Eat That Frog

Eat that frog

By Brain Tracy

There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. You are literally swamped with work and personal responsibilities, projects, stack of magazine to read and bundles of book you intend to get to one of these days as soon as you get caught up. But the fact is that you are never going to get free from all these things. You cannot reach to the point where you want to reach and not be able to get to all those books, magazines and freedom of activities that you dream of doing. And forget about solving your time management problems by becoming more productive. But you can get control of your life and time; the only thinking is that you have to change your thinking and working methods. Exclude most of the activities and just take more time to do the selected tasks, which can really change your life. Some people do better performance than other because they do the thing differently.

Every morning eat a frog

The first rule to eat a frog is “If you have to eat two frogs, then eat the ugliest one first.” Means if you have two important tasks then you start with the biggest, hardest and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to continue until the task is complete before you go on to something else. Do not let yourself be fooled by the temptation to start by doing simple things.

The second rule of frog eating is “if you have to eat alive frog at all, it doesn’t have to look at it for very long time.” The key to reaching high level of performance and productivity is for you to developing the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first. Before doing any task make a habit of “eating a frog daily” and do not waste your precious time thinking more about it.

Develop the habit of success

Your success in life and work will be determined by the kinds of habits that you develop over time. The habit of setting priorities, stop doing procrastination and getting on with your most important task is a mental and physical skill. This habit can be learned from practice and repetition. Repeatedly doing the same work you can enter this practice into your subconscious mind and make a part of your behaviour. Once the habit is formed then it automatically executes and you will found it easy to do. Whenever you finish a work whatever its size or importance is, it doesn’t matters you will feel a positive energy inside yourself and your self-esteem would be at a boom. Whenever you finish an important work your brain releases a chemical called “Endorphin.” This endorphin makes you feel more positive, personable, creative and confident.

There is no shortcut

You would remember the story of a man who stops a musician on the road of New York and asks him about how he reaches the Carnegie Hall. The musician replied “Practice! Only practice.” Practice is a key to master in your skills. Fortunately your brain is like a muscle, it becomes more capable and powerful with use.

Three D’s of new habit formation

To put a habit of concentration and focus you need three main qualities, and these three qualities are Decision, Discipline and Determination.

First, make a decision to develop the habit of task completion.

Second, discipline yourself to practice the principle over and over until they become automatic.

Third, everything you do with determination until the habit is locked in and becomes a permanent part of your personality.

The most important reason for some people to work more quickly is that their goals and aims are always clear. That is why they didn’t forget the path. There are easy seven step formula for setting and achieving your goal.

First step: “Clearly decide what you want.” You can decide on your own or you can sit with your boss and discuss for your objectives and goals until it becomes clear in front of you.

Second Step: “Write it down.” By writing goals you make it absolutely perfect and give it a touchable form. By this you create such a thing that you can see and touch by yourself. On the other hand the goals which are not written it become only a desire or fiction which doesn’t have any energy behind it.

Third step: “Put a deadline to your goal.”Complete your goals in some short time ranges. If there is no time limit then you will be in no hurry to achieve the goal. There would be neither such real beginning nor any real meaning of such a goal.

Fourth step: “Make a list of all the things you need to reach your goal.” Whenever any new work come to your mind related to this so add it to the list. Keep making the list until the work is complete.

Fifth step: “Make a systematic list.” Arrange it serially according to priority wise. Think well which work you have to do before and which work you will do later.

Sixth step: “Take immediate action on your plan.” Do something. Do anything. An average plan executed with passion is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done. For any kind of success execution is everything.

Seventh step: “Resolve to do something every single day that moves you towards your major goal.” Add that activity to your daily schedule. You can decide on which topic you want to do some work in that specific time. It might be reading few pages of some book, or meeting with your old client or you want to spend few hours in making muscles, or you can learn a certain number of new words in a foreign language. Whatever it is, you must never miss a day.

Different list for different purpose

You should make different list for your different objectives. First you should make a master list. This list will contain the tasks that you want to achieve it in future. You can sort out the items later.

Secondly, you should have a monthly list that you should make up at the end of the month for the month ahead. This list may contain items transferred from your master list.

Thirdly, you should have a weekly list where you plan your entire week in advance. This is a list that is under construction as you go through the current week.

This discipline of systematic time planning can be very helpful to you. Many people have told me that the habit of taking a couple of hours at the end of each week to plan the coming week has increased their productivity dramatically. This technique will work for you as well.

Finally, you transfer items from your monthly and weekly list onto your daily list. These are the specific activities that you are going to accomplish that day. As you work through the day, tick off the items on your list as you complete them.

Regularly use ABCDE technique

Whenever you start your work first plan the task according to its priorities. ABCDE technique is a technique of assigning task priorities. You should use this technique daily. This technique is so easy and effective that it can make you expert and valuable in your working areas. Here’s how it works:

On paper you have to write the entire task that you are going to do on the next day. Then you place an A, B, C, D or E before each item on your list.

An “A” task is defined as something that is very important. This is the task for which there can be serious consequences if you do it or fail to do. These are the frogs of your life. If there are more “A” type work then you can assign that work with A1, A2, A3, etc. which set its priorities according to the number. Your “A” work is your biggest and ugliest frog.

A “B” task is defined as a task that you should do. But it only has mild consequences. These are the tadpoles of your work life. This means that you should never do a “B” task when these is an “A” task left undone, like reviewing your e-mail, replying an unimportant missed calls, etc.

A “C” task is defined as something that would be nice to do but for which there are no consequences at all, whether you do it or not. “C” tasks include phoning a friend, having coffee or lunch with a co-worker or completing some personal business during work hour.

A “D” task is defined as something you can delegate to someone else. The rule is that you should delegate everything that anyone else can do so that you can free up more time for the “A” tasks that only you can do.

An “E” task is defined as something that you can eliminate altogether and it won’t make any real difference. But every minute that you spend on an “E” task or activity that can make a real difference in your life.

After you have applied the ABCDE method to your list you will now be completely organized and ready to get more important things done faster.