Recently I was at a presentation. The entrepreneur giving it has been described as a “Disruptor and Trailblazer” of business in Ireland.  She spoke about getting stuff done. 

Simply put, she began by asking the attendants to consider ‘Eating their Frog’ first thing in the day.

Why? It sets you up for productivity and success. It builds resilience and self-confidence.

Eat that frog

Brian Tracy, the Canadian, motivational speaker, and author of the book  ‘ Eat that Frog’ writes -

“If the first thing you do in the morning is to eat the frog, then you can continue your day with the satisfaction of knowing that this is probably the worst thing that will happen to you all day.  You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and that will be enough, at least for the time being”. 

You may feel a sense of liberation, or perhaps a feeling of fear and dread on reading those words. Because you happen to be someone who can just gobble up frogs, or perhaps you simply don’t do frogs!

The frog in our lives can often be the difficult phone call,  a conversation that needs to be had, or a job that is outstanding. But, until that Frog gets eaten, it begins to hang over you very much like a heavy cloud that saps your energy for the remainder of the day. And so, we end up a casualty of that day, instead of being in control of what we could be controlling. 

Of course, it is after all a Frog we need to eat. Not a nice sweet or lovely dessert - that is very pleasant. So, naturally, we practise avoidance of our frog. It gets kicked around the place and ignored in the hope that eventually it will go away. To use another animal analogy, maybe we just need to Take the Bull by the Horns.

Name your frog. And go and eat it!

Procrastination - what category do you fall into?

Yes we know there is a procrastinator hidden in all of us. However, there is a cure. Learn how to procrastinate well. Do the right things at the right time. Find peace in prioritising, and feeling that you are in charge of the things that are within your control.  This really works!

By the way, there are three types of procrastinators. The key to identifying what kind you are is to identify what it is you DO, instead of what you should be doing. 

Do you do nothing? 

Much like the reluctant teen when avoiding studying.

Do you do something less important? 

Maybe you do a big clear out of all the “stuff” in your room, instead of getting that important piece of work done. 

Or do you give your attention to the big things, and put off all the small stuff in your life?

Like the nutty professor who works away on a new invention, as this will be an enormous step forward for humanity.

Perhaps the most common one for all of us is the challenge to do the things that seem to be less important. When we give our attention to great and big things, we neglect the small yet important things. Instead, we are labouring under the illusion that we are doing great things for humanity. That seems to be the most common form of procrastination. 

Yes, sweat the small stuff!

You often hear the expression, ‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.’ Maybe we should sweat the small stuff. Because the small stuff is the raw material of our lives. It is important that we have Big priorities, but if we are being honest, it is the ordinary stuff that forms the content of our day. The child who is at home because of a positive Covid test, the work that has piled up in the past few weeks, the washing machine that needs to be fixed, the cleaning that needs to be done or that bill that needs to be paid. The list is endless as we well know.

Know your prioirites

Have you heard the phrase ‘The First Step to Success is Know your Priorities.’ Yes, but prioritising can be very challenging, especially when we are tired when the demands of work and life just seem to increase.  Cal Newport, associate professor at Georgetown University says it is about planning. He recommends that we start the week with one hour of planning.

As he says himself : 

 “the return on investment is phenomenal. To visualize your whole week at once allows you to spread out, batch, and prioritize work in a manner that significantly increases what you accomplish and goes a long way toward eliminating work pile-ups and late nights”.  

Decide on your priorities- whether they are work, or family or just aspects of your life. Schedule them into specific time slots. Try to visualise your week: the different jobs, the administrative tasks here and there from shopping to cleaning to cooking to sending emails etc. Examine your energy output late afternoon you are probably more tired, or after dinner. Factor in those jobs that are more demanding when you have more energy. 

Newport speaks about the importance of protecting those times that he calls ‘sacred’, such as weekends and evenings when you are free for the family. He also suggests that you can capture this plan in an email and send it to yourself on Monday morning for example. That way you have the plan for the week right in front of you, making you accountable for it. 

The key thing is flexibility. There is no magic bullet. That plan needs to be yours. Don’t try forcing someone else’s plan on yourself. And of course, there will always be things you won’t manage to get done. But if you can manage to get your top three or four things done in the week, the resultant peace, calm, and sense of achievement will energise you. 

We can always find time for the things that are important. We just need to give ourselves the time to work out what those things are for me right now.

And give ourselves permission to do them freely.