"Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy

• There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. The fact is you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks.
• No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is.
• The ability to concentrate singlemindedly 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.
• The key to success is action.
• The first rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
• Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.
• The second rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.
• The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning.
• Successful people, 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.
• Practice is the key to mastering any skill.
• With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary.
• All improvements in your outer life begin with improvements on the inside, in your mental pictures.
• You have a virtually unlimited ability to learn and develop new skills, habits, and abilities.
• Clarity is perhaps the most important concept in personal productivity. The number one reason why some people get more work done faster is because they are absolutely clear about their goals and objectives, and they don’t deviate from them. The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and complete the task before you.
• You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to achieve your goal when you break it down into individual tasks.
• Take action on your plan immediately.
• An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is down. For you to achieve any kind of success, execution is everything.
• Always work from a list. When something new comes up, add it to the list before you do it.
• Make your list the night before for the workday ahead.
• When you have a project of any kind, begin by making a list of every step that you will have to complete to finish the project from beginning to end. Organize the steps by priority and sequence. Lay out the project so that you can see every step and task. Then go to work on one task at a time.
• One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 rule. This rule says that the first 10 percent of time that you spend planning and organizing your work before you begin will save you as much as 90 percent of the time in getting the job done once you get started.
• The [Pareto] principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.
• You must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.
• Before you begin work, always ask yourself, “Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?”
• Rule: Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.
• Remember, whatever you choose to do over and over eventually becomes a habit that is hard to break.
• The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place.
• Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinate 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.
• If a task or activity has large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately.
• Rule: There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.
• It is much better to plan your time carefully in advance and then build in a sizeable buffer to compensate for unexpected delays and diversions. However much time you think a task will take, add on another 20 percent or more, or make a game of getting the job done well in advance of the deadline.
• Do first things first and second things not at all.
• Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!
• Rule: You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower-value activities.
• One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no!. Say it politely. Say it clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Sat it regularly as a normal part of your time management vocabulary.
• Say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time and your life.
• Remember that you have no spare time.
• The rule is that you should delegate everything that someone else can do so that you can free up more time for the tasks that only you can do.
• The key result areas of management are planning, organizing, staffing, delegating, supervision, measuring, and reporting. These are the areas in which a manager must get results to succeed in his or her area of responsibility.
• The key result areas of sales are prospecting, building rapport and trust, identifying needs, presenting persuasively, answering objections, closing the sale, and getting resales and referrals.
• The starting point of performance is for you to identify the key result areas of your work.
• Rule: Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.
• One of the major reasons for procrastination in the workplace is that people avoid jobs and activities in those areas where they have performed poorly in the past.
• The better you become in a particular skill area, the more motivated you will be to perform that function, the less you will procrastinate, and the more determined you will be to get the job finished.
• Here is one of the greatest questions you will ever ask and answer: “What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?”
• The good news is that all business skills are learnable.
• One of the fastest and best ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster is for you to become absolutely excellent in your key result areas. This can be as important as anything else you do in your life or your career.
• Make a habit of doing analysis regularly for the rest of your career. Never stop improving. This decision alone can change your life.
• Perhaps the most important word in the world of work is contribution. Your rewards, both financial and emotional, will always be in direct proportion to your results, to the value of your contribution. If you want to increase your rewards, you must focus on increasing the value of what you do.
• You must never forget that your ultimate goal is to live a long, happy, and healthy life.
• The main reason to develop time management skills is so that you can complete everything that is really important in your work and and free up more and more time to do the things in your personal life that give you the greatest happiness and satisfaction.
• The critical determinate of the quality of your relationships is the amount of time that you spend face-to-face with the people you love, and who love you in return.
• Rule: Is is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters.
• Your goal should be to perform at your very best at work--to get the very most done and enjoy the very highest level of rewards possible for you in your career.
• One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination and get more things done faster is to have everything you need at hand before you being.
• The most productive people take the time to create a work area where they enjoy spending time. The cleaner and neater your work area before you begin, the easier it will be for you to get started and keep going.
