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THE BIG IDEAS Eat That Frog!

Eat Your Frog!
21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less
Frog? Yep. Frog.
Time
BY BRIAN TRACY · BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS © 2007 · 128 PAGES
Set the Table
With goals.

What’s Your #1 Goal?

Seriously. What is it? “Throughout my career, I have found a simple truth. The ability to concentrate
single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it
Work It 80/20 Styles
The 20% that drives 80% of results. completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness
One Oil Barrel at a Time in life. This key insight is the heart and soul of this book…
Telephone poles, islands, etc.
The key to success is action. These principles work to bring about fast, predictable
Peak Performance improvements in performance and results. The faster you learn and apply them,
The raw material.
the faster you will move ahead in your career—guaranteed.
Single Handling
#finish #finish #finish There will be no limit to what you can accomplish when you learn how to ‘Eat That
Frog!’”

~ Brian Tracy from Eat That Frog!

Brian Tracy is awesome.

As I read his books I can hear his voice in my head and vividly remember ~15 years ago when I
first started listening to all of his various audio tapes. Brian was one of my deepest inspirations
in the early days of learning how to optimize and I still get so much out of his work. Powerful
stuff!

His books are so packed with goodness that I could LITERALLY pull all the Ideas we need for
this Note from the *Introduction* to this book. Laughing. I kid you not.

If you procrastinate, I think you’ll dig this.

“You can get control of It’s a quick-reading, no nonsense, super inspiring and equally practical guide to rockin’ it in
your tasks and activities which Brian walks us thru his top 21 ways to getting our frog eating on.
only to the degree that you
My entire book is all marked up. (Get a copy here.)
stop doing some things and
I’m excited to share some of my favorite Ideas so let’s jump straight in!
start spending more time on
the few activities that can
really make a difference in
EAT YOUR FROG!! FROG? YEP. FROG.
your life.” “It has been said for many years 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
~ Brian Tracy
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 now. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive
impact on your life and results at the moment.”

What’s your next frog?

You know, the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results right.
this.moment?

Let’s identify it and let’s eat it.

1 PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog

 “An average person who Rory Vaden echoes this wisdom. In Procrastinate on Purpose (see Notes), he tells us that what
develops the habit of setting we’re working on is either our #1 priority or it’s a distraction.
clear priorities and getting Specifically, he says: “Until you accomplish your most Significant priority, everything else is a
important tasks completed distraction.
quickly will run circles
That brings us to the critical question you have to always be asking yourself: ‘Is what I’m
around a genius who talks
doing right now the next most Significant use of my time?’
a lot and makes wonderful
plans but gets very little Is it the thing that is moving you toward creating the best results? Is it the thing that is moving

done.”
you toward making your greatest contribution? Is it the thing that is moving you toward
making the impact you want to make?
~ Brian Tracy
Is it the thing that is making the most of the available time that you have? Is it the thing that is
enabling you at that moment to be your highest self?

If not, then it is a distraction. It is a temptation. It is a pressure. It is someone else’s priority

and not your own. It could be a million things, but what it definitely is not is your priority.”

Happy frog hunting! :)

P.S. Remember this from Brian: “The key to reaching high levels of performance and
productivity is for you 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.”

SET THE TABLE WITH GOALS

“There is never enough time “Clarity is the most important concept in personal productivity. The number one reason why
to do everything, but there some people get more work done faster is because they are absolutely clear about their goals and
objectives and they don’t deviate from them.
is always enough time to do
the most important things. The more clear you are about what you want and what you have to do to achieve it, the easier it is
What are they?” for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and get on with the completion of the task.

~ Brian Tracy A major reason for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness, confusion, and fuzzy-
mindedness about what you are supposed to do and in what order and for what reason. You
must avoid this common condition with all your strength by striving for ever greater clarity in
everything you do.”

That’s from Chapter #1.

And, that’s worth repeating (and taking literally!):

THE NUMBER ONE REASON why some people get more work done faster is because they are
absolutely clear about their goals and objectives and they don’t deviate from them.

Which begs the question: What are you goals and objectives?

These are my goals and objectives: _________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

Awesome.

You sticking to them or are you consistently allowing yourself to get distracted and deviate from
them?

