Episode 5: Procrastination and Eating Frogs

I had fun recording this episode. This has always been one of my go to books. I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think!

Show Notes

If you struggle with procrastination – and who doesn’t at some point? – this is the episode for you! Tim discusses one of his favorite books “Eat That Frog” and tells listeners his top 3 takeaways from author Brian Tracy’s insights on avoiding procrastination. If you have never heard it, the concept of eating a frog comes from Mark Twain who said that you should eat a frog at the beginning of your day because anything you do after that cannot possibly be as bad as eating a frog.

First, it is important to know the 6 P’s: proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Understanding and implementing this idea into your daily life is easiest when you follow the 7 Steps:

1. Decide exactly what you want.
2. Write it down on. (Think on paper).
3. Set a deadline.
4. Make a list of everything required to meet your goal.
5. Organize your list into a plan.
6. Take action immediately and avoid analysis paralysis.
   a. “An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done.”
7. Resolve to do something every day, even if you have to ask for help.

The second important tidbit Tim gleaned from “Eat That Frog” is the ability to say “no.” If you say “yes” to too many things just to make other people happy or because you feel like you should, you will get to the point where you have to say “no” to something that you really want to do because of your time limitations.

Finally, Brian Tracy outlines a helpful system for setting priorities that can keep you on track and able to pursue your goals. Tracy describes this as the ABCDE system, but Tim lists it backwards to help the categorization.

• E – Eliminate. There are probably 3-4 things right now that you can take off of your plate.
• D – Delegate or outsource. Let go of some of your control and come to peace with the fact that “good enough is good enough.”
• C – Nice to do. These could be things such as networking, or having lunch outside of the office.
• B – Should do. In contrast to things in the previous or next categories, these are almost imperative items such as proper reporting.
• A – Must do. These things are very important because of their serious consequences. You may want to number these as A1, A2, A3, A4, etc. based on their exact priority.

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“Eat That Frog” book: https://amzn.to/2XFICD6

Brian Tracy website: https://www.briantracy.com/

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