Time Management – Step One: Eat that Frog!
In the spirit of new beginnings and fresh starts, last week we asked a few CSOFT members to share their New Year’s resolutions for 2012. A recurring response, as well as a common intention of many resolution-makers around the world, was better time management skills.
As with most resolutions, the underlying issue lies not in deciding what to improve about yourself, but in how to sustain these healthier habits for the long haul. Because of this, we started thinking of methods that would facilitate better time management and task prioritization; today’s post will provide you with some food for thought about a concept identified as eating that frog!
“If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!”
This old saying sets the stage for the phrase eat the frog, made popular by leading motivational speaker and self-help author Brian Tracy. According to Tracy, “frog” is a blanket term used to metaphorically represent anything on your to-do list that you find yourself dreading and putting off, such as the client phone calls, that discussion you’ve been meaning to have with your boss, or even the leaky faucet you’ve been planning to fix for months now.
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Tracy states that this type of procrastination not only diminishes our productivity level, it is also mentally draining, a belief supported by the words of American psychologist and philosopher William James: “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”
Benefits of eating that frog
The gains from managing your time more wisely and having a firmer handle on task prioritization are undeniable: increased productivity, a greater sense of self-fulfillment, reduced stress, and a more balanced life overall. By beginning each day eating the frog, you tackle the most difficult or dreaded task early on, at a time when you are most focused, clear-headed and mentally engaged. This will not only clear the task out straight away, it will also fill you with a sense of accomplishment and put you in high spirits. You will then be able to use this energy and momentum to sustain your productivity level throughout the rest of your day. Not a shabby way to start your day… and year!
What are your most dreaded frogs and how do you tackle them? Feel free to leave a comment below, or subscribe to our RSS feed for automatic updates from T for Translation!
2 Responses
Marko: I remember hearing about the jar philosophy, but forgot about it—thanks for the reminder! It’s a good one to keep in the memory bank, along with “eat that frog”! 
Eat that frog is a time-tested tool.
You feel energized and ready for the little tasks once you’ve finished that large task. It works a lot like the “rocks, stones, pebbles, sand, coffee in a jar” philosophy. How to fit the most into a jar? Start w/ the bigs, then add the increasingly smaller ingredients. If you start small, then add the bigs, you’ll have no room left.
But about that frog, I have to admit, though, even floss wont dig out the frog legs from the back molars.