Summary of “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy - Part 03
Golden Books03 - 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.
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”.
04 - 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.
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.”
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.”