My business coach, Stuart Kaufman, sent this little book over earlier this week. Now, one of my issues is that I am a procrastinator. I didn’t procrastinate at work too much, because things had to be done. But at home, where I don’t have such severe consequences, I let things wait until the last minute, or otherwise wait until they just have to be done. Hence, with my business plan (oooh so mysterious, he mentions it again) I am making only slow progress. There’s a lot to it, and I know very little about how to write one, so I look at all the things needing to be done and mentally I take stabs at one or two items and then give up for a time. I don’t lose the business if I don’t do it, because I don’t have the business yet. That’s something that I believe Paulos writes about, our tendency to not value opportunity costs as much as tangible costs. Anyway, slow progress.
Now, there’s a metric ton of books out there on business leadership. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, etc. I’m generally not too fond of most of these books, for various and sundry reasons. I’m a big fan of short and simple instructions that one does. I don’t like complicated. I don’t like navel gazing. I like lists and pen and paper (or computer). My biggest problems are in my head: thinking to much, or pondering the wrong things, holding incorrect assumptions, etc. Self-help that requires a lot of thinking is putting me in exactly the wrong position, relying on the part of me that is already doing the wrong thing. One of the reasons why I like the original vision from Alcoholics Anonymous so much. It’s all about putting things down on paper, then following up with action. And that’s what Eat That Frog! is as well.
Tracy is another self-help/business guru like Tony Robbins or Stephen Covey. I don’t think I’d recommend his program
whatever it is, because I tend to devalue such things when their chief proponents’ recent business experience is only about selling the program itself.
But the stuff in Eat That Frog! I do like. There are only 21 points, though even some of those are a bit duplicative. So it’s really even fewer. Each chapter ends with a short boxed paragraph of very specific instructions, none of which are particularly involved. Most include putting something down in black and white. Review your work list right now and put an A, B, C, D, or E next to each task or activity.
It’s a prioritization, with A being the highest, and with very specific meanings for each priority. That part is explained in the chapter. Select your A-1 job or project and begin working on it immediately. Discipline yourself to do nothing else until this one job is complete.
In short, an excellent book of small concrete steps a person can take to get ahead.
Title: Eat that frog!: 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time
Author: Brian Tracy
Imprint / publisher: Barrett-Koehler
Format: Paperback
Length: xiv, 129 p.
Publication date: 2002
ISBN-10: 1-57675-198-8
Subject: Procrastination
LC classification: BF637.P76 T73 2001