• Once you have completed your preparations, it is essential that you launch immediately toward your goals. Get started. Do the first thing, whatever it is.
• Be prepared to fail over and over before you get it right.
• The only way to overcome your fear is to “do the thing you fear, as Emerson wrote, “and the death of fear is certain.”
• The way you develop the courage you need is to act as if you already had the courage and behave accordingly.
• One of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the huge tasks 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.
• You can accomplish the biggest task in your life by disciplining yourself to take it just one step at a time.
• A great life or a great career is build by performing one task at a time, quickly and well, and then going on to the next task.
• Upgrading your skills is one of the most important personal productivity principles of all. Learn what you need to learn so that you can do your work in an excellent fashion.
• A major reason for procrastination is a feeling of inadequacy, a lack of confidence, or an inability in a key area of a task. Feeling weak or deficient in a single area is enough to discourage you from starting the job at all.
• Personal and professional improvement is one of the best time savers there is. The better you are at a key task, the more motivated you are to launch into it.
• Refuse to allow a weakness or a lack of ability in any area hold you back. Everything is learnable. And what others have learned, you can learn as well.
• Rule: Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
• Three Steps to Master:
• First, read in your field for at least one hour every day.
• Second, take every course and seminar available on the key skills that can help you.
• Third, listen to audio programs in your car.
• Your most valuable asset in terms of cash flow is your earning ability.
• One of your great responsibilities in life is for you to decide for yourself what you really love to do and then to throw your whole heart into doing that special thing very, very well.
• Only about 2 percent of people can work entirely without supervision. We call these people “leaders.”
• The standards you set for your own work and behavior should be higher than anyone else could set for you.
• One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination is by working as though you had only one day to get your most important jobs done.
• Successful people continually put the pressure on themselves to perform at high levels. Unsuccessful people have to be instructed and supervised and pressured by others.
• One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times.
• One of the smartest things you can do is to turn off the television and get to bed by 10pm each night during the week. Sometimes one extra hour of sleep per night can change your entire life.
• Most of your emotions, positive or negative, are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute-to-minute basis. It is not what happens to you but the way that you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel.
• Refuse to complain about your problems. Keep them to yourself.
• Optimists always seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty.
• Optimists always look for the solution to every problem.
• Keep your mind positive by accepting complete responsibility for yourself and for everything that happens to you. Refuse to criticize others, complain, or blame others for anything. Resolve to make progress rather than excuses.
• The purpose of modern technology is largely to increase the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the transfer of information of all kinds. Technology is meant to help us improve the quality of our lives by enabling us to accomplish our key tasks and communicate with the key people in our world faster and more efficiently than ever before.
• Technology is there to help you, not hinder you.
• One of the best rules for dealing with technology is to just “leave it off.” Resist the urge to start turning on communication devices as soon as you wake up in the morning.
• Deliberately create zones of silence in your life where no one and nothing can break through and reach you.
• Sometimes, to get more done of higher value, you have to stop doing things of lower value. Keep asking yourself, “What’s important here?”
• Very few things are so important that they cannot wait.
• Become action oriented. A common quality of high-performance men and women is that when they hear a good idea, they take action on it immediately.
• One of the best work habits of all is to get up early and work at home in the morning for several hours.
• One of the keys to high levels of performance and productivity is to make every minute count.
• One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways to get yourself started is to repeat the words “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” over and over to yourself.
• 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.
• The truth is that once you have decided on your number on task, anything else that you do other than that is a relative waste of time. Success in any area requires tons of discipline.
• Self-discipline, self-mastery, and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.
• The key to happiness, satisfaction, great success, and a wonderful feeling of personal power and effectiveness is for you to develop the habit of eating your frog first thing every day when you start work.
• You can get control of your tasks and activities only to the degree that you stop doing some things and start spending more time on the few activities that can really make a difference in your life.
• You will never be caught up.
• Your success in life and work will be determined by the kinds of habits that you develop over time.
• Your mental picture of yourself has a powerful effect on your behavior.
