Eat That Frog

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy provides a motivating approach to avoiding procrastination. 

And speaking of procrastination.

I heard about this book for years before finally reading it, which I suspect has something to do with the fact that when I lived in a student apartment in Santa Barbara, miniature frogs used to climb up my kitchen window every night and stare at me while I made dinner. Gag. 

The title Eat that Frog therefore disturbed me, but finally I gathered the courage, and am grateful I did.

The book gave me an empowered perspective on avoiding procrastination, and has helped me manage my time and be more productive. 

It is inspired by a quote from Mark Twain, who said

Again, gag, but there is so much truth to this. 

If you can identify and accomplish FIRST the thing that you dread MOST, the sense of accomplishment and momentum that results will help you sail through the rest of what needs to be done.

Here are three great takeaways and quotes from Eat that Frog to motivate you the next time you’re faced with a daunting task. 

1. A frog is your most overwhelming or important task

Tracy says -

For me, identifying a frog is easy. It's the thing that weighs on my mind the heaviest or keeps me up at night; the proverbial monkey on my back (we could have a whole zoo by the time this post is done). The conversation you dread. The bill you need to dispute. The overdue report, overflowing inbox or closet that has taken on a life of its own.

2. If you have more than one frog, eat the ugliest one first.

The next step is to line up all your frogs and host a beauty pageant to determine which is least attractive. Brian Tracy doesn't exactly put it that way, but it is essentially what he suggests you do. As you identify your frogs you will likely find more than one. He refers to the law of efficiency here, which states that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."

3. Don't Procrastinate Eating It

We used to have the sweetest elderly neighbor who loved to cook for my kids. She would sit them down in her dining room with a plate of identifiable meat and her signature “flan” (yes that is written in quotations). I don’t want to say it was traumatic, but ten years later the kids tell me they still have nightmares about those meals. 

Desperate not to hurt her feelings I would whisper to them to just hurry and eat to get it over with, and Tracy essentially says the same thing about our frogs. Procrastinating only prolongs feelings of stress and dread. Take the first bite, and take it now. 

It’s a simple concept we learned when we were young. Eat dinner, then enjoy dessert. Do your chores, then you can play. We've been eating frogs all along, and the more we can continue to serve up for ourselves, the better.

“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.”

Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy