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Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time Paperback – January 1, 2007
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The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 1.5 million copies sold worldwide and translated into 42 languages) will change your life. There just isn't enough time for everything on our "To Do" list—and there never will be. Successful people don't try to do everything. They learn to focus on the most important tasks and make sure they get done.
There's an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day. Using “eat that frog” as a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day—the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also probably the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life—Eat That Frog! shows you how to zero in on these critical tasks and organize your day. You'll not only get more done faster, but get the right things done.
Bestselling author Brian Tracy cuts to the core of what is vital to effective time management: decision, discipline, and determination. In this fully revised and updated second edition, he provides brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating your time. He details twenty-one practical and doable steps that will help you stop procrastinating and get more of the important tasks done—today!
- Print length128 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBerrett-Koehler Publishers
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2007
- Dimensions6.17 x 0.39 x 8.01 inches
- ISBN-101576754227
- ISBN-13978-1576754221
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Micro Business Hub
“If you find procrastination to be a consistent problem in your life, Eat
That Frog! offers a concise and valuable collection of tactics to try. The reasons for each person’s procrastination are different, so it’s good that Tracy’s tactics are fairly diverse and attack many different avenues of procrastination.”
—The Simple Dollar
“Eat That Frog! is my favourite book on productivity, and I often find myself rereading it in January to remind myself of the disciplines and practices I’d like to follow in the coming year. Each time I read the book, I find new nuggets of productivity gold.”
—Liz Gooster, Change for the Better
“Everyone has a frog, and eating that frog is the best thing you can do to stop procrastinating. Procrastination is a time-killer, and Tracy has a way of making getting over that frog fun and exciting. Every chapter presents a new idea, tip, and technique that will help you overcome that inner laziness that keeps you on the couch at night instead of in the gym.”
—Peanut Press
“Eat That Frog!, small in pages but huge in content, offers a cure for the curse of modern-day living: procrastination. Even though the medicine sounds painful (bush tucker trail kind of stuff), it isn’t. Like you,
I have read zillions of books—and most of the time I can’t remember anything that I have just read. Not with this one. I’m eating frogs daily and feeling better for it! I can’t recommend Eat That Frog! enough.”
—Corinna Richards, The Coaching Academy
“This book gave me the kick in the pants I needed to organize my to do lists, plan my days, become more productive, and get focused.”
—Beth Anne Schwamberger, Brilliant Business Moms
“Eat That Frog! is the most accessible book on time management and personal productivity—I recommend you read this one before you learn any particular time management system. There are tons of exercises and techniques that you can implement right away, and that is what I like the most about the book—it gives you actionable steps so you can start right away.”
—Thanh Pham, Asian Effi ciency
“An impactful read. The 21 ways that [Tracy] shares are real game changers, if you read with an eye towards self-improvement and an intention to make a change. I have benefi ted greatly from this book, and I highly recommend that you pick up your own copy today.”
—Chris Moore, Reflect on This
“We strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to manage her time well and also add value to herself in this competitive world.”
—The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership
“I wasn’t expecting all that much from the book initially, as the whole ‘eating a frog’ seemed like some new age nonsense that didn’t really apply in real life. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The best thing about this book is that it actually tells you what you should do. It doesn’t just spout philosophy after philosophy about dreams and hope. It gives solid, practical advice that applies to pretty much every one—students, employees, stay-at-home moms, entrepreneurs, etc. Whether you’re having time management issues or not, I’d recommend you pick up this book. You’re sure to learn something useful from it.”
—Fab, Shocks and Shoes
“This book distinguishes itself from others of the same type by laying out specific guidelines for developing the self-discipline that allows you to start and complete important tasks in sequence. Each of the 21 chapters offers clear instructions and practice exercises to help you determine if you are making the best use of your time at any given moment. You’ll learn how to prepare yourself mentally and physically to tackle the task at hand, along with strategies for dividing it into manageable segments to keep you moving forward. You’ll even find out what to tell yourself to do if you’re having trouble getting started, or become distracted and need to get back on track.”
—Carnegie Library Business Librarians, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
This is a wonderful time to be alive. There have never been more possibilities and opportunities for you to achieve more of your goals than exist today. As perhaps never before in human history, you are actually drowning in options. In fact, there are so many good things that you can do that your ability to decide among them may be the critical determinant of what you accomplish in life.
If you are like most people today, you are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. As you struggle to get caught up, new tasks and responsibilities just keep rolling in, like the waves of the ocean. Because of this, you will never be able to do everything you have to do. You will never be caught up. You will always be behind in some of your tasks and responsibilities, and probably in many of them.
