination.
• Another important rule is the 10/90 rule which states that the first 10 percent of time spent in planning and organizing your work before beginning will save you as much as 90 percent of time in execution and accomplishment once you get started.

III. Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything

• The 80/20 rule states that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.
• One of the facts is that people tend to procrastinate on the top 10 or 20 percent of the most valuable and important tasks and keep them busy with the remaining tasks that contribute very little to the results that we want.
• An important rule is — “Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.” Before beginning the work you should ask yourself if the task you are picking up lies in the top 20 percent or the bottom 80 percent.
• In short, you should spend more time working on the few areas that can really make a difference to your life and career and spend relatively less time on lower-value activities.

IV. Consider the consequences

• You need to understand that the most important tasks are the ones that can have serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life and career.
• Some of the important rules are:

a. Long-term thinking improves short-term decision-making.
b. Future intent influences and often determines present actions.
c. There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.

• Many people say that they work better under the pressure of deadlines. Years of research have shown that deadlines are merely excuses. In fact, working under the pressure of deadlines can lead to stress, more mistakes, and the danger of redoing more tasks. Hence, it is better to accomplish your tasks well in time without waiting for the deadlines.
• Another way to focus on completing your most important tasks is to ask the three questions for maximum productivity before beginning your work:

1. “What are my highest-value activities?”
2. 2. “What can I and only I do, that if done well, will make a real difference?”
3. 3. “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?”

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

Wonderful words by Goethe:

Only engage, and the mind grows heated. Begin it, and the work will be completed.

V. Practice creative procrastination

• Procrastinating on low-value tasks can help change your life for good.

Get rid of the tadpoles and focus on the frogs.

• Since you can’t do everything you have to do, try to deliberately put off the lower-value tasks so that you have enough time to accomplish the ones that really matter.
• Learn to say NO politely to anything that is absolutely not vital to you.
• Set your priorities and posteriorities and procrastinate on purpose on your posteriorities until you have worked on your priorities.

VI. Use the ABCDE Method continually

• ABCDE is a priority-setting technique that will help you become much more efficient and productive.
• All you need to do is prepare a list of everything you have to do for the coming day and then place the letters A, B, C, D, and E next to each item on your list before you begin with your first task as follows:
  A = Something that you “must” do
  B = Something that you “should” do
  C = Something that would be “nice” to do
  D = Something that you can “delegate” to someone else
  E = Something that you can “eliminate” altogether
  Note: If you have more than one task in a particular category, then use the numbers to label the tasks. e.g. A-1, A-2, A-3 … where A-1 is the highest priority task and so on.

VII. Focus on key result areas

A key result area is defined as something for which you are completely responsible. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.

Rule: Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.

Poor performance produces procrastination.

-Identify the key result areas of your work and identify that one key skill that can help you the most if you do it excellently. Discuss this with your boss or manager. Invite honest feedback and appraisal and work on it to be a better version of yourself. Make a habit of doing this analysis regularly for the rest of your career.

VIII. Apply the Law of Three

Rule: It is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters.

Identify the top three things you do at work that constitute the major portion of your contributions, organize them by priority, and do them before anything else. You will observe that you will then have more time for your family and personal life.

IX. Prepare thoroughly before you begin
Begin with a clean and comfortable workspace by putting aside everything else except the things and materials that you require for the task at hand. Then start your work and keep going until the job is finished.

X. Take it one oil barrel at a time
Select any project that you need to do and on which you have been procrastinating for long. Next, list down all the steps required to finish that project and jump right into the first task. Take one task at a time and go on until you finish the project.

XI. Upgrade your key skills
Determine the core competencies that you will need to lead in your field. Set your goals, develop a plan, and begin working on your abilities in those areas to unlock your true personal potential.

XII. Identify your key constraints

• Identify your most important goal and the limiting factor or that one key constraint that sets the speed at which you accomplish your goal.
• Ask yourself about what factors have been holding you back. Whatever your answers are, act on them and do everything you can to enhance your speed.

XIII. Put the pressure on yourself

• Create a “forcing system” for yourself by setting deadlines and sub-deadlines on your tasks.
• Determine the amount of time you will require to complete each phase of your task.
• Then try to race against your own clock and beat your deadlines.

XIV. Motivate yourself into action

Focus on the solution rather than the problem.

• Be your own cheerleader, be optimistic, and be constructive by talking more about the things you want rather than the things you don’t want.
• Learn to accept complete responsibility for everything that happens to you.
• Focus on what you can do and let the rest go.

XV. Technology is a terrible master
Don’t be a slave to technology. Try to switch off your gadgets for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and observe what happens. You will be amazed to see that “nothing” happens. A digital detox will help you have a calm and clear mind.

XVI. Technology is a wonderful servant
Use technology as a tool to confront yourself with what is important and to protect yourself from what is not. You can turn off all notifications except for your emergency channels and look for ways to ensure you don’t miss the important ones.

XVII. Focus your attention
Try to eliminate interruptions and distractions that serve as obstacles in your path toward accomplishing your most important tasks. Also, know that multitasking is nothing more than “task shifting”. So, try to focus your attention on one thing at a time.

XVIII. Slice and dice the task
A major reason for procrastination is the appearance of your most important tasks as large and formidable when you first try to approach them. Hence, it is important to break the large and complex tasks into smaller pieces and get started with one small piece without delay.

XIX. Create large chunks of time
Schedule large blocks of time so that you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks with the greatest consequences.

XX. Develop a sense of urgency
Identify the important areas where you procrastinate the most and resolve to move fast when working on those areas to get into the state called “flow”.

When you work on your most important tasks at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into an amazing mental state called “flow”.

Flow is the highest human state of performance and productivity in which you feel elated and clear, happy and energized.

Repeat the terms “Do it now!” and “Back to work!” whenever you feel you are slowing down or getting distracted.

XXI. Single-handle every task
Once you begin working on a task, keep working at it without diversion or distraction until it is 100 percent complete. Focus on only a single task at a time to produce more and more high-quality work in less time.

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