One of the ways to boost productivity is to Eat the Frog first. Nowadays, the biggest productivity challenge is procrastination. Putting off that task until the last minute can impact your productivity negatively, as it can result in missed deadlines, decreased output, and even harm to your reputation.
Eat the Frog is a technique that was Popularized by Brian Tracy. it guides you to handle the most demanding tasks first, relieving the guilt and stress that come with procrastination.
What Does Eat the Frog Mean?
Eat the frog first is one of the most valuable time and task management methods to help improve your productivity. The technique helps you identify the most difficult and important tasks and do them first before doing small tasks.
In his book called ‘Eat That Frog!’, Brian Tracy argues that eating the frog is the best way to start your day. He even lists the steps you need to follow to prep for this unusual meal.(1)
But let’s start from the beginning.
According to Tracy, a “frog” is the most important task that you have scheduled for the day that you’re dreading. By eating the frog first, the remainder of your day will be relatively smoother, knowing that you’ve already completed the toughest task.
The idea for Eat the Frog is best summarized by this quote from famous American writer, Mark Twain.
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
Mark Twain
If you start your day with a task that you dread the most, then nothing worse can possibly faze you for the rest of your day. Similar to the Eisenhower Matrix, eating the frog means that you first have to identify and sort your daily tasks in order of importance.
The difference between Brian Tracy’s Eat the Frog and the Eisenhower Matrix is that the Eisenhower method requires you to tackle important and urgent tasks first. However, the Eat the Frog method suggests that you start with the most important task that you dread the most.
The key to succeeding with the Eat the Frog method is to keep on doing it until it becomes a daily habit for you.
To help you achieve this, make sure that you’re using a good to-do list app to help you organize your tasks. It does not matter if you’re a morning person or not. The point is to spend a few hours at the start of your day to tackle the most daunting task first.
How To Eat the Frog First?
Before you can start to eat your frog, you first need to identify your frogs by sorting your daily tasks by importance. Don’t rush the process; take it one step at a time to increase your chance of success in identifying your frog task.
Interested to find out more? Find out how to eat the frog for free here.