• Here is a great rule for success: Think on paper.
• Step one: Decide exactly what you want. Step two: Write it down. Step three: Set a deadline on your goal; set sub deadlines if necessary. Step four: Make a list of everything that you can of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. Step five: Organize the list into a plan. Step six: Take action on your plan immediately. Step seven: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.
• One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
• Once you start moving, keep moving. Don’t stop. This decision, this discipline alone, can dramatically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.
• Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment.
• Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and increasing your productivity.
• Steady, visible progress propels you forward and helps you to overcome procrastination.
• 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.
• Rule: Long-term thinking improves short-term decision making.
• Rule: Future intent influences and often determines present actions.
• Rule: There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.
• “Why am I on the payroll?” This is one of the most important questions you can ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career.
• My personal rule is “Get it 80 percent right and then correct it later.” Run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. Don’t expect perfection the first time or even the first few times. Be prepared to fail over and over before you get it right.
• The biggest enemies we have to overcome on the road to success are not a lack of ability and a lack of opportunity but fears of failure and rejection and the doubts that they trigger. The only way to overcome your fears is to “do the thing you fear,” as Emerson wrote, “and the death of fear is certain.”
• Continually upgrade your skills in your key result areas.
• Dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in your field.
• Turn driving time into learning time.
• Successful people are invariably those who have taken the time to identify what they do well and most enjoy.
• Whatever you have to do, there is always a limiting factor that determines how quickly and well you get it done.
• The 80/20 Rule also applies to the constraints in your life and in your work. This means that 80 percent of the constraints, the factors that are holding you back from achieving your goals, are internal.
• To reach your full potential, you must form the habit of putting the pressure on yourself and not waiting for someone else to come along and do it for you.
• See yourself as a role model for others. Raise the bar on yourself.
• The fact is that your productivity begins to decline after eight or nine hours of work.
• Here is a rule for you. Take one full day off every week.
• Remember, you become what you think about most of the time.
• Refuse to criticize others, complain or blame others for anything.
• The purpose of technology is to make your life smoother and easier, not to create complexity, confusion, and stress.
• Work steadily and continuously without diversion or distraction by planning and preparing your work in advance.
• Perhaps the most outwardly identifiable quality of high-performing men and women is action orientation.
• Highly productive people take the time to think, plan, and set priorities.
• A fast tempo seems to go hand in hand with all great success.
• Move rapidly in every important area of your life.
• Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done.
• By concentrating single-mindedly on your most important task, you can reduce the time required to complete it by 50 percent or more.
• Rules:
• 1. Set the table: Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin.
• 2. Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning can save you five or ten minutes in execution.
• 3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything: Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top 20 percent.
• 4. Consider the consequences: Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences,positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.
• 5. Practice creative procrastination:Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.
• 6. Use the ABCDE Method continually: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities.
• 7. Focus on key result areas: Identify and determine those results that you absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well, and work on them all day long.
• 8. The Law of Three:Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90 percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life.
• 9.Prepare thoroughly before you begin: Have everything you need at hand before you start. Assemble all the papers, information, tools, work materials, and numbers you might require so that you can get started and keep going.
• 10. Take it one oil barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time.
• 11. Upgrade your key skills: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done.
• 12. Leverage your special talents:Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well.
• 13. Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks or choke points, internal or external, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals, and focus on alleviating them.
• 14. Put the pressure on yourself: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month, and work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left.
• 15. Maximize your personal power: Identify your periods of highest mental and physical energy each day, and structure your most important and demanding tasks around these times. Get lots of rest so you can perform at your best.
• 16. Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive.
• 17. Get out of the technological time sinks: Use technology to improve the quality of your communications, but do not allow yourself to become a slave to it. Learn to occasionally turn things off and leave them off.
• 18. Slice and dice the task: Break large, complex tasks down into bite-sized pieces, and then do just one small part of the task to get started.
• 19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.
• 20. Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well.
• 21. Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task, and then work without stopping until the job is 100 percent complete. This is the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.