Do you put things off for as long you can? I struggle with procrastination at times.
But how do you not procrastinate? How do you keep going in life?
As a Thirty-One consultant, it was suggested that I read a book called Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. Because I wanted to make sure my business started growing, I bought this book from Amazon and started reading it.
I gave this book a try because I need to get out of the rut I’m in and start hitting my goals.
Summary of Eat This Frog
This book helps you get more important things done and stop procrastinating. The subtitle is called 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.
As the subtitle suggests, the book is broken down into 21 short chapters of about four to eight page. At the end of each chapter are two activities to help you get moving.
Tracy’s main idea is if you get up every morning and do the hardest, or most challenging, thing of the day first thing in the morning, then you eat the frog.
And he says once you get rid of that most challenging or hardest task of the day that you’re likely not to procrastinate the rest of the day.
It’s like getting over that big hurdle. Once you get over that big hurdle, then it’s downhill from there.
Tracy breaks down the steps into manageable parts. I read this book one chapter a day for a for a month, and I did the exercises in the back of each chapter.
Some of his steps were easy to do, and some of them took a little extra thought. For instance, with Chapter 1 Tracy goes through seven steps within his little chapter about setting your goals for the year.
He asked you to think about your goals, and at the end he asked you to take out a clean sheet of paper and make a list of your goals, things I want to accomplish in the next year. The idea is to write the goals using present tense, positive voice, and first person — act like the goal has already happened.
When I did this exercise, I wrote down my ten goals for the year. One of my goals was “I published my Rick Springfield memoir.” And I realize now that I didn’t use the present tense, but it does say write your goals as though you have accomplished those goals and a year has already passed.
The second part of this exercise was to pick one of the goals that you wrote down and figure out which one would have the greatest positive impact on your life right now. You make a plan to figure out how I’m going to hit that goal by writing out the steps.
Once you have done this, Tracy said to do something every day that that will help you achieve that goal.
Chapter 2 was another good one that I enjoyed. You make a list of everything you want to accomplish in the next twenty-four hours, no matter what it is. You keep adding to that list as new things come up.
You need to figure out what is the most important thing and prioritize what needs to be done first, second, and so one. You’re always thinking with where you’re going to end up.
Tracy strongly suggested that you write down everything on paper. He stressed this throughout the entire 112 pages of the book. I’m a visual person so that works for me.
In Chapter 14 Tracy suggested that you have hard deadlines. This is something I have tried to do in the past, but, of course, I don’t always meet my deadlines.
I don’t know why I have such problems meeting my deadlines, but I am doing too much right now. I have days when I don’t get to do much at home because I have worked long hours outside of the home.
No more procrastination
Eat That Frog gave me some great ideas to help me feel more motivated and less likely to procrastinate. Some chapters were more helpful than others, such as the ones I mentioned here.
I have done some of the exercises and will reread and keep using as many of Tracy’s suggestions as I can.
Overall this book has many great ideas. Some chapters are better than others, and I’ve tried to highlight a few my favorites here.
I hope that you will take a look at this back if you’re struggling with procrastination yourself.