Oversimplification: Some readers feel that the book’s straightforward approach might not address the complexity of productivity challenges faced by certain individuals. Many people spend their days doing trivial tasks because they haven’t clarified their goals with their boss.

Eat The Frog is simple and straightforward, but there are a few tips that will help you apply the method consistently and successfully: 1. Don’t even think about thinking about all the other less important things you’ll have to do later in the day. Your master list of tasks will be ever-changing, so take time to prioritize to make sure you know which tasks will provide the most value.If your frog is going to take more than half a day, break it down into smaller steps that will take 4 hours or less. Take It One Oil Barrel at a Time: Break tasks into smaller steps, and focus on completing each step one at a time.

Allow your subconscious mind to work on the list while you sleep, so you can wake up with new ideas on how to achieve them. The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is for you to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning.

Instead of having the task "update LinkedIn profile" on your to-do list, break that down into smaller tasks. Most of the remaining 20% can probably be put off, which leaves only around 5% requiring an immediate response. Ask yourself continually, “If I was not doing this already, knowing what I now know, would I get into it again today? Most people overestimate what they can get done in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade.

Determining your three most important tasks for your job and the three most important things in your personal life can help you achieve balance and be happier and more satisfied. That’s why productivity systems often make us feel like we’re constantly behind and failing to keep up. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. Often, the simple act of continuing to make progress toward your goals makes it easier to trigger your flow state when working on goal tasks. of your emotions, positive or negative, are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute to minute basis.Agile prioritization is another alternative that uses the categories "critical,""high," medium," and "low" to categorize the priorities of tasks. Mark Twain had a metaphor for getting hard things done: if you have to eat a live frog, do it right away, so that everything after that is easier by comparison. Every part of my body starts revolting and my mind starts telling me to do something easier instead. We feel good when we follow through on the things we intend to do, which, in turn, makes it easier to continue doing them. Many people focus on their number of tasks and amount of activity, rather than the importance of the tasks or the achievements.

It also leads to other adverse effects such as permanent reduction of concentration and unnecessary stress. Rather than talking about what you are going to do, you focus on the specific steps you can take immediately. So in addition to presenting Tracy's ideas and recommendations below, we've linked to several Zapier resources that include additional information and alternative approaches so you can get to know the science behind certain principles and easily find an approach that feels right for you.primarily targets professional productivity, its strategies can be applied to your personal life as well. Practicing mindfulness is another way to train yourself to stay focused and fully immerse yourself in the tasks you're working on. Learn how cognitive bias may be impacting your decision-making process—and how to overcome fallacious thought patterns. The more you persist on a major task, the more you like and respect yourself, and the higher is your self-esteem.