Summary of “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy - Part 02
Golden BooksThe 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 insights 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.
01 - Select Your Most Important Task
02 - Begin Immediately.
03 - Work on It Single Handedly.
04 - Finish It!!
Seriously, he sounds like a broken record: First, select your most important task. Then, begin it immediately and work on it single-mindedly until it’s complete.
Obviously, he does that for a reason. Those four principles are so simple, yet incredibly powerful when applied in our lives. Let’s discuss each of them on its own…
01 - Select Your Most Important Task
“You often see people who appear to be busy all day long but they seem to accomplish very little. This is almost always because they are busy doing things that are of low value while they procrastinate on the one or two activities that, if they completed them quickly and well, could make a real difference to their companies and to their careers. The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80% while you still have tasks in the top 20% left to be done.”
“For this reason, and perhaps more than ever before, your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop. An average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans but who gets very little done.”
Tracy references the 80/20 rule, also called the Pareto principle or the law of the vital few. It states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
Some examples of the Pareto principle in action:
20% of motorists account for 80% of accidents
20% of streets account for 80% of the traffic
20% of product flaws account for 80% of problems
20% of clients account for 80% of profits
20% of clothes in your closet are worn 80% of the time
20% of beer drinkers drink 80% of the beer
What does that mean for your life? It means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions. Put differently, it means that 20% of what you do leads to 80% of the results. On the flipside, it also means that 80% of what you do leads to only 20% of the results. In other words, you are wasting 80% of your time on low-value activities.
The solution? Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize.
Stop pursuing low value activities and focus on high value activities instead. In other words, select the most important task!! Stop being busy being busy… focus on what matters instead.
Brian Tracy’s advice: Apply the 80/20 rule to everything in your life. And, before you begin work, always ask yourself, “Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?”
02 - Begin Immediately (On the Most Important Task!!)
“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.”
“If there is a task or activity with large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately. If there is something that can have large potential negative consequences if it is not done quickly and well, that becomes a top priority as well. Whatever your frog is, resolve to gulp it down first thing.”
Once you know what your most important task is, get started on it immediately.
Tracy is really big on this, stating that it’s very important to develop the habit of tackling uncomfortable tasks immediately. Don’t think about it. Don’t worry about it. Don’t let 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.