Eat That Frog: The Brian Tracy Time Management Method

Have you already noticed? In general, when we are overwhelmed with work and our to-do list is overflowing, we see two types of reactions:

• 1^era reaction: we tackle all the small secondary tasks to have the impression of doing something and moving forward.
• 2^E reaction: you procrastinate, you surf the Internet, you answer your e-mails and you let important tasks drag on until the last moment.

As you can imagine, none of his reactions are the right ones. Doing so is completely counterproductive and is harmful to the achievement of your goals, and therefore to the success of your project.

To improve productivity, you need to take the lead. How? By swallowing a toad!

The origin of the method

Don't panic, swallowing a toad is obviously just a metaphor. We owe it to Brian Tracy, the Canadian-American author and speaker who wrote the book Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (in French: Swallow the toad! 21 good ways to stop putting everything off until tomorrow and get more done in less time).

You are probably wondering how swallowing a toad can make you more productive. In fact, the toad symbolizes the task that discourages you the most. Brian Tracy suggests starting the day by doing the most difficult task, the one that you don't want to do the least, but that's important for moving you forward with your work. That way, you'll feel relieved and the rest of the day's tasks feel much easier.

For his book, Brian Tracy was inspired by a quote from Mark Twain who says, “If the first thing you do every morning is eat a live frog, then you can go on with the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing that's going to happen to you all day.”

For the record, the expression “swallow a toad” would be French. According to Quote Investigator, it would have its origin in a sentence by Sébastien-Roch known as Nicolas de Chamfort, a French poet who himself would have taken up the words of a certain M. de Lassay: “Mr. de Lassay, a very sweet man, but who had a great knowledge of society, said that you would have to swallow a toad every morning, to find nothing disgusting for the rest of the day, when you had to spend it in the world.”

The principle

Generally, it is in the morning that you are in top shape. Instead of spending your energy on secondary tasks, it's best to put it to good use to accomplish the most painful and/or most important task of the day, your real priority. For example, calling a difficult customer, writing a financial report, or developing your business strategy.

Accomplishing this task allows you to move forward in achieving your goals, to advance your project. Once you get the hang of it, not only will you have a sense of accomplishment, but all the other tasks of the day will also seem simpler in comparison. That is the whole idea behind the “Eat That Frog” method.

The advantages and limitations

Thanks to the “Eat That Frog” method, you improve your productivity by organizing your day according to your priorities and by avoiding procrastination, that is, putting off important tasks until the next day or at the end of the day, where you are the least efficient.

Another advantage is that once you have swallowed your toad, you free your mind and you are more serene. You can then better focus on your other activities of the day. Indeed, if you put off completing this important task until the last moment, you will not stop thinking about it and feeling guilty all day long. So you will not be 100% in what you are doing.

Finally, it is an easy method to implement and the fact of completing a painful or complicated task at the beginning of the day has a positive and motivating impact on the rest of the day.

When it comes to boundaries, it can be difficult and demoralizing to start each work day with the most strenuous activity.

The “Eat That Frog” method is not very flexible and leaves no room for the unexpected. Your priorities may change at any time and a new toad may appear. It is therefore appropriate to use this method as a basis and to adapt it according to your needs and the emergencies of the moment.

How to go about it

According to the “Eat that Frog” method, to be productive, you need to plan how each of your workdays will go. Here are the 7 steps to follow:

1. Define your main long-term goal.
2. Write it down somewhere.
3. Set a deadline.
4. Make a list of tasks that need to be completed to reach your goal.
5. Organize this list in order of priority. Toads are the tasks to do first.
6. Take immediate action by attacking the first toad and then a new toad each morning. Let's go!
7. Every day, try to make sure that you are working towards your goal.

If you have difficulty organizing your priorities (step 5) or finding your toad for the day, Brian Tracy suggests using the ABCDE method to prioritize your tasks. Assign a letter to each of your tasks:

• A for tasks that you must perform as a priority to avoid serious consequences on your project;
• B for tasks that are important but will have less serious consequences than tasks A if they are not done;
• C for tasks to be done without urgency and without consequences;
• D for tasks that you can delegate.
• E for unimportant tasks, to be eliminated.

Now you know the secret to becoming more productive: work toward your goals one toad at a time.