P.S. The last Note I worked on was The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel. Here’s how he
articulated the importance of goals in dealing with procrastination/dialing in your motivation:

2 PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog

 “Goal setting—proper goal setting—is the smartest thing you can do to battle procrastination.
“The beginning of a habit
Though every other technique discussed so far has its place, goal setting alone may be all you
is like an invisible thread, need. Along with making your goals challenging and meaningful, follow these remaining steps.
but every time we repeat Regardless of what other books say, this is what’s proven to maximize your motivation.
the act we strengthen the
• Frame your goals in specific terms so that you know precisely when you have to achieve
strand, add to it another
them. What exactly do you have to do? And when do you have to do it by? ...
filament, until it becomes
a great cable and binds us • Break down long-term goals into a series of short-term objectives. For particularly
daunting tasks, begin with a mini-goal to break the motivational surface tension. For
irrevocably in thought and
example, a goal of tackling just the first few pages of any required reading can often be
act.”
enough to get you to finish the entire text.
~ Orison Swett Marden
• Organize your goals into routines that occur regularly at the same time and place.
Predictability is your pal, so open your schedule and pencil in recurring tasks. Better yet,
use an indelible pen.”

WHAT’S YOUR #1 GOAL?

“Take a clean sheet of paper right now and make a list of ten goals you want to accomplish in
the next year. Write your goals as though a year has passed and they are now a reality. Use
the present tense, positive, and first person so that they are immediately accepted by your
subconscious mind.

For example, you would write: ‘I earn X number of dollars per year’ or ‘I weigh X number of
pounds’ or ‘I drive such and such a car.’

Then, go back over your list of ten goals and select the one that, if you achieved it, would have
the greatest positive impact on your life. Whatever that goal is, write it on a separate sheet of
paper, set a deadline, make a plan, take action on your plan, and then do something every single
day that moves you toward that goal. This exercise alone could change your life!”

Brian is an EXERCISE-GENERATING MACHINE!!

Seriously. He cranks out a *ton* of great questions + exercises. In this book, each of the 21 mini-
chapters comes with its own little exercise and they’re all really powerful.

For now, let’s do this exercise.

What are your Top 10 Goals you’d like to accomplish in the next year?

1. ________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________

6. ________________________________________________
“You must adamantly refuse
to work on tasks in the 7. ________________________________________________
bottom 80 percent while
8. ________________________________________________
you still have tasks in the
9. ________________________________________________
top 20 percent left to be
done.” 10. ________________________________________________

~ Brian Tracy Fantastic.

PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog 3

 Now, let’s identify your NUMBER ONE Goal.
“Keep pushing forward.
Once you start moving, keep This is the #1 Goal for the next year that, if I achieved it, would have the most positive impact in
moving. Don’t stop. This my life: ___________________________________________________________.
decision, this discipline Wonderful.
alone, can make you one of
Time to create a plan and execute it!
the most productive and
successful people of your
WORK IT 80/20 STYLES
generation.”
“The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also
~ Brian Tracy
called the ‘Pareto Principle’ after its founder Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895.
Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the ‘vital
few,’ the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the ‘trivial many,’ the bottom 80
percent.

He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this Pareto Principle as
well. For example, this rule says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of
your results... 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do,
and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to
be worth as much or more than the other eight items put together.

Here is an interesting discovery. Each of these tasks may take the same amount of time to
accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value of any of the
others.

Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other
nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.”

This is great.

Gary Keller says essentially the exact same thing in his phenomenal book The ONE Thing (see
Notes).

Here’s how he puts it: “Pareto proves everything I’m telling you—but there’s a catch. He doesn’t
go far enough. I want you to go further. I want you to take Pareto’s Principle to an extreme.
“The only certain means of
I want you to go small by identifying the 20 percent, and then I want you to go even smaller
success is to render more
by finding the vital few of the vital few. The 80/20 rule is the first word, but not the last, about
and better service than is
success. What Pareto started, you’ve got to finish. Success requires that you follow the 80/20
expected of you, no matter
Principle, but you don’t have to stop there.
what your task may be.”
Keep going. You can actually take 20 percent of the 20 percent of the 20 percent and continue
~ Og Mandino
until you get to the single most important thing! No matter the task, mission, or goal. Big or
small. Start with as large a list as you want, but develop the mindset that you will whittle
your way from there to the critical few and not stop until you end with the essential ONE. The
imperative ONE. The ONE Thing.”

So, write down everything you want to do. That’s your To Do List.

Then identify the top things that will REALLY drive value. That’s your Success list.

THEN identify THE #1 thing that will drive the most value. That’s your ONE Thing. That’s the
frog it’s time to eat! :)

#nomnom

P.S. We also have a whole Note just on The 80/20 Principle. Check that out for more!

