How I Became Addicted to Eating Frogs
14 May
One of the best things I ever did was become addicted to eating frogs. No, it’s not from my years dining out when living in Belgium, it’s ‘productivity speak’ for ‘getting the biggest, ugliest, hardest thing of the day done first’.
I learned the idea of eating the frog first thing in the morning from Brian Tracy’s book, ‘Eat That Frog‘, which is all about productivity. He explained that often the task we really don’t want to do – the thing we’re resisting the most, is often the thing that will make us the most progress in our work. The frog, is the important thing, that MUST get done today. Most people habitually put it off until the pain gets really high and they have to do it (often when they’re out of energy and their performance levels are are low). Or, it just doesn’t get done and they miss a deadline.
I start my day identifying the frog by asking myself, ‘if I could only get one thing done today that would make most impact on my work and customers, what would it be?‘ That’s my frog, and that’s what I’m addicted to getting on with in the morning, first thing, until it’s done.
I guess I became addicted because of the feelings of progress it brings. When you’re done, and you tick it off, you feel great. You almost feel like you could take the rest of the day off, well earned. It’s become a habit of mine to get up and eat the frog, almost every day. I’d recommend you schedule to identify your frog Monday morning, and immediately get on with it until it’s done. See how it makes you feel, and what it brings you. Sometimes it puts you right in the zone where you’re ready to identify your next frog and eat that too. It can become addictive. Do it for a day, then schedule to do the same the next day, and the next, until you get addicted to this great rewarding productivity habit.
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Hello! I'm Mark Moore and I help employers and employees maximise their value to each other.
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