“Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy (Book Summary), Study notes of English Literature

Download “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy (Book Summary) and more Study notes English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy (Book Summary) Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy is easily one of the most famous books on productivity and overcoming procrastination out there. It’s a super short read outlining 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. If you’re not familiar with Brian Tracy, you’re in for a treat. He’s one of the world’s best- known personal development teachers. He has written over 70 books and, according to his website, has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 5,000,000 people in 5,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 70 other countries worldwide. This is a great little old-school productivity book that is easy to read and provides some highly actionable strategies and a nice kick in the pants for anyone who needs it. Who Is Eat That Frog For? • Anyone interested in becoming more productive • Anyone struggling with procrastination • Anyone who needs some motivation and a kick in the pants 1. Eat That Frog! ― What Does It Mean? “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: ‘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 your choice of what you will do immediately and what you will do later, if you do it at all. The second rule of frog-eating is: ‘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 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.” So that’s where the name of the book comes from. “Eat that frog!” means to start your day with the biggest, most important, and most dreaded task. It’s also the task you are most likely to procrastinate on. Brian Tracy is also about disciplining yourself to eat that frog first thing in the morning every single day. If you do, you will reach new heights of productivity while learning to overcome procrastination and while building self-discipline. 2. The Four Keys to Productivity and Achievement “Throughout my career, I have discovered and rediscovered a simple truth. The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life. This key insight is the heart and soul of this book.” “Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done. Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it, and then to concentrate on it single-mindedly until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.” “Use your willpower to get going and stay going on this one job, the most important single task you could possibly be doing. Eat the whole frog and don’t stop until it’s finished completely.” Brain Tracy comes back to this 4-part combination over and over again in this book. • Select Your Most Important Task • Begin Immediately. your mind come up with excuses. Get in the habit of beginning immediately. You can use Mel Robbins’ 5-second rule to get started: Give yourself a countdown and then off to the races! 5-4-3-2-1-GO! Remember from the research on procrastination that once you’ve started a task, it’s actually not nearly as bad as you thought. It’s actually kind of fun. Making progress feels good. And before you know it, you’re enjoying an upward spiral of self-generating satisfaction, progress, self-efficacy, and so on. Get in the habit of getting started immediately. It could very well be the most important habit you ever develop in your fight against procrastination and your pursuit of higher productivity. 5. Single-Handle Every Task “By concentrating single mindedly on your most important task, you can reduce the time required to complete it by 50% or more. It has been estimated that the tendency to start and stop a task, to pick it up, put it down and come back to it can increase the time necessary to complete the task by as much as 500%. Each time you return to the task, you have to familiarize yourself with where you were when you stopped and what you still have to do. You have to overcome inertia and get yourself going again. You have to develop momentum and get into a productive work rhythm.” Whether those numbers are correct is probably up for debate. However, what Brian Tracy is essentially talking about here is limiting the productivity-slashing effects of multitasking and of something called attention residue. In this way, single-tasking effectively eliminates two massive productivity suckers: • Multitasking. Studies have shown over and over again that multitasking leads to less productivity. It also leads to other adverse effects such as permanent reduction of concentration and unnecessary stress. (Find out more about multitasking versus single- tasking in our summary of Emma Seppälä's The Happiness Track.) • Attention residue. Every time you switch activity, a residue of attention gets stuck with the previous task. According to Sophie Leroy, who coined the term attention residue, this leads to a reduction in performance: “People experiencing attention residue after switching tasks are likely to demonstrate poor performance on that next task”. (Learn more about attention residue here.) 6. Finish What You Start!! “Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.” 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. “Discipline yourself to do nothing else until this one job is complete.” I used to fall into this trap all the time. I’d get started on a task and then abandon it the moment it got uncomfortable or I got stuck. This created several problems. First, it made it incredibly hard to get back to the task. Why? Because it was a half-finished task. And because the part where I needed to get started again was exactly the part I was stuck on. This created massive resistance to get going again. Second, abandoning tasks before they’re finished leaves too many tasks open. Your brain can’t concentrate well when it has to keep in mind five different tasks that you’ve started on but not finished yet. This is known as the Zeigarnik effect and can put a real strain on your brain’s resources. Look, finishing tasks is hard. For whatever reason, it’s usually the last 5% of the task that create the biggest resistance. The temptation is big to just postpone it and finish it at a later time. For your own productivity’s sake, forego this temptation and finish the task. 7. Take It One Step at a Time “There is an old saying that, ‘By the yard it's hard; but inch by inch, anything's a cinch!’ One of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the huge task in front of you and focus on a single action that you can take. One of the best ways to eat a large frog is for you to take it one bite at a time.” I talk about this in some of my articles on procrastination. A major reason for procrastination is feeling overwhelmed. If your mind sees too many tasks at once, it feels like there’s just too much to do. This creates resistance and a kind of blockade in the mind. The solution is to focus on one step at a time. Bestselling author John Steinbeck puts it well: “When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. Then, gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.” If I focus on writing a 10-part summary, that makes me feel uncomfortable. Every part of my body starts revolting and my mind starts telling me to do something easier instead. That’s why I only ever focus on one point at a time. I can choose one idea from the book, find a good quote, and add my commentary to it. That’s fairly easy. If I focus on writing a complete 3,000-word summary, that creates a blockade and I can’t do it. So yeah, when you’re getting stuck, try to forget about everything that’s still to be done. Instead, focus on the very next step. Theodore Roosevelt puts it nicely: "I dream of men who take the next step instead of worrying about the next thousand steps." 8. Guard and Nurture Your Energy Levels “The raw material of personal performance and productivity is contained in your physical, mental and emotional energies. When you are fully rested, you can get two times, three times and five times as much done as when you are tired or burned out. Your body is like a machine that uses food, water and rest to generate energy that you then use to accomplish important tasks in your life and work. One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times.” Two of the most important ingredients in the productivity puzzle are focus and willpower. Guess what both of these require massive amounts of? Energy.