4 PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog

 “Fully 95 percent of your ONE OIL BARREL AT A TIME
emotions, positive or
“Many years ago I crossed the heart of the Sahara Desert, the Tanezrouft, deep in modern-day
negative, are determined by
Algeria...
how you talk to yourself on
The desert was 500 miles across in a single stretch, without water, food, a blade of grass, or even
a minute-to-minute basis.”
a fly. It was totally flat, like a broad, yellow, sand parking lot that stretched to the horizon in all
~ Brian Tracy
directions...

To counter the lack of features in the terrain, the French had marked the tracks with black, fifty-
five gallon oil drums, five kilometers apart, exactly the distance to the horizon, where the earth
curved away as you crossed that flat wasteland.

Because of this, wherever we were in the daytime, we could see two oil barrels, the one we had
just passed and the one five kilometers ahead. And that was enough.

All we had to do was steer toward the next oil barrel. As a result, we were able to cross the
biggest desert in the world by simply taking it ‘one oil barrel at a time.’”

Baby steps.

That’s where it’s at.

We’ve talked about telephone poles, island hopping, dominoes, kaizen, gradualism, incremental
improvement and romancing your discomfort zone.

We need to break our goals down into smaller chunks.

And we can cross the biggest desert one oil barrel at a time.

How can you break YOUR big goal down into increments?!

THE RAW MATERIAL OF PERSONAL PERFORMANCE

“One of the smartest things “The raw material of personal performance and productivity is contained in your physical,
you can do is to turn off mental, and emotional energies. One of the most important requirements for being happy and
the television and get to bed productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times. Your body is like a
by ten o’clock each night machine that uses food, water, and rest to generate energy that you then use to accomplish
during the week. Sometimes, important tasks in your life and work. When you are fully rested, you can get two times, three
one extra hour of sleep per times, and even five times as much done as when you are tired.”

night can change your entire Want to produce a ton?

life.”
Then start with your energy.
~ Brian Tracy
If your energy kinda wavers, there’s *no way* you’ll create at the levels you could if you were
plugged in and shining with radiant energy.

In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big (see Notes), Dilbert creator Scott Adams
tells us we’re like moist robots that can be programmed for awesome.

Scott says: “Exercise, food, and sleep should be your first buttons to push.”

How’s YOUR exercise, nutrition and sleep?

And, specifically: What’s your #1 non-negotiable self-care habit?

Seriously. What is it?

Let’s make it truly (!) non-negotiable!

PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog 5

 SINGLE HANDLING
“Your ability to select
“Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard,
your most important task,
concentrated work until the job was done. Single handling requires that once you begin a task,
to begin it, and then to you keep working at it, without diversion or distraction, until the job is 100 percent complete.
concentrate on it single- You keep urging yourself onward by repeating the words, ‘Back to work!’ over and over whenever
mindedly until it is complete you are tempted to stop or do something else.
is the key to high levels of
By concentrating single-mindedly on your most important task, you can reduce the time
performance and personal
required to complete it by 50 percent or more...
productivity. “
The truth is that once you have decided on your number one task, anything else that you do
~ Brian Tracy
other than that is a relative waste of time.”

You start something...

Do you FINISH it?

Or do you get distracted and then have to come back to it again and again?

We’ve gotta *know* that starting and stopping and “multi-tasking” is HORRIBLY inefficient.

As Piers Steel tells us in The Procrastination Equation, impulsively allowing ourselves to be

distracted is THE #1 way to destroy productivity. He estimates that simply removing your email
notifications would boost your productivity by 10% which, shockingly, equates to an EXTRA
MONTH of productivity every year.

#finish #finish #finish!!!

Here’s to eating our #1 most important frogs as we optimize and actualize!

Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher

If you liked this Note, About the Author of “Eat That Frog”
you’ll probably like… BRIAN TRACY

Focal Point
BRIAN TRACY is the Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company
No Excuses! specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations.
Solving the Before founding his company, he served as the chief operating officer of a
Procrastination Puzzle $265 million development company. Brian has consulted for more than 1,000
The Procrastination companies and addressed more than 5 million people in 5,000 talks and
Equation seminars throughout the United States and more than sixty countries worldwide.
Getting Things Done Connect: briantracy.com.

An Iron Will
About the Author of This Note
BRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson loves helping people optimize their lives as he studies, embodies
and teaches the fundamentals of optimal living—integrating ancient wisdom
+ modern science + common sense + virtue + mastery + fun. Learn more and
optimize your life at brianjohnson.me.

6 PhilosophersNotes | Eat That Frog