The Need to Be Selective
For this reason, and perhaps more than ever before, your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop.
An average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans but who gets very little done.
The Truth about Frogs
Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.
Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.
The first rule of frog eating is this:
If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.
Think of this as a test. Treat it like a personal challenge. Resist the temptation to start with the easier task. Continually remind yourself that one of the most important decisions you make each day is what you will do immediately and what you will do later, if you do it at all.
The second rule of frog eating is this:
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long.
The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.
Take Action Immediately
In study after study of men and women who get paid more and promoted faster, the quality of “action orientation” stands out as the most observable and consistent behavior they demonstrate in everything they do. Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.
In our world, and especially in our business world, you are paid and promoted for getting specific, measurable results. You are paid for making a valuable contribution and especially for making the most important contribution that is expected of you.
“Failure to execute” is one of the biggest problems in organizations today. Many people confuse activity with accomplishment. They talk continually, hold endless meetings, and make wonderful plans, but in the final analysis, no one does the job and gets the results required.
Develop the Habits 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, overcoming procrastination, and getting on with your most important task is a mental and physical skill. As such, this habit is learnable through practice and repetition, over and over again, until it locks into your subconscious mind and becomes a permanent part of your behavior. Once it becomes a habit, it becomes both automatic and easy to do.
This habit of starting and completing important tasks has an immediate and continuous payoff. You are designed mentally and emotionally in such a way that task completion gives you a positive feeling. It makes you happy. It makes you feel like a winner.
Whenever you complete a task of any size or importance, you feel a surge of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem. The more important the completed task, the happier, more confident, and more powerful you feel about yourself and your world.
The completion of an important task triggers the release of endorphins in your brain. These endorphins give you a natural “high.” The endorphin rush that follows successful completion of any task makes you feel more positive, personable, creative, and confident.
Develop a Positive Addiction
Here is one of the most important of the so-called secrets of success. You can actually develop a “positive addiction” to endorphins and to the feeling of enhanced clarity, confidence, and competence that they trigger. When you develop this addiction, you will, at an unconscious level, begin to organize your life in such a way that you are continually starting and completing ever more important tasks and projects. You will actually become addicted, in a very positive sense, to success and contribution.
One of the keys to your living a wonderful life, having a successful career, and feeling terrific about yourself is to develop the habit of starting and finishing important jobs. When you do, this behavior will take on a power of its own and you'll find it easier to complete important tasks than not to complete them.
No Shortcuts
You remember the story of the man who stops a musician on a street in New York and asks how he can get to Carnegie Hall. The musician replies, “Practice, man, practice.”
Practice is the key to mastering any skill. Fortunately, your mind is like a muscle. It grows stronger and more capable with use. With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary.
The Three Ds of New Habit Formation
You need three key qualities to develop the habits of focus and concentration, which are all learnable. They are decision, discipline, and determination.
First, make a decision to develop the habit of task completion. Second, discipline yourself to practice the principles you are about to learn over and over until they become automatic. And third, back everything you do with determination until the habit is locked in and becomes a permanent part of your personality.
Visualize Yourself as You Want to Be
There is a special way that you can accelerate your progress toward becoming the highly productive, effective, efficient person that you want to be. It consists of your thinking continually about the rewards and benefits of being an action-oriented, fast-moving, and focused person. See yourself as the kind of person who gets important jobs done quickly and well on a consistent basis.
Your mental picture of yourself has a powerful effect on your behavior. Visualize yourself as the person you intend to be in the future. Your self-image, the way you see yourself on the inside, largely determines your performance on the outside. All improvements in your outer life begin with improvements on the inside, in your mental pictures.
You have a virtually unlimited ability to learn and develop new skills, habits, and abilities. When you train yourself, through repetition and practice, to overcome procrastination and get your most important tasks completed quickly, you will move yourself onto the fast track in your life and career and step on the accelerator.
Eat That Frog!
Product details
- Publisher : Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 2nd edition (January 1, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 128 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1576754227
- ISBN-13 : 978-1576754221
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.17 x 0.39 x 8.01 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #585,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #623 in Time Management (Books)
- #2,145 in Motivational Management & Leadership
- #2,530 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Books)
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The author and executive coach adds, "And forget about solving your time management problems by becoming more productive. No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is."
The good news? Frogs!
He quotes Mark Twain's wit and wisdom, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
So Tracy serves up two frog rules and 21 ways to stop procrastinating and accomplish more in less time.
Frog Rule #1. "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first."
Frog Rule #2. "If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long."
Time management books are a dime a dozen. So what's different about this one--and why should you read it?
