Review of Brian Tracy's Eat That Frog

Hey folks.

I finished Eat That Frog as the 72nd book this year. I thought I wouldn't get above 71 but Eat That Frog was short and... very useful. I sped through it and plan to read it a few more times (I rarely re-read books in general so that's saying something).


All right. Let's talk about frog eating.

I guess the first thing you have to know that this isn't some weird book of the French culinary art. A frog (in Brian Tracy's case) is a task. A big frog is a big task and tadpoles are small and (often) unnecessary tasks. This means when he's talking about eating frogs he refers to effectively tackling tasks at work (or home).

Two things I immediately liked about the preface (surprisingly because usually I skip prefaces or am bored throughout them):

1. He promises not to waste time explaining what others have said already -the psychological and emotional explanations for procrastination and poor time management. He goes straight to the point - straight to the reason why most people bought his book.

2. The hook (the core of the book) is right there in the first few paragraphs: The ability to concentrate single-mindedly 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. (This is also, coincidentally, one of the most useful sentences in the book.)

Already in the first two pages of Eat the Frog it is clear Brian Tracy knows what he is talking about and it's also clear to the reader (in this case me) that their time will not be wasted. In the first chapter I already learned more from two sentences than I did in the whole of Success Principles. These sentences are:

1. [...] your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop. (Later on in the book he mentions this again but in a more poetic way: The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus - a quote apparently stolen from Alexander Graham Bell but cited. Tracy's a polite thief let's say.)

2. Do something every day that moves you towards your goal.

Here are more:

3. The second rule of frog-eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog (by which Tracy means 'do a hard but important task') at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for long.

4. 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.

5. The more important the completed task, the happier, more confident, and more powerful you feel about yourself and your work.

6. One of the keys to living a wonderful life [etc etc.] is to develop the habit of starting and finishing important jobs.

7. A simple formula I created out of a longer sentence in the book: Decision + Discipline + Determination = success-habits (concentration / focus)

What else can you learn?

You can train yourself through repetition and practice to overcome procrastination and get your most important tasks completed quickly. This involves a lot of planning as good plans = ability to get straight to work = no need to procrastinate. A lot of people seem to procrastinate because they don't know what to do/how to reach their goal - because they haven't planned how to achieve it.
I will try one of Tracy's tips immediately: Write a LIST of what you plan to do the next day to get further along with your goal
-> list of everything you want to do in the (near-ish) future
-> monthly list (made at the end of one month for the next)
-> weekly list (made at the end of the week for the next)
-> daily list (made at the end of one day for the next day)

As a person who suffers from depression a lot, it can be very harsh to have nothing to do, to feel unanchored, and I spent a lot of time chasing new experiences just to feel 'occupied', but after years of this not working out, I've begun to try new things. These new things involve planning my day (and meals, etc.) ahead, which means most of what I'm doing during any given day will be worked out by the time dawn comes around and which in turn makes downtime less painful to my brain. And if there is (unscheduled) downtime then the best way to spend it is to read on new tactics to plan/achieve my goals.

This daily planning also includes (as the book suggests as well) to have everything prepared for the day before you start. All your utensils, notebooks with thoughts, resources, and other material should be right there even before the work day starts. This puts a brake on procrastination, as it can be daunting to search for material, and it will already take a lot of your energy. If you did it the day before in your planning phase, then in the morning when you sit down, everything is ready to go, go, go!

Another useful insight connected to the daily planning mentioned above:

The 10/90 rule. The first 10% of your available time spent planning will increase your effectiveness of actual work. It will save you some 90% of the time necessary to finish a job once you started it.

These are the most useful tips in the book. They can be applied almost instantly and you'll immediately see the results (I have personally incorporated a few of these tricks in my daily schedule already and I've noticed a difference in my mood/productivity).

There are however much more tips than just these but I didn't want this post to be a replica of the book itself. All I can say is that Eat That Frog is definitely worth it. It is an incredibly useful book and it's so short you can read it in two hours (which means you can re-read it easily and quickly should you suddenly despair about your work at some point). It's right up there on my Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 list in a very bright red.

It definitely gets a recommendation from me if you're one of the people who always want to improve themselves and how they work. It's a more than just 'useful' resource to have on your shelf and I'm certain to try out more of Brian Tracy's books as a result of reading Eat That Frog.

Do you think you want to try out Eat That Frog? You can get it on Amazon at a decent price!

Let me know if it was useful to you if you decided to read it!

WriteBot.