Eating frogs and getting stuff done!
Ok so why is a vegan telling me to eat frogs, seems a little left field right? Unsurprisingly (despite my obsession with food) this actually has nothing to do with eating.
It’s a “hack” to boost productivity, while helping to reduce procrastination and overwhelm.
Many years ago while I was a relatively new manager I was recommended the book “Eat that Frog” by Brian Tracy. I’ve been delivering a number of talks on stress this month and this idea of eating frogs has resonated, so why not share it with you too?
The origin of this technique is from Mark Twain who once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.
The rest of the day feels like a breeze! and actually it’s backed up by neuroscience too.
But don’t worry you don’t actually need to eat a frog.
So what it actually meant by Eating the Frog?
Eating the Frog is a prioritisation technique to help us to take action and focus on the most important tasks. It’s a great tool when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or when you keep putting off that one annoying job.
How does it work?
Quite simply you start your day by doing the task that is giving you the most amount of stress, the most important job, the one that is likely always on your mind and you may be procrastinating on…
It may be that you know what your frog is straightaway. It’s likely in your head right now.
But it’s not uncommon to feel as if there is an army of frogs in your head, all demanding your attention. If this is the case try the following; spend a few minutes writing down everything in your mind, highlight which are important, rate these in order of importance (give them an importance scale), and start with the most important. Note, if you decide on a task and actually number 3 on the scale is still on our mind - this is your actual frog - no more productive procrastination.
Why frog??
Tracy uses frogs as it represents a pretty good image. If you don’t eat the frog it gets bigger and uglier, less and less appealing, just like the task, and it becomes more and more difficult to complete leading to those feelings of overwhelm.
Tell me more…
Getting into the habit of doing the most important things first can be extremely powerful and bring you your version of success. Eating the frog also works really well because:
it starts the Progress Loop. The progress loop is a neuroscience “hack” that says when we start the day completing a task of importance, we get a hit of dopamine which gives us the momentum to want to complete more tasks. (ps the progress loop can work at any time of day).
It increases our self esteem. Often we put off tasks because we don’t feel as though we’re capable of achieving them but *|FNAME|*that’s just not true. You, we, are incredibly capable.
It stops stressing and procrastinating. The reality is if we don’t eat frogs they still occupy our minds, distracting us and making it more difficult to focus and perform as well as we are able
It creates discipline that beats motivation hands down. Discipline is the ability to create habits and consistently show up.
So start each day asking, what is the most important thing I can do today? And eat that frog.
Give it a try and let me know how you get on.
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