Books by Brian Tracy
Eat That Frog! is the Brian Tracy book in our library. The argument is about sequencing rather than effort: if you complete the single most important task before anything else, the rest of the day cannot take that away from you.
The book is short and unashamedly practical. Its value is not the idea, which is old, but the specific objections it dismantles: most people are not lazy, they are avoiding one particular task, and naming that task is most of the work.
How to read it. Read it in one sitting at the start of a week, and write down the frog for each morning as you go.
It sits in the Productivity bundle as the shortest and most literal book on the shelf. There is no framework to adopt, only a habit to repeat, which is why it tends to work for people the longer systems lose.
The book
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
Brian TracyProcrastination handled as a scheduling problem rather than a character problem. The most demanding task goes first, while the day still has room in it for a bad start. The advice is blunt because the problem is not complicated: you are avoiding one thing, and you know which one.
What it argues- Identify the single most important task, then do it before anything else.
- If you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning.
- Make a daily list the night before, with the frog at the top.
- The hardest task is usually the one you are least prepared for, so prepare for it.
- Planning the day in writing converts a vague intention into a specific decision.
Suited to a reader whose problem is starting rather than organising. Pair it with The Pomodoro Technique: this book names the task, that one gets you into it.
Where to start
Read it in a single sitting and then write tomorrow morning top of the list before you go to bed. The whole book reduces to that habit. If you want the timer to go with it, read The Pomodoro Technique straight after, and if your list is the problem rather than your morning, read Getting Things Done first, because this book assumes the list already exists.
Where this fits
Where Getting Things Done handles the whole backlog, this book handles the single decision that matters today. The two are complementary: one keeps the field clear, the other tells you what to do first on it. Read it after the larger systems rather than instead of them, since it is considerably more useful once there is a list underneath it.
The rest of this shelf
The Productivity shelf holds 5 books in total. These are the others, each condensed into a guide you can finish in about 15 minutes:
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work by Francesco Cirillo
- The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. by Robin Sharma
- Living the 80/20 Way: Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More by Richard Koch
The five-book productivity set
Eat That Frog! is in the Productivity bundle with Getting Things Done, The Pomodoro Technique, The 5 AM Club and Living the 80/20 Way.
Five complete guides, about 15 minutes each.
Explore ProductivityDo the hard thing while the day still has room for it.