“Eat That Frog” By Brian Tracy: 21 Great Ways To Overcome Procrastination: Lessons and Notes

When it comes to dealing with procrastination and time management, “Eat That Frog” is one of the best and concise remedy you need. In less than 100 pages, Brian Tracy explained in details, 21 great ways to overcome procrastination with practical examples. 


In this blog post, I will share great lessons I learnt from the book. 


Here is the list of the 21 great ways to overcome procrastination:

1. Set the Table
2. Plan Every Day In Advance
3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything 
4. Consider the Consequences 
5. Practice the ABCDE Method Continually 
6. Focus on Key Result Areas 
7. Obey the Law of Forced Efficiency 
8. Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin 
9. Do Your Homework 
10. Leverage Your Special Talents 
11. Identify Your Key Constraints 
12. Take It One Oil Barrel At A Time 
13. Put the Pressure on Yourself 
14. aximize Your Personal Power 
15. Motivate Yourself Into Action 
16. Practice Creative Procrastination 
17. Do the Most Difficult Task First 
18. Slice and Dice the Task 
19. Create Large Chunks of Time 
20. Develop a Sense of Urgency 
21. Single Handle Every Task
22. 
    

-Decide exactly what you want; in doing this,  prioritize. 
-Write them down 
-Set deadlines on your goals
-Make a list of everything that you will need to do to achieve your goal. 
-Organize the list into plan.
-Take action on your plan immediately.
-Resolve to doing something everyday that moves you towards your major goal.

• Your ability to make good plans before you act is a measure of your overall competence. 

• The 10/90 Rule states that; the first 10% of time that you spend planning and organizing your work, before you begin, will save you as much as 90% of the time in getting the job done once you get started. 

• Apply the 80/20 rule to everything.

• Always work from a list.

• Focus on activities not accomplishments.

• The most valuable task you can do each day are often the hardest and complex. 

• Time management is having control over what you do next.

• Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work.

• The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something.

• Long term thinking improves short term decision making.

• Something that is important has long-term potential consequences. Something that is inimportant has few or no long-term consequences.

• Future intent influences and often determines present actions. 

• A key result area is defined as something for which you are completely responsible or an activity that is under your control. The key result area of management are planning, organizing, staffing, delegating,  supervising, measuring and reporting.

• A manager who cannot delegate properly is held back from using all his or her other skills at the maximum levels of effectiveness.

• It is the quality of time at work and quantity of time at home that matters.

• The only way to overcome your fear is to do the thing you fear. 

• There is no limit to how far or how fast you can advance except for the limits you place on your own imagination.

• The standards you set for your own work and behavior should be higher than anyone else could set for you. 

• To perform m at your best, you must become your own personal cheerleader.

• It is not what happens to you but the way you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel. 

• The four special Behaviors of the optimist are:

1. “Look for the good” in every situation.
2. Seek the valuable lessons in every setback or difficulty.
3. Look for the solution to every problem.
4. Think and talk continually about their goal. 

• Difficulties come not to obstruction but to instruct. 

• For you to stay calm, clearheaded and capable of performing at your best, you need to detach on a regular basis from the technology and communication devices that can over when you of you are not careful.

• Make work appointment with yourself and then discipline yourself to keep them.

• One of the best work habits of all is to get up early and work at home in the morning for several hours.

• A sense of urgency feels very much like racing against yourself. 

• When you regularly take continuous action toward your most important goals, you activate the “momentum principle of success” which states, “Although it may take tremendous amounts of energy to overcome inertia and get going initially, it then takes far less energy to keep going.”

• Success in any area requires tons of discipline. Self-decipline, self-mastry and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.

• Persistence is actually self discipline in action.