Instead of tasting the frogs, taste these chapter titles:
--Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything
--Practice Creative Procrastination
--Focus on Key Result Areas
--Upgrade Your Key Skills
I recommend books that align with my 20 buckets (core competencies). They must also have alignment with the best leadership and management writers. The author references Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey and others whose works complement this must-read procrastination fix-it book.
My friend and mentor, George Duff, reads Drucker's The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials) ("know your time") once a year. Covey's four quadrant diagram in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is mentally tattooed on my forehead. A look in the mirror reminds me: Am I focused on the correct quadrant? Several clients report that Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity , by David Allen, has dramatically changed their daily productivity.
So...what do you read every year, especially in January, to keep yourself and your team members focused on Priority #1? Try Tracy's book. You can read it in about 90 minutes (117 pages)--and the 21 short chapters with two "Eat That Frog!" next steps are perfect for a weekly "Procrastinators Anonymous" self-help meeting. ("Hi. My name is John and I'm a procrastinator. Please pass the donuts.")
If you've conquered procrastination, you will still find the 21 strategies valuable--especially as you coach others. "One strategy might be effective in one situation and another might apply to another task. All together, these 21 ideas represent a smorgasbord of personal effectiveness techniques that you can use at any time, in any order or sequence that makes sense to you at the moment."
The one-liners are memorable--and poster-worthy:
--"Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement."
--"Just find out what other successful people do and do the same things until you get the same results. Learn from the experts."
--"One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all."
--"Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure it is leaning against the right building." (Stephen Covey)
--"It only takes about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day."
--"Resist the temptation to clear up small things first."
--"Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events."
Somehow, we always get payroll out on time! Brian Tracy's Law of Forced Efficiency says, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing." How effectively do you manage your time?
And finally, this myth-buster: The author writes, "Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to redo more tasks than under any other conditions." Have you believed the myth that you're more productive under deadline pressures?
Idea: buy a dozen books to share with your team members. Delegate to a point person who will recruit people for five-minute chapter summaries at each of your next 21 staff meetings.
I really liked the book. To set a context: I'm a 20 year-old overachiever at the academic and work side. But I'm a procrastinator. I don't do things until the last minute and sometimes I even lose deadlines. I know I have more potential than what I'm bringing out to the world. And I felt more than ever the need to organize my time schedule, since I have very little time. So I picked up that book to read.
I still haven't put everything into practice but I think it will be really helpful. Somethings are indeed already widely known. But at the preface, he says this is a compilation of all knowledge he has on the subject, that he's able to use.
This is very easy-read and most tips are really usable and practical.
I'm giving four stars because:
A) I don't like the "fast-paced" life rythim he seems to want to live in. I think we need to be calm in order for it to work. I'd go with a more zen approach.
B) I also don't agree with the fact that he says we have to eat low fat and low carbs and low protein. This isn't even consense between people that studies nutrition. His field isn't nutrition, and I think it is kind of irresponsible to tell people what to eat. I think telling us to eat healthy and exercise, or by other words, to take care of our health, would be enough.
C) This is about me: I'm not a business woman. I'm not reading this book to be the best in my company. I'm not reading this book to impress my boss. I'm reading this book to acomplish my goals in life. And many of them don't include being THE BEST. I do think we should always try to improve but I disagree that we have to believe we'll be the best. As a person who suffer from perfectionism, I learned through life it isn't healthy.
D) I don't like the affirmations he tell us to say, like "Go back to work! Go back to work!" or "You can do it! You can do it". It doesn't seem like a doable thing to me.
Far from that, the book is really good and I really recommend the book to everyone!
Top reviews from other countries
長文への苦手感をなくそうと思ってトライしてみましたが、何とか読み終えることができました。
本も薄いので、内容だけでなく、英語の本を読みたいと考えている人にお勧めです。
Cómo hacerlo?
1. Establece claramente tus objetivos. Debes estar completamente convencido de ellos y su valor.
2. Planea de antemano. Mientras mejor sea tu plan, más sencillo sera la ejecución de tu objetivo.
3. Actúa. Con todo ímpetu. Termina siempre primero lo prioritario y descarta y delega lo secundario. Utiliza la regla de Pareto 80/20
Al principio comienza bien, pero poco a poco introduce ideas vagas y evidentes
Me parece un buen libro, pero las mejores ideas pueden ser encontradas en cualquier resumen a detalledel mismo en internet, sin necesidad de comprarlo y más aún utilizar el tiempo para leerlo completo.
Sometimes, it's hard for us to do the work. But if you start to eat the frog, if you take the first step (and learn how to keep walking), it's equally hard not to do the work.
Worth the buy.






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