eConsultant Book Reviews

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Summary

Brian Tracy is a management/personal development speaker. Eat That Frog is a simple method to prioritize your work. Simply put, evaluate what needs to be done, prioritize, and then don't stop till you finish the most important one. Repeat.

Notes on Eat That Frog

1. Set the table.
1a. Decide exactly what you want.
1b. Write it down.
1c. Set a deadline on your goal.
1d. Make a list of all substeps.
1e. Organize the list into a plan.
1f. Take action on the plan immediately.
1g. resolve to do something every day that moves you towards your goal.
2. Plan every day in advance.
= Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
- Master List
- Monthly List
- Weekly List
- Daily List
3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything.
- Pareto principle 80/20
- Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.
Time management = Life management.
4. Consider the consequences.
- Long term thinking improves short-term decision making.
- Future intent influences and often determines present actions.
- Failures do what is "tension relieving", while winners do what is "goal achieving".
5. Practice the ABCDE method continually.
A = must do tasks
B = should do tasks
C = nice to do tasks
D = delegate tasks
E = eliminate tasks
6. Focus on key result areas.
- Why am I on the payroll?
- Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.
7. Obey the law of forced efficiency.
- "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.
8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin.
- Clean work area
- All the required tools.
9. Do your homework.
- "Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field."
10. Leverage your special talents.
- Focus on your best abilities.
11. Identify your key constraints.
12. Take it one barrel at a time.
- Oil drums to cross the desert - one step at a time.
13. Put the pressure on yourself.
- You have to leave for an all-expense paid vacation tomorrow!
14. Maximize your personal powers.
- Sleep enough
- One day a week: absolute vacation.
15. Motivate yourself into action.
- Look for the good.
- Seek the valuable lesson in every setback.
- Look for the solution to every problem.
16. Practice creative procrastination.
- You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities.
17. Do the most difficult task first.
- List everything you have to do.
- Review with ABCDE, 80/20
- Select A1
- Assemble everything needed
- Clear workspace
- Eat that frog.
18. Slice and dice the task.
- Salami slice - fixed units of work. at a time
- Swiss cheese method - fixed units of time at regular intervals.
19. Create large chunks of time.
- Set aside time for specific work.
20. Develop a sense of urgency.
- Get that mental state of "Flow"
- Develop a bias for action.
21. Single handle every task
- Start a high-priority task and persist till its 100% done.

Please Bookmark

add to Del.icio.us | add to Yahoo | add to BlinkList | add to Furl.net | add to Spurl.net | submit to reddit

Book Reviews Index :

100 Simple Secrets of Happy People by David Niven | 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People by David Niven | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler | Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy | Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | Focal Point by Brian Tracy | Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen | Gig by John Bowe | It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden | It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff | Keep Your Brain Alive by by Lawrence C Katz & Manning Rubin | Learned Optimism by Dr Martin E P Seligman | Life Strategies by Phil McGraw | Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard | Never Wrestle with a Pig by Mark H McCormack | Please Don't Just Do What I Tell You by Bob Nelson | Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki | The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith | The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy | The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters | The Power of Optimism by Alan Loy McGinnis | The Professional Service Firm 50 by Tom Peters | The Project 50 by Tom Peters | The War of Art by Steven Pressfield | The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith | Thriving in 24/7 by Sally Helgesen | Time Tactics of Very Successful People by B. Eugene Griessman | Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation by Robert I. Sutton