Eat that frog!

In case you were wondering the frog above is called a Whites tree frog and is from Australia. (I used to work in a small zoo…)

I love frogs, both real and metaphorical. But it is the metaphorical frogs that offer you a real chance to improve your productivity.

This week I’ve been really trying to focus on the jobs I’ve been putting off, the things that are too big and scary to do. We all have them, the task that we keep sweeping under the carpet for another day.

And this is where the idea of eat that frog jumps into help.

The idea comes from the Mark Twain quote:

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

And then Brian Tracy, author of Eat that Frog! turned it into a productivity power play.

Now please, please don’t go and eat a live frog but do go and eat a metaphorical frog.

So a frog is that piece of work that you’ve been putting off, the thing that you keep avoiding but you’re feeling guilty about and is weighing heavily on your mind,

The aim is that the first job you do when you start your working day is your frog, that one horrible job and then when it’s done everything else in your day will feel easy. You will feel a sense of achievement and momentum to carry on ticking things off your to do list.

You can also use it for tasks you need to do in your personal life. Get that one big tough job done every day (it might be cleaning the bathroom!) and then every thing else will feel like a piece of cake.

What’s your frog that you need to eat today?

Let me know, I’d love to hear how you get on with it!

www.katybateson.com