Eat That Frog: A Realistic Approach to Reaching Your Goals

Eat That Frog is a productivity method developed by Brian Tracy and described in his book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. Both the book and the method get their names from a quote usually attributed to Mark Twain:

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Applied to work, the “frog” is the most important and impactful task you have to complete. If you eat the frog (i.e., work on it) first thing every morning, you’ll be more productive and successful, and you’ll reach your goals more quickly.

The 21 Principles of the Eat That Frog Productivity Method

1. Define your goals and write them down
2. Create plans for what you’ll work on
3. Use the 80/20 Rule – Focus on 20% of tasks
4. Think long-term to make better short-term decisions
5. Procrastinate on purpose – Procrastinate intentionally on your 80% of tasks and NOT your 20% of tasks
6. Use the ABCDE method: “A” tasks are things you must do (YOUR FROG) | “B” tasks are things you should do | “C” tasks are nice-to-dos | “D” tasks are things you should delegate to someone else so you have more time for your “A” tasks | “E” tasks are things you should eliminate
7. Understand exactly what work you’re accountable for
8. When it’s time to work, WORK
9. Prepare for your work before you start on it
10. Focus on one task at a time
11. Develop your skills – Learn new skills that will help you follow through with the task at hand
12. Use your strengths – To meet your goals more quickly, identify your strengths and centre your goals around those strengths
13.  Identify the things that are holding you back
14. Find your motivation – find ways to motivate yourself to eat your frogs, Create your deadlines, try to beat the deadlines you’ve set, and hold yourself to high expectations.
15. Make the most of your energy levels – We all have an internal clock – or chronotype. If you work with your chronotype, you’re more productive
16. Become an optimist
17. Don’t let technology distract you
18. Break your tasks down to their smallest possible components
19. Schedule time on your calendar for eating your frogs
20. Find your flow
21. Work on a task until it’s complete

A simple approach to the ‘Eat That Frog’ productivity method

• Define your goals and write them down
• Break those goals down into tasks
• Break those tasks down into the smallest possible subtasks
• Prioritise your tasks, and delete/delegate tasks you don’t need to do
• Schedule time on your calendar every single day, ideally first thing in the morning, to work on your highest-priority goal task
• Focus on your goal task during your scheduled time, and work on it until it’s complete

Your goal tasks and their subtasks are each your frogs – the things you want to “eat” first thing every day to ensure you stay focused on completing your most impactful